WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.240 If I asked you to close your eyes right now and 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:06.419 picture the Wild West, the real gritty, dusty 00:00:06.419 --> 00:00:11.269 American frontier. What is the very first image 00:00:11.269 --> 00:00:13.429 that hits your brain? Oh, that's a good question. 00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:15.929 Don't overthink it. Just the first flash. It's 00:00:15.929 --> 00:00:18.489 almost always the same reeling film strip for 00:00:18.489 --> 00:00:20.570 everyone. You know, you see a stagecoach racing 00:00:20.570 --> 00:00:22.730 across the desert, kicking up all this dust. 00:00:23.010 --> 00:00:25.070 Yeah, the stagecoach for sure. You see a saloon 00:00:25.070 --> 00:00:28.149 with those swinging doors, maybe a cowboy on 00:00:28.149 --> 00:00:30.289 a bucking bronco. And if you zoom in on that 00:00:30.289 --> 00:00:33.030 cowboy, if you get right up in his face. Well, 00:00:33.049 --> 00:00:35.829 then you see the fringed buckskin jacket. You 00:00:35.829 --> 00:00:38.289 see the long flowing hair down to the shoulders. 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:41.039 The goatee. The white Stetson hat. The white 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:43.799 Stetson. You see, William Frederick Cody. Better 00:00:43.799 --> 00:00:46.520 known to the entire world as Buffalo Bill. The 00:00:46.520 --> 00:00:48.939 face that essentially branded the American West 00:00:48.939 --> 00:00:51.200 for the rest of history. Welcome to the Deep 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:54.600 Dive. Today, we are unpacking the man behind 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:56.640 that face. And I have to be honest, before we 00:00:56.640 --> 00:00:58.439 started digging into these sources, specifically 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:02.159 the biography and the historical records. I thought 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:04.540 I knew this story. Right. I thought, okay, famous 00:01:04.540 --> 00:01:07.120 cowboy, good shot, had a circus. That is the 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:09.519 caricature. That is the version on the lunchbox. 00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:12.040 Exactly. But the mission for this deep dive is 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:13.980 to look at the historical record and peel back 00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:15.859 those layers. Because when you actually look 00:01:15.859 --> 00:01:17.780 at the documents, the man underneath that fringe 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:21.939 jacket is, well, he's messy. Messy is a polite 00:01:21.939 --> 00:01:25.120 way to put it. He is a massive walking contradiction. 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:27.680 I mean, we're talking about a man who is famous 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:32.170 for killing bison. thousands of them, yet became 00:01:32.170 --> 00:01:34.950 a conservationist who fought to save them. A 00:01:34.950 --> 00:01:36.750 man who fought in the Indian Wars, effectively 00:01:36.750 --> 00:01:39.790 a soldier of the empire, yet became a vocal advocate 00:01:39.790 --> 00:01:42.209 for Native American rights. It's a lot to square. 00:01:42.469 --> 00:01:44.549 And a rough and tumble frontiersman who was also 00:01:44.549 --> 00:01:47.090 a progressive feminist fighting for equal pay 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:50.010 in the 1800s. And a man whose entire life was 00:01:50.010 --> 00:01:53.689 a blur between cold, hard reality and the legend 00:01:53.689 --> 00:01:56.530 he manufactured to sell tickets. That's the core 00:01:56.530 --> 00:01:59.849 theme we want to explore today. Invention. how 00:01:59.849 --> 00:02:02.290 one man effectively invented the concept of the 00:02:02.290 --> 00:02:04.750 Wild West for global consumption while living 00:02:04.750 --> 00:02:07.450 a life that was often stranger and much darker 00:02:07.450 --> 00:02:09.650 than the fiction he was selling. We have a lot 00:02:09.650 --> 00:02:12.689 to cover. The violence of his childhood, the 00:02:12.689 --> 00:02:15.629 military service, the massive logistics of his 00:02:15.629 --> 00:02:18.689 show, and the bizarre body -snatching rumors 00:02:18.689 --> 00:02:22.389 after he died. It's a wild ride, and I think 00:02:22.389 --> 00:02:24.389 it's important to start with that idea of invention. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:28.280 We tend to think of history as this static list 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:32.020 of facts. But Cody proved that history is a story 00:02:32.020 --> 00:02:34.979 you tell. Yeah. And if you tell it loud enough 00:02:34.979 --> 00:02:38.240 and with enough flair, your version becomes the 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:40.360 truth. So let's go back to the very beginning. 00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:42.860 I think the assumption most of us have is that 00:02:42.860 --> 00:02:45.240 Buffalo Bill just sort of sprang out of the ground, 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:47.620 fully formed in the middle of a buffalo stampede. 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:49.960 Right. The jacket and everything. But his origin 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:52.770 story is surprisingly political. It is. And to 00:02:52.770 --> 00:02:54.949 understand Cody, you have to understand the geopolitical 00:02:54.949 --> 00:02:57.550 temperature of America when he was a kid. He 00:02:57.550 --> 00:03:01.050 was born in the Iowa Territory in 1846, but the 00:03:01.050 --> 00:03:03.250 family moved to the Kansas Territory when he 00:03:03.250 --> 00:03:05.449 was young. And this wasn't Little House on the 00:03:05.449 --> 00:03:08.050 Prairie, Kansas. This was Bleeding, Kansas. Right. 00:03:08.110 --> 00:03:09.509 For those of you who might have slept through 00:03:09.509 --> 00:03:11.930 that day in history class, Bleeding, Kansas was 00:03:11.930 --> 00:03:14.590 essentially a prelude to the Civil War. A really 00:03:14.590 --> 00:03:17.800 nasty one. Oh, it was a violent guerrilla war 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:20.699 between pro -slavery and anti -slavery factions 00:03:20.699 --> 00:03:23.139 fighting over whether Kansas would enter the 00:03:23.139 --> 00:03:25.659 Union as a free state or a slave state. It was 00:03:25.659 --> 00:03:28.819 terrorism, it was arson, it was murder. And Cody's 00:03:28.819 --> 00:03:31.659 father, Isaac Cody, stepped right into the middle 00:03:31.659 --> 00:03:35.080 of this buzzsaw. He did. The sources detail a 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:37.479 specific incident at Reveley's trading post. 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:40.900 This was a local spot where pro -slavery men 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:43.939 gathered. So hostile territory. Extremely hostile 00:03:43.939 --> 00:03:46.719 territory for an abolitionist. Isaac Cody was 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:49.259 invited to speak. Now, he could have just offered 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:52.039 some platitudes, kept his head down, and sat 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:55.659 down. But he didn't. No. He gave a fiery, impassioned, 00:03:55.659 --> 00:03:58.479 anti -slavery speech in a room full of men who 00:03:58.479 --> 00:04:00.860 violently disagreed with him and were, you know, 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:03.780 armed. That is brave or incredibly reckless. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.659 Or both. Probably both. The crowd turned on him 00:04:06.659 --> 00:04:08.219 immediately. They threatened to kill him if he 00:04:08.219 --> 00:04:10.960 didn't step down. And then it wasn't just threats. 00:04:11.259 --> 00:04:13.460 What happened? A man jumped onto the platform 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:16.339 and stabbed Isaac Cody twice with a bowie knife. 00:04:16.810 --> 00:04:18.410 A Bowie knife. We aren't talking about a little 00:04:18.410 --> 00:04:21.610 pocket knife here. No, no. A Bowie knife is a 00:04:21.610 --> 00:04:25.589 combat weapon. Massive blade. This was a brutal, 00:04:25.769 --> 00:04:29.290 brutal assault. Wow. And keep in mind, young 00:04:29.290 --> 00:04:32.149 William is there. He's a child witnessing this 00:04:32.149 --> 00:04:35.110 happen to his father. That is just... unbelievably 00:04:35.110 --> 00:04:37.509 traumatic. It is. And Isaac never really recovered 00:04:37.509 --> 00:04:39.949 from those wounds. He lingered for a while, but 00:04:39.949 --> 00:04:42.730 the family was persecuted. Their finances were 00:04:42.730 --> 00:04:45.470 ruined because Isaac couldn't work. And he eventually 00:04:45.470 --> 00:04:48.750 died in April 1857 from complications related 00:04:48.750 --> 00:04:52.250 to the attack. So William is 11 years old. His 00:04:52.250 --> 00:04:54.649 father is dead, effectively killed by political 00:04:54.649 --> 00:04:57.910 violence. The family is destitute. This isn't 00:04:57.910 --> 00:05:00.550 a yeehaw adventure story. This is a desperate 00:05:00.550 --> 00:05:03.029 survival story. It is trauma, pure and simple. 00:05:03.389 --> 00:05:05.170 And it forced him to grow up instantly. He became 00:05:05.170 --> 00:05:07.490 the breadwinner at age 11. At 11. He had a mother 00:05:07.490 --> 00:05:09.769 and sisters to support. There was no social safety 00:05:09.769 --> 00:05:12.269 net. If he didn't work, they didn't eat. And 00:05:12.269 --> 00:05:14.689 this is where he enters the workforce. The source 00:05:14.689 --> 00:05:16.889 says he started as a boy extra. What does that 00:05:16.889 --> 00:05:19.189 even mean? Sounds like a movie role. It does, 00:05:19.370 --> 00:05:22.269 but it was far less glamorous. He was working 00:05:22.269 --> 00:05:25.250 for freight carriers, specifically the famous 00:05:25.250 --> 00:05:29.509 firm Russell Majors and Waddell. These were the 00:05:29.509 --> 00:05:32.810 logistics giants of the frontier. A boy extra 00:05:32.810 --> 00:05:35.910 usually meant a messenger. He would ride up and 00:05:35.910 --> 00:05:37.490 down the length of a wagon train, delivering 00:05:37.490 --> 00:05:39.790 messages from the wagon master to the drivers. 00:05:40.009 --> 00:05:42.250 Which brings us to the first big myth we need 00:05:42.250 --> 00:05:46.529 to tackle, the Pony Express. Ah, the Pony Express, 00:05:46.889 --> 00:05:49.310 yes. If you go to a museum or watch an old western, 00:05:49.589 --> 00:05:52.430 Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express are synonyms. 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:55.689 He is the star rider. The poster boy. It's part 00:05:55.689 --> 00:05:58.009 of the brand, absolutely. But historians are 00:05:58.009 --> 00:06:00.189 waving a red flag here. They are waving a very 00:06:00.189 --> 00:06:03.209 large red flag. This is where we see the legend 00:06:03.209 --> 00:06:06.250 starting to overwrite the man. Later in his life, 00:06:06.269 --> 00:06:08.170 and certainly in his show's publicity materials, 00:06:08.610 --> 00:06:10.910 Cody claimed he was a Pony Express rider. Right, 00:06:10.949 --> 00:06:13.069 telling these epic stories. He told stories of 00:06:13.069 --> 00:06:15.850 these epic hundreds of miles rides, dodging arrows, 00:06:16.069 --> 00:06:18.089 galloping across the plains, swapping horses 00:06:18.089 --> 00:06:21.290 at lightning speed. Real hero stuff. But the 00:06:21.290 --> 00:06:23.839 math doesn't check out. Or the timeline. The 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:27.379 timeline is incredibly tight, and the nature 00:06:27.379 --> 00:06:30.300 of his employment is disputed. The general consensus 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:33.600 among serious historians is that while he worked 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:36.199 for the parent company, he was likely a messenger 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:38.779 boy. He probably rode from the firm's office 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:41.199 to the telegraph station. So we're talking about 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:44.740 a commute of, what, a few miles? Maybe three 00:06:44.740 --> 00:06:48.079 miles. Three miles. Okay. So not exactly galloping 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:50.120 across the burning desert with bandits on his 00:06:50.120 --> 00:06:53.360 tail for days on end. Not quite. But and this 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:55.959 is crucial for understanding him. The fact that 00:06:55.959 --> 00:06:58.040 he embellished it doesn't mean he wasn't capable. 00:06:58.259 --> 00:07:00.480 He was a skilled writer. He was growing up in 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:02.860 that environment. But he understood even at a 00:07:02.860 --> 00:07:05.100 young age that the story matters more than the 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:08.300 strict facts. He took a kernel of truth. I rode 00:07:08.300 --> 00:07:10.920 horses for this company and expanded it into 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:13.660 a legend that the press would eat up. He was 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:16.259 building a brand before personal branding was 00:07:16.259 --> 00:07:18.660 a concept. He was realizing that the truth is 00:07:18.660 --> 00:07:20.879 flexible if you're charismatic enough. Exactly. 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:23.420 He was rewriting his resume for the history books 00:07:23.420 --> 00:07:26.240 before he even had a biography. But he did earn 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:29.720 the name Buffalo Bill. That wasn't just a marketing 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:32.060 gimmick he pulled out of thin air. It was a literal 00:07:32.060 --> 00:07:34.819 job description. Correct. This happens after 00:07:34.819 --> 00:07:37.579 the Civil War. The Kansas Pacific Railroad is 00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:39.939 pushing west. You have these massive crews of 00:07:39.939 --> 00:07:42.639 men laying track in the middle of nowhere. And 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:45.019 they need to be fed. They need to be fed. Logistics 00:07:45.019 --> 00:07:47.579 are a nightmare. You can't ship fresh beef from 00:07:47.579 --> 00:07:50.620 Chicago easily. They need protein. They need 00:07:50.620 --> 00:07:52.980 meat. And they need it cheap. And the cheapest, 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:55.500 most abundant meat available was the American 00:07:55.500 --> 00:07:59.579 bison. Right. Millions of them. So Cody was contracted 00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:01.779 to supply buffalo meat to the workers. The numbers 00:08:01.779 --> 00:08:05.310 here are just... What are we talking? The source 00:08:05.310 --> 00:08:08.829 indicates he claimed to kill 4 ,282 buffalo in 00:08:08.829 --> 00:08:14.110 just 18 months between 1867 and 1868. 4 ,282. 00:08:14.149 --> 00:08:16.769 That is, that's industrial slaughter. It is. 00:08:16.850 --> 00:08:19.550 By modern standards, it is horrific for conservation. 00:08:19.930 --> 00:08:22.589 It helps explain why the species nearly went 00:08:22.589 --> 00:08:25.310 extinct, but at the time it was seen as a necessary 00:08:25.310 --> 00:08:28.189 service for industrial expansion. He was a contractor 00:08:28.189 --> 00:08:30.129 doing a job. Exactly. But he wasn't the only 00:08:30.129 --> 00:08:32.980 one doing it. There was actually a dispute over 00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:36.659 the nickname Buffalo Bill, right? Yes. I love 00:08:36.659 --> 00:08:38.879 this part of the story. There was another man 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:41.580 named Bill Comstock. He also claimed the title. 00:08:41.620 --> 00:08:43.639 He was well -known in the territory. So what 00:08:43.639 --> 00:08:46.120 did they do? Well, they did the most Wild West 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:48.100 thing possible. They didn't go to court. They 00:08:48.100 --> 00:08:50.500 didn't flip a coin. They had a shoot -off. A 00:08:50.500 --> 00:08:52.899 literal duel for the trademark. A buffalo hunting 00:08:52.899 --> 00:08:56.500 duel. They agreed. The winner gets the title 00:08:56.500 --> 00:08:59.919 Buffalo Bill for life. The loser has to go by... 00:09:00.350 --> 00:09:02.509 Well, just Bill, I guess. This reads like a sporting 00:09:02.509 --> 00:09:04.809 event in the source material. It was an eight 00:09:04.809 --> 00:09:07.309 -hour contest. An eight -hour contest. But what 00:09:07.309 --> 00:09:10.669 strikes me is the difference in strategy. It 00:09:10.669 --> 00:09:12.789 wasn't just about who was a better shot. It was 00:09:12.789 --> 00:09:15.029 about who understood the animals better. Right. 00:09:15.370 --> 00:09:18.090 Exactly. This is where you see Cody's intelligence. 00:09:18.950 --> 00:09:21.610 Comstock was a scout air interpreter, part Cheyenne. 00:09:21.909 --> 00:09:24.850 He used a Henry repeating rifle. For those of 00:09:24.850 --> 00:09:26.789 us who aren't gun experts, that's a fast -firing 00:09:26.789 --> 00:09:29.230 gun, right? Very fast. Lever action. You can 00:09:29.230 --> 00:09:31.070 pump out rounds quickly without taking your eye 00:09:31.070 --> 00:09:33.470 off the sights. Okay, so what was Comstock's 00:09:33.470 --> 00:09:36.149 strategy with it? Comstock's strategy was to 00:09:36.149 --> 00:09:38.889 ride up behind the herd and fire rapidly into 00:09:38.889 --> 00:09:40.690 the rear of the animals. Which seems logical. 00:09:40.889 --> 00:09:43.250 Chase them, shoot them. But think about the physics 00:09:43.250 --> 00:09:46.210 of a herd. If you shoot from behind, they panic. 00:09:46.649 --> 00:09:49.649 They run faster. They scatter. So you shoot one, 00:09:49.730 --> 00:09:52.090 and now you have to ride half a mile to catch 00:09:52.090 --> 00:09:54.830 the next one. You are exhausting your horse and 00:09:54.830 --> 00:09:57.450 scattering your targets all over the prairie. 00:09:57.590 --> 00:10:00.309 Okay, so what did Cody do differently? Cody used 00:10:00.309 --> 00:10:04.330 a Springfield Model 1866. It's a larger caliber, 00:10:04.549 --> 00:10:07.529 single -shot rifle. It's slower. It kicks like 00:10:07.529 --> 00:10:09.750 a mule. And he named it. We have to mention the 00:10:09.750 --> 00:10:12.870 name. He named his rifle Lucretia Borgia. After 00:10:12.870 --> 00:10:15.090 the notorious Italian noblewoman and subject 00:10:15.090 --> 00:10:18.190 of a Victor Hugo play, that is a level of flair 00:10:18.190 --> 00:10:21.230 that I honestly appreciate. See? It shows he 00:10:21.230 --> 00:10:23.769 had a sense of drama even then. He really did. 00:10:23.909 --> 00:10:26.059 But his tactic was the key. He likened it to 00:10:26.059 --> 00:10:28.179 playing billiards. He wouldn't chase from behind. 00:10:28.179 --> 00:10:29.879 He would ride to the front of the herd, to the 00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:32.700 flank, and target the leaders. The alpha animals. 00:10:32.899 --> 00:10:35.320 Right. By dropping the leaders, he forced the 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:37.960 herd to turn. They would circle back on themselves 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:40.620 to regroup. So instead of scattering, they clumped 00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:43.340 up. Exactly. He created a mill. They were running 00:10:43.340 --> 00:10:46.220 in a circle. He made them easy, stationary targets. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:48.200 He didn't have to chase them. He just had to 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:50.960 reload. That is dark, but tactically brilliant. 00:10:51.179 --> 00:10:55.570 It was efficiency. And the final score. Was it 00:10:55.570 --> 00:10:57.990 close? Not at all. The final score was Cody, 00:10:58.169 --> 00:11:03.350 68, Comstock, 48. 68 to 48. He crushed him. He 00:11:03.350 --> 00:11:06.570 did. And that victory secured the name that would 00:11:06.570 --> 00:11:08.710 eventually become one of the most famous brands 00:11:08.710 --> 00:11:11.649 in the history of the world. It shows that Cody 00:11:11.649 --> 00:11:13.830 wasn't just a brute force hunter. He was a strategic 00:11:13.830 --> 00:11:16.570 thinker. He understood animal psychology. Absolutely. 00:11:16.850 --> 00:11:18.809 So he has the name. He has the childhood trauma 00:11:18.809 --> 00:11:21.549 that hardened him. But before he became the showman 00:11:21.549 --> 00:11:24.700 in the jacket, he was a legitimate soldier. And 00:11:24.700 --> 00:11:26.279 this part of his life is fascinating because 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:28.639 he actually won the Medal of Honor and then... 00:11:28.909 --> 00:11:30.950 Lost it. It's a complete roller coaster. It's 00:11:30.950 --> 00:11:33.309 a very strange story. He tried to enlist in the 00:11:33.309 --> 00:11:36.210 Union Army early in the Civil War, but was refused 00:11:36.210 --> 00:11:38.529 for being too young. He eventually got in and 00:11:38.529 --> 00:11:41.429 served. But his most famous work was as a scout 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:44.250 during the Indian Wars. He was chief of scouts 00:11:44.250 --> 00:11:46.669 for the 5th Cavalry. And we need to talk about 00:11:46.669 --> 00:11:48.990 the ride. We mentioned earlier that the Pony 00:11:48.990 --> 00:11:51.210 Express stuff might have been exaggerated, but 00:11:51.210 --> 00:11:54.230 this ride as a scout is fully documented in the 00:11:54.230 --> 00:11:56.250 military records. Oh, yeah. This is the real 00:11:56.250 --> 00:12:01.129 deal. He rode 350 miles in 58 hours to deliver 00:12:01.129 --> 00:12:04.090 dispatches through hostile territory. Wait, let's 00:12:04.090 --> 00:12:07.690 pause on that. 350 miles. In 58 hours. That is 00:12:07.690 --> 00:12:10.190 two and a half days. I mean, I complain if I 00:12:10.190 --> 00:12:12.649 have to sit in a car for six hours. The physical 00:12:12.649 --> 00:12:15.470 toll of riding a horse for that long. It's grueling. 00:12:15.470 --> 00:12:17.970 The chafing, the exhaustion, the dehydration. 00:12:18.129 --> 00:12:20.669 And remember, he's not riding on a highway. He's 00:12:20.669 --> 00:12:23.129 in territory where if he is caught, he is dead. 00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:26.100 He's an enemy combatant. Exactly. He's navigating 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:29.100 by landmarks, watching for ambushes. The sources, 00:12:29.220 --> 00:12:31.539 he even had to cover the last 35 miles on foot 00:12:31.539 --> 00:12:33.840 because the terrain was too rough or the horses 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:36.480 just couldn't make it. Wow. It was feats like 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:38.500 this that led to him being awarded the Medal 00:12:38.500 --> 00:12:41.399 of Honor in 1872 for gallantry in action. The 00:12:41.399 --> 00:12:44.919 highest military honor. Yes. It was the highest 00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:47.779 military honor the U .S. could bestow. He had 00:12:47.779 --> 00:12:51.159 it. He wore it. It was proof that he wasn't just 00:12:51.159 --> 00:12:54.409 a talker. But then... Decades later, the government 00:12:54.409 --> 00:12:58.750 takes it back. That seems incredibly Betty. It 00:12:58.750 --> 00:13:00.870 wasn't just him, which is a key part of this. 00:13:00.929 --> 00:13:03.269 This is a fascinating bit of bureaucracy. Okay. 00:13:03.789 --> 00:13:06.950 In 1917, literally just days after Cody died, 00:13:07.169 --> 00:13:09.649 Congress revised the standards for the Medal 00:13:09.649 --> 00:13:11.710 of Honor. Why? They wanted to clean up the rolls. 00:13:12.070 --> 00:13:15.230 They created a new hierarchy of medals and decided 00:13:15.230 --> 00:13:17.409 that to be eligible for the top one, the Medal 00:13:17.409 --> 00:13:20.370 of Honor, you had to be a sworn officer or an 00:13:20.370 --> 00:13:22.870 enlisted soldier. And Cody was a civilian scat. 00:13:22.970 --> 00:13:25.330 Exactly. He was technically a civilian employee 00:13:25.330 --> 00:13:27.710 of the Army. He got a paycheck, not a soldier's 00:13:27.710 --> 00:13:30.289 wage. So his paperwork wasn't right. Pretty much. 00:13:30.730 --> 00:13:33.870 So along with 910 other recipients, including 00:13:33.870 --> 00:13:36.570 some famous ones like Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, 00:13:36.850 --> 00:13:39.529 his medal was rescinded. That feels incredibly 00:13:39.529 --> 00:13:41.690 harsh. Right. Thanks for the gallantry. Thanks 00:13:41.690 --> 00:13:43.789 for risking your life. But your paperwork isn't 00:13:43.789 --> 00:13:45.649 in order. His family felt the same way. They 00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:47.769 were furious. They spent decades appealing this 00:13:47.769 --> 00:13:51.269 decision. Decades. Decades. Finally, in 1989, 00:13:51.529 --> 00:13:54.389 over 70 years after he died, the decision was 00:13:54.389 --> 00:13:56.549 reversed. What was the argument that finally 00:13:56.549 --> 00:13:59.559 won? The argument was that civilian scouts in 00:13:59.559 --> 00:14:02.279 the frontier wars did the work of officers. They 00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:04.779 took the risks of officers. They led troops into 00:14:04.779 --> 00:14:06.720 battle. They were functionally officers. They 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:09.220 were treated as officers in the field. The distinction 00:14:09.220 --> 00:14:12.460 was technical, not functional. So his medal was 00:14:12.460 --> 00:14:14.720 reinstated. It's amazing that the bureaucracy 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:16.980 followed him almost a century after his death. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:20.340 Oh. But let's pivot to the thing he is most famous 00:14:20.340 --> 00:14:24.360 for. The transition from scout to star. Right. 00:14:24.649 --> 00:14:26.909 How does a guy who smells like buffalo and gunpowder 00:14:26.909 --> 00:14:29.289 become a theater icon? It starts with a writer 00:14:29.289 --> 00:14:31.610 named Ned Buntline. He was a dime novelist. Yeah, 00:14:31.610 --> 00:14:33.850 what's a dime novel? Think of them as the superhero 00:14:33.850 --> 00:14:36.909 comics of the 19th century. Cheap, sensationalized 00:14:36.909 --> 00:14:40.320 adventure stories. Buntline met the 23 -year 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:42.860 -old Cody and realized he was a goldmine of a 00:14:42.860 --> 00:14:45.200 character. He was handsome, charismatic. He was 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:47.179 handsome, he could talk, and he had these stories. 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:50.539 So Buntline started writing these highly sensationalized 00:14:50.539 --> 00:14:52.960 novels about Buffalo Bill, and they were wildly 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:55.700 popular. So Buntline says, let's put this on 00:14:55.700 --> 00:14:59.419 a stage. Exactly. And the reviews, they weren't 00:14:59.419 --> 00:15:01.259 exactly glowing, were they? The source material 00:15:01.259 --> 00:15:03.000 is pretty clear on this. They were terrible. 00:15:03.460 --> 00:15:06.240 Critics called him a diffident schoolboy. They 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:08.799 said he was wooden. He wasn't an actor. He was 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:12.000 a scout memorizing lines. He would mumble. He 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.120 would look at the floor. But the crowds didn't 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:16.960 care. No. And this is the key to celebrity. The 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:19.019 crowds didn't come to see Hamlet. They didn't 00:15:19.019 --> 00:15:21.460 care about diction. They came to see the guy 00:15:21.460 --> 00:15:24.279 who killed the buffalo. The real deal. They loved 00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:27.480 the authenticity. They loved seeing the real 00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:29.720 guy from the story standing right in front of 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:32.080 them. I love the anecdote about Wild Bill Hickok 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:34.580 trying to act with him. Oh, Hickok was a disaster 00:15:34.580 --> 00:15:37.620 on stage. A complete disaster. What happened 00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:39.840 there? He joined the troupe briefly because he 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:42.179 needed the money. But he hated the spotlight, 00:15:42.340 --> 00:15:44.620 literally. The spotlight followed him around 00:15:44.620 --> 00:15:47.320 the stage and it annoyed him so much that he 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:49.480 pulled out his revolver and shot the light out. 00:15:49.620 --> 00:15:52.299 He shot the spotlight? Shot it dead. That is 00:15:52.299 --> 00:15:55.019 a very specific way to give lighting notes to 00:15:55.019 --> 00:15:57.179 the crew. Turn that off or I'll kill it. He was 00:15:57.179 --> 00:16:00.940 fired shortly after. But Cody, Cody stuck with 00:16:00.940 --> 00:16:04.279 it. He realized there was real money here. And 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:07.879 in 1883, he launched the big one. But it's important 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:10.629 to note. He didn't call it a show. Right. The 00:16:10.629 --> 00:16:12.710 source makes a big deal of this. It wasn't the 00:16:12.710 --> 00:16:15.590 Wild West show. It was Buffalo Bill's Wild West. 00:16:15.850 --> 00:16:18.950 He was very specific. He wanted it to be viewed 00:16:18.950 --> 00:16:21.970 as a reality exhibition, a documentary in the 00:16:21.970 --> 00:16:24.870 flesh. He wasn't acting out the West. He was 00:16:24.870 --> 00:16:27.610 bringing the West to you. But the scale of this 00:16:27.610 --> 00:16:30.039 thing is mind blowing. We aren't talking about 00:16:30.039 --> 00:16:32.440 a few guys and a horse in a tent. No, no. This 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:35.320 was an arena spectacle. At its peak, he had 1 00:16:35.320 --> 00:16:39.639 ,200 performers. 1 ,200. 1 ,200 performers. Think 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:41.899 about the catering alone. Think about the waste 00:16:41.899 --> 00:16:43.919 management for the horses. It's a logistical 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:46.720 nightmare. A moving city. A moving city. And 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:48.720 it wasn't just cowboys and Indians, so to speak. 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:50.639 He had a segment called the Congress of Rough 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:52.899 Riders of the World. What was that? He brought 00:16:52.899 --> 00:16:57.039 in Turks, Arabs, Mongols, Cossacks. georgian 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.240 horseman it was like the epcot of the frontier 00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.620 in a way yes he was contextualizing the american 00:17:02.620 --> 00:17:05.460 cowboy alongside the great horse cultures of 00:17:05.460 --> 00:17:07.759 the world it was brilliant marketing and they 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:11.059 would reenact famous events famous events reenactments 00:17:11.059 --> 00:17:14.420 of the pony express stagecoach robberies, and 00:17:14.420 --> 00:17:17.519 even Custer's last stand. Which is bold, considering 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:20.140 he knew the people involved in the actual wars. 00:17:20.339 --> 00:17:22.660 And sometimes he played Custer himself. He was 00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:25.059 restaging history that had happened only a few 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:27.940 years prior. It would be like someone today staging 00:17:27.940 --> 00:17:30.740 a massive reenactment of a conflict from five 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:33.200 years ago, starring the people who were there. 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:36.480 The surrealism of that is incredible. But the 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:39.680 impact of this show, sorry, exhibition, cannot 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:42.720 be overstated. No, it can't. When he toured Europe, 00:17:42.859 --> 00:17:44.680 it wasn't just entertainment. It was a diplomatic 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:48.240 event. It was. He went to England for Queen Victoria's 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:50.779 Golden Jubilee, and the queen herself attended 00:17:50.779 --> 00:17:53.039 the show. And this is the moment that made headlines 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:55.700 everywhere. Yes. During the performance, as the 00:17:55.700 --> 00:17:57.819 American flag was carried around the arena, Queen 00:17:57.819 --> 00:18:00.160 Victoria stood up and bowed to the flag. The 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:02.380 Queen of England bowed to the U .S. flag. She 00:18:02.380 --> 00:18:05.140 did. And you have to understand, that was a massive 00:18:05.140 --> 00:18:09.230 symbolic moment. The U .S. was still a young, 00:18:09.390 --> 00:18:11.990 somewhat rough nation in the eyes of Europe. 00:18:12.089 --> 00:18:14.549 Still the upstart colony in a way. Exactly. For 00:18:14.549 --> 00:18:17.549 the monarch to bow to the flag, it signaled a 00:18:17.549 --> 00:18:20.349 shift in global power. And it happened at a cowboy 00:18:20.349 --> 00:18:22.869 show. It legitimized the American identity on 00:18:22.869 --> 00:18:25.869 the world stage. That is wild. He also met the 00:18:25.869 --> 00:18:28.900 pope. He did. A delegation from the show went 00:18:28.900 --> 00:18:31.799 to the Vatican to meet Pope Leo III. I just picture 00:18:31.799 --> 00:18:34.000 cowboys in chaps walking through St. Peter's 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.839 Square. It's surreal. It is. But my absolute 00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:39.420 favorite story from the European tours has to 00:18:39.420 --> 00:18:41.339 be the Italian defeat. Oh, the rodeo challenge. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:43.900 The source mentions this took place in Rome. 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:47.680 Yes. In 1890, Buffalo Bill's cowboys were in 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:49.259 Rome. They were feeling confident. They're the 00:18:49.259 --> 00:18:51.140 kings of the Wild West, right? Of course. So 00:18:51.140 --> 00:18:53.200 they issued a challenge to the local Italian 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:56.339 cowboys, the buttery from the Pontine Marshes. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:18:57.819 I assume the Americans thought this would be 00:18:57.819 --> 00:19:00.400 an easy win. We're the pros. You guys heard cows 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:02.900 in a swamp. Exactly. They challenged them to 00:19:02.900 --> 00:19:05.339 a skills competition, breaking untamed horses, 00:19:05.720 --> 00:19:09.559 roping calves, and the Americans lost. They lost. 00:19:10.019 --> 00:19:12.720 The Wild West cowboys lost. The Italians won 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:15.599 the roping competition. The leader of the Italian 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:18.859 team became a local hero in Rome. That is fantastic. 00:19:19.220 --> 00:19:21.440 It's a great check on the American ego. It just 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.720 goes to show that while Cody was exporting the 00:19:23.720 --> 00:19:26.019 myth of the American cowboy, the actual skill 00:19:26.019 --> 00:19:29.380 of working cattle was universal. The Italians 00:19:29.380 --> 00:19:31.500 had been doing it for centuries. I love that. 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:34.599 It humanizes the whole machine. But speaking 00:19:34.599 --> 00:19:37.599 of humanizing, we need to move to perhaps the 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:40.339 most surprising part of the research. We called 00:19:40.339 --> 00:19:42.940 it the progressive. paradox in our notes because 00:19:42.940 --> 00:19:45.740 Cody's relationship with Native Americans and 00:19:45.740 --> 00:19:49.819 women is it's surprisingly modern it is incredibly 00:19:49.819 --> 00:19:51.660 complex and we have to be careful not to paint 00:19:51.660 --> 00:19:54.180 him as a saint because he wasn't right this is 00:19:54.180 --> 00:19:56.720 a man who fought in the Indian Wars he claimed 00:19:56.720 --> 00:19:58.980 to have scalped a Cheyenne warrior in retribution 00:19:58.980 --> 00:20:01.819 for Custer he literally reenacted that scalping 00:20:01.819 --> 00:20:04.140 in his show for years he did the first scalp 00:20:04.140 --> 00:20:07.950 for Custer it was gruesome but and here's the 00:20:07.950 --> 00:20:10.609 paradox in his show he was one of the few employers 00:20:10.609 --> 00:20:13.170 who paid native americans genuinely well and 00:20:13.170 --> 00:20:15.430 treated them with respect right the source quotes 00:20:15.430 --> 00:20:18.750 him on this he did he famously said every indian 00:20:18.750 --> 00:20:21.089 outbreak that i have ever known has resulted 00:20:21.089 --> 00:20:24.069 from broken promises and broken treaties by the 00:20:24.069 --> 00:20:27.269 government that is a very clear condemnation 00:20:27.269 --> 00:20:30.309 of u .s policy Especially coming from a former 00:20:30.309 --> 00:20:33.289 Army scout. It is. And in the show, he encouraged 00:20:33.289 --> 00:20:35.349 the Native performers to bring their families. 00:20:35.569 --> 00:20:37.829 They set up camps that the public could visit. 00:20:37.990 --> 00:20:40.269 Why? He wanted the audience to see them as human 00:20:40.269 --> 00:20:43.230 beings. Families, mothers, and children. Not 00:20:43.230 --> 00:20:45.549 just the savages they read about in the sensationalist 00:20:45.549 --> 00:20:49.009 papers. He called them the former foe. present 00:20:49.009 --> 00:20:51.269 friend. It's a weird dynamic, though, isn't it? 00:20:51.309 --> 00:20:53.529 He's using them to reenact their own defeat for 00:20:53.529 --> 00:20:56.089 entertainment. Right. But also giving them a 00:20:56.089 --> 00:20:58.369 platform and economic agency they couldn't get 00:20:58.369 --> 00:21:00.710 on the reservation. Exactly. It's exploitation 00:21:00.710 --> 00:21:03.549 and empowerment happening simultaneously. If 00:21:03.549 --> 00:21:05.750 they stayed on the reservation, they were starving 00:21:05.750 --> 00:21:08.029 and controlled by government agents. But with 00:21:08.029 --> 00:21:11.509 Cody. With Cody, they traveled the world, met 00:21:11.509 --> 00:21:15.000 royalty and made money. Sitting Bull himself 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:17.599 toured with the show for a season. They were 00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:19.700 co -workers. And then you look at his stance 00:21:19.700 --> 00:21:22.660 on women. This one really surprised me. You expect 00:21:22.660 --> 00:21:25.319 the macho cowboy to be traditional, but he was 00:21:25.319 --> 00:21:28.220 a vocal advocate for suffrage. He was. He is 00:21:28.220 --> 00:21:30.819 quoted as saying, if a woman can do the same 00:21:30.819 --> 00:21:33.279 work that a man can do and do it just as well, 00:21:33.420 --> 00:21:36.019 she should have the same pay. Equal pay for equal 00:21:36.019 --> 00:21:39.289 work. In the late 1800s, that's... That's amazing. 00:21:39.569 --> 00:21:42.049 It's remarkably progressive. And he walked the 00:21:42.049 --> 00:21:44.390 walk. Annie Oakley was the star of his show. 00:21:44.569 --> 00:21:46.910 Not a side act? Not a side act. She was a headliner. 00:21:47.029 --> 00:21:49.130 She was paid better than almost anyone else, 00:21:49.170 --> 00:21:51.930 man or woman. The source mentions a horrific 00:21:51.930 --> 00:21:54.750 incident involving the show train that really 00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:58.819 highlights the dangers they faced. Yes. In 1901, 00:21:59.099 --> 00:22:01.880 traveling shows were dangerous. A freight train 00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:04.259 crashed head on into the show's train. It was 00:22:04.259 --> 00:22:07.039 devastating. How bad was it? 110 horses were 00:22:07.039 --> 00:22:09.859 killed. Oh, that's awful. It was. And Annie Oakley 00:22:09.859 --> 00:22:12.019 was severely injured. She was partially paralyzed 00:22:12.019 --> 00:22:14.539 for a time. Doctors told her she would never 00:22:14.539 --> 00:22:17.220 walk again. But she did. She recovered after 00:22:17.220 --> 00:22:20.200 five surgeries and eventually went back to performing. 00:22:20.779 --> 00:22:23.059 It shows the resilience of the people Cody surrounded 00:22:23.059 --> 00:22:26.500 himself with. He respected that grit, regardless 00:22:26.500 --> 00:22:29.099 of gender. And then there's conservation. The 00:22:29.099 --> 00:22:32.440 man who killed 4 ,000 buffalo eventually wanted 00:22:32.440 --> 00:22:35.079 to save them. He did. He saw the frontier disappearing. 00:22:35.259 --> 00:22:38.460 He saw the bison herds vanish, partly by his 00:22:38.460 --> 00:22:41.819 own hand, and he pivoted. How so? He spoke out 00:22:41.819 --> 00:22:43.900 against hide hunting. He advocated for hunting 00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:46.559 seasons. He wanted to preserve the Wild West 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:49.380 because he realized it was finite. It seems like 00:22:49.380 --> 00:22:51.359 he spent the second half of his life trying to 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:53.279 preserve what he spent the first half of his 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:55.599 life destroying. That is a profound way to put 00:22:55.599 --> 00:22:58.220 it, yes. He was nostalgic for a world he helped 00:22:58.220 --> 00:23:01.279 conquer. And nowhere is that struggle, that messiness, 00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:04.140 more evident than in his personal life. Because 00:23:04.140 --> 00:23:07.079 while he was playing the hero on stage, his marriage 00:23:07.079 --> 00:23:09.779 was an absolute disaster. Oh, a total train wreck. 00:23:10.220 --> 00:23:12.279 The section on his marriage to Luisa Frederici 00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:14.420 reads like a modern tabloid. They got married 00:23:14.420 --> 00:23:17.819 young in 1866. Very young. And almost immediately 00:23:17.819 --> 00:23:20.359 the friction started. He was never home. He was 00:23:20.359 --> 00:23:22.960 scouting, hunting, touring. Yeah. I mean, he 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:24.930 was home. When he was home, he brought the chaos 00:23:24.930 --> 00:23:27.170 with him. He was terrible with money, always 00:23:27.170 --> 00:23:29.569 generous to a fault with strangers, but leaving 00:23:29.569 --> 00:23:31.910 the family finances in disarray. He called her 00:23:31.910 --> 00:23:34.789 cranky in letters. He did. And she probably was. 00:23:34.849 --> 00:23:36.789 I mean, she was raising his children alone while 00:23:36.789 --> 00:23:39.990 he was off being Buffalo Bill. I know. In 1904, 00:23:40.210 --> 00:23:43.109 he actually sued for divorce. This was a huge 00:23:43.109 --> 00:23:46.529 scandal. Divorce was rare. A celebrity divorce 00:23:46.529 --> 00:23:50.250 was headline news. And the accusations were wild. 00:23:50.470 --> 00:23:53.299 He accused her of trying to poison him. He claimed 00:23:53.299 --> 00:23:56.339 she put dragon's blood or some concoction in 00:23:56.339 --> 00:23:59.099 his coffee. The housekeeper testified that she 00:23:59.099 --> 00:24:01.839 saw Louisa tampering with his drink. So it seemed 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:04.380 like he had a case. For a minute. But then the 00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:06.539 defense brought in witnesses who painted a very 00:24:06.539 --> 00:24:09.039 different picture. What did they say? They claimed 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:10.980 Cody said the only way he could deal with her 00:24:10.980 --> 00:24:14.440 was to get drunk and stay drunk. Yikes. So you 00:24:14.440 --> 00:24:16.960 have the most famous hero in America telling 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:19.039 the court he has to stay drunk to handle his 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.869 wife. It completely destroyed the stoic hero 00:24:21.869 --> 00:24:25.569 image. It revealed a sad, angry, trapped man. 00:24:25.849 --> 00:24:28.930 And the kicker? What's the kicker? He lost the 00:24:28.930 --> 00:24:31.710 case. He lost. The judge ruled that incompatibility 00:24:31.710 --> 00:24:34.329 wasn't legal grounds for divorce. The poisoning 00:24:34.329 --> 00:24:37.970 allegations weren't proven. So, legally, they 00:24:37.970 --> 00:24:40.049 were forced to stay married. That sounds like 00:24:40.049 --> 00:24:42.250 an absolute nightmare. It does. They eventually 00:24:42.250 --> 00:24:44.990 reconciled in 1910 and stayed together until 00:24:44.990 --> 00:24:47.829 he died. But it just shows how trapped he was 00:24:47.829 --> 00:24:50.690 in his own private life, even while he was free 00:24:50.690 --> 00:24:53.210 to roam the world. Let's move to the end, the 00:24:53.210 --> 00:24:56.349 final chapter. You'd think a guy this famous 00:24:56.349 --> 00:24:58.930 would die incredibly wealthy living in a palace. 00:24:59.170 --> 00:25:02.369 You'd think so. He made a fortune, but he spent 00:25:02.369 --> 00:25:04.890 a fortune. And he made terrible investments. 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:08.279 Like what? He poured money into mines that had 00:25:08.279 --> 00:25:11.319 no gold. He poured money into founding the town 00:25:11.319 --> 00:25:13.940 of Cody, Wyoming. Which is a cool legacy. It's 00:25:13.940 --> 00:25:15.759 still a gateway to Yellowstone, but expensive 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:18.420 to build from scratch. Very expensive. He built 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:20.440 the Irma Hotel there, named after his daughter. 00:25:20.579 --> 00:25:23.380 He pushed for the Shoshone Dam, which was the 00:25:23.380 --> 00:25:25.460 tallest in the world when it was finished. So 00:25:25.460 --> 00:25:27.619 he was a visionary developer? A visionary developer, 00:25:27.880 --> 00:25:31.500 but cash poor. When he died in 1917, the source 00:25:31.500 --> 00:25:34.099 says his liquid fortune had dwindled significantly, 00:25:34.460 --> 00:25:38.279 less than $100 ,000. And even in death, there 00:25:38.279 --> 00:25:40.279 was controversy. This is the body snatching part 00:25:40.279 --> 00:25:42.279 that I teased in the intro. It's the final battle 00:25:42.279 --> 00:25:44.839 over who owns Buffalo Bill. It's truly bizarre. 00:25:45.099 --> 00:25:47.240 So break it down. What happened? Okay, so he 00:25:47.240 --> 00:25:49.660 died in Denver, Colorado at his sister's home. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:52.359 Now, his wife and sister said he wanted to be 00:25:52.359 --> 00:25:54.799 buried on Lookout Mountain, overlooking the plains 00:25:54.799 --> 00:25:57.900 in Colorado. But the people of Cody, Wyoming 00:25:57.900 --> 00:26:00.759 said, no, he found it our town. He belongs here. 00:26:00.900 --> 00:26:03.380 Right. The town of Cody relied on his name for 00:26:03.380 --> 00:26:06.259 tourism. They felt they had a claim and relations 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:09.019 got so tense that rumors started flying. What 00:26:09.019 --> 00:26:11.400 kind of rumors? The rumor, and it persists to 00:26:11.400 --> 00:26:14.240 this day in Wyoming, is that a delegation from 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:17.599 Wyoming stole the body. Stole the body from the 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:19.579 mortuary. The story goes that they came down 00:26:19.579 --> 00:26:21.740 to Denver, swapped the body with a drifter or 00:26:21.740 --> 00:26:24.640 just a lookalike corpse, and took the real Buffalo 00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:27.539 Bill back to Wyoming, burying him on Cedar Mountain. 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:29.660 That sounds like a conspiracy theory. A local 00:26:29.660 --> 00:26:32.519 legend. It likely is. Historians are pretty sure 00:26:32.519 --> 00:26:35.299 he is in Colorado. But the threat was taken seriously 00:26:35.299 --> 00:26:38.700 enough that in 1948... Wait, 1948? That's more 00:26:38.700 --> 00:26:42.339 than 30 years after he died. Yes. In 1948, the 00:26:42.339 --> 00:26:44.940 American Legion in Denver had to mount an armed 00:26:44.940 --> 00:26:47.079 guard over the grave because there were renewed 00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:49.480 threats from Wyoming to steal the body. They 00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:51.420 had to guard the grave with guns. That is the 00:26:51.420 --> 00:26:53.480 power of the icon. Everyone wanted to claim the 00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:55.619 legend. He was a tourist attraction even in the 00:26:55.619 --> 00:26:58.779 grave. So, as we wrap this up, what does this 00:26:58.779 --> 00:27:01.839 all mean? We have looked at the violence, the 00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:05.059 showmanship, the progressive politics, the messy 00:27:05.059 --> 00:27:07.720 marriage. What's the takeaway? I think Buffalo 00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:10.180 Bill is the bridge. He is the bridge between 00:27:10.180 --> 00:27:12.900 the real, violent, dirty reality of the frontier 00:27:12.900 --> 00:27:16.140 and the Hollywood version we know today. He lived 00:27:16.140 --> 00:27:18.099 the history and then he turned it into a sculpt. 00:27:18.299 --> 00:27:20.579 He was the scout who became the showman. The 00:27:20.579 --> 00:27:22.579 bison hunter who became the conservationist. 00:27:22.660 --> 00:27:24.500 And his legacy is everywhere. I mean, you have 00:27:24.500 --> 00:27:26.680 the NFL team, the Buffalo Bills. You have the 00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:29.539 character in Silence of the Lambs. A dark twist 00:27:29.539 --> 00:27:32.190 on the name. Even Bubba Lo Bill ice cream in 00:27:32.190 --> 00:27:34.609 Australia, he is baked into the cultural DNA 00:27:34.609 --> 00:27:37.109 of the West. There's one final detail in the 00:27:37.109 --> 00:27:39.130 source material that I found really provocative. 00:27:39.430 --> 00:27:41.970 It says that on his deathbed, he was baptized 00:27:41.970 --> 00:27:45.009 Catholic. It's true. After a life of being a 00:27:45.009 --> 00:27:47.490 Freemason, a life of violence, a life of performing, 00:27:47.589 --> 00:27:50.690 in his final hours, he sought that ritual. Was 00:27:50.690 --> 00:27:53.430 it one final attempt to rewrite his own narrative? 00:27:53.829 --> 00:27:57.029 Or was it a genuine search for peace after a 00:27:57.029 --> 00:28:00.309 life of noise? We will never know. But it adds 00:28:00.309 --> 00:28:03.769 one last layer of mystery to the man. And ultimately, 00:28:03.890 --> 00:28:06.089 I guess the question for you listening is this. 00:28:06.509 --> 00:28:09.849 Does it matter if the Wild West was real? Or 00:28:09.849 --> 00:28:12.410 is the version Buffalo Bill created, the one 00:28:12.410 --> 00:28:15.349 of heroes and drama and spectacle, the only one 00:28:15.349 --> 00:28:17.009 that really matters because it's the one we remember? 00:28:17.269 --> 00:28:19.390 That is the power of the showman. Thanks for 00:28:19.390 --> 00:28:20.670 diving in with us. See you next time.