Bad to the Bone

Deadwood’s real Ellis Alfred “Al” Swearengen was every bit as evil and ill-tempered as HBO Deadwood’s reel Al Swearengen, who is played by Ian McShane. Swearengen—a twin—was born in Mahaska, Iowa, on July 8, 1845, and moved to Deadwood in spring 1876, just a year after miner John Pearson discovered gold in the narrow Black Hills canyon, says Jerry Bryant, research curator of Deadwood, South Dakota’s Adams Museum and House. (The locale was originally called Deadwood Gulch because