In the 1991 film 'The Silence of the Lambs', Hannibal Lecter mentions that he once ate someone's liver with 'some fava beans and a nice Chianti' - a reference to eating fava beans and drinking Chianti is traditionally considered bad luck.
In the 1968 film 'Once Upon a Time in the West', one of the characters is dealt a dead man's hand. The dead man's hand has been mentioned in popular culture many times over the years. But regardless of which story is true, the dead man's hand has become synonymous with Wild Bill Hickok and his untimely demise, associated with death and danger. Others claim it was a collection of cards used by card sharps to scam unwary players. One story claims that he was dealt a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights, while another story says that he was holding the ace of spades and the ace of clubs, along with the eight of spades and the eight of clubs. GGPoker, the world's largest poker room, also briefly touches the history.
Interestingly, there are various stories about how Hickok came to be holding this particular hand.
