Many Loves of Buffalo Bill Page 10

  “Can you name a single person that by reason of Mrs. Cody’s actions was compelled to leave your home?” the lawyer asked again.

  “There were several of them, but I don’t care to mention their names because they will be present at the trial to answer the question,” William replied.

  “Do you refuse, Colonel, at this time, to give the name of a single person?” the lawyers persisted.

  Again William refused to offer any names. “Newspapers have in some way got a hold of what this testimony is that I am now giving and I do not, will not, give out any names,” he snapped. “These friends of mine who are to be witnesses would not like to have their names mentioned at present. I do not want this case tried in the newspapers, but I propose to have this case tried in court.”26

  Early in his testimony William stated that there had always been problems between him and Louisa, almost from the moment they were married. He implied that his feelings for his wife had lessened after so many years of hearing her complain, but Louisa’s attorney challenged that notion by having him read aloud several letters William had written to her. The affectionate letters, dated as late as 1900, noted how proud he was of Louisa and how much she meant to him.27

  When the courtroom questions eventually surfaced about William’s relationship with Katherine Clemmons, an uncomfortable hush fell over the gallery area. His response was short. He denied having intimate relations with the actress at any time. He was also asked if he had had improper relations with members of England’s royal family. His attorneys objected to the names of innocent parties being “dragged into the case.”

  On redirect, William was given the chance to defend himself against the claims that he was insensitive and a habitual philanderer. He told the court how he felt he treated his wife. “I was universally kind to her,” he insisted, “and I defy any man or woman to swear that they ever heard me speak an unkind or cross word to her…. I am liberal with everyone and especially with my family and always have been. And I have always been in a position to give my wife and my family more money than most men have. And I always look to the comfort and support of my family first above all things.”28

  Toward the end of the hearing, it was revealed that William had at one time or another offered to pay off Louisa’s debts and the mortgage on their property in North Platte if she would agree to a quiet, uncontested divorce. A telegraph sent to her on August 21, 1900, stood as proof of the offer. William wrote: “Ranch is yours. Take it and run it to suit yourself.” Louisa’s lawyers sought clarification on the claim. According to Mrs. Cody, William offered to deed her the property at North Platte, including Scout’s Rest Ranch, because he wanted her to keep it for their old age. “I deeded to Mrs. Cody the residences and the town property and part of the Scout’s Rest Ranch,” William explained, “so as to have less nagging and a little peace.” Later in his testimony he added that “Louisa refused to grant my request for a peaceful settlement and furthermore stated that she was going to fight a divorce to the bitter end. But with all those threats, I am willing to forget and forgive them, providing she will give me a legal separation.”29

  Nothing would entice Louisa to go along with a divorce. She made it clear to the courts that she would not let William go. When asked by the reporter outside the courthouse why she wanted to stay bound to William, she reiterated her love for him because he was the father of her children. She told them that “Will was the kindest and most generous of men.”30

  The Codys’ divorce attorneys delivered their final summations almost a month after the case was initially filed. Before rendering his decision, the judge ordered that the names of the women who were listed as being romantically involved with William be stricken from the record. The judge believed that he had not been provided with enough evidence to support the claim that William was having an affair with any of them, and therefore that it would be unjust for them to be linked to the legal proceedings.

  The judge further ruled that the charges leveled by both William and Louisa were baseless. He did not believe that Louisa had tried to poison William; instead, he felt that she had merely tried to cure his hangover. He stated that her motives had been misunderstood and that William was guilty of drinking to excess. The judge was inclined to believe that Louisa was proud of her husband’s achievements and wanted to work out their problems.31

  On March 23, 1905, the judge in the trial Cody v. Cody denied William’s petition for divorce. His lawyers appealed and two months later stood before another judge in Cheyenne. The petition was denied there too, but William remained hopeful. He told the press that he would take his request to the Supreme Court. He left his attorney with the job of filing the proper documents and headed to France for a five-month engagement with the Wild West show.32

  While William was overseas, he bombarded Julia with letters about how his life had changed. His finances had taken a hit as a result of the trial and the bad publicity that came with it. He wanted to reassure his sister that he would recover and regain what had been lost. He wrote on June 14, 1905:

  No thanks, Sister for the money to make the payment on the house. I only wish that some day I will be able to do much more for you. And all my sisters who have been good and true to me…. And it’s in my old age I have found God…. And realize how easy it is to abandon sin and serve him. When one stops to think how little they have to give up to serve God…. It’s a wonder so many more don’t do it. A person only has to do right, through his knowledge. I have quit drinking entirely…. I am doing a nice business. And everything is running smooth. And I hope to make a lot of money before coming home…. I must fix myself for my old age—and for those I love.33

  Among the letters William received from Julia and the others he loved was one from his daughter Irma. In it, the twenty-two-year-old woman made a heartfelt request that he withdraw his petition for divorce. William carefully considered the earnest plea from his only living child and promised Irma that he would stay married to Louisa forever.34

  NINEA Wandering Heart

  I still love my husband just as I always did. We were always happy until he went into show business, and met other people—other women. I always hoped he would settle down with me some day at our home in North Platte.

  —LOUISA CODY (1905)

  The lobby of the elegant, multistory hotel in downtown Sherman, Texas, was busy with fashionably dressed guests in various stages of checking in and out of the establishment. Attentive staff members, their arms bulging with luggage, escorted guests to their rooms or to the exit of the building. John Claire, William Cody’s valet, weaved through the preoccupied patrons as he made his way to the front desk. En route to the counter, he passed a giant sandwich-board sign covered with an image of Buffalo Bill on his horse. Several excited children huddled around the poster and chatted happily about the famous scout’s upcoming performance.

  An overly eager clerk enthusiastically greeted John as he walked to the front desk. They exchanged pleasantries, and after the clerk handed John a stack of William’s mail, he sheepishly asked if John could get Cody’s autograph for him. “It’s not for me,” he insisted. “It’s for my son.” John nodded and then continued with his duties. Before going upstairs, he retrieved one of William’s costumes from the laundry along with a bottle of exhalia, a medicinal substance used to soothe aching muscles.

  Once John finished the first of the day’s many tasks, he proceeded to the grand staircase leading to the stylish, oversized suites. He gave a couple of knocks on William’s door and routinely entered the room before an invitation was given. William was lying in bed, and Miss Bessie Isbell was seated beside him. John was taken aback to see her there, but the appealing twenty-three-year-old woman was unmoved. According to the valet’s recollections years after the uncomfortable scene, Bessie was dressed provocatively. “She was draped in a garment that consisted of two pieces,” John announced at the Codys’ divorce trial, “namely, a loose waist, a sort of Kimono ladies generally wear I understand i
n their private boudoir. The other piece of wearing apparel consisted of an underskirt. She didn’t seem inclined to leave until Colonel Cody requested her to do so.”

  The valet watched Bessie draw her loose gown close to her and then lean down and kiss William on the cheek. “Until later, my Pahaska,” John remembered her saying.1 (Pahaska was the Indian name given to Buffalo Bill. It means “Long Hair.”)

  John was employed with the Wild West show from 1899 to 1902. He acted as the show’s booking agent and advertising representative, among other jobs. During the theatrical season of 1900, John was William’s personal valet. He retrieved Cody’s mail, looked after Cody’s clothes, was his personal dresser for each performance, made sure that Cody’s sleeping accommodations were acceptable, and was available for whatever the showman might require at any time. “I was always in close contact with him,” John testified at the Codys’ divorce trial.

  Whereas most people could only speculate about William’s extramarital affairs, John swore he could attest to at least one of the women Buffalo Bill was rumored to be seeing. Bessie Isbell was not the first woman William was linked to romantically. However, she would be the last mistress Mrs. Cody would tolerate. Bitter over the betrayal and fed up with her husband’s philandering, Louisa listed Bessie as co-respondent in the divorce suit William filed.2

  During the 1905 divorce trial, some of the soldiers William served with at Fort McPherson, Nebraska, testified that his penchant for other women dated as far back as 1869, less than four years after he and Louisa were married. M. Blake of the Fifth Cavalry noted that William was “always surrounded by a bevy of dusky maidens employed at a house of ill fame in Cottonwood Canyon.” Blake told the court that William spent the bulk of his time there with a young woman named Vicky Howard. “She often told me herself that he paid her room and board for 16 or 17 weeks,” the soldier stated to the court. He noted that William frequented other such businesses and kept other women. “He visited Dave Perry’s house at North Platte, run by a woman by the name of Lizz or Lizzie,” the soldier added. He went on to say that William was “one of the business’s most popular guests.”

  “No matter where I went with him there were always other women,” Blake continued with a hint of animosity toward the famous showman. “Cody was made a little God of in that post [Fort McPherson], the officers surrounded him, boozed him up pretty well, and got up all sorts of games there and sports in honor of Buffalo Bill…. The Poncho Indian Reservation was quiet across the river, and we all had skiffs and canoes in the evening to go across to the reservation to have a good time with the Indian maidens. Bill had his share of them as well as the rest of us. He had three or four pretty ones that he picked out for his own use.”3

  Bessie Isbell was one of many women who sought William’s attention in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Little is known of the early life of the beauty Buffalo Bill insisted was his publicity agent. She was born in 1872 in Virginia. Her parents were highly educated people, as were their parents before them. Trained in the field of law, both of her grandfathers were judges. Bessie and her sister were living off an inheritance from their grandfather when she decided to work with the Wild West show. Her duties were to advertise and sell Helen Cody Wetmore’s book about Buffalo Bill entitled Last of the Great Scouts. Bessie often worked in advance of the show, handing out flyers and posting advertisements about the program and Wetmore’s popular biography.4

  During the time Bessie toured with the Wild West show, which most historical accounts list as the 1900 theatrical season, William was traveling to the performances in his new private railroad coach. In addition to the changes in his mode of transportation and his traveling companion, the show also underwent a transformation. His cast was no longer acting out Custer’s Last Stand but was now reenacting the Battle of San Juan Hill. Wherever the show appeared throughout the East and the Midwest, fans enthusiastically cheered the program and its star. Fifty-four-year-old William was encouraged by the overwhelming reception to the alterations in the production.5

  The show was doing well, but William was concerned about the overwhelming cost of maintaining the enormous event and his other business ventures. Some of the funds from the program were being used for the continual development of Cody, Wyoming; an irrigation project in the Bighorn Basin; and gold and copper mining operations in Arizona. Bessie was a pleasant distraction from the monetary struggles. Although William maintained that she was a good press agent and a necessary addition to the staff of advance publicists, not everyone connected with the program believed she was on the Wild West show’s payroll.6

  In his deposition given during the Codys’ divorce trial, John Claire insisted that Bessie was not an employee of William’s show. He stated that she was simply Buffalo Bill’s mistress. William denied the allegation and claimed that they were simply good friends. He told the court that Bessie’s salary was $25 a week plus expenses. John testified that William specifically told him the two were lovers. He swore that William gave Bessie money and expensive presents; John also stated that he packed some of those gifts in Cody’s private car when the William and Bessie traveled together. One of the presents was a stride saddle engraved with both of their names. (According to several historians, William gave saddles to a variety of women over the course of his career. He considered it a pleasure to present them with gifts as a token of his appreciation for their work with the Wild West show. Among the many recipients were Lulu Parr, Mrs. Johnnie Baker, and Annie Oakley.)

  William and Bessie were seen together numerous times in hotel rooms in different cities where the Wild West show was scheduled to play. “The couple were inseparable,” John recalled in court. “Bessie visited Cody in his tent before and after performances in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Chicago, and New Orleans…. I saw her place her hands on Cody’s shoulders as they left his tent one evening. She pinned a rose on the Colonel’s coat and said: ‘Here’s a rose for you, Colonel.’”7

  William was insulted by the accusation that there was anything inappropriate about his relationship with Bessie. “Ms. Isbell was one of my agents,” he argued in his deposition in 1905. “Most of my agents called on me during the time I was busy in my hotel room or tent, and they came for instructions.”8 Eyewitness accounts of the pair kissing, holding hands, and riding alone in the carriage used to transport William back and forth to the show grounds made Louisa doubt that Bessie was simply a business associate. She hired a private detective to investigate her husband and Bessie. The detective reported that “Buffalo Bill and Ms. Isbell have been on too friendly of terms for some time.”

  John agreed with the detective’s findings and went on to tell the court about the affectionate letters and telegrams Bessie and William sent to each other whenever they were apart. Louisa’s attorneys questioned William about the correspondences, and he did not deny they communicated. He maintained, however, that he was only being kind and supportive. Bessie had contracted tuberculosis, and he only wanted to help her through the illness.

  The extent of William’s benevolence toward Bessie was the source of heated debate during the divorce hearing. Louisa’s lawyers grilled Buffalo Bill about the support he gave Bessie. When pressed, he admitted to “having bought a ranch and transferring the ownership to her for $1 and other considerations.” When asked what those “other considerations” were, William said he “didn’t remember.”9

  Another woman William was romantically linked to was the author Olive Logan Sikes. Reference was made to her during the Codys’ divorce hearing. Olive wrote for the House of Beadle and Adams, a publishing firm responsible for several dime novels about Buffalo Bill and his daring exploits. Olive was an actress and lecturer as well as a novelist. Born in April 1839 in Elmira, New York, she made her stage debut at the age of five. After attending Wesleyan Female Seminary, she became a playwright and a contributor to numerous periodicals, including Beadle and Adams Dime and Nickel Handbooks.

  A chance introduction to William Cody at the New York
publishing company in 1885 sparked rumors that the accomplished writer would be penning a new novel about Buffalo Bill’s adventures. There was no truth to the talk, as William’s novels were written either by himself or by Prentiss Ingram. When the rumors about Olive reached Louisa, she was quick to believe them and was jealous. William assured his wife that what she heard was just gossip, but she remained suspicious of Olive and extremely jealous that the author’s and her husband’s names were linked.10

  In 1871 Olive married Wirt Sikes, a fellow novelist with the house of Beadle and Adams. The couple moved to London, where Wirt died in 1883. Olive became demented and was committed to an asylum in Banstead, England. She died on April 27, 1909.11

  Friends and acquaintances of both William and Louisa claimed that William “had an appetite for any beautiful woman he met; it didn’t make any difference, there was no exception.”12 Advocates and admirers of the showman suggest that his natural inclination to help anyone in need, combined with his flirtatious manner, was often misconstrued. Such was the case with his association with Nadeau Piatt, a young woman with unspecified ties to William’s mining venture in Pima County, Arizona. On occasion the pair wrote each other to share information about the project. Her letters to him began “Dear B.B.” (for “Buffalo Bill”). His letters to her began the same way, but in his case “B.B.” meant “Beautiful Baby.” The tone of the greeting prompted some of William’s friends to think that the pair were more than business colleagues, but the letters seemed to be the extent of their relationship.13

  The conclusion of the 1900 theater season was marred with tragedy for Buffalo Bill. His brother-in-law Al Goodman, who had been like a father to him, passed away, and a major train accident near Louisville, Kentucky, claimed the lives of several of the Wild West show’s horses, destroyed William’s private car, and nearly crippled Annie Oakley. The life-changing events left Cody with little time or interest in Bessie or any other woman outside of his immediate family.