CODY (WILLIAM FREDERICK 'BUFFALO BILL')
Group pertaining to the theft and recovery of jewels belonging to William Cody at Dudley, West Midlands, comprising: autograph letter signed ('Your friend/ W.F. Cody') to Walter Noel Greenwell ('My dear Noel'), confirming he has the jewels and the thief ('...the Detectives used your photograph to identify him. Although Mr Decker my secretary caught him. I think you are going to be a great artist...'), and remembering him to his mother, one page on a bifolium, gilt embossed headed paper depicting a buffalo, creased, light dust-staining, 8vo (182 x 114mm.), T.E. Ranch, Olympia, London, W., 22 June [19]03; with autograph letter signed by Cody's mistress ('Besse Isbell/ Buffalo Bill's Wild West') to Greenwell, regarding the '...picture of Col. Cody, the tent boy and myself...', hoping he has not destroyed the plate and emphatically saying '...We need a picture of that tent boy very very much – and as soon as possible...', four pages on a bifolium, gilt embossed headed paper depicting a buffalo creased, light dust-staining, 8vo (182 x 114mm.), Dudley, 17 June [1903]; a bromide photograph depicting Colonel Cody in stage costume, seated next to Besse Isbell and William Puzey standing outside a tent, 95 x 70mm., mounted on card 165 x 120mm., some surface abrasions, mount torn and scuffed, [Parade Ground, Dudley, 17 June 1903]; with two press cuttings roughly torn from the Dudley Herald describing the theft and Puzey's trial (5)
Footnotes:
'WE NEED A PICTURE OF THAT TENT BOY VERY VERY MUCH': A YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER HELPS APPREHEND BUFFALO BILL'S JEWEL THIEF.

Buffalo Bill's spectacular Wild West Show toured extensively throughout Great Britain from December 1902 to October 1903. In June 1903 the show stopped at the Parade Ground in Dudley where he was visited in camp by a young Walter Noel Greenwell. Colonel Cody agreed that Greenwell could take his photograph, and posed alongside his assistant (and mistress) Besse Isbell and his valet William Puzey, aged 21. The following week, on 17 June 1903, it was discovered that a large quantity of Cody's jewellery had been stolen during a performance. The valet, who had also disappeared, was the obvious prime suspect: '...valued at between £500 and £600... A valet, who had access to the box in which the valuables were kept, is suspected... The articles stolen include a diamond studded pin, given to Colonel Cody by the King when he visited the Wild West Show at Olympia; a double gold rope chain, a diamond horseshoe pendant with seven stones... buffalo-head cufflinks, given by the Grand Duke of Alexis of Russia [for whom he had guided a buffalo and hunting party] and about £4 in gold...' (Dudley Herald). A report of the trial from the same newspaper describes the jewels in more detail and notes that Cody entrusted them to Puzey to put in his trunk whilst he went into the ring. On discovering the theft, Besse Isbell immediately wrote to Greenwell asking if he still had the plate negative and according to an annotation on one of the press cuttings 'Noel took photo to Colonel Cody June 18th/03'. As a result the police were able identify Puzey and he was apprehended by Louis Edward Decker, Cody's manager and brother-in-law at an address in Radcliffe Gardens, South Kensington at 10.30am on 20 June. All the jewels were recovered and after admitting the theft ('...The stuff was no good to me, and I was going to send the lot back to the colonel...'), Puzey was tried at a court in Dudley and sentenced to six months imprisonment.

Besse or Bessie Isbell (b.1872) of Washington DC began to travel with Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1900, initially to help publicise Helen Cody Westmore's book Last of the Great Scouts and then as a press agent for the show. The Billboard described her as '...a cattle queen at home, [who] owns the next ranch to Buffalo Bill, at Cody, Wyoming...' (11 May 1901). She was one of several women cited in Cody's divorce proceedings in 1905. The letters and photograph have been in the Greenwell family until recently.

Letters - old horizontal fold to each, light paper toning

Photograph - light abrasions to both image and mount

Cuttings - tipped onto modern card mounts