In his first

"Straight Dope" book, Cecil Adams wrote about the legendary "dead man's hand that Will Bill Hickok actually held when Jack McCall killed him. It was black aces and eights along with the deuce of spades. In his 1939 classic "Stagecoach", John Ford had Luke Plummer hold an alleged "dead man's hand"; trouble was, one of his aces was the ace of diamonds and the fifth card was the queen of hearts! You can see it on your VCR's freeze frame.