Legends of the Old West - WILD BILL HICKOK Ep. 5 | “Scouts of the Plains”

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

Hickok hits his low point, but his old friend Buffalo Bill Body convinces him to join a play called “Scouts of the Plains,” and Hickok makes more money than he ever has in his life. However, Wild Bill hates the show and abruptly ends his career as an actor. Then he reunites with his longtime love, Agnes Lake. The new couple get married and decide on a plan: Bill will strike it rich in the new gold camp called Deadwood. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin’s World, Once Upon A Crime, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Fortnite created to give players of all ages, including kids and families, a safe digital space to play in. Download Fortnite on consoles, PC, cloud services, or Android and play Lego Fortnite for free. Rated ESRB E10+. Music One of the problems with being an outlaw was that your reputation allowed you to be accused of anything.

If you were a known bank robber, you could be accused of robbing any bank. If you were a known killer, you could be accused of virtually any killing, especially in past eras when movements were harder to track. Just ask Jesse James, Billy the Kid, or Butch and Sundance. Or John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, or Bonnie and Clyde. Dillinger robbed lots of banks, but not half as many as he was accused of. The same problem existed if you walked the fine line between famous lawmen and famous gunfighter, like Wild Bill Hickok.

By the fall of 1872 and the spring of 1873, Bill had two similar but opposite experiences. In the fall of 1872, he was accused of killing three Oglala men in Nebraska. Bill was in Missouri at the time and very rarely traveled to Nebraska anyway and had no history of killing Native Americans unless they were also trying to kill him. But when the three men turned up dead, a 23-year-old Army lieutenant was sent to investigate. His first lead led him to a man who was a member of, quote, Wild Bill's outfit. The real Wild Bill, the famous Wild Bill, didn't have an outfit. He didn't have a gang of followers. As the investigation progressed, the lieutenant learned that the prime suspect was a guy named

William Kress, who was known as Wild Bill of the Blue River. Wild Bill Kress and his buddy turned out to be the real culprits. A few months after Hickok was exonerated by the lieutenant, Bill famously had an opposite problem. In early March 1873, newspapers reported that Wild Bill Hickok had been killed in Dodge City by two friends of Phil Coe. Bill had apparently been shot six times in a saloon as revenge for killing Coe and Abilene a year and a half earlier. Bill wrote a short letter to the St. Louis Weekly Missouri Democrat that stated that he was, in fact, alive. He reinforced that he had not been, nor would he ever be, killed by a Texan. And for those who were still inclined to believe the famous lawman was dead,

they didn't have to wait long for proof of their error. Bill was about to become a famously reluctant actor. The job paid a ton of money, but it also caused a ton of problems. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business,

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In this season, we're telling the story of the legendary lawman and gunfighter, Wild Bill Hickok. This is Episode 5, Scouts of the Plains. In the spring of 1873, Wild Bill Hickok was on a cold streak at the gambling tables. His eyesight was declining, and he was nearly out of money. He'd been arrested for vagrancy in Kansas City, which was a common charge against gamblers who had no other source of income. That was a good description of Hickok. He was famous, but he didn't have a way to capitalize on his fame. His old friend Buffalo Bill Cody did. By that time, Cody was equally famous, if not more so. He'd guided dignitaries on hunting

trips across the West, and he was one of four civilian scouts who'd earned the Congressional Medal of Honor during Army actions against Native American tribes on the plains. Recently, he and another famous scout, Texas Jack Omohundro, had performed a few shows of a play called Scouts of the Plains. Cody said there could be a part in it for Hickok. But after Hickok's comical failure producing a Wild West show in Niagara Falls, he said he was done with show business. However, the salary changed his mind. Cody assured Hickok that all he had to do was play himself, and he would make $100 per week. That was a princely sum in the 1870s, and Hickok set aside his misgivings and said yes. Then he learned more about the play. He knew he was playing himself, and he had to deliver lines that were written by

the author, but he didn't know how bad they'd be. The author was Ned Buntline. He was a famous newspaperman and novelist, and also one of the worst human beings of his era or any era. He'd written a very simple play after traveling from his home in New York to the West. In the original version, it was just two scouts of the plains, Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack, telling stories of their adventures to Buntline in front of a campfire. Buntline played the leader of a group of travelers, and the vast majority of the play was just the three men on stage swapping tall tales.

Occasionally, the storytelling sessions were interrupted by wild Indians who burst into the campsite and had to be dealt with by the heroic scouts. The problem was that Buntline's dialogue was so over-the-top melodramatic and full of so many things that Hickok and Cody would never say as real scouts of the plains, or anywhere else for that matter, that the play quickly became a comedy. It was supposed to be serious, but the audience kept laughing. The early shows were trashed by critics, and probably with justification. But the people couldn't get enough of it. They flocked to see the show. It was an early signal to the blossoming entertainment industry that what's

good and what's popular are two different things. So if you've ever complained that Hollywood doesn't make good movies anymore, it's pretty easy to explain. If bad but popular movies keep earning a billion dollars at the box office, Hollywood will keep making them. When Hickok joined the cast of Scouts of the Plains, he replaced Ned Buntline, much to the delight of the audience. Buntline was almost universally recognized as the worst part of his own play. Hickok made his debut in New York City, which was intimidating for any actor, especially one who didn't want to do it. for any actor, especially one who didn't want to do it. But with Hickok's name on the bill, the money started flowing. The chance to see Hickok and Cody on the same stage doing anything was too good to pass up. The theater at Niblo's Garden on Broadway and Prince Street was packed

for every show. The production reportedly made $20,000 per week. That would be more than $500,000 in today's money. The cast knew the play was bad, but when it raked in an equivalent of a half a million dollars a week, it's easy to see why they kept it going. Even with all the money, Hickok was frustrated and disillusioned, and it started to show. The stage lights hurt his eyes, so one night he shot one out. The display thrilled the audience, but infuriated the theater and scared the cast. In the earliest performances, Hickok was so nervous that Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack encouraged him to take a couple shots of whiskey before he went on stage. The tactic worked.

It dampened Hickok's nerves, but also caused an addiction. Hickok started drinking more before the show. Then he started drinking during the show. And he started creating tension in the cast. The play began its run in New York in the fall of 1873. It ran all winter, and by the spring of 1874, Cody wanted to take it on the road. But Hickok didn't want to leave, and that's when it really fell apart. Hickok liked New York. He was one of the most famous people in the country,

and he was in the biggest city in the country, and he was making lots of money. Granted, he hated the way he made it, but it certainly allowed him to enjoy everything New York had to offer. So when Cody felt like they'd maxed out their run in the city, and it was time to go on tour, Hickok resisted but ultimately agreed. He simply couldn't turn down the money. The first stop was Titusville, Pennsylvania. The troop arrived early and had several hours to kill before the first show. Hickok, Cody, Texas Jack, and the production manager checked into their hotel and went downstairs to play billiards. The hotel manager begged them not to go into the billiard room. There were five roughnecks in their playing

pool, and the hotel man didn't want a confrontation. Cody agreed and convinced the other men to go back to their rooms. But Hickok wasn't going to be put off so easily. When Cody and the production manager went to the theater to get prepped for the show that night, Hickok went down to the billiard room. Titusville was the site of America's first oil boom, so the five big burly guys at the table were the first generation of oil workers. When Hickok entered, one of the men put his hand on Hickok's shoulder and sarcastically welcomed him to the room. He said they'd been waiting for Hickok all day,

but he thought Hickok was Buffalo Bill. Hickok said he wasn't Cody, and the big man called him a liar. Hickok called the roughneck a liar in return, and then they started brawling. Apparently, Hickok knocked the man out with one punch and then grabbed a chair and beat up the other four. By the time Cody and the production manager rushed to the billiard room when they heard about the riot, it was all over. Hickok went up to his room and prepared for the show as if nothing had happened. Aside from that first altercation, the performances in early spring went off without a hitch. Then the show landed in Rochester, New York.

That was the breaking point for Hickok. During a performance, a footlamp near the stage exploded. The light seared Hickok's eyes. He went to a doctor who prescribed eye drops and gave him a pair of glasses with thick blue lenses. He did a couple more performances, but now he was up on stage uttering these terrible lines while wearing goofy-looking glasses. He loved to pull a prank during the show Where he fired blanks at the feet of the wild Indians To make them dance for the audience Cody always admonished him

But Hickok kept doing it In Rochester, he did it again And Cody told him to stop And Hickok quit in the middle of the play He'd finally had enough of pretending to be an absurd version of himself And of audiences laughing at lines that weren't supposed to be laughed at and of his struggles with his eyes. He was simply done with it all.

Hickok said goodbye to his friends and left the show. But the time in Rochester wasn't all bad. There was another happy coincidence. He was briefly reunited with Agnes Lake. She brought her circus to town to begin the touring season of 1874. No one knows what they said to each other, but it's clear that their friendship, and maybe romance, took another small step forward, though neither was willing to commit to the lifestyle of the other just yet. So they went their separate ways again.

Agnes traveled the country with her circus, and Bill went back to New York. He'd made piles of money from the play, but he'd spent it all on expensive whiskey and turns at the poker table. He wasn't broke, but he hadn't saved much either. In New York, he kept drinking and gambling, and then he learned that the show had hired an actor to play him for the rest of the run. When the play arrived in Binghamton, New York, Bill was there to witness the spectacle. He bought a ticket and sat in the front row and couldn't believe what he was seeing. He heckled the cast and finally got so angry at his replacement

that he jumped on stage and beat the man up. The cast was too scared to continue the show, so that was the end of the performance for the night. Bill was arrested and spent the night in jail, and that was basically the end of his time on the East Coast. Despite his actions, he remained friends with Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack. The other two scouts continued the show for another two years, but Hickok's time in show business was officially done.

He headed back to Kansas and Missouri, just in time for Gold Fever to once again sweep across the nation. This time it came from the Black Hills in Dakota Territory. So join Rakuten and start getting cash back at Sephora, Old Navy, Expedia, and other stores you love. You can even stack sales on top of cash back. Just start your shopping with Rakuten to save money at over 750 stores. Join for free at Rakuten.ca or get the Rakuten app. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N. There had been rumors of gold in the hills for years,

but when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led a thousand soldiers into the area in the summer of 1874, he confirmed its existence once and for all. By the end of August, newspaper reports circulated throughout the country, and the first wave of prospectors hurried to Dakota Territory. Wild Bill Hickok had turned 37 years old in May of 1874, and he felt like an old man. He'd been outfitted with a new pair of glasses with blue lenses to cut the sunlight that hurt his eyes.

He was starting to feel the effects of rheumatism, which hurt his joints. And now, he walked with the help of a cane made out of a billiard cue. He still had enough ability to put on an occasional shooting exhibition, but he wasn't as dazzling as he used to be. He bounced around his old haunts of Kansas City, Topeka, and Independence. And then in August, when he read the reports of Custer's expedition, he decided he needed a change of venue. He wasn't ready to rush to the Black Hills to find gold, but he wanted to capitalize on the boom through gambling.

He decided to go west to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Cheyenne was the launch point for people who headed to the hills, and it was also the biggest stop on the return trip. Hickok figured people who found gold in the hills would come back through Cheyenne, and he would win their money at the poker table. At that time, Cheyenne was like some of the other towns that people like to call the Sodom of the Plains. Cheyenne was like some of the other towns that people like to call the Sodom of the Plains. Joseph Rosa, an author who spent his life studying Wild Bill, described it like this.

Cheyenne had the reputation of being the wildest, roughest place on the continent. It was filled to overflowing with a crowd of roughs, killers, gamblers, and prostitutes such as had never assembled in any one place in America except perhaps Abilene. The description is colorful and fun, but it's also the same description that was given to every cow town in Kansas, half the towns in Texas, a few in New Mexico and Arizona, and the soon-to-be Deadwood. If you added them all up, you would have assumed it was just pure anarchy in the West. But that really wasn't the case, at least until Deadwood came along anyway. Hickok arrived in Cheyenne in September 1874, and in true Wild Bill fashion, he had a memorable experience as soon as he stepped off the train.

His first stop in town was a gambling hall, of course. But for this entrance, Bill was in disguise. He wore his blue sunglasses and tucked his long hair up under his hat. He stepped up to a faro table and placed a $50 bet and promptly lost. Then he placed another $50 bet and won, but the dealer only gave him $25 in return. Bill asked why he hadn't been given his full $50 winnings. The dealer informed him that it was $50 if he lost, $25 if he won. Bill was not happy about being swindled, and the old wild Bill came out quickly. He hoisted his cane made from a billiard cue and smacked the dealer on the top of the head. Then he bashed the man who was the lookout for the dealer. Then he cracked two bouncers who

rushed up to the table. Then he spun toward the rest of the people in the saloon and brandished his cane. But as he turned, his hat and glasses blew off, and he was revealed to be the legendary gunfighter and man-killer, Wild Bill Hickok. Hickok seemed to enjoy the shocked reaction of the crowd. He made a motion toward his guns, and everyone in the joint ran for the exit. Within seconds, the only people in the place were Bill and the four guys on the ground. Bill scooped up his hat and glasses and all the money on the faro table and strolled outside. He rented a room at a hotel, and the next day he was visited by the man who owned the gambling hall and the town marshal. Bill had taken a little more money day he was visited by the man who owned the gambling hall and the town marshal.

Bill had taken a little more money than he was owed. He was owed $25, but he'd walked out with $700. He fessed up and said it probably wasn't right to keep all the money, but then he suggested that he split it with the saloon owner. The owner wasn't wild about only getting half the money back, but the town marshal thought that they could end this without getting killed. He declared the deal done, and the owner accepted the compromise. And for Bill, he had a little more money in his pocket, and his prospects in Cheyenne were looking decent, and they were helped by a reunion with an old friend. Colorado Charlie Utter went to Cheyenne for the same basic reason as Bill, to make money. They both enjoyed gambling, but Charlie didn't view it as a profession. His profession, at this point in

his life, was the freight business. He planned to buy wagons, horses, mules, and supplies and transport them to the gold camps that were sure to spring up in the Black Hills. He could sell the stuff for a good price and then establish a transportation route from Cheyenne to the hills. As the fall of 1874 progressed, Charlie bought his provisions and he and Bill hung out in the saloons of Cheyenne. But toward the end of the year, Bill ran into more trouble, and it was the same trouble he'd had in Kansas City. Despite his fame, Bill was considered a loafer, a man who drifts into town with no real job prospects or ambitions, and drinks and gambles when he has money, but generally just takes up space.

Toward the end of 1874, the county sheriff threatened to arrest Bill for vagrancy, and Bill might have used it as inspiration to skip town for a while. Information about him for the first half of 1875 is spotty, though he was definitely back in Cheyenne by June 17th. The town marshal or the county sheriff followed through on the threat, and Bill was arrested for vagrancy. But other than that, the rest of 1875 passed quietly, and the new year of 1876 brought a host of changes that rejuvenated Bill, at least for a time. He'd been exchanging letters with Agnes Lake for nearly two years, since their quick reunion in Rochester before Bill quit the play. By now, Agnes was 49

years old, and she was ready to start thinking about life after the circus. She traveled to Cheyenne in late February 1876 and stayed with a couple friends. On the surface, she said she was there for business reasons, but the real reason became apparent a few days later. Bill visited Agnes at her friend's house on March 4th, and then on March 5th, Bill and Agnes got married. He was 38 and she was 49, and the reunion began a whirlwind of a five-month period that was the end of Bill's life. The newlyweds left Cheyenne immediately and headed for her hometown of Cincinnati for a two-week honeymoon.

Bill met her friends and family, and along the way, the couple made a plan. Agnes would stay in Cincinnati and prep the circus for the upcoming touring season. Bill would go to the Black Hills and prospect for gold. Hopefully, he would strike it rich, and then he would come back to Cincinnati, and they would decide where to go next. Or she would join him in the Black Hills when he sent word of his success. Either way, she thought they'd be reunited by the fall when the circus season was done. With the strategy in place and the honeymoon drawing to a close, Bill left Agnes in Cincinnati and began his trip west. He stopped at his family's home in Troy Grove, Illinois, and spent a couple days in the house he hadn't seen since 1869. It was almost exactly seven years ago that he'd shown up with a spearhead of a Cheyenne lance in

his leg and had it removed by a doctor. And now he was home under more joyous circumstances, though he didn't stay long. The previous trip had lasted almost two months. This one lasted only a couple days. He was a man on a mission, and he had to get going. He took a train to St. Louis and tried to organize a large group of potential prospectors to go with him to the Black Hills to strike it rich. Somewhat surprisingly, there were no volunteers. Maybe Hickok's star had faded more than he thought. Or maybe people just weren't ready to make the leap in large numbers like they had with gold rushes in California and Colorado in previous decades. After all, the Black Hills region was hard to get to, and the status of the area was still messy at best. President Ulysses S. Grant had tried and failed to buy the Black Hills from the Lakota, so it still didn't belong to the United States.

Soldiers had been physically removing prospectors from the region for almost two years, though they'd recently given up the effort. But most people didn't know it yet. Whatever the reason for the reticence, Bill didn't find any takers in St. Louis, so he finished his trip to Cheyenne. He was back in town by the end of March, and he reunited with Charlie Utter. Charlie was succeeding where Bill failed. and he reunited with Charlie Utter. Charlie was succeeding where Bill failed. Charlie was putting together a caravan of wagons and supplies and people to head for the Black Hills.

Bill readily joined the group, and they continued making preparations and waiting for the weather to warm up. By the end of June 1876, they were ready to go, having no idea that the biggest battle between North American warriors and the U.S. cavalry had just happened about 300 miles to the north. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Bill and Charlie's caravan encounters a calamity on the way to Deadwood. Shortly after Hickok arrives, he has a troubling premonition that his days are numbered.

He believes his own death is near, and his final days turn dark in Deadwood Gulch. The season finale of Wild Bill Hickok is next week on Legends of the Old West. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your writer,

host, and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details, and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Please visit airwavemedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin's World, Once Upon a Crime, and many more. Thanks for listening.