The claim comes from Milch himself. I don't know how much he was exaggerating, or how much of it may be true but didn't make it into the final shooting script.

The claim comes from Milch himself. I don't know how much he was exaggerating, or how much of it may be true but didn't make it into the final shooting script. E.B.'s soliloquy isn't in strict blank verse, but there is clearly some sort of metric structure. You have been tested, Al Swearengen. And your deepest purposes proved, there’s gold On the woman’s claim. You might as well have shouted It from the rooftops. That’s why I’m jumpin’ Through hoops to get it back. Thorough as I fleeced The fool she married, I will fleece his widow, too. Using loyal associates like Eustace Bailey Farnum as my go-betweens and dupes. To explain why I want her bought out I’ll make A pretext of my fear of the Pinkertons. I’ll throw Farnum a token thief. Why should I reward E.B. with some small fractional Participation in the claim? Or let him Even lay by a little security And source of continuing income, for His declining years. What’s he ever done for me? Except let me terrify him every Goddamned day of his life ’til the idea Of bowel regularity is a forlorn Fuckin’ hope. Not to mention orderin’ A man killed in one of E.B.’s rooms. So every fuckin’ free moment of his life E.B. has to spend scrubbin’ the bloodstains Off the goddamned floor! To keep from havin’ To lower his rates. Goddamned that motherfucker!