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185 CHAPTER 19 Robbery of the Great Northern O n April 26, 1901, while Kid Curry and Ben Kilpatrick were making their way north, Tom Ketchum literally lost his head in a botched hanging in Clayton, New Mexico, for the crime of train robber y. Four days later, April 30, Orlando Camillo “Deaf Charley” Hanks, alias Charles Jones, was released from the state penitentiar y at Deer Lodge, Montana, after serving eight years for his part in a Northern Pacific train robbery near Greycliff in late August 1893.1 He would play an important role in the Wild Bunch’s next train robbery. Over two weeks later, on May 15, a Pinkerton wanted poster was finally issued that made use of the F ort Worth Five photo.2 It had tak en what seemed an inordinate amount of time for authorities to identify the outlaws pictured. In her Pinkerton interview over six and a half months later, Lillie Davis would identify all the men in the photo b y their aliases, and add some details of what she knew concerning their outlaw activities and their girlfriends.3 There are a number of reasons that ma y have influenced the gang’s decision to hit the Great Northern Railroad instead of the Union Pacific. One reason was the UP’s introduction of special posse cars loaded with law officers, professional manhunters, and horses built to last.These cars were coupled with the fastest locomotives available that could reach the scene of a holdup in very little time. Another reason was the UP, jointly with the Pacific Express Company, had been specifying “dead or ali ve” on their reward posters for the capture of train robbers.The Great Northern had not yet adopted either of these innovations. Finally, it was a great advantage that Kid Curry was very familiar with the area of operations around the selected holdup site in northern Montana.4 The robbery was most likely planned at Jim Thornhill’s ranch or at Curry’s old Rock Creek ranch.As at Tipton, Kid Curry was undoubtedly 186 Chapter 19 the leader of the gang. In late June, tw o men were seen riding through Lewistown, Montana, and camped outside of town. Among the horses in their possession were three later described by witnesses at the train robbery , a bay, a white, and a buckskin. Brown Waller states that the gang was furnished getaway horses from the Truax and Walsh ranches near Hinsdale, some for ty miles east of Malta. 5 However, at the fi rst relay after the robbery, the outlaws traded exhausted horses with the Thornhill 7UP brand for ones from a remuda on the Coburn Circle C ranch.6 It is not certain how, when, or where Kid Curry came to know O. C. Hanks, a native of DeWitt County, Texas, but he was quoted as saying he recruited “Deaf Charley” into the ranks of the Wild Bunch, “because he was a good man to handle the outside of the train and w as an expert pistol shot.” He added that “Hanks came w ell recommended.”7 Hanks had worked on various cattle ranches in Montana from 1889 to 1893. In 1892 he started work at the John T. Murphy Cattle Company, where Sundance had worked two or three y ears earlier. He quit the ne xt year about mid-summer to go off and rob the Northern Pacific.8 Hanks earned his nickname from the habit of leaning his head slightl y to the left to favor his good ear.9 Hanks was seen loafing around Shade J. Denson’s saloon, just opposite the railway station in Malta, Montana, on the 1 st and 2nd of July 1901. At about two o’clock in the after noon, on Wednesday, July 3, Denson noticed Hanks board the b lind baggage of the w estbound Great Northern Coast Flyer No. 3 and dra w his gun on a trainman. The trainman, conductor Alex Smith, thought the lar ge red-faced man was a tramp and tried to put him of f the train.10 When Smith reached up to pull the bell cord, Hanks drew his revolver and threatened to shoot if the train was stopped. The conductor hurried back to the coaches w hile Hanks climbed over the tender to the engine.11 Valley County Sheriff William S. Griffi th was a passenger on the train, and conductor Smith requested that...

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