Facts to keep in mind:
The Wild Bunch core members consisted of Butch Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker), the Sundance Kid (Harry Longabaugh), Elzy Lay, Ben "the Tall Texan" Kirkpatrick, Will "News" Carver, Camila "Deaf Charlie" Hanks, Laura Bullion, George "Flat Nose" Curry, Kid Curry (Harvey Logan), and Bob Meeks.
The Outlaw Hideouts: Places to shelter strung out along the outlaw trail where different gangs could rest, restock ammunition, and refresh horses. Place such as Hole-in-the-Wall, Robbers Roost, and Brown's Park. Often there was a give and take between the outlaws and the surrounding ranchers.
In case you missed part one here's the link: https://prairierosepublications.blogspot.com/2018/07/bad-girls-bad-girls-whatcha-gonna-do.html
The Wild Bunch. The most successful gang of bank and train robbers the old west has ever produced. Their heists were meticulously planned, but more importantly, so were their escapes. Immediately after a robbery, the gang would scatter in different directions, where fresh horses would be waiting at intervals along the escape routes—an advantage the pursuing posse didn’t have. At a later time the gang members would assemble again at one of the hideouts.
Another signature of the Wild Bunch, compared
to other gangs at the time, was to eschew physically harming their victims, preferring to use other means of persuasion. Not that there
weren’t a couple of violent psychopaths in the group (I’m looking at you Kid
Curry, you maniac), but in these heists, at least, violence was discouraged.
Butch boasted that he never killed a man—which if your moral high bar is set at Never
Killed a Man, you may want to reset your bar.
Who were they? Most
people can readily name Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Some of you might
be able to dredge up some of the lesser known characters like Kid Curry or Elzy
Lay. But did you know there was the woman who sometimes rode with the Wild
Bunch? Her name was Laura Bullion.
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| A Young Laura Bullion |
Laura was born around
1876 to a Native American father and a German immigrant mother. There is some
dispute about where she was born, but one thing everyone agrees on is that she
was raised in Knickerbocker, Texas. What’s noteworthy about Knickerbocker is
that it acted as a meet-and-greet, networking venue for outlaws and
cowboys. Several of the Wild Bunch members as well as other notorious outlaws sprung out of Knickerbocker.
This mingling of cowboys
and outlaws became significant in 1887. In that year there was a blizzard so
devastating that it changed the west forever. Ranchers lost about 90% of their
cattle. The risks of open range ranching became clear. After that, Ranchers
went in for fencing in smaller herds, and putting more effort into growing hay for
feed. What this change meant was that not as many cowboys were needed to run to
ranch. Suddenly we have a surplus of cowboys.
This drastic change would alter the life of many of our players. For instance, in Pennsylvania when an introverted, bookish boy, Harry Longabaugh, fed on
a diet of dime store novels, headed out west by himself at the age of 14 to
become a cowboy, after the winter of 1887, he found himself struggling to
survive. Like many others, the steady work ran out and the temptation to turn
to crime was too much. Longabaugh turned to theft and continues on this course as the Sundance Kid.
It’s in this milieu we find young Laura. Her father, Henry, was a bank robber. It was through him
that Laura met the outlaws passing through Knickerbocker, including a few men who would become significant in her life at a later date.
Laura’s early life was
rocky to start with, becoming worse after her parents divorced when she was 5. After that
her mother, Fereby, shuffled her offspring between her relatives whenever she
picked up with a new boyfriend, which became a permanent situation when
Henry died during a robbery. Fereby, free to marry again, left her children
with her parents.
When Laura was 14, her
aunt, Viana, married Will Carver. Will would come to be known as “News”
Carver a core member of the Wild Bunch, but at this time he was only a cowboy
who was head over heels in love. Unfortunately, this marriage would end in within
months when Viana died of fever. Maybe it was losing this stabilizing influence
that turned Will toward a life of crime, because after this he joined Black Jack Ketchum’s*
gang of outlaws.
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| William "News" Carver |
At 15 Laura began a
romantic relationship with Carver. This was also the age she became a prostitute in
San Antonio.
Two years later she went
back to Knickerbocker and attempted to clean up her act, going back to school
and otherwise behaving as a good citizen. All the while she and Carver maintained a
correspondence.
This connection with the
bad boy, Carver, may have proved too much a pull for her, because at age 20 she left
home to support herself in Texas and Wyoming as a dance hall girl, and back to
prostitution at the infamous Madame Fannie Porter’s high end brothel, a favorite haunt
of the Wild Bunch. This is possibly where Sundance met Etta Place.
To us today the thought
of working in a brothel might seem dismal, but to a someone from a poor and
chaotic family, hanging out with other lady-friends at Madame Fannie’s with its silk sheets, gorgeous clothes, cold
champagne, and luxurious furnishings was not the worst a girl could do. Madame Fannie herself was said to take care of her girls like a mother. (Laura would periodically return to Madame Fannie's even after she became involved with the Wild Bunch. A time I would think she didn't have to turn to prostitution unless she wanted to.)
In the early days when Carver was with Ketchum, he would take up with Laura at Madame Fannie's between robberies. Carver was a handsome, though moody guy.
I think of him for Laura as that bad boyfriend you can't seem to get out of your system. By the way, he got the
nickname “News” because he was so fond of seeing his own name in print.
Anyway, Laura whether it
was because she romanticized her father’s outlaw life, had a streak of larceny
herself, or because she wanted something more from her boyfriend than the
occasional visit, asked to join the Ketchum gang. Black Jack said no to that.
After the death of Jack
Ketchum, News starts to ride with the Wild Bunch. Butch was okay with a female
outlaw, so in comes Laura, and the so called, Wild Rose or Thorny Rose was
born. It’s not clear what her exact role was, but she fenced goods for the
gang, forged bank notes, and perhaps held the horses for them during robberies.
If she participated in the hold ups herself at this time is debatable, though
one lawman declared she was quite capable.
Then in 1901, Carver
married Lille Davis, another prostitute from Fannie Porter’s. His marriage to
Lille was the reason the gang met up in Fort Worth where they posed for the
infamous Fort Worth Five portrait, which immediately went onto Wanted
posters.
Quite understandably,
Laura wasn’t happy about this marriage, and a rift ensued between her and Carver.
Instead she took up with Ben Kilpatrick, the Tall Texan, and possibly other
gang members.
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| Ben "the Tall Texan" Kilpatrick |
But, Carver, quickly
tired of his new bride and went back his old ways, which included Laura. (See
what I mean about the bad boyfriend. She... can’t... seem... to... shake...him). However, in 1901
Carver was shot and killed in an ambush with the law, which ended their relationship once and for all. He was 32 at the time of his death.
At this point, Laura and
Ben become an exclusive item. He was a handsome man with an easy-going manner who lavished Laura with gifts and trips. He was one of nine children
from a family with outlaw tendencies, so he and Laura were cut from the same cloth. Ben became acquainted with Carver and
the Ketchums in Knickerbocker.
I’m going to jump in
here to remind you I’m a storyteller, not an historian. There are so many
conflicting accounts and facts I couldn't verify, that I'm leaving things out. For instance, I read one description of Ben as having "yellow eyes with a violet spot in each" and as much as I'd like to believe such an extraordinary feature could exist on a human being and pass that on, I couldn't find any other references to his having yellow eyes. So, I have to leave that out, sorry.
Other times I’m going to interject my personal opinions. For instance, there is actually a debate as to whether the Tall Texan was tall or merely average height. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say unless he was ironically nicknamed the Tall Texan, he was tall. And, you can clearly see in the Fort Worth Five photograph, he’s not a pint-sized guy. Sundance was said to be a tall man, but Ben looks taller
Other times I’m going to interject my personal opinions. For instance, there is actually a debate as to whether the Tall Texan was tall or merely average height. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say unless he was ironically nicknamed the Tall Texan, he was tall. And, you can clearly see in the Fort Worth Five photograph, he’s not a pint-sized guy. Sundance was said to be a tall man, but Ben looks taller
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| The Fort Worth Five Photo. Left to Right: the Sundance Kid, Will Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, Kid Curry, and ButchCassidy |
After the gang appeared on Wanted poster, the game was up, and the Wild Bunch disbanded. Butch, Sundance,
and Etta head off to start a new life in South America. Remaining behind, Laura and Ben along
with Kid Curry planned and carried out a train robbery in Wild Bunch style.
The robbery was
successful and Laura and Ben retreated to live it up in St. Louis.
Unfortunately for them the Pinkertons had sent serial numbers of the stolen
bank notes all over the country. The noose was truly tightening on the outlaws.
Again, it's a little murky who was arrested first and how, but the end result of passing stolen money was they both ended up being arrested.
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| Mugshots |
Laura spent three of her
five-year sentence in the Missouri State Penitentiary. Ben was sentenced to
fifteen years to be served in Atlanta. While incarcerated, the two kept up a
correspondence. Interesting to me is that Ben’s family in Texas also sent Laura
letters and even money, which attests to how established their relationship was.
The Pinkertons also thought it interesting and intercepted letters between all
parties involved in hopes of getting clues of where Butch and Sundance were.
Laura to Ben:
“Darling, the warden
tells me I will be out next week. I will not leave the city but I will get some
kind of work near here and will wait until you are released. I have figured out
that by good behavior you can get out in December 1911. I will wait and you
will see me when you get out. I wanted to see you but they said it was against
the rules.
I
am your loving wife,
Laura”
When she got out of
prison she did attempt to visit Ben under a false name but was denied. There is
an article in a newspaper dated 1905 about the outlaw Laura Bullion petitioning
for Ben Kilpatrick early release.
He did get released
early in 1911. Except he was immediately arrested again for murder and extradited to Texas! Even though
he was acquitted this may have been the moment Laura threw her hands up in the
air. He may have too, because upon his release he went back to train robbery.
In 1912 Ben and another
man attempted to rob a train in Texas. Ben took an express messenger hostage while he
looted the safe. The hostage managed to grab and hide in his coat an
ice mallet. He then pointed to the ground (I have to take a deep breath here) and said something along the lines of
“Oh, look you forgot something on the ground there.” (Don’t fall for it, Ben!) ...Ben bent down. He was killed instantly by a blow
to the back of the head. He was 38 years old.
He and Laura never had
the chance to reunite, and Ben has the distinction of being the last train
robber for this really was a dying way of life by now.
Laura Bullion went straight, changed her name to Freda Bullion Lincoln, and claiming to be a
WWI widow moved to Memphis. She also shaved ten years off her life. I’m really
curious about her love life after Ben but all I was able to find was that she
had four lovers after him but I couldn't find anything about who they were.
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| The Modest Home of Freda Bullion Lincoln, Interior Decorator, Memphis |
According to the census, she took up housekeeping
and then drapery making. In later years she is upgraded to interior designer, which is
quite a career trajectory from outlaw. In 1961 the last member of the Wild Bunch dies
quietly of heart disease in Memphis. She was 85.
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| Final Resting Place |
Next up, The Bassett Sisters of Brown's Park.
*Black Jack Ketchum will go down in history as an example of what can happen if the hangman gets the ratio of length of rope to height and weight of the condemned person wrong. Instead of getting his neck stretched Black Jack lost his head.
Bonus: watch Laura's mugshot get colorized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTo3cdosbrI
