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I also saw an opening.
“You know, it’s sort of about who is remembered and who is forgotten that I wanted to talk to you about.” A great segue, if I say so myself. “I was talking to Clara at the museum and she was talking about how little is known about the women connected to the men in the famous outlaw groups of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Why is that?”
From that question, I could see a path to get to Oscar and Pearl Virtanen — especially Pearl — and thus to Keefer Dobey.
Mrs. P took the bait... or she was ready to talk about this now anyway.
“Beyond the broad societal bias compounded by the academic bias toward the belief that women did nothing interesting, there were two additional, practical causes for the oversight. The first stemmed partly from the broad societal bias influencing the accounts relayed in newspapers of that period and conveying that only men participated. Indeed, they rarely stated that, as such, because it was assumed it was so, while later information showed women did participate. At times as distractions or to misdirect pursuers, but also as active participants, as detailed to some extent in the case of Laura Bullion.”
I should have stuck with my path to Oscar and Pearl, but my unanswered questions about Laura Bullion lured me into the detour like someone waving a chocolate bar under my nose.
“Laura Bullion... She was connected with Ben Kilpatrick, right?”
Another newly minted factoid. But Mrs. P didn’t need to know that. Especially not if my knowing impressed her.
It did not.
She dismissed it. “She was romantically linked to him, as well as others at various times.”
When Mrs. P continued, I realized a faint whiff of distaste I’d picked up from her was not associated with Laura Bullion.
“The Pinkerton National Detective Agency monitored the activities, including the romantic associations, of Laura and other women associated with members of the loosely affiliated gangs of Western outlaws of that period. Much of the material we have now came from the files of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, as well as contemporary newspaper accounts, with much of that also coming from the Pinkertons, in addition to other law enforcement sources.”
We were of the same mind here. “Incestuous sources are never good. Echo chambers. Seems like what Person 1 said is being reinforced by a second source — Person 2 — when it’s really Person 2 repeating what Person 1 said.”
Another single nod of acknowledgment. “The result in this case is a narrowed view of those women, as well as limited information on them, with even their names shrouded or lost amid multiple aliases and, I fear, inattention.
“One could say that the agents operated under a handicap in recording the names, especially the nicknames and aliases of those they sought. The outlaws did use a notable number of aliases.”
“Goes with being an outlaw,” I observed.
“There also was a culture in this region of not asking someone his or her name, not expecting it to be accurate if it was offered, and accepting that any number of people were known as Buckskin or Curly or Kid or for a location, such as Tex or Arkansas or Deadwood.
“However, the Pinkertons also contributed to the profusion and confusion of names. For instance, it is debated whether fellow outlaws called Ben Kilpatrick the Tall Texan or if he was, in fact, exceedingly tall, with prison records indicating he was not. Some surmised he was tall based on a famous photo, not taking into account that he sat on a straight chair between two companions occupying lower chairs. But the Tall Texan was what the Pinkertons called him — in that case likely based on a description from a single witness at one scene — and that sobriquet endured.
“Strict adherence to substantiated fact appears to be disregarded even more frequently concerning the identities of women. As an example, Laura Bullion was not deemed as important to catch as the men, despite evidence she might well have participated directly in holdups, dressed in male attire, as well as monetizing stolen goods, and acquiring necessary supplies for the gang or gangs.”
Making Bullion an apt last name, I thought and didn’t say. I’d already interrupted too much.
“It is certain she held proceeds from a train robbery when she was arrested shortly after Kilpatrick was in Tennessee. Multiple sources state that Laura’s father was incarcerated for bank robbery and that he was responsible for introducing her as a girl to a cowboy named Will Carver. That cowboy married her aunt, who died shortly after.”
I was starting to feel Laura Bullion was a new version of the Pony Express. Mrs. P was telling me what she wanted to tell me.
“Will Carver, known as News Carver, became affiliated with several gangs. He might have introduced Laura Bullion into the gangs. After he moved on, she became associated with Ben Kilpatrick.
“It is only by accessing as many sources as possible that a theme arises of Laura Bullion being called variations on Rose, including the Thorny Rose, which was on her gravestone. Some sources say members of the Wild Bunch called her that. Also Della Rose, which resembled the name of the girlfriend of another member, though whether Della was that girlfriend’s real name or among the aliases she used is not certain.”
Was anything about this certain?
“Another example is the woman most popularly known in current times as Etta Place.”
Now, here we entered more familiar territory for me — she’d been the school teacher in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, romantically linked to the Sundance Kid, but out for a bike ride with Butch Cassidy.
With disapproval, Mrs. P said, “There are scant reliable facts to tell us what her real name or occupation might have been. It is worth noting that Place was the last name of the mother of the man who was known as the Sundance Kid and that Place was a name he used among many aliases. Is it not reasonable that she joined him in that practice? One school of thought is that her first name was Ethel or Edith, with Etta either an approximation of the Spanish pronunciation of her name or a mistaken note by the Pinkerton operatives. In other words — Oh, my, is that the time?”
Since she hadn’t looked at a clock, watch, or phone, I could only assume she intuited the time.
Or decided she was done for now.
