3 WILD WEST OUTLAWS! *Marathon* | Biography

Wild Bill Hickok one man a new frontier made Larger than Life the truth about what was next in the real West in a past that is now lost forever there was a time when the land was sacred and the ancient ones were as one with it a time when only the children of the great spirit were here to light their fires in these places with No Boundaries when the force were as thick as the fur or they went a bear when a warrior could walk from Horizon to Horizon on the backs of the Buffalo when the deserts Were In Bloom and the streams pure as freshly fallen snow in that time when there were only simple ways I saw with my heart the conflicts to come and whether it was to be for good or bad what was certain was that there would be change [Music] [Applause] [Music] of all the gunfighters gamblers and lawmen who plied their trade in the time of the Six Gun none was better known than a tall and graceful Frontiersman whose deadly work with Colt revolvers became the stuff of myth and Legend in his own lifetime his career would span the opening of the West the rush for gold and the great civil war between the North and the South some called him the prince of the pistoliers Gentleman Jim and the gunm of the Border but he is best known as wild Bale Hickock [Music] there was a singular Grace and dignity of carriage about that figure which would have called your attention to meet it the head which crowned it was now overlaid with long auburn hair underneath which there shown out a quiet manly face so gentle in its expression as he greets you as utterly to bely the history of its owner yet it is not a face to be trifled with George Ward Nichols [Music] 1867 it wasn't just that while Bill Hickok lived an exciting and unusual life during the Heyday of the so-called Wild West he was a remarkable human being he looked different from people around him tall handsome piercing eyes acolin nose long hair flowing to his shoulders in the style of the oldtime plesman he dressed in Buck skins he dressed in City clothes but he always dress for effect hiot wore his open hair shoulder length which was the custom of the PLS at the time and also an open invitation for hostile indans to try and take it but the most dominant feature of hiot was his eyes in normal discourse he was they were quite gentle but he was upset or annoyed they became icy and impliable and very few people would stare him down while Bill hickcock had blue gray eyes some people describe more gray uh they said he could fix you with a cold stare that struck Terror into your heart he was a Born Killer and what set him apart from other men of his time is that he was willing to kill and that when he pulled his pistol he would use it there would be no moment of hesitation no thought Hickok favored the ivory handled uh 36 caliber Navy Colt revolvers and and he wore him with a butt forward and he wore him generally in a sash or in holsters and he tended to prefer the what was known as a plesman draw instead of Reaching Across for the six shooter he simply reached down and came up with it the Navy cult was a huge cumbers weapon a real heft to it and of course when it was fired the front was obscured with smoke Hickok had to hit his Target on the first shot because he wouldn't be able to see it for the second shot but usually one shot was all wild buil needed Hickok was not only deadly accurate with his Firearms but he was also deadly accurate in the face of fire it's one thing to shoot at Targets a stationary Target that doesn't shoot back it's another thing to shoot at a man who is shooting at you and trying to kill you in the face of fire no one was better than Hickok law man hero or murderer the trayal of the man who would be called wild bill is as mysterious as the number of men he has thought to have killed I don't think it matters how many men H got killed in the same way that it really doesn't matter how many men that that any famous outlaw killed what matters is what people thought about him hickcock did say that he never killed anyone except in self-defense or when somebody as he put it needed killing as to killing men I never think much about it I don't believe in ghosts and I don't keep the lights burning all night to keep them away it is the other man or me in a fight and I don't stop to think gives it a sin to do this thing the killing of a bad man shouldn't trouble one any more than killing a rat or an ugly cat or a vicious doll while Bill [Music] Hickok the west of the 1830s promised a breathtaking expanse of beasts and exotic native peoples it held a richness that would excite and Inspire many a young boy like Hickok born on the edge of that beckoning Frontier while bill hickcock was born James Butler hickcock in 1837 in Homer Illinois uh by the 1860s the town had become known as Tory Grove it is here that young James grew up in a frame house on the farm run by his father William Alonzo Hickok and his mother paully Butler Hickok the Hickock could trace their ancestry back to straford Upon A and War England and were neighbors of one William Shakespeare as a child Hickok led a normal sort of existence for the time on the frontier because it was really raw Frontier and in the very early years he developed an aptitude for firearms yeah as a young boy uh James Hickock developed into an expert Marksman he seemed to be able to shoot equally well with either hand uh left-handed a right handed he could bring a a gun up and and put the blind Barrel up right on Target and seemed to be able to fire with unaringa it was in the south in the 1830s that enslaved Africans were forced to suffer unending servitude even to the North in Illinois it was the law of the land that a runaway slave must be returned to his owner heck's parents were strongly anti-slavery he inherited this commitment from them it was rumored that the hiok home was a stopping place along the Underground Railroad that funnel slaves from the south up to Canada and freedom one occasion James was with his father taking a slave through and they were chased by Bounty men and it's alleged that was the first time he heard a shot fired in [Music] Anger the secret midnight traffic of escaped slaves hurrying to Freedom was filled with risk and drama for the young hiok and inspired him to see his own Adventures young James Hickock was a fan of adventure stories uh he especially love stories about Daniel Boone and KCK Carson in fact he was a vasist reader read about everything he could about frontiersmen of that era I think the admiration they had for people like Carson was the fact that they were individuals they were if you like Pioneers in the sense they'd go out into a Wilderness and look for things and prepare to face any Hazard that was going that is I think what drove hiok on he was fiercely independent and had his own idea on how things should be done like many growing up on the midwestern Frontier young James hickock's gaze was westward westward were the tales of Adventure of the mountain men of Kit Carson existed Westward Where the wild Indian country was and Westward where opportunity beckoned for young men to find their future Hickok was 18 In 1855 when the federal government opened up the territory of Arkansas to settlers and Farmers lured by the promise of a fertile land claim Hickok set out from Illinois on the Mississippi by Steamboat he was on his own and going west to Kansas Kansas in the early 1860s or at least prior to the Civil War was sort of a a Keystone State it was a a place where the Travelers where the 49ers were going West toward California the slaves were coming north out of Texas going through or seeking the freedom railroads the issue of slavery had polarized the people in the new territory when James Hickok arrived in Kansas the battle lines were forming the people of Kansas had to make up their mind whether they were going to be a free state or a slave state Missouri which was a slave state wanted Kansas to be a slave state as well because otherwise they feared all their slaves would disappear to Kansas from Missouri came so-called Border Ruffians to enforce their will to keep Kansas a slave state they were worried that Missouri slaves would flee across the border into safety but from the Midwest came free soilers who were determined to keep Kansas free and keep slavery out in 1856 Hickok joined the Free State Army organized by General James Lane of Indiana as Free Soil settlements near the town of Lawrence were sacked and burned by the Missouri border rians Hickok served as the General's bodyguard it was a time remembered as Bleeding Kansas it was during this time that Hickok would meet a plesman named William F Cody whom history would remember as Buffalo Bill the Cody family was also at actively involved in the Free Soil movement and hickock's long friendship with Bill Cody comes from these days and the struggle to keep Kansas free his real name was James B Hickock and he afterwards became famous as Wild Bill the Scout of the Plains he was 10 years my senior a tall handsome magnificently built and Powerful young fellow who could outrun out jump and outfight any man and of his Brave there was no doubt William Buffalo Bill Cody 1879 dear brother I've just returned from hunting and I thought I would write and tell you what luck I had one Young Buck and two turkeys which I carried home on my back there's plenty of game here I'm going out to see cousin guy next Sunday he's grown out an awful mustache in goatee but I think my mustache and goatee lays over his in considerable the fact of it is his ain't nowhere James B Hickock Kansas 1858 at 21 James Hickock had begun to take advantage of the furtile soils and Timber around lenworth Kansas where he spent days at the home of the Cody family but it was not long before his other skills were in demand Hickok was somebody who mastered all those kinds of things that we think of as necessary Western skills he was a good Horseman he was as everyone knows a superb Marksman but he also was good with the other things things like running wagons and driving cattle and oxen he could hitch up wagons put them on trains he would know how many oxin to put on them how much they could be loaded double or triple or quadruple team them to get them uphills in other words he was a master of those things necessary to keep Goods on the [Music] Move by 1860 hickock's friend Bill Cody had signed on with the company of russle majors and wadell founders of the Pony Express but too tall to be a Pony Express Rider Hickok joined up as wagon driver on the Santa Fe Trail and Oregon Trails Hickok in 18661 was working for the frighting company Russell majors and wadell uh and as Legend has that he fought a grizzly bear in Ron pass in New Mexico the myth was that he was driving a wagon uh down through the Ron pass and he saw a young bear jumped down from the wagon and walked towards it and suddenly realized his mistake the enraged mother charged at him from the bushes and it was then a fight to the death he managed to stab the bear and was severely damaged and torn and bruised and clawed as a result severely injured Hickok would recover at Rock Creek one of the most difficult Crossings of the Oregon Trail Rock Creek was a station of the freighting line Russell majors in wadell in eastern Nebraska there he is on light duty with an arm a left arm almost useless dangling at his side when he ran into the owner of the Rock Creek Station won David MCAS the company had purchased the station from m on monthly payments but the company of course was facing hard times and would soon go bankrupt they couldn't pay up mandas threatened to evict everyone from the station Mist had insulted Wild Bill calling him duck bill a fatal mistake so when mcus and two compes came to evict the Pony Express folk from Rock Creek station they were met by Wild Bill well at that point Hickock came out and acted as something of a spokesman for Horus Wellman the superintendent of the station MCAS said my fight's not with you unless you're speaking for Wellman well at that point hickcock retreated back inside the station behind a curtain [Music] partition Hickok was met Inside by mccandless's mistress Sarah scha who warned him that a murderous gang waited just outside the Cananda said well if you won't come out I'll have to come in and and throw you out and he took a step through the doorway and a bullet slammed into his heart and knocked him back off the porch and into the dirt he died instantly there was a yell from his gang then there was a dead silence then the Ruffians came rushing in from at both doors how Wild they look with their red drunken faces shouting and cussing but I never aimed more deliberately in my life one 2 3 four men fell dead Wild Bill Hickock 1867 One Survivor of the scrape was mcan's son [Music] Monroe now Jim father said if you have anything against me come out and fight F me fair just as he uttered these words the gun cracked and he fell flat on his back he raised himself up almost to a sitting position and took one last look at me then fell back dead William Monro [Music] MCAS in 1861 the nation was plunged into Civil War as men and boys and brothers marched off to do battle in their own land it was a time when people with opinions at all couldn't be neutral they couldn't sit on a fence uh someone like Hickok who was a person of strong opinions had to take a stand and he took his stand uh fortunately for the sake of history on the side of the anti-slavery forces the pro-union forces by the end of the summer of 1861 uh James Hickock had gone off to Fort lenworth Kansas and joined the Union Army as a civilian Scout as a scout Hickok likely would have traveled alone he would have been on Horseback he perhaps at times would have been gone days at a time but he was a man who was always looking for trouble around the next band he saw his first action at the Battle of Wilson's Creek he wrote home to his brother that the sound of and the the Terror inspired by the Confederate artillery was uh awesome but he didn't lose his uh nerve the battle turned into a route of the Union forces and Hickok managed to escape my brother told me he was scared once when scouting he was trying to locate a mased battery which opened fire the minute he discovered it he never having been under artillery fire before said he was actually scared the fire of that artillery brought on the Battle of Wilson's Creek Horus D Hickok 1861 although another of hickok's Brothers Lorenzo was known to the family as tamame Bill James Butler Hickok had yet to be called Wild Bill hiok became Wild Bill Early in the Civil War he'd been known as Bill or William for some years no one knows quite why but he was it's gen believe that at Independence Missouri in the fall of 1861 he rescued a bartender from a Lynch Mob as he emerged from the bar a woman in the crowd yelled harah for you Wild Bill and the name stuck after the Civil War the Army built forts to protect the trains and settlers from the resistant Indians while Bill became a scout with the new 7eventh United States cavalry it was considered an elite regiment and it was commanded by one of the great stars of the Civil War Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong kuster kuster was handsome daring aggressive and strongly individualistic just like Wild Bill [Music] his very name Wild Bill brought to mind a man of Daring deeds and fearsome conflicts he was youth incarnated vital bold quick to judge and Swift to punish with a gun in each hand Wild Bill Hickok was the master of any moment in the Untamed reaches of the plains as Hickok traveled West his reputation as Marksman Scout and Peacemaker grew striking fear and respect in the minds of all he would soon encounter [Music] in 1865 Springfield Missouri was one of the liveliest and deadliest of all the Border towns into this local of saloons and armed frontiersmen pick would arrive to keep his date with Destiny a destiny that lay in the Cs Wild Bill was always a gambler Wild Bill in particular liked uh liked the playing of cards and uh he was always losing his money or he was winning his money but the ups and downs you can almost Trace Wild Bill life with cards Hickok was an inveterate Gambler uh in fact uh some might say even compulsive Gambler he simply couldn't stay away from the poker table and sometimes coupled with heavy drinking uh this led to confrontations in the summer of 1865 when the Civil War was over Hickok and a number of other Scouts and Couriers were in Springfield Missouri at that time he was very friendly with a man called Dave or Davis Tut who himself was an ex-confederate you see Bill was a scout on our side during the war and Tut was a Reb Scout Bill had killed Dave tutt's mate and in one thing or another there were an unusual hard feeling a Twix them Richard Bentley Owen 1867 Hickok would meet up with t at a poker table in Springfield Hickock was uh apparently losing to Dave Tut and in fact uh Tut asked for some collateral and Hickok turned over his watch at that point then uh Tut asked for some more collateral and Hickok didn't have it and he took Wild Bill's watch off the table to hold against a $35 debt he hiok told Tut not to be seen wearing that watch in public Dave took the challenge the next morning found Hickok carefully cleaning his Colt revolvers preparing to meet Dave Tut they met on the square of Springfield Missouri before a large number of people Hickock saw that Tut was wearing his watch he stroe directly methodically toward him when they were within a few feet of each other they pulled their pistols Tut fired he missed Hickok didn't he Whirled instantly and face down tutt's friends who are all around him you satisfied gentlemen put up your shoot NES or there'll be more dead men here Wild Bill Hickok 1865 was it murder or self-defense Captain Albert Barnett was stationed in Springfield following the Civil War and had seen the [Music] shooting I had Wild Bill arrested at once and turned over for trial he is a noted Desperado and gambler as was the man who was killed both men have been in the habit of appearing on the streets with two revolvers strapped on their belts public sympathy seems about equally divided between Hickok and his victim while bill has been released on bail Captain Albert Barn [Applause] 1865 in 1870 Hickok was elected Sheriff of Ellis County Kansas the town there was called Hay City for his Services he was paid $75 a month hay city was as Wild and Woolly as any freter count could be full of Buffalo Hunters teamsters and soldiers from nearby Ford Hayes and there Hickock in the two or three months that he served as Sheriff killed two men in Saloon brawls and certainly gained an even greater reputation as a deadly gunfighter and no one to cross one of the two victims of Wild Bill's pistol prowess in Hay city was a Drifter named Samuel straw hunt in a dispute over beer glasses Hickok settled the argument by shooting him through the head to the people of Hayes Hickok was a valuable officer making arrest when and where none other dare attempt it his power lies in the wonderful quickness with which he draws his pistol and takes aim we web 1872 hickock's Legend in Kansas would continue when he got to abene abene was the end of the Chism Trail here's where the cattle came to be shipped East to Market to feed the Industrial Revolution that was changing America it was a wide open wild Town gambling Halls saloons bravel Cowboys Haring the town letting off steam it's a town full of gamblers con artists and desperate characters in abene the wrong side of the tracks was just south of the Kansas Pacific Railroad it was here that the Outlaws and Desperados [Music] converged well to bring some order to this town Hickok was brought in as Marshall in 1871 and there he served uh several months in the spring and and summer of 1871 as the city Marshall of abene Hickok was hired as Marshall and abene for a very simple reason because he had a reputation because he could face down the tough Cowboys who were driving the herds North from Texas hiok kept him on the other side of the tracks kept it quiet for the respectable people but he let the saloons and the brothel and the drover hotels run wild all night long it was during this time that Hickok would confront a 6' tall 200lb Gambler and saloon keeper from Texas named Phil Cole one evening in abene Kansas W Bell hcock is conversing with the policeman Mike Williams and and uh from down the street there's a group of drunken Cowboys led by Phil Co and they are wandering apparently toward Hickok and Co then fires a shot at a stray dog but the law prohibited firing guns in abalene city limits Marshall Hickock demanded Phil CO's [Music] pistol Co had his revolver in his hand as had also other parties in the crowd as quick as thought the Marshall drew two revolvers both men fired almost simultaneously journalist abene Chronicle 1871 mortally wounded Phil Cole collapsed to the floor suddenly someone burst from the crowd gun in hand Hickok Whirled and fired and killed his Deputy Mike Williams en raged he stormed through the cowboy section of town closing down the bars shutting down the brel and he never recovered from accidentally killing his friend that night the desperate Heroes of Border Strife hid in cellers and sunflower patches or on Swift ponies found their way to their cattle camps the blue-eyed son of the Border had gone wild again Colonel Edward little 1871 [Music] among the white Scouts the most prominent among them was Wild Bill a strange character just the one which a novelist might gloat over whether on foot or on Horseback he was one of the most perfect types of physical manhood I ever saw Colonel George kuster 1872 born out of real life reports from the Untamed Frontier it wasn't long before the legend of Wild Bill Hickok would be born some say it began with a man named Nicholls George Ward Nichols more than anyone else created The Legend of Wild Bill Hickok he created it while Hickok was alive with his Harper's new monthly magazine article in February of 1867 it made Hickok one of the most celebrated characters in the entire American West it's based on interviews with Hickok and with the people around Hickok but Nichols printed everything he was told unquestioningly and uh and some of the stories are um are simply too good to be true as I looked Upon This Magnificent example of human strength and daring he appeared to me to realize the powers of Samson and Hercules combined and I should not have been inclined to place any limit upon his achievements Colonel George Warden Nichols [Music] 1867 it was a story worthy of Greek mythology it was a story worthy of the tales of King Arthur and Hickok became an American frontier knight in shining armor well such was hardly the reality but certainly to an America seeking identity and seeking a unique past this was a tale worthy of embrace one of the wonderful stories that that was told to Nicholls that he believed was the story about black Nell the the horse that was so sensitive and so obedient to Hickok that it would lie down on hickok's hand command would run to his rescue and in one case was Illustrated as having stood on a pool table leap from the table and then one bound out of the saloon and into the street even the newspapers fell into line and they would refer to him as the prince of pistoliers and they were all kinds of tales told about how he could shoot a hole through dimes and shoot quirks out of bottles and maybe this was so but maybe it was not but people tended to believe it and it all contributed to the legend and to the man which we know is well Bill Hickok children's books Tales of Western Adventure poured off the presses throughout the late 19th century so that by the turn of the century while Bill Hickok was the symbol of the plainsmen the symbol of the Town taming Marshall the man who had fought the Civil War battled the Indians for possession of the PLS and then tamed the cow towns and mining boom towns of the Last Frontier and of course sacrificed his life to bring Law and Order to the West what the dime novels were creating was an image of an individual certainly more popular and better known and more legendary than he had ever been in real life by 1873 Wild Bill had led the true life adventures of Border Warrior Scout on the Plains and town taming law man [Music] where do you go from there well East to take the show on the road Show Business was his last opportunity because now there was nothing for him to do except play Wild Bill Hickock Buffalo Bill Cody and fellow Plainsman Texas Jack had been performing for a year when they persuaded Wild Bill Hickok to join their tour the result was an epic called Scouts of the Plains the early stage plays these early uh border dramas they were sometimes called were in a way like westerns all the things that happen in westerns you'd expect to happen in those damsels in distress attacking or marauding bad men Indians on the war path on the stage Wild Bill played Wild Bill Buffalo Bill played Buffalo Bill Texas Jack played Texas Jack it didn't matter that there was no Story the audience wasn't paying for Shakespeare they were paying for Hickok they' read about him in Harpers now here he was in the flesh Hickok was miserable as an actor he stammered he blushed he forgot Ling he also felt he was making a fool of himself as were the others on stage of the three stars only Buffalo Bill was content as an actor Wild Bill Hickock had become restless and by 1874 he left the show what followed was a romance with an older woman named Agnes Lake who was a circus owner and performer from [Music] Cincinnati he met Agnes Lake when he was Marshall of abene They carried on a correspondent she said she didn't want to marry him even though they were in love until her daughter was fully grown the daughter she cared for was a pretty young girl named Emma who grew up to be an accomplished performer like her mother on March 5th 1876 Wild Bill Hickok and Agnes Lake were married in Cheyenne Wyoming after Wild Bill and Agnes were married in Cheyenne they honeymoon in Cincinnati Ohio and visited with some of Agnes's relatives following that while Bill returned to the West it was dusk on a March evening that Mrs Hickok saw her new husband board the St Louis train Bound West she never saw Hickok [Music] again it was the year 1876 the United States was 100 years old and Wild Bill Hickok was 39 but far from the cow towns and outpost that he had once known hio fate awaited him in the southwest corner of the Dakota territory it was veiled under a cover of deep Green Pines in a place called the Black Hills Colonel George kuster had just found gold in these Hills and men and women would rush here to a boom town called Deadwood Deadwood is situated in the Hills of South Dakota it's a gold mining camp and uh it's an illegal camp in the sense that it's an Indian Territory and it's not supposed to be there there was one Long Street it is very rough and very fronteer is and Hickock has come to it as a place of Last [Music] Resort it started out almost just a little ramshackle place in April 1876 very soon the trees were knocked down and Shacks sprang up tents and eventually Saloon started to appear always more saloons than anything else in those places every man in Deadwood carries about 14 lb of firearms hitch to his belt they never pass any words the fellow that gets his gun out first is best man they lug off the other fellow's body our graveyard's a big institution and a growing one sometimes however the place is right quiet I know times when a man wasn't killed for 24 hours prospector 1876 Hickok arrived in Deadwood in July of 1876 he was 39 years old he was suffering recurring eye problems he was afraid he was losing his eyesight ostensibly he came to Deadwood to strike it rich in Gold he was back in his element but it was hard to say what his element was anymore the town taming Marshall days were behind him he had been a showman parading his skills on Eastern stages a parody of himself and now he was back in the real West 39 his eyesight failing with very poor prospects somewhat pathetic considering what he had been while Bill's eyesight was practically gone when I knew him and he could hardly see it all in the darkness I used to bring him back to Camp after he had played poker some of the boys said he was moonblind Jack White ey Anderson 1876 the reality of Deadwood like most mining towns in the West Was that there were very few people who made a lot of money uh most of the people who went to those towns ended up working for someone else and Hickok in fact who was a little inclined to working in the dirt with his hands anyway found himself drawn to the gambling Halls just like he had [Music] previously he would talk about going out into the hills and looking for gold but uh he talked about it primarily in the saloons and uh and that's where he found his gold or at least s his gold was at the gambling table and in particular he liked one Saloon the best and that was simply named number 10 was midafternoon August 2nd 1876 when Hickok came into Saloon Number 10 joined in a friendly poker game but he couldn't get his usual seat although he faced the front door there was a back door behind him Hickock makes a couple of suggestions that maybe someone should change chairs with him and nobody pays any attention to him at least as much as 10 years ago if he had wanted to changed chairs all he would have had to have done was said I'd like to sit in that chair and it would have been emptied but at this particular time in his life he is ignored that in itself tells you that Hickok is reaching the bottom of the barrel he is no longer a man to be feared boys I have a hunch that I'm in my last camp and I will never leave this Gulch alive I am not dreaming something tells me that my time is up but where it is coming from I do not know as I cannot think of one living enemy who would wish to kill me Wild Bill Hickock 1876 Hickock begins playing cards and as the cards are being shuffled around the table a a small man by the name of Jack Mall slips and walks up behind Hickok apparently no one else pays any attention to him at that point Wild Bill uh said to another man at the table that uh that it looks like uh if you've got me and I'm broke well right at that moment Jack McCall put a gun to the back of P's head and [Music] fired peock slumped forward onto the table his hand dropped his cards Aces and eights Forever After known in the west is the dead man's hand when mcco shot Hickok he rushed into the street snapped his pistol at various people but it didn't go off he was arrested put on trial in a sort of a kangaroo court that was put together and he claimed that he shot Hickok cuz he killed a brother of his his in Kansas so on that basis they let him go the first trial was held in Deadwood which technically was on the Sue reservation and therefore the entire proceedings were extra legal it gave the government a chance to retry Jack McCall he was convicted and he was sentenced to death oh my God he exclaimed as he was was jerked through the Trap and into eternity in Troy Grove Illinois hickock's family would learn of his murder from a neighbor who brought the news down from Chicago but history never told them why Wild Bill Hickok was killed my own darling wife Agnes I was never as well in my life but you would laugh to see me now just got in from prospecting we'll go away again tomorrow we're right again in the morning God knows when this letter will go goodbye dear wife love to Emma JB Hickock Deadwood 1876 with a final pistol shot the story of Wild Bill Hickok came tragically to an end it marked not only the loss of a brave and gentle man but the passing of an epic Wild Bill The Fearless Marshall the terror of Desperados and bad men The Marvelous Marksman was gone and though we may never know what was truth and what was Fable we know there was a man who lived his own legend the legend of Wild Bill Hickock [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] bold dashing and courageous Jesse James and his brother Frank have been described as American robin hoods although their reputation is more the product of literary embellishment than cold hard fact they remain romantic figures whose story has captivated the imagination of generations of [Music] Americans the men no posy could catch fast drawing quick shooting Outlaws who galloped away into the sunset dime novel heroism that audiences around the world have come to love although they did not seek Fame the James gang certainly did not discourage dramatic Notions of their exploits people became very enamored with the activities of the James younger gang what they were doing or what they were not doing but the speculation was great and it was a lot of fun rebelling against harsh post Civil War legislation that limited them to all but the lowliest of jobs the James Brothers educated sons of a Baptist Minister were left with little option but to take the law into their own hands Revenge was their initial motivation I don't think there was a case uh in history of the James younger gang that they ever robbed anyone that was not a former Yankee or an institution that was owned by Northern [Music] interest not surprisingly the members of the James younger gang were not treated as outcasts by many of their Missouri neighbors but rather as champions of a vanquished people suffering under the Yoke of Northern tyranny there was so much sympathy in Missouri for the James boys that there was an effort to grant them amnesty which was almost voted by the state legislature Jesse James was someone who was able to use his times to use the press to use his own vivacious personality to build himself into a legend that continues to be talked about today [Music] [Music] they were unusual characters these two Missouri Desperados who killed men and robbed trains and banks with almost the same easy Grace that they manifested in protecting helpless women and children James biographer 1913 from 1860 to 1882 the James gang was the most feared band of Outlaws in American history they were responsible for over 20 bank and train robberies and the deaths of countless individuals that stood in their way by the end of their career the gang had stolen an estimated $200,000 the exploits of the James boys the youngers have made Americans feel that the West Was certainly a wild wild Place uh they were the exception they were not the rule and they were National Outlaws they were famous all throughout the country during their own day and everybody followed their exploits no other Outlaw gang enjoyed the success of the James Young Jer gang no other Outlaw gang enjoyed the notoriety of the James younger gang they were Legends in their own time they were Midwestern boys who felt a strong sense of loyalty toward each other as well as an obligation to further the Confederate cause no matter what the price if you count their time that they spent serving as guerillas they were active for over 20 years their sense of unity was so great that they could pull off things that other robbers could not they were very intelligent they were from prestigious families they had the support of the community from 1860 to 1882 they were the hottest thing going no one had that longevity legal authorities found it virtually impossible to stop the gang's criminal activities the $20,000 reward offered for their capture only added to their Legend but all of their success had a price in 1876 the gang made one fatal mistake which quickly led to the end of their UST ious careers the James gang was without any question the most successful and longlasting Outlaw gang in history nobody else ever approached them in in terms of ruthlessness or in terms of longevity and in terms of success the roots of the most infamous bandits in American history can be traced back to humble beginnings Frank and Jesse James were the sons of simple God-fearing Missouri Farmers [Music] Robert James a Baptist Minister and his wife zerelda Cole James migrated from Kentucky to Western Missouri in 1842 they soon settled in Clay County and became prosperous Farmers when Frank was seven and Jesse not yet three their father left his established Farm to accompany a group of gold Seekers to California but only a few weeks after reaching his destination robertt James became ill and died in 1855 zeralda remarried to a physician named Ruben Samuels it was Dr Samuels who became the dominant Father Figure in Frank and Jesse's Life Jesse and Frank James grew up in an era of increasing tensions between the sections and where they lived in Missouri was an area that was just boiling with uh tension over the coming of the Civil War Missouri Border Ruffians as they were called battled with Kansas free Staters well Civil War really began in Kansas it was known as Bleeding Kansas in the late 1850s Kansas was a disputed territory where there' be slave or free the Western border country was racked by civil Strife of a fiercer nature than was seen in the East it truly was brother against brother cousin against cousin and the combat in the west took on a much more personal nature than it did in the East where great armies contended here bands of Irregulars raided Farms raided homes killed indiscriminately and each action called for another action the Confederate Grill is grew out of the Border Warfare and when the Civil War erupted those border uh Ruffians were incorporated into uh the Confederate Army under what was known as the partisan Ranger act uh and their leaders were actually given commissions and the Confederate gorillas operated more in missions of scouting and raiding uh hit and run Ambush uh they weren't part of the regular army Frank and Jesse James came from a slaveholding family and their mother zeralda was an outspoken supporter of the Confederacy so it was just a matter of time before uh the boys uh there in Missouri uh joined one of the Confederate bands in 1863 Frank joined the irregular division led by William Clark quantril William quantril was an opportunist to just happen to be at the right place at the right time and filled a very important void as far as leadership was concerned to unite the men William Clark K Quantrell was the most noted of the Guerilla leaders not only in the west but in the Civil War eventually his actions led Southern authorities to disavow [Music] him on August the 21st 1863 the town Lawrence Kansas was viciously raided by Guerilla forces led by William quantril riding at quantrill's side was Frank James they killed every male that was in the town that they could find they would March people out of their houses and telling them that they were safe and they would March them across the street and shoot them in front of their wives and [Music] children while Frank was at War his younger brother Jesse remained safely at home with his family but in the summer of 1863 the James Farm was brutally attacked by Union Soldiers they wanted information about the partis some Rangers the gorillas in the area Jesse was out in in the field the corn fields the Union Soldiers found him there they beat him up his stepfather Ruben Samuels was hung but he survived shortly after that time it is said that Jesse tried to join quantal but quantrol would not let him join his ranks because quite frankly at the age of 16 he thought he was a little bit too young however lieutenant William Bloody Bill Anderson thought the 16 was just fine Jesse eagerly joined Bill Anderson's ranks and soon learned why Anderson was known as Bloody [Music] Bill Bloody Bill Anderson got his name because he was ruthless he was completely ruthless he had had enough and Bloody Bill was the leader of those who decided that they were going to take no prisoners one of his most infamous acts of Cruelty occurred in Centralia missou when Anderson and his men stopped a passenger train carrying Union Soldiers on Furlow he asks the passengers to get off the train and he makes two lines one line is the 22 Union soldiers and that of the civilians and so the Rangers took a step back aimed and fired volley after volley into the the Union Soldiers for those who weren't killed outright the Rangers went around and with the butts of their rifles would crush in the skulls of those who weren't killed outright Jesse James at the Cent a massacre had participated in the coldblooded murder of over 20 unarmed Union soldiers and he was particularly well known as a cool and deadly custom customer he didn't seem bothered by these kinds of actions there's no way that this kind of activity didn't have an impact upon these young men in their later life in 1865 the Confederacy conceded as the bloodiest war in American history came to an end battered soldiers from both sides returned home when Jesse did try to surrender after the uh Civil War was over he was shot and wounded by Union Soldiers many have said that this is what led him to a life of crime that he couldn't surrender that for quantrell's men the war always continued when Jesse and Frank arrived in Clay County they were forced to take an oath of loyalty to the union I will to the best of my ability protect and defend the union of the United States and not allow the union to be broken up and dissolved oath of loyalty 18 19 [Music] 65 Upon returning home Frank and Jesse James soon realized that the savagery and excitement they had experienced as Guerilla Warriors had changed them forever the people of Missouri were not allowed to return to their former lifestyle Frank and Jesse James were very much in sympathy with that they knew that they could never be Farmers again they could never live a peaceful existence they were hunted they were haunted by the events of the Civil War they were becoming so bold and so frustrated that they wanted to continue the war and the way that they could think of to continue the war was to rob a bank people simply didn't rob banks they robbed stage coaches they robbed stores they robbed people in their houses but Banks were uh were sort of examp from this in February of 1866 Frank James joined with fellow gorilla Cole Younger and other loyal Confederate soldiers in a bold plan to rob the bank in Liberty [Music] Missouri Liberty Missouri was the first daylight peacetime robbery in the history of the country we suspect that Jesse planned it Jesse was probably not in attendance but Frank James and Cole Younger were in attendance leading the gorillas and forming the very BAS of the James younger gang they rode into town quietly rode up to the bank two men dismounted went into the bank they told the banker they want to change for a bill and when they came over to wait on them they pulled out their guns and demanded all the money in the [Music] bank the gang had attracted little attention during the robbery but as they left the bank one of the men suspected a young boy across the street had sounded an alarm and shot the boy through the har Frank James and Cole Younger were not happy with the young boy being killed in Liberty they realized that it was too dangerous to have that many people involved in the gang there were 14 of them it's too many they could go in with a limited number of people be more effective and lessen the risk of anybody getting hurt they had left the bank with a sack containing nearly $60,000 in currency government bonds and gold and silver coins there's about 14 people in the gang and then you split that up among everybody in the gang and you really do not have very much money and all what it means is that now you've got to Rob another bank in order to keep your standard of living going the composition of the James younger gang would change dramatically from robbery to robbery members came and members went but the James brothers and the younger brothers remained as the central power structure of the Gang there was always a fight within the gang for who was the leader Jesse James considered himself to be the leader Cole Younger considered himself to be the leader Cole felt that he should be the leader because Jesse was younger than he was Jesse didn't have the experience and Frank James didn't care who was the leader he just wanted in on the excitement the next robbery committed by the James younger gang occurred in Lexington Missouri in October of 1866 when approached the cashier refused to produce the vault key the robbers left with only $21.50 and without making good on their threat to kill the cashier 8 months later the James gang rode into Richmond Missourri entered the bank and left with $4,000 however citizens on the street attempted to stop the robbery and three towns people were shot in the Escape The Gangs next victimized the bank in Russellville Kentucky on March 20th 1868 five Bandits rode out of town with $2,000 in their pockets on December 7th 1869 the Gallatin Bank was robbed three men entered the bank and asked John Sheets the cashier and owner of the bank to change a $100 bill as sheets turned to assist the men Jesse shot him through the head and heart in the beginning anyone that was killed during a robbery was killed by accident these were not vicious people for the most part but with the Gallatin bank robbery uh there was a case of mistaken identity Jesse thought that he was the person that was responsible for the death of Bloody Bill and when he came out he he mentioned he said I killed the man responsible for his death local newspapers condemned the robbers actions as vicious and bloodthirsty people were now aware of the members of the gang and called for their capture should the miscreants be overtaken it is not probable that a jury will be required to try them they will be shot down in their tracks St Joseph Gazette 1869 from this robbery to the end of their careers each member of the gang had a price on their head but they still had no difficulty finding support in their local community that pattern of acceptance of their activities their violent activities uh during the Civil War was continue after the war and members of the local community who had protected the gorillas would continue their protection of the James boys the people of the area of from which they came were very enamored with the James younger gang they felt that they had were representing their interests they like them sticking a spur in the side of the of the power elite they liked what they were doing and the way that they could endorse them was to hide them if they needed to was to provide aliis if they needed to the gang was not active again for another year when on June 3rd 1871 Jesse and Frank James Cole Younger and Kel Miller entered the bank at coren Iowa and left town quietly adding another $66,000 to their collection following this robbery a letter was published in the Kansas City Times attributed to Jesse James as to Frank and I robbing a bank in Iowa or anywhere else it is as base of falsehood as ever was uttered from human lips I can prove by some of the best citizens in Missouri my whereabouts on the third day of June the day the bank was robbed but it is useless for me to prove an alibi Jesse James 1871 regardless of Jesse's denial of these crimes these daring Acts were reported in newspapers and their Legend began to grow instrumental in the growth of the social Bandit myth around Jesse James were the efforts of John Newman Edwards a news paper writer who portrayed them as daring Outlaws who were kind to their victims and who wared against the forces that were exploiting the poor farmers of Missouri Edwards was an Ardent Southern sympathizer and he sympathized strongly with the jameses and youngers and he published what be became a very striking piece of writing in building the social Bandit image of the James younger gang these men sometimes Rob but it is always in the glare of day with them booty is but the second thought the wild drum of the adventure first they ride at midday take the cash out of the Vault and ride out of town to the music of cracking pistols these men are bad citizens but they are bad because they live out of their time John Newman Edward Wards 1871 Jesse loved it Jesse loved to have attention and he became addicted to the Public's attention to his Outrageous Acts they were fascinated by him dime novels were written about them they were constantly featured in the police cazette back East they were blamed for every robbery that occurred whether they committed it or not eventually the gang's Fame and success l them to expand their range of crimes the railroads were their next [Music] Target the James younger gang soon tired of robbing only banks they craved a new and different challenge the railroads usually carrying large shipments of money met their needs they were not the first trained robbers but the James younger gang established a a new too high in robbery their sense of unity was so great that they could pull off things that other robbers could not the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad would be the first documented train Heist committed by the James younger gang at dusk on July 21st 1873 five members of the gang planned to stop a train near adir Iowa they tried to stop the Train by pulling the track out and and they thought that would be all that would happen they could stop the train and Rob the money that was on board the train unfortunately when they pulled the track out the train overturned the locomotive engineer died the men boarded a train and relieved the express car of only $2,000 disappointed with a small amount of money the gang went through the passenger car collecting valuables their first train robbery taught them a valuable lesson instead of pulling out a section of track they simply stood on the rails waving a warning light and the trains always stopped on January 31st 1874 the James younger gang flagged down a train at gads Hill Missouri as the train ground to a halt the conductor stepped off the train to face the muzzle of a six shooter the gang boarded the train robbed the passengers and stole amounts from the express car that some vary anywhere from $2,000 to $22,000 it's difficult to know just how much money uh the James boy got at the robberies uh very often the banks or the express companies that ship the money on trains uh didn't like to reveal the amount of cash or government bonds that they had [Music] taken governor kittan of Missouri was now now offering a bounty for each of the thieves Dead or Alive although Jesse was constantly on the Run he still had time to find romance on April the 23rd 1874 Jesse married his longtime sweetheart and first cousin zeralda Mims I was married to miss Z Mims of Kansas City we'd been engaged for nine years and through good and evil report and not withstanding the lies that have been told upon me and crimes laid at my door her Devotion to me has never wavered for a moment Jesse James 1874 several months later Frank followed in his brother's footsteps and took a new bride Annie Walston due to her family's objections the two were married in a private ceremony shortly after the wedding the James boys took their wives and moved to Galveston Texas but 5 months later they were on the run again and decided to settle in Nashville Tennessee on December the 31st 1875 C gave birth to Jesse's first child Jesse Edwards and 3 years later in July of 1879 they had a daughter Mary James on February the 6th 1878 Frank's wife Annie gave birth to their only child Robert Franklin James there's no doubt that they were wonderful husbands they love their wives they were wonderful uh fathers they love their children they spent time with them they cared for them they were just good family people though he let a normal life at times the law was never able to catch Jesse or other Central members of the gang it became a frustrating challenge for railroad companies and banks that felt completely at their Mercy it was very much a problem for law enforcement without having a national network to track the mobility of the gang they were everywhere they were all over the country one never knew where they were going to show up in an act of desperation the government decided to hire the Pinkerton detective agency from Chicago to track down the gang Pinkerton had gained Fame during the Civil War providing intelligent support for the Union forces and continued his alliance with Northern interests even after the end of the conflict Pinkerton had experienced great success in all of his Endeavors since the war and felt confident he could stop the James younger gang I do not know the meaning of the word fail nothing in heaven or hell can influence me when I know that I am right Alan Pinkerton 1874 the Pinkerton detective agency didn't have to obey the finer points of the law they were determined to bring in Frank and Jesse James and they were willing to engage in any activity to do so they thought they attract Frank and Jesse to the home home of Jesse and Frank's mother and stepfather but the James boys weren't there only their nine-year-old half brother was the pinkertons threw some sort of explosive device into the cabin doctor and Mrs Samuels tried to push it into the fireplace but it exploded killing the young boy and blowing Mrs Samuel's arm off uh she was a very staunch defender of her son but she certainly did not uh commit violence or take part in violent episodes and it certainly wasn't considered to be honorable or chivalrous to make war on innocent women and children the public was outraged at the terrifying events at the James farm and the newspapers throughout the area requested amnesty for the members of the James younger gang they should be given the opportunity to come home and be honest and peaceful citizens instead of being hunted like wolves by detectives who are willing to sell their blood for the gold of a poultry reward St Louis dispatch 1875 however not even an attack on their fam's lives could slow their activities on September the 5th 1875 they traveled to Huntington West Virginia and stole $10,000 from the bank then in July of 1976 a Missouri Pacific Railroad train was robbed at Rocky cut Missouri of over $15,000 the gang continued to roam the countryside staging robbery after robbery with very little interference from law enforcement Frank and Jesse James were indeed quite successful at their business of robbing banks robbing trains but there seemed to be more that motivated them than simply making more money they had tasted excitement all their lives the danger of Life On The Run perhaps excited them especially Jesse and it seemed impossible for them to uh to turn away from uh their life of crime they approached their life on the run very casually it was a very real threat to them and they always complain that they could never live normal lives but the truth is they didn't want to success followed success and none of the gang members ever imagined that the turning point in their career lay just around the [Music] corner unbeknownst to the James gang their incredible streak of good luck was about to run out as they ventured into unfriendly territory to commit yet another crime no one knows for sure why they decided to travel to Minnesota but against their better judgment they went along with the plan the first Target for the Minnesota robbery was the town of Mano they went to the bank but Jesse believed that he was recognized so they decided not to rob that bank at that point Bill Chadwell told them of the existence of a bank in Northfield Minnesota this bank had the potential to be as lucrative as some of their larger heists but this raid would not play out as successfully as there others when they rode out of Missouri and made the assault upon Northfield Minnesota they went into an area that was not Northern interest an area where you had primarily Farmers very honest hardworking people in Minnesota the gang was working in a territory that was completely foreign to them they couldn't count on the sympathy of any of the local population and they in fact met population made up heavily of Union veterans who were equally well acquainted with the use of firearms and who were determined to protect their uh their property and their homes from the raids of these Outlaws the men split up on the way to their destination as they approached the outskirts of Northfield the gang regrouped in anticipation of their famed assault Frank James Bob younger and Jessie James entered the front door of the bank while Cole Younger and Kel Miller kept watch outside the men immediately encountered trouble inside Joseph Haywood the cashier refused to cooperate and in announ of anger and frustration shot and killed outside things were going just as badly the citizens of Northfield had become aware of the robbery and quickly grabbed their guns to defend their town the gang came running out of the bank in a desperate effort to escape in the gun battle that ensued Charlie pittz was shot dead in the street and Bill Chadwell the only member of the gang familiar with the area also lost his life just outside the bank once they were able to find their way out of town they really couldn't remember where they were they were turned around they ended up for 10 days just riding in circles while the biggest Manhunt in the history of the United States began Jesse James and his brother Frank decide that they will split off from the youngers because the youngers are so badly wounded that they're GNA slow everybody down and they and everybody stands a chance of being captured eventually the youngers were trapped and there was a brief gun battle uh Jim and Cole were very very seriously wounded Cole was shot 12 times Jim was shot about five times once through the through the mouth was very seriously injured and Bob eventually stood up and said they're all down but me we surrender at which point he was shot though all of the youngers were very badly wounded none of them were killed Cole Bob and Jim younger decided to plead guilty to the crime they were charged with in order to avoid execution they were sentenced to life in prison we tried a desperate game and lost but we are rough men used to rough ways and we will abide by the consequences Bob younger 1876 Frank and Jesse just kind of lost their best friends and the youngers they ended up spending 25 years in the state penitentiary in Minnesota they had to start with a whole new [Music] gang Frank and Jesse alluded capture and eventually made it all the way back to their homes in Tennessee where they took time off from their criminal activities and tried to resume a normal life sometimes they would take jobs I think mainly just for the enjoyment of doing something that they felt regular people people did they were very involved with their families they had an awful lot of friends they used to gather with their friends and talk about the war and exchange stories Frank and Jesse LED relatively quiet lives for 3 years but they were still wanted men they hadn't forgotten that the law could catch up with them at any time Jesse is living under the Alias of Mr Howard and one of the people who frequently at least rode with Jesse is arrested Ed near Nashville is locked up and Jesse James feels now that with this arrest being so close he had better move and so he leaves uh Tennessee and goes to Missouri in 1879 Jesse moved his family to Kansas City Missouri and resumed his criminal [Music] activities Jesse James still had a gang but uh increasingly the talent was running out uh the youngest were gone other members of the gang over the years had been killed or faded away or so forth and so there were beginning to be real problems of recruitment in October of 1879 the Chicago Alton railroad was robbed of $6,000 at Blue cut Missouri the robbery caused Great distress to the railroads who thought the gang's activities had ceased after the Fiasco at the Northfield Minnesota Bank on September the 3rd of the next year Jesse robbed a stage Frank James may have been in attendance to support his brother but he had tired of his life on the run and was unhappy that Jesse had returned to this [Music] lifestyle in 1881 Jesse moved his family once again this time to St Joseph Missouri where he rented the house from a local government official it was in this house on the faithful morning of April 3rd 1882 that Jesse decided to plan one more robbery with Charlie and Bob [Music] Ford although the law came close on occasion to nabbing the James boys they never did it proved impossible for legal authorities to bring in Frank and Jesse James they were protected by the local community they were always on the move there were people in missoui who didn't like Frank and Jesse certainly they didn't do much for tourism and they didn't do much for business either people didn't want to put their money invest their money in Missouri because they were afraid that Frank and Jesse may come and get it eventually in fact the governor of Missouri had to step outside the law he had to put together a reward fund that was so large that one of the members of the James gang would turn traitor but he couldn't use State funds for that he got the railroad companies to put up the money Governor kon's plan was successful and on the morning of April the 3rd 1882 Jesse sat at the kitchen table to plan another bank robbery in his company were Charlie Ford who had ridden with the gang before and his younger brother Bob B who seemed eager to participate in the latest crime as the three men got up from breakfast Jesse uncharacteristically took off his gun belt and laid it on the bed as he walked into the Parlor he noticed a picture that needed to be straightened he climbed up on a chair and while his back was turned Bob Ford drew his revolver and shot Jesse in the back of the Hill C James turned and hard to see her husband lying dead on the floor Jesse James was dead at the age of 34 leaving his mother wife and two children in complete despair at first it was hard for people to believe that Jesse James was actually dead as soon as the news got out uh hundreds of people in St Joe came scurrying to the house to see his body people throughout Missouri though were outraged at the method that the governor and the legal authorities had used to bring Jesse in the hiring of a murderer was not something that legal authorities were supposed to engage in the Fords apparently expected to be treated as Heroes and it didn't happen whereas if Jesse James had been killed as a result of a bank robbery or had even been shot down other than from behind but this seemed to be such a cowardly assassination and as a result the uh the Ford brothers are really getting all this public abuse heaped on them and Charlie who's apparently the more sensitive of the two holds up well under it uh for at least two years and then he can't stand it any longer and he simply put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger Bob Ford uh goes on for another 10 years and then he's own he owns a saloon in Creed Colorado and there's uh another man who walks in and uh simply points a shotgun at him and pulls the trigger and Bob forward his history Just Like Jesse James [Music] was within 3 months of Jesse's death Frank surrendered to the governor of Missouri after Jesse was killed Frank had just had it and he was tired of being on the run so he went to his friend John Newman Edwards and John arranged an interview with uh Missouri governor kittan and they walked right in and Frank took off his holster and gave him his revolvers and surrendered to the governor of Missouri said i' you know in essence I've had it I'm done he wanted to quit and the fact that the legal authorities couldn't build a strong case against him and that juries wouldn't convict on the meager evidence they had meant that indeed he could pursue a quiet and legal [Music] life Frank James returned home to the family farm in Clay County Missouri where he and his mother made money selling pictures and giving tours of their home while Frank was enjoying his newly acquired Freedom his loyal friends the youngers were still serving life sentences at Stillwater Penitentiary after about 10 years the time came when most people that were serving life sentences were paroled Bob younger was very very ill with tuberculosis at that time but the governor would not let him go home to Missouri to die he said nope they're in here this is where they're going to stay eventually Bob did die in prison after serving 13 years Jim and Cole then went on to serve a total time of 25 years and they were paroled in 1901 only one year after serving a 25-year prison term Jim younger decided he could not live happily with the strict limitations of his parole and committed suicide Cole at that point decided that he was going to work however he could to get himself back to Missouri when he got there he decided with Frank James that something that would be really fun would be to tour in a wild west show so he and Frank James joined up with the wild west show and went all over the country while it was relative successful Frank James and Cole Younger were embarrassed by a lot of the things that happened along the road and eventually just stopped being associated with the show but Cole Younger and Frank James continued to make money from their Outlaw past telling tales about the daring Adventures of their youth Frank James went on the lecture circuit arguing to impressionable audiences that crime doesn't play but of course crime was pay because he was now lexury taking their dollars so he could stand and tell them about his adventures riding with Jesse robbing banks robbing trains fighting in the Civil War Frank died at the age of 72 and was buried in the family plot in his hometown of Carney Missouri his death marked the end of an era the members of the James younger gang were very intelligent people they were very cunning they were from prestigious background they knew what they were doing in many ways James boys lived up to their Legend they were certainly Fearless courageous uh expert Marksman and bold and dashing and Jesse was uniformly described as handsome Edwards and other newspaper writers portrayed them as bold and daring men men who couldn't be brought to Bay by the forces of authority certainly not by the pinkertons and the others who chased them but the harsh reality of life on the run the insecurity that confronted Frank and Jesse James every day of their life is glossed over in the legend that grew around them even during their own lifetime the reality of life for Jesse and Frank James and other Outlaws in the west was usually a short vicious hard existence and a violent end the James boys managed to last a little longer than the rest of the outlaw gangs of the west but their fate was the same [Music] [Applause] [Music] Buffalo Bill and his Wild West the fame the fortune the fiction the truth about what was next in the real [Music] West if I have succeeded in bringing to the Youth of America the cowboy the Indian the Buffalo the covered wagon and the Deadwood coach then my efforts have not been in vain Buffalo Bill Cody [Music] 1910 the story of William Buffalo Bill Cody is much like the story of the West itself almost impossible to separate fact from [Music] fiction we know that Buffalo Bill was a brave Scout and skilled Hunter he was also a successful politician WR stage actor filmmaker developer and of course the charismatic leader of the Wild [Music] West if any lady wishes to behold one of the most perfect and handsome specimens of manhood in existence she will have to go and see William F Cody Rochester morning heral 1879 by the turn of the century over 1 billion words had been written about Buffalo Bill and he had become the most well-known American on the face of the Earth however over time the stories about Buffalo Bill became so exaggerated that some people began to doubt whether any of them were founded in reality some felt he was nothing but a drunk a womanizer and a charlatan Buffalo Bill had a lot of critics they often criticize him for being a showman which I find kind of humorous he he was a showman that that's what he did he was the greatest showman of the 19th century but he was a true figure in Western history as well he was recognized as a scout of consumate skill by people who knew Sheridan kuster foresight Meritt Carr these soldiers couldn't be fooled Buffalo Bill was the real thing he was a Frontiersman a Scout and a showman and at each job he was superb but at being a showman he was the very best of all Buffalo Bell was undoubtedly my Boyhood hero when I heard that it was coming and my dad told me that he was going to take me to see Buffalo Bill and some real Indians oh that was something else Buffalo Bill would ride into the arena tip his hat to the crowd and Proclaim ladies and gentlemen permit me to introduce to you a Congress of the Rough Riders of the [Applause] world the wild west had begun authentic Cowboys and Indians reliving Adventures on the frontier and the audiences were absolutely captivated we were yelling screaming and hooping and hollering and you just you live the action and we had see the Cowboys we yelling uh uh directions the cowo get those over there and stuff like that and he's they Cowboys off his horse go help him help him and stuff like this we were part of the fight we were living our fantasies and Imagination living it out as part of this show it's wonderful Buffalo Bill's Wild West played out heroic scenarios many based on his real exploits he presented the American West to Millions who had never seen it before and his romanticized vision of the frontier became the worlds thanks to Buffalo Bill the cowboy rode into our imaginations the cowboy wasn't always a hero the cowboy was a stock person he was somebody who hurted cows in the same way that early on in American history Pig boys and turkey boys had hurted pigs and turkeys in Buffalo Bill's Wild West the cowboy was presented as a knight on Horseback a knight of the Plains he was somebody who wore fancy clothing sort of a uniform uh almost armor if you think about shaps and vests and hats and cuffs and and those things as being armor he became a figure of romance although the adventures were dramatizations of real events Buffalo Bill never referred to the wild west as a show it was always an educational exhibition increasingly As Time passed Cody came to believe that what he was presenting was was real and he seemed to lose touch with the reality of his own Adventures on the plains he later wrote I stood between savagery and civilization almost all my early years well that was hardly the case but it seemed true to Buffalo Bill and it seemed true to millions of people in America and around the world 1846 was a good year for lir Iowa the state became the 29th in the union and William Frederick Cody was born will as he was called grew up in a family of five sisters and two brothers in 1854 the Cody sted a claim on the Kansas Frontier and early on young will learned to ride rope and shoot by the time he was 11 his father and older brother had died there was no time for school to support the family he went to work for the frighting firm of Russell wadell and Majors as a wagon train messenger it was during this time that he claimed to have killed his first Indian and was befriended by an older employee Wild Bill Hickok in 1860 the company founded the Pony Express he was only 14 years old when he made the longest continuous Pony Express ride in the history of that great Endeavor and uh got a lot of publicity from it and uh he'd proven himself self during the Civil War Cody served 19 months in the 7th Kansas volunteer Cavalry and on leave in St Louis he met Louisa [Music] frederici I adored her above any other young lady I had ever seen her lovely face her gentle disposition and her graceful manners won my admiration and love and I was not slow in declaring my sentiment to her in 1866 they were married together they had four children Louisa always wanted Bill to settle down she disliked the frontier and show business as much as he hated staying home it was a 50-year marriage that was stormy to the end filled with long separations and accusations of illicit Affairs in 1867 in an effort to please Louisa he tried his hand at hotel management but William Cody's Restless Spirit won out his Destiny was to be found elsewhere people generally said I made a good landlord and knew how to run a hotel but it proved too tame employment for me and again I side for the freedom of the Plains it is strange that the Americans should complain that the Indians killed Buffalo we kill Buffalo as we kill other animals for food and clothing and to make our lodges warm they kill Buffalo for what go through the country see the thousands of carcasses riding on the plains your young men shoot for pleasure all they take from the dead buffalo is his tail or his head or horns perhaps to show that they have killed the Buffalo what is this is it robbery you call us Savages what are they CD bull [Music] 1877 well the story is that Buffalo Bill killed 4,000 Buffalo or more in 18 months feeding the crews of uh the Kansas Pacific Railroad and so it's fair to uh condemn that kind of wastal activity but Cody was different from the Buffalo Hunters that were to follow he hunted animals for food he wasn't a hide Hunter he wasn't slaughtering animals for the sheer pleasure of it and uh this set him apart from uh from the Slaughters of the Buffalo that followed him the real villains were the hid Hunters men responsible for the wholesale Slaughter of the Buffalo for about a dollar a hid and 25 cents a skin many Buffalo were killed for the tongues alone which also went for 25 and were sold back east as a delicacy after the hides were stripped the remainder of the animal would be left to rot wherever the the whites are established the Buffalo is gone and the red Hunters must die of hunger Chief Red Cloud Cody hunted the Buffalo just like the Indian did he hunted on horseback riding into the herds and uh shooting the animals uh close up it was a far more dangerous way than uh the Buffalo Hunters that followed him uh employed they would of course uh sit down in a stand and simply uh shoot the beasts at a great distance with powerful rifles prior to 1870 over 50 million Buffalo Roam The Plains of the west by 1888 only about 1,000 remain Cody had played a part in that and it's uh it's not uh something that he needed to be proud of in later years he said that the hunting ethic of his early days in the west had changed and uh he supported the conservation efforts of uh president Theodore Roosevelt and others the end of the track finally reached Sheridan in the month of May 1868 and as the road was not to be built any further just then my services as a hunter were not any longer required at this time there was a general Indian War raging all along the western borders as Scouts and guides were in great demand I concluded once more to take up my old advocation of scouting and guiding for the Army Buffalo Bill Cody with a courageous ride between Kansas forts through Indian Country Cody caught the eye of General Philip Sheridan his feat which took him over 300 miles in just 58 hours so impressed the General that in August Cody was appointed Chief Scout for the fifth Cavalry Phil Sheron said I feel easy if Bill Cody is with a regiment because I know that Bill Cody has managed to keep his hair and a scout without his hair is not worth a damn during the Indian Wars the frontier Army was a demoralized outfit living conditions were miserable and room for advancement was practically non-existent with their status as civilian Scouts Cody and his friends could rise above the difficulties of the [Music] army they were an unconventional group with long hair and flamboyant outfits modeled after heroes from the age of chivalry and even partially after their enemies the [Music] Indians uh Indians engaged in heroic Warfare their whole society was U the male Society was founded on on heroic Warfare where the warrior was expected to stand out from the crowd he painted himself and he painted his Pony to to look different from the others so that his deeds would would stand out well Buffalo Bill and and his other buddies who were who were Scouts in combat did the same thing they they stood out from the crowd they created a chivalric aura which became celebrated in the Press uh ultimately in dime novels of course but um was also celebrated by their military peers they were in some ways the mascots people like Buffalo Bill ate and drank with the officers however it wasn't all show Cody backed up his heroic image with courageous deeds in December 1868 General Penrose and his men were lost and starving during a brutal winter storm Cody's old friend Wild Bill Hickock was with Penrose so Cody set out to find them none of the other Scouts would go on out because it was a blizzard it was 30 below zero you couldn't see more than 3 fet in front of you but he had to do it because Hickock was out there and several hundred men were depending upon him and he wasn't going to let him down and Cody looked for penrose's command by the way the wind was hitting his left ear uh he wrapped up the other side of his head but after 8 hours of the this his left eard drum was frozen solid uh he never heard right after that because of the damage to his left eard drum uh he eventually found penrose's command and uh he got to them in time so that they uh uh didn't die off from starvation and scurvy on July 11th 1869 Cody led the fifth Cavalry to the summit Springs Colorado Camp of tall bull the most beligerent of the Cheyenne Chiefs the ensuing battle was the bloodiest of the campaign the soldiers uh attacked the village and uh attempted to rescue two white women who were captive uh in the village one was murdered by uh her cap tors uh Cody himself uh seen an Indian riding away on a resplendent horse uh shot him and uh it turned out to be tall bull himself in April Of 1872 while hunting for a small band of Indian Raiders Cody guided a squad within 50 yards of an Indian Camp before they were noticed they then charged the camp going within 50 yards of an Indian Camp was a fairly difficult feat and then leading a charge into the camp uh was fairly spectacular and this was not a job that Cody had to do he was a civilian hired to get the military from point A to point B and if he participated into a u a battle of some sort it was because of his own initiative on May 2 2 1872 William F Cody Buffalo Bill was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery Buffalo Bill was unarmed with a Grizzly before and Savage red Men Behind the bear moved nearer too well Cody knew not a bone in his body could resist the pressure the torture of a 100 deaths that would be his in less than that number of seconds adventures with Buffalo Bill long before Buffalo Bill ever dreamed of entering show business men were making money off of his name in 1869 dime novelist Ned buttline began churning out books and plays fictionalizing Buffalo Bill's Frontier exploits Buffalo Bill gained a reputation as a courageous Scout but soon began to make a transition from Frontiersman to Showman General Sheridan arranged for a grand buffalo hunt uh across the uh Central Plains for uh a number of prominent Chicago New York and Philadelphia businessman and uh and journalist uh to make sure that they had a good time uh wagons were loaded down with ice to carry their champagne and uh Buffalo Bill was hired on as the chief [Music] guide the most striking feature of the whole was the figure of our friend Buffalo Bill riding down from the fort to our camp mounted upon a Snowy White Horse he realized to Perfection the Bold Hunter and the Gallant Sportsman of the Plains Henry Davies millionaire Hunter the Millionaire's hunt uh appears at first blush simply to be a romp a lar across the plains but it was really part of Sheridan's Indian fighting strategy he believed that to defeat the Plains Indians their commissary had to be destroyed that meant killing the Buffalo wiping them off the planes the millionaires did their part they killed 600 buffalo in 10 days along with innumerable elk analou and uh any other furry Critter that happened to have The Misfortune to cross their path with the tremendous success of the millionaires hunt Sheridan chose Cody to lead an even more spectacular Expedition for Russia's Grand Duke Alexis Cody organized a frontier show for the occasion he persuaded chief spotted tail to bring 1,000 of his Warriors to perform dances and demonstrate hunting techniques to make the hunt even more eventful for the Grand Duke the other guide was kuster George Armstrong kuster and and uh uh William be Buffalo Bill Cody were Alexa guides for what must be the most celebrated buffalo hunt of the 19th [Music] century that evening the Indian Indians gave the grand War dance which I had arranged for they were objects of great curiosity to the Grand Duke General Custer carried on a mild flirtation with one of spotted Tail's daughters and it was noticed also that the Duke Alexus paid considerable attention to another handsome [ __ ] [Music] Maiden the following morning Cody shouted out a likely herd went the Grand Duke his best horse and favorite rifle and ushered him through his first kill of a buffalo very soon the corks began the fly from the champagne bottles I was in hopes that he would kill five or six more Buffalo before we reached the camp especially if a basket of champagne was to be opened every time he dropped one we see Cody in the Millionaire's hunt and then even more dramatically in the Grand Duke Alexis buffalo hunt that followed the next year uh making a transition a transition from being an authentic Westerner from being a plesman a scout to being more of a showman for the millionaires he's putting on style as he said for the Grand Duke Alexis he puts on a wild west show and uh in many ways it would seem that this wild west show uh on the hoof on the Western Plains was just a grand rehearsal for what Cody was going to uh invent a decade later and uh take around the world New York 1872 Buffalo Bill King of the Border men a stage play based on Ned butlin's novel was playing to sell out audiences on a visit back East Cody was the guest of honor Cody returned to Fort mcferson Nebraska but buttline hounded him to come back to New York to play himself on the stage buttline was off bring $500 a week what Buffalo Bill came to understand is that he could make a far better living portraying of the fictional character Buffalo Bill on Eastern stages than he was ever going to be able to make uh out in the west as the real Buffalo Bill on December 18th 1872 Buffalo Bill along with another Scout his good friend Texas Jack omah hundro opened a Ned buttline Scouts of the Prairie the play was written in 4 hours and rehearsed only twice Cody and Texas Jack couldn't remember their line so they simply ad lived as they went along telling tall tales of the planes the next morning the papers gave us a better send off than I expected for they did not criticize us as actors the Chicago Times said that if Buntline had actually spent four hours in writing that play it was difficult for anyone to see what he had been doing all that time William F Cody audiences loved the show audiences just went crazy there was plenty of blood and thunder uh there was plenty of blanks going off in the air there was the smell of gunm smoke in in h the theater and most importantly of all here was Buffalo Bill here were the people you'd read about in the newspapers read about in dime novels it was an enormous [Music] Triumph soon even while Bill Hickock joined the acting troop and the Great Scout spent the Summers on the Plains and the winters back east on the stage eventually in 1874 Cody retired altogether from scouting with his new found career as an actor he once again tried to settle down with his [Music] family after several successful Seasons Buffalo Bill was gaining a reputation as a respectable character actor however in April of 1876 tragedy struck his only son Kit Carson Cody died of scarlet [Music] fever following Kit's death Cody returned to the stage but his heart wasn't in it General Sheridan convinced him to come back to the west to scout in the upcoming Indian campaign just two weeks after Cody's return came kuster's devastating defeat at the Little Big Horn the fifth Cavalry rode to avenge the loss on July 17th Cody Came Upon a small band of Cheyenne Scouts near warbonnet Creek Nebraska a young Warrior whose name is translated yellow hair or yellow hand recognized Buffalo Bill and challenged him they galloped at at each other much like knights in a in a joust would uh would go at each other their horses went down at almost the same time but Cody was up and on his feet uh first and uh killed Yello hair with his uh with his wichester then he proceeded immediately to uh lift uh that Indian's top knot and Proclaim it as the first scalp for kuster and the fifth Cavalry went roaring by with a great cheer for Buffalo Bill and for the first scalp and uh chased the Cheyenne uh back to the reservation the battle at warbonnet Creek is perhaps the ultimate moment blending reality and myth in the story of the American West everyone expected some action at warb Creek in the night before the Skirmish Cody had decided to discard his more traditional Buck skins which were becoming sort of P back on Eastern stages and instead wear one of his Eastern stage costumes a Mexican valko outfit which now increased dramatically in value uh because he could wear it on Eastern stages and say this is exactly what I War when I took the first scalp for kuster it seems that the West was already part of a a grand show that was going on for the entertainment of the East and Buffalo Bill was simply one of the showmen providing the entertainment Buffalo Bill returned to the stage proudly displaying Yello hair scalp in the theater Lobby he toured successfully through the 1982 83 season but Cody yearned for a greater spectacle one cannot transport the Prairie to the boarded stage and still keep within the mileage limits I can still see him coming out holding his hand his hat in his hand everybody got up ladies and gentlemen may I present the Congress of the Rough Riders of the and everything was on on then from the very first Wild West performance in Omaha Nebraska in May of 1883 Buffalo Bill created a successful formula that kept audiences and critics riveted for over 30 years the wild west is the best open air show ever seen but the real sight of the whole thing is after all Buffalo Bill he has in this exhibition out baram Barnum Hartford Connecticut current 1883 we were always playing Cowboys in the Indians and I always wanted to be about bill in my bunch and I remember my mother made me a coat with tassels on it and dad got me a a Buffalo Bill style hat and I had toy single shot cap pistols on my belt and uh so I I played Buffalo Bill many times but the wild west featured many other star attractions there was Buck Taylor the 6'5 in King of the Cowboys and expert Marksman Johnny Baker the Cowboy Kid Buffalo Bill taught Baker to shoot as a young boy he grew to become like Cody's adopted son women also receive star billing in the wild west there were legendary Sharpshooters like lilan Smith and of course little sh shot Annie Oakley who devotedly toured with Buffalo Bill for 17 years and never even asked for a [Applause] [Music] contract it was a breathtaking Extravaganza not just cowboys and Indians this was the Congress of Rough Riders of the world Horsemen from every corner of the globe from Mexican Vos to authentic Russian CICS [Music] but of course the centerpiece of the Wild West was always the historic reenactments the Pony Express the Deadwood stage the Battle of summit Springs however in this version Buffalo Bill would take a personal hand in Saving the white women another popular scenario was kuster's Battle only now there'd be speculation that if Buffalo Bill had been there it might not have been the Last Stand but it wasn't all blood and thunder Buffalo Bill firmly believed in the educational aspects of his exhibition much of the Wild West would be considered terribly slow by our standards of entertainment today probably would bore modern audiences what Cody wanted to present were were slices of life from the American frontier and so would be Indians setting up camp or uh squatter's cabin on on the planes and uh a wagon train it was an i it was a way to show people uh what the winning of the West had been about uh what frontier life was like and uh these uh living Tableau formed an integral part of the Wild West show the wild west was a logistical Marvel traveling a 640 member cast and crew plus more than 400 horses and a herd of 20 Buffalo the show belonged to America over the years it thrilled audiences in over 1,000 US cities in the 1892 season alone it played 131 locations in 190 [Music] nights but the wild west was a colossal success overseas as well touring 12 foreign countries and making numerous command performances for the round heads of Europe the American West was a Fascination and Buffalo Bill symbolized America London 1887 dear brother Al if you see a good place where I can invest some money I can send it for we have a few scads now and am liable to have more I am running with such men as the Rothchilds now I have been offered a million dollars for the wild west providing a stay with it 3 years goodbye and good luck and be very happy brother Bill there came to us some white men who wanted a band of oglalas for a big show the other long hair head they told us this show would go across the big water to strange lands and I thought I ought to go because I might learn some secret of the white men that would help my people somehow Black Elk 1886 over the years more than 2,000 Native Americans traveled with the wild west a mutual trust and respect seemed to have developed between Cody and the Indians in nine cases out of 10 when there is trouble between white men and Indians it will be found that the white man is responsible Indians expect a man to keep his word they can't understand how a man can lie most of them would as soon cut off a leg as tell a lie William F Cody 1885 in 1885 even the legendary Chief Sitting Bull toured with the wild west riding around the arena and selling autographs on the Midway Sitting Bull when he toured with the wild west he would often be cheered and get an ovation and Canada but when he toured through the United States people would often spit at him seems that they forgot that kuster was armed and up to no good as far as an Indian was concerned after touring the United States Sitting Bull wrote I wish I had known this when I was a boy the white people are so many that if every Indian in the west killed one for every step they took the dead would not be missed among you I will go back and tell my people what I have seen they will not go on the war path again I've learned much the Indian must keep quiet or die Cody's been criticized for his exploitation of Indians in the in the Wild West in reality though he tended to present slices of Indian life that uh Eastern and European audiences uh weren't familiar with and he gave some dignity to uh this betrayal so it's a mixed bag indeed Cody exploited Indians created stereotypes that have become increasingly negative over the years on the other hand uh there seem to be a lot of mutual respect between uh his native American employees and himself uh they tended to uh like being in the wild west show and uh he treated uh Native American employees with dignity and with fairness like he treated all of his employees I was very sick so I went to see the long hair he was glad to see me then he asked me if I wanted to be in the show or if I wanted to go home I told him I was sick to go home so he said he would fix that he gave me a ticket and $90 and he gave me a big dinner long hair had a strong heart Black Elk 1889 in general he was in Ed in developing the west and he was also interested in human beings Cody was a was a good citizen of our community Cody said he wanted to be remembered not just as a scout and a showman but as a developer of civilization he sank Millions from his personal wealth into towns hotels irrigation projects and Charities throughout the West Investments that would never pay off in his lifetime he founded the town of Cody Wyoming and built the luxurious Irma Hotel long before the city needed such a fine establishment well he built the Irma Hotel it was open in 192 and he named it after my mother Irma I guess they must have waited several years before they rented the first room because it was one of the first buildings and Cody and gosh almighty look at all those rooms you know that he couldn't but that's the way he was he wasn't very practical on some of the Investments he made he wasn't looking at the dollar he was looking at building the west and uh the IR never did make any money by 1910 Cody desperately wanted to retire but he became a slave to his Investments movies were taking over leaving less of a place for Cody's theatrical events the wild west fell on Hard Times Cody was forced to continue performing deep into old age just to pay off his debts Cody was crippled by the financial collapse of the Wild West shell and in his later years uh became increasingly pathetic as a figure he had to work for uh for others and uh became just one more feature of other people's shows he went on a series of farewell tours but he could never quit he needed the money so it was sort of a sad end for uh Buffalo Bill dear sister I'm feeling a good deal better I'm trying to fight that terrible disease worry if I can master that my health would improve right along love brother they had the curtain off an Alco for them and they would lead his horse into the AL Cove and Johnny Baker would help him get up in the saddle and uh uh Cody would sit there all slumped over uh because he had arthritis rheumatism his kidneys were failing uh he'd hear his cue and he'd snap to attention the curtains would flash open and he'd ride around the arena one time every show like he was a Youngster he'd get back into the AL Cove the curtains would close and he would collapse and Johnny Baker would take him to his tent and he was 70 years old and he was dying on November 11th 1916 Buffalo Bill played his last show on January 10th 1917 the last of the Great Scouts passed away at his sister's home in Denver Colorado he was the kindest simplest most loyal man I ever knew he was the staunchest friend he was in fact the personification of those sturdy and lovable qualities that really made the West the sun setting over the mountain will pay its daily tribute to the resting place of the last of the great Builders of the West all of which you loved and part of which you were Annie Oakley [Music] 19117 for

Channel: Biography

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Id: Czlu25seUPs

Length: 129min 2sec (7742 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2024