Read The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley Online

Authors: Glenda Riley

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Women, #History, #United States, #19th Century, #test

The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley (16 page)

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In 1904, the year the trials began, Annie said that she had no choice. "The only thing left for a person who is slandered in the press in the north is to sue for money." She added that in the South, "They do things differently and simply kill the man who slanders the good name of a woman." Annie also emphasized the importance of Frank's encouragement in her decision. According to her, he had said, "Well, I am able to earn our living if necessary and we will spend what we have to get you justice."

Throughout the trials, an overwhelming number of Annie's fans, friends, sporting journal writers, shooters, and other supporters sent her clippings and wrote letters of support. According to one 1904 observer, Annie had borne up like a "little heroine," with the knowledge that she had the "heartfelt sympathy and confidence of her hundreds of friends in all parts of the country." He added a widely felt sentiment: "Were Miss Oakley to receive a million dollars from her traducers, it would not repay her for the torture and anguish of mind and body she has suffered."

Some of Annie's supporters even took the witness stand on her behalf. Annie too testified, and given her penchant for honesty, she must have regretted changing her age, a deception that required a minor perjury on the witness stand. In 1904, Annie testified that she was thirty-eight, although she was actually forty-four.

In every other way, Oakley proved herself a highly creditable witness. As in the arena, she carefully orchestrated her appearance and impact. She wore small diamond earrings and her hair tinted gray. On one occasion, Annie appeared in a black dress with white cuffs and a bit of red velvet around the collar. Another morning Annie appeared in court in a dark suit, a black hat, and a long black veil that she drew back when she took the witness stand. Most observers remarked favorably on Oakley's courtroom appearances, admiring her "well modulated and low" voice. Jurors seemed charmed as well, leaning forward to hear her describe her life and career in a manner that one observer described as "polished courtesy."

Some defense attorneys also treated Oakley with respect, but others stooped to any ploy to discredit her. Some accused Annie of wanting notoriety, others of seeking money. A few tried to

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make her past sound as seamy as possible. Court records reveal that a lawyer in Scranton, Pennsylvania, told a twelve-man jury that Annie not only had traveled with the notorious Buffalo Bill but also had been "the companion of red men for seventeen years" and turned handsprings as she finished "her stunt before the people."

In the face of such attacks, Oakley demonstrated aplomb. When the Scranton lawyer stated, "You're the woman who used to shoot out here and run along and turn head over heels, allowing your skirts to fall, and you wore buckskin leggings," she shot back, "I beg your pardon, you're wrong." She explained that she had never worn buckskin leggings, or allowed her "skirts to fall," or showed immodesty in any way. Another day she reportedly subdued a lawyer who asked her to define education. "It is,'' Annie said, "a very good thing when backed by common sense, and a very bad thing in the head of a cheap lawyer.''

During a trial in Charleston, South Carolina, probably in 1906, Oakley finally became provoked by such statements. She attacked the defense attorneys in a statement to the jury. "If the gentlemen who fought for South Carolina during the Civil War conducted their defense with as much cowardice as the defense has been conducted against one little woman in this suit, I don't wonder that they received such a sound thrashing." She then announced her decision to turn around and walk out of the courtroom immediately. "[This will] give one or all of you gentlemen who are such gallant defenders of woman's honor a chance to further your cowardice by shooting me in the back if you so chose."

Oakley's niece Anna Fern Campbell Swartwout, who traveled with Annie during many of the trials, remembered the agony Annie suffered. According to Fern, before a trial date, Annie would "often fast and pray for days" because she believed "her mind was clearer when she got on the witness stand." Annie herself said, "[I] prayed to God every day to only spare my reason so as to let me clear myself of this." Although Annie was despondent because she felt that the affair both aged her and incurred expenses beyond her means, she swore she would keep on until the end.

As it turned out, the end was a long time in coming. Some-

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times, court actions dragged on because Oakley's attorneys asked a court to set aside, on the basis of technicalities, verdicts that involved especially small amounts of money. A new trial would follow, so that some of the suits were heard two or even three times. An example occurred in the cases of
Butler v. Evening Post Publishing Company
and
Butler v. News & Courier Company
, heard in the Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth District, in November 1906. In this instance, the court combined the two cases to "avoid waste of time and unnecessary expense." The plaintiff asked the court to set aside, on the basis of technicalities, the original judgments for the defendants. To Annie's satisfaction, the court honored her request and remanded both cases for new hearings.

In other cases, defendants caused delays by resisting the settlements that juries awarded. In November 1905, the jury that heard
Butler v. Every Evening Printing Company
in the Delaware Circuit Court awarded Oakley thirty-six hundred dollars and court costs. The defendant asked the court to set the verdict aside, partially because of the "excessive" sum involved. After additional hearings, the court upheld the original judgment on the basis of other similar cases in which juries decreed larger awards even though "the libel was not more gross or injurious than that in question." In May of the following year, when the Every Evening Printing Company also asked for a revised decision on the basis of technicalities, once again the court upheld the original judgment.

Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst carried his defense one step further. In 1906, he sent a detective to Greenville to investigate Oakley's background and find some tidbit that Hearst could use to quiet her in the courtroom. Overall, the detective succeeded in doing little except annoying the citizens of Greenville. An outraged Greenville editor called the possibility that Annie had any dirt in her history "absurd" and labeled Hearst's investigation "a base libel" against the county's favorite daughter.

After the bulk of the trials ended in 1910, Annie had little more to say publicly about her ordeal. She was presumably exhausted, wrung out from warm support on the one hand and bitter attacks on the other. Frank, however, in a short article titled "Annie Oakley's Vindication" and released from their home base at a New York City hotel, breathed an almost palpable sigh of relief. Annie,

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he wrote, had appeared in courts in nearly every state in the Union. She had sued fifty-five papers and either won or settled with fifty-four of them. Most verdicts favored her, although courts sometimes reduced the amount decreed by the jury in the original verdict. Some of these cases Annie had fought up to the Supreme Court. "The general impression is that she made a lot of money out of these suits," Butler remarked. He added that if Annie had indeed made "a bundle," they would have contributed every dollar above her expenses and lost earnings to charity. Annie, he insisted, did not seek money. She wanted vindication.

Still, people generally believed that Annie had profited. An opposing lawyer estimated that Oakley received a quarter of a million dollars; Annie's niece Fern put it closer to $800,000. But no one seemed to take into account the costs involved. When the hurtful article appeared in 1903, Annie had been about to open in Langdon McCormick's new play
Out of the Fold
. She forfeited that income as well as money from the matches she could have shot had she not been in court. In addition, Frank Butler and his brother Will spent a good deal of time investigating details and collecting documentation.

Also, the amounts awarded Annie were seldom large. Her largest award, $27,500, came from William Randolph Hearst. Another sizable one, $20,000, came from the
St. Louis Star
. Others typically fell under $5,000. In Oakley's suit against a Topeka newspaper, the court awarded damages of only $1,000, although the jury had ruled for a much larger amount.

Rather than a large monetary return, Annie seems to have garnered a psychological reward. She was back in control, even though she had gambled her entire life and career. Had Annie failed in her quest for what she regarded as justice, she might have never worked again. Her place in history might have been that of a money-hungry, vindictive ex-star. The newspaper reporters who had helped build Oakley's career and had contributed plaudit after plaudit might have consigned her to infamy or have forgotten her entirely.

As it was, Annie not only won most of the cases but also won back the favor of most newspaper reporters. Fortunately for her, even those affected by court judgments upheld her cause. Some

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went so far as to suggest that reporter Ernest Stout had been taking dope when he wrote the original story. When the trials dragged to an end, most reporters resumed attending Annie's matches and exhibitions and reviewing them with the usual enthusiasm. A few years after the
Hoboken Observer
paid out $3,000 to Oakley, one of its reporters sent her a favorable clipping accompanied by a note. "Although you dug into us for three thousand 'Iron Men' at a time when three thousand was a large sum with usyou see we still love you."

The home folks in Greenville also continued to praise their favorite daughter. In a county history published shortly after the trials ended, one of them called Annie the "frail little woman" who expended $90,000 and a lot of grit to fight some of the most prominent newspapers and "brainy men" in the country. Oakley won, he concluded, an almost unanimous verdict in justification of her outstanding and unblemished character. Family members also sided with her; according to Annie's descendant Beatrice Blakely Hunt, they believed that Annie sued not to make money but to protect her good name.

During the prime trial years, 1904 to 1909, Frank continued to work for the Union Metallic Cartridge Company to support himself and Annie and pay for the cost of litigation. Butler spent most of his time on the road for UMC, taking part in matches and setting up a canvas tent and a table with UMC advertising and gifts, such as Annie Oakley pins and UMC flags. Although early in his time with Annie, Frank had admitted that he would never outshoot Annieor many others eitherhe now proved himself a competent shooter. When Frank first joined UMC in 1901, he shot so well in a match that one observer quipped, "He [Frank] must be working for a promotion from the way he is pulverizing his targets lately." Then in May 1903, Frank shot in a match at the West Branch Road and Gun Club in Pennsylvania and tied for second place with the state champion.

Frank also served in other capacities at matches. In a 1903 match at Wilkes-Barre, Frank, representing UMC, acted as squad judge in the live bird events. One source reported, "[Butler's] reputation is so wide that it would be needless to say more than he

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pleased every man who went to the trap for the fairness he displayed." Clearly, people loved Frank. Sometimes his reputation even overshadowed that of Annie during these years. A 1903 announcement stated that Frank Butler had arrived in town to participate in a match and that his wife, "who was Annie Oakley, formerly with the 'Buffalo Bill' show," might shoot as well. The following year, a similar notice reported, "[The] only Frank Butler is with us.'' In 1906 alone, Frank shot a remarkable total of two hundred matches.

While on the road, Frank made a number of new friends. Sometime during the trial years, Butler met comedian Fred Stone, who had also traveled with a circus at one time and then in 1895 had gone on the stage with his partner, Dave Montgomery. Later, Stone would play the scarecrow and Montgomery the tin-man in
The Wizard of Oz
. In 1907, Stone hunted with Butler, who turned him into a trap-shooter. Fred soon built three traps on his Long Island farm and invited Frank and Annie to visit, and to tutor, him. A lifelong friendship developed among Fred Stone, his actress wife, Allene Crater Stone, Frank, and Annie, a friendship that proved to be an unexpected benefit the Butlers accrued from Frank's time as a traveling representative for UMC.

Over the years, match shooting provided both benefits and difficulties for Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Still, they maintained the energy and enthusiasm to stage in addition a large number of exhibitions, especially during the 1890s and early 1900s. Like match shooting, exhibition shooting required agility and coordination, but it tended to be a more individual matter that called for great endurance. Rather than shooting in selected events, competing against other shooters or sometimes with other shooters, Annie alone carried an exhibition. Her typical program, which demanded both concentration and speed, included shooting coins tossed in the air, firing in rapid succession at small bull's-eyes, splitting a playing card held edgewise, sighting in a table knife to shoot objects behind her, hitting five targets thrown up at one time, clipping off with a repeating rifle piece after piece from a potato held on a stick, snuffing out cigars held in an assistant's fingers, and smashing marbles so small that only puffs of white dust gave evidence of their destruction.

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