
Nigel West Dickens (1845-) was a renowned American snake oil salesman of the Wild West era.
Biography[]
Nigel West Dickens was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1845, and he migrated to the American West following the end of the Mexican-American War. He was known to be "a studied man of letters, botany, ornithology, and the history of home medicine", according to a New Hanover Gazette article in 1907, when he began a quest to uncover "Hippocratic frauds" across the country while selling real elixirs. In the process of rooting out charlatans and purveyors of false science, Dickens learned the tricks of the trade, and he decided to become a "snake oil salesman" who sold miracle tonics. In 1911, he was shot and left for dead in the New Mexico desert by some disaffected outlaws whom he had sold the elixir to, but he was rescued by John Marston after the deputy US Marshal Eli Noon reported him missing (the people of Armadillo were very worried, as Dickens was popular). Marston took Dickens to the Armadillo doctor Nathanial Johnston, and he later helped Dickens with selling his products in exchange for Dickens helping him with his assault on the outlaw stronghold of Fort Mercer. After obtaining a Gatling gun, Marston used Dickens' wagon as a Trojan horse, with Dickens entering Fort Mercer under the pretense of vending his tonics to the outlaws. After Dickens knocked the side of the wagon, he ran to cover as Marston emerged with the Gatling gun, mowing down the outlaws and taking over the fort. Marston was upset to discover that the gang leader Bill Williamson had fled to Mexico, so Marston thanked Dickens and his other allies before pursuing Williamson. Some time later, Dickens was arrested in Blackwater, Texas for distribution of narcotics, but Marston chanced upon him and - with the help of BOI agent Edgar Ross - convinced the police to release Dickens.