Buffalo Bill and the Myth of the Wild West

“Wild painted Red Indians from America, on their wild bare backed horses, of different tribes—cowboys, Mexicans &c., all came tearing around at full speed, shrieking and screaming, which had the weirdest effect. An attack on a coach & on a ranch, with an immense deal of firing, was most exciting, so was the buffalo hunt & the bucking ponies. . . .The cowboys are fine looking people, but the painted Indians, with their feathers and wild dress (very little of it) were rather alarming looking & they have cruel faces. . . .Col. Cody, ‘Buffalo Bill’ as he is called, from having killed 3000 buffaloes, with his own hand, is a splendid man, handsome and gentlemanlike in manner. He has had many encounters & hand to hand fights with the Red Indians. Their war dances, to a wild drum and pipe, was quite fearful, with all their contorsions [sic] and shrieks, & they come so close.”  Queen Victoria describing the thrill of seeing the Wild West show.

Queen Victoria attended twice and at the first performance, the Queen bowed when a cowboy rode into the ring holding an American flag - highly symbolic given that this was the first time since the War of Independence that a British ruler had honoured the stars and stripes.

Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill

The highlight of the Wild West Show was a re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand, though some sources claim that Buffalo Bill played Custer in the show, others state that the part of Custer was played by various performers, while Cody would ride in to avenge the death of Custer - 'The first scalp for Custer.' He would yell from the back of his trademark white horse. This is partly based on truth for it was Cody who had killed and scalped the Indian, Yellow Hair and although it seems unlikely it was generally believed for many years that it had been Yellow Hair who had killed Custer at the Little Big Horn.

Though in truth no one knows who actually killed Custer, indeed the Indians would not have recognized him since he had been out of uniform, wearing buckskins at the battle and his famous flowing locks had been cropped short to hide encroaching baldness.

What is known that on 25th June 1876, General Custer led 210 men of America's elite 7th Calvary into battle near the Little Big Horn in what is present day Montana and confronted thousands of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. The Calvary were wiped out, but  Custer, realizing the situation was hopeless,  may have even killed himself once he saw the battle was lost. He had suffered two bullet shots - one in the heart and one in the head.

Still, why let the truth get in the way of a good story....

Buffalo Bill dead

I've been going through old newspaper articles recently collecting material for a forthcoming book that looks at Cardiff during the Great War of 1914 - 1918, and I came across this article from a January 1917 issue of the South Wales Echo that reports on the death of Buffalo Bill AKA William Cody.

Cody died of liver failure on Jan 10th 1917, just a few months before his beloved America would enter the First World War.

As a writer of western novels I found the article particularly interesting and I know many readers of this blog are also interested in the western in both fact and fiction. And so I've scanned the image and posted it here - click on the image for a larger and easier to read article.

Buffalo Bill in the flesh and Custer's last stand

The video embedded below,which was filmed by the Edison Company in 1894 features some incredible footage of actual Old West icons including Buffalo Bill. And below that we have the complete Battlefield Detective documentary looking at Custer's Last Stand.

Jack's adventures in The Wild West

I've always been fascinated by anything to do with the history of the American West and the myth that has developed alongside the real historical fact. Indeed in many ways the myth of the time often eclipse the facts in people's minds. People like Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Buffalo Bill and old Jesse James have had more lies and half truths written about them than  firm documented evidence.

No wonder though - because the West was being mythologised even while it was happening.

A man that created much of how we perceive the Wild West was Buffalo Bill Cody with his extravagant Wild West Shows which brought the legends of the frontier to audiences around the world. I've had a long and lasting interest in Cody and think I understand the kind of man he was and it is never far from my mind that before he was a showman, a performer he was an actual living Wild West Legend.

Click to Buy

Which was why using Cody in a novel appealed to me - I'd previously written two best-selling westerns for Robert Hale under the Jack Martin name, but this was not a western, or least not a traditional western. In truth it's a hybrid of the historical crime thriller and the western. Which is why I used my own name rather than my now established Jack Martin identity.

Jack Martin will remain with the traditional westerns, while his other self Gary Dobbs pens, for his sins, the Frank Parade crime series.

 Right off I knew didn't want to present Buffalo Bill with the primitive frontier as a backdrop, I wanted to show him almost as a fish out if water, though in truth Cody was never truly out of place, no matter where he was.

The result was my novel, A Policeman's Lot which saw Cody in industrial South Wales and as well as Western legends I also played around with  an equally mythical character, Jack the Ripper. For both of these men have had more lies written about them than fact and indeed in the case of Jack the Ripper we don't even know if he was, in fact, a she. Or indeed if there truly was a Jack the Ripper - I mean this in the sense of a serial killer roaming the dark streets of Victorian London.

Into the mix comes a no-nonsense Welsh copper, Inspector Frank Parade, who with both Cody's help and hindrance uncovers a trail that leads back to the infamous Whitechapel murders of sixteen years earlier.


I think the result is a thrilling read and quite unique in the answer it throws up for the Ripper killings - the reviews have been positive and the eBook is out there now, in most formats to be read on your eReader or even computer screen. Buy from Amazon and get the book on your Kindle or computer in less than a minute.

The UK price is only £3.62
The American $5.74


Below is one of the reviews posted on Amazon:

It was no surprise that I would like this book. The author had previously entertained me with two fine westerns(as Jack Martin).

Inspector Frank Parade of the Welsh town of Pontypridd heads a two man police force that is busy enough. When Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show arrives with it's five hundred performers and eight hundred livestock, never mind the thousands attending the shows, things get a lot worse.

Then the murders start up, involving a sixteen year old series of unexplained deaths. Throw in a thief, once arrested by Parade, who had threatened his life and had escaped prison by murdering a guard, a number of home break-ins, and superiors who want a fast, easy solution, and you have a fast moving novel that doesn't let up until the end.

And what an end.

The author uses Parade and Buffalo Bill to offer his own unique solution to the greatest unsolved serial killer mystery in history. RANDY JOHNSON - FIVE STAR REVIEW

JACK THE RIPPER, BUFFALO BILL AND FRANK PARADE - EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK!!!

THEY SAID: 

"Fascinating concept, setting, and characters. Set in Wales during Buffalo Bill’s 1903/1904 tour of the United Kingdom, the story begins with Inspector Frank Parade carrying out his daily duties in the town of Pontypridd, duties complicated by the unprecedented presence of 500 members of Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show encamped outside the town, not to mention the thousands attending the show every day. A series of depraved murders quickly makes things even more complicated. Buffalo Bill stands squarely in his path when Parade tries to investigate the likely possibility that one of the hundreds of show members is involved. And soon enough Parade’s own superiors are blocking his inquires, too. Still more deaths occur as Parade sifts through the thin evidence available and finds a trail that may lead to the perpetrator of the most heinous crime of the 19^th Century—London’s “Ripper” murders. Before the story is done, Parade develops a dramatic theory that may solve the Ripper mystery, as well as the murders he faces in idyllic Pontypridd. The story itself is wonderful—clever and intense. IT'S 1904 SOUTH WALES AND THE MOST INFAMOUS MURDERS IN HISTORY ARE ABOUT TO BE SOLVED BY A WELSH COPPER AND AN AMERICAN ICON."



"About the Ripper connection I'll only say that it fits nicely into the story and has enough fact to make it a credible plot line. It also lets us see Parade performing good, solid police investigation. I checked some of the Ripper forums after I finished the book and was astonished at the passion with which the case is studied.

A Policeman's Lot is an entertaining story that brings together one of the last icons of the American West, a look at British police work while the force was still in its infancy, and one of the most widely known murder cases in history. I highly recommend it to readers who enjoy historical crime fiction and police procedurals. " MACK CAPTURES CRIME


"It was no surprise that I would like this book. The author had previously entertained me with two fine westerns(as Jack Martin). Inspector Frank Parade of the Welsh town of Pontypridd heads a two man police force that is busy enough. When Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show arrives with it's five hundred performers and eight hundred livestock, never mind the thousands attending the shows, things get a lot worse.

Then the murders start up, involving a sixteen year old series of unexplained deaths. Throw in a thief, once arrested by Parade, who had threatened his life and had escaped prison by murdering a guard, a number of home break-ins, and superiors who want a fast, easy solution, and you have a fast moving novel that doesn't let up until the end.

And what an end.  The author uses Parade and Buffalo Bill to offer his own unique solution to the greatest unsolved serial killer mystery in history. " Randy Johnson

"This tightly plotted and cleverly conceived crime fiction novel is set in the Welsh town of Pontypridd in 1904. Our central character is police inspector Frank Parade, who on a normal day has his hands more than full. Parade's job gets even more complicated when Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show comes to town. There is Bill Cody, larger than life, and not all that cooperative, especially as one of his employees turns up with his throat slit. And thus begins a murder investigation that generates a slag heap of difficulties for Inspector Parade and produces a string of corpses.

Dobbs has done his research and packs a lot into his novel. We become immersed in a time and place on the cusp of the twentieth century. Old methods of law enforcement are yielding with the introduction of new technologies. Economic changes create new problems and social pressures.

And there's the entertaining collision of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with turn of the last century, coal-mining Wales. Cowboys and Indians wander through some of the scenes, and Bill Cody himself figures into the plot at key points. Well drawn, he is a self-important presence used to being regarded as a living legend. Meanwhile, Inspector Parade is a thoroughly enjoyable creation. Happy he is when he's on duty, which is nearly all the time. Such is a policeman's lot." Ronald Scheer

The book has been praised on Good Reads and Smashwords and is surprising people with it's new and unique take on the Jack the Ripper legend. To buy the book click HERE or click on the cover image above. Go on join the eBook revolution and buy the book - if you don't have a Kindle or other reader device a free AP will download with the book that will allow it to be read on your computer screen.

The long and winding Parade 8 - Buffalo Bill

Next month will see the digital publication of my novel, A Policeman's Lot from Solstice Publishing - I'm very excited to see this book finally in print and hope that readers everywhere will enjoy it. The book will also be available later in a print format.

The book is set in my own stamping ground of Pontypridd during the year 1904 - in those days Ponty, as we locals call it, was a busy industrial town that sat below both the coal rich Cynon and Rhondda Valleys. Writing the book involved months and months of research and not only into the Welsh past but also into a true American legend - one Buffalo Bill Cody.

Cody was born in Iowa territory in 1846 and died in 1917. At the time of his death he was probably one of the most famous men in the world - the problem was how to characterise him.

I tried all ways to bring him to life, to get his speech patterns, his mannerisms and all the little foibles. After reading the first draft I found his character alternated between being the straightforward sharp shooting frontier hero and a flash and pushy showman. I read scores of books on the subject - incidentally I would recommend The Colonel and Little Missie by Larry McMurtry as the definitive study of Cody as showman.

Still I couldn't get Cody right - I wanted the showman but I also wanted a noble man of principles. I didn't want him to be too much of one thing; I wanted a man of contradictions. And then one day I stumbled across the Clint Eastwood movie, Bronco Billy and I immediately saw my Buffalo Bill - there he was, on the screen. And so my Buffalo Bill is an amalgamation of frontier hero, sharpshooting ladies man and Clint Eastwood.

I was painfully aware that I was writing about real people in a fictional setting - these were people who actually lived, breathed and had all the human strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to reflect that in my characterisation of the great man.

The picture of Cody (left) is from 1903 - a year before the novel starts so I had some good photographic pointers as to his physical look. But the man beneath the skin was harder to get to. I hope however that I've done the man justice and that when the book hits the shelves, iPad's, Kindle's. Nooks, PC's, Macs, Sony's and so on, that maybe some readers will want to find out more about the great man.

Next, I'll tell you something about Police Inspector Frank Parade

THE LONG AND WINDING PARADE 2

Think you know the Jack the Ripper story?


Think again!





1904, South Wales and the most gruesome series of murders in history are about to be solved by a Welsh copper and an American Legend.


SOON -In eBook format from Solstice ...keep an eye on The Archive for further details.




This book has gone through the mill to get here - numerous rewrites, being picked up and then dropped by a publisher, being picked up by another who then ceased trading at the eleventh hour. And now I am especially pleased to have found another publisher - they are a new publishing house who fully intend to take the eBook market by storm. And believe me they're the business.

By the time the book is out there it will be almost two years ago since I wrote the opening words, and during that time I have seen it grow and develop into something, I believe, will entertain and thrill anyone who picks it up - something I am immensely proud of.

In the months leading up to the publication I will be posting several articles about the writing of this work - some anecdotes from my visit to London's Whitechapel, a few details of the visit I did to the local coroner, some interesting facts of history that I discovered during the research for this project and the great story of a Welshman I met with a very real connection to Buffalo Bill and the Wild West Circus - his grandfather, a true Native American remained behind when Buffalo Bills' Circus visited in 1904.

Anyway I hope you will allow me the indulgence of these articles - after all, it's not as if I won't be posting all the news, features and interviews that The Archive is gaining a reputation for.

So in best Western-Welsh fashion, It's high noon, boyo!

Buffalo Bill congressional medal owner

Yep, it’s true. He is by every definition of the word, a civilian contractor and he is a Medal of Honor recipient. Matter of fact, he, along with several other famous wild west legends were contractors as well. Men like Robert Denbow, David L. Payne, and Wild Bill Hickok were all civilian Scouts hired by the US Army to hunt and kill Indians during that long war for the west. Not to mention the hundreds of Indians hired by the US Army to be Scouts. What they paid these guys back then was interesting too. Cody was getting paid I believe 5 dollars a day, versus 12 dollars a month for the enlisted man in the Army. (sound familiar?) FULL STORY

It's Buffalo Bill, boyo!

I've been working on a crime novel set in industrial South Wales during 1903 when Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show visited the area. The book has needed a tremendous amount of research and is now nearing the last quarter of its first draft. Knowing of the project, a good Friend of mine (thank you, Steve) found this cutting in the Western Mail which details a visit by the circus to Cardiff in 1891.

It's an interesting piece and from it we learn that on the last Saturday afternoon performance in Cardiff there were over 17,000 paid admissions and that the total attendance for the week had numbered some 200,000 people. It is also claimed that out of the 200, 000 paid visitors over 16,000 were strangers to the town.

Cardiff tradesmen reaped a considerable harvest during the time the show was in town and at the main restaurant in the town over 15,000 meals were served during the week.


Cody said of Cardiff - 'the town had afforded the most surprising patronage of any town in provincial Great Britain. I never saw so much evidence of thrift and well-being in any city on this side of the water.'

It's a pity old Buff Bill couldn't visit the town today - he'd feel especially at home in nearby Pontypridd which resembles the Wild West - especially on a Saturday night with all the brawling on the streets.

WILD BUNCH WEDNESDAY WEEK FOUR

OK - this week myself and the other authors (links at bottom of post) are posting extracts from pretty much whatever we want. The previous three weeks themes have been set but this time head honcho, Joanne Walpole has left it up to the writers involved to select whatever extract they want to post.

So far I've given you a bit of Tarnished Star as well as my forthcoming hardback, Arkansas Smith. However this time I'm going to take a leap forward and post a snippet from High Noon Boyo - my current work in progress which is not a western but a historical crime. It's set in South Wales in 1903 and concerns events that happen around the visit of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Circus. The book is three quarters complete in first draft form and I like it because I am able to play around with western conventions in a non western setting. The research into William Cody's actual visit has been great fun and has led me to meet a man who is a descendant of one of the Native Americans who remained behind in Wales when the circus moved on. And so I dedicate this snippet to Lone Wolf Evans.

The scene here is the aftermath of a cattle stampede in the industrial Welsh town.

‘Like in the cowboy books.’ Davies said. This was just too much for the young constable and in his eyes Cody seemed to have a golden aura surrounding him, like a god walking amongst them.

Cody brought his magnificent white horse up alongside the policeman and he removed his sombrero and waved it about above his head in a theatrical gesture. The Indian rolled his eyes and rode past keeping the cattle moving forward.

‘Where do you want these walking steaks?’ Cody asked.

Dumbfounded, speechless, Parade pointed towards the stockyard entrance.

‘It is my great pleasure.’ Cody said and spurred his horse forward. The creature circled the cattle for a moment and then came to a perfect stop and stood facing the cattle, the horse held its head high and then reared up on its hind legs before trotting on its master’s command towards the cattle.

‘Get them in, Chief.’ Cody shouted to the Indian who nodded his understanding and drove the cattle in through the gates and past the two drovers who were pushed back against the wall, eyes full of awe as they stared up at the red man on horseback. With the sun behind him the Indian’s eyes seemed to glow like those of a cat in the shadows of his face.

Cody watched the last of the cattle go into the yard and then he dismounted and walked his horse back to the two policemen.

‘The livestock are secure.’ Cody said and bowed to the two policemen. He looked around and smiled with satisfaction when he noticed the crowd that had gathered to watch the rather unusual event. No doubt he was thinking of the increased ticket sales that this incident would inevitably provoke. This had been better than any publicity stunt he could have dreamed up and for a brief moment the Wild West had come to the grey environs of industrial South Wales.

For other Wild Bunch antics go here.

Terry James

Jack Giles

Lance Howard

Ian Parnham

Tonight on the Archive we have the scoop on the new Black Horse Extra as well as some news on the new Misfit Lil Paperback.

AMERICA'S FIRST SUPERSTAR - It's High Noon, Boyo!

Buffalo Bill Cody largely invented the American West as we think of it today.

Over 70 million people worldwide saw his Wild West Show which presented an idealised view of the West that has endured to this day. Indeed by the dawn of the 20th century already over a million words had been written about him. Many have sought to debunk his myth, saying he was nothing but a showman, a charlatan - True, he was all of these things but the facts are that he was also a true Westerner, a frontiersman and he really had faced grave danger in his younger years.

"Presently the moon rose, dead ahead of me; and painted boldly across its face was the figure of an Indian. He wore the war-bonnet of the Sioux, at his shoulder was a rifle pointed at someone in the river-bottom 30 feet below; in another second he would drop one of my friends. I raised my old muzzle-loader and fired. The figure collapsed, tumbled down the bank and landed with a splash in the water. 'What is it?' called McCarthy, as he hurried back. 'It's over there in the water,' I answered. McCarthy ran over to the dark figure. 'Hi!' he cried. 'Little Billy's killed an Indian all by himself!' So began my career as an Indian fighter."

Buffalo Bill Cody

Author Larry McMurtry in his excellent book The Colonel and Little Missie looks at The Buffalo Bill legend from the angle of his superstardom. Indeed the book is subtitled: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley and the Beginnings of superstardom in America. And I'd highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the legendary Wild West Show.

In 1903 The WIld West Circus visited South Wales - I find this incredible. Here I am living as far away from the West as you can imagine, surrounding by coal scarred mountains that are a constant reminder of the once thriving coal industry - indeed in 1904 over 57 million tons of coal were sent out from the Rhondda Valleys to be shipped out around the world. And once, long ago, a true legend of the American West walked on this Welsh ground - I find that incredible. What must it have been like to suddenly have this colourful exhibition playing amongst the greyness of early 20th century Wales?

Here is a list of the Welsh towns that hosted the Wild West shows:

Aberdare - July 4th 1903 Aberystwyth - May 7th 1904 Bangor - May 29th 1903 Barry Dock - May 19th 1904 Bridgend - May 18th 1904 Builth Wells - May 12th 1904 Cardiff - September 20th-26th 1891, July 6th-11th 1903 and May 20th-21st 1904 Carmarthen - May 13th 1904 Caernarfon - May 4th 1904 Dolgellau - May 6th 1904 Ebbw Vale - 1903 Holyhead - May 3rd 1904 Llandudno - May 2nd 1904 Llanelli - July 13th 1903 and May 16th 1904 Neath - May 17th 1904 Oswestry - May 11th 1904 Pembroke Dock - May 14th 1904 Porthmadoc - May 5th 1904 Rhyl - May 27th 1903 Ruabon - May 29th 1903 Swansea - July 14th-15th 1903

But Cody took his Show around the world - he was friends of Royality - Queen Victoria was especially taken by this handsome man who seemed to respresent all the virtues of manhood - courage, strength and integrity. And a lot of it was down to image building and his presentation of himself and his show to an audience that lapped up the spectacle.

But despite all the showmanship and the exaggeration of true events the fact remains that Buffalo Bill was a genuine American Hero. He'd scouted for Custer, lived with Indians and sent more than one bad man to the grave. He was also highly thought of by his friend General Sheridan. Now these men couldn't be fooled so no matter what the critics say about Cody it is worth remembering that he'd actually lived the events depicted in his Outlandish Wild West Show.