Marion Hedgepeth

Case identifiers

• Name: Marion Hedgepeth
• Also known as: “Handsome Bandit,” “Debonair Bandit,” “Derby Kid,” “Montana Bandit”
• Birth: Prairie Home, Missouri (1856)
• Death: December 31, 1910

Timeline

• April 14, 1856 — Marion Hedgepeth was born in Prairie Home, Missouri.
• November 1883 — Hedgepeth was sentenced to serve a term of seven years in the Missouri penitentiary on the charge of larceny and jail breaking.
• February 16, 1889 — Hedgepeth was discharged.
• December 24, 1891 — Four masked men boarded the blind baggage of a St. Louis & San Francisco train at Tower Grove Station near St. Louis, and robbed it near Glendale; more than $40,000 was taken.
• February 1, 1892 — Hedgepeth was arrested in San Francisco, along with Adalbert Slye, and brought back to Missouri for trial.
• 1893 — Hedgepeth was convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years in the Missouri State Prison.
• 1896 — H. H. Holmes was unmasked, convicted and executed as a result of information provided by Hedgepeth.
• 14 years into his 25-year sentence — Hedgepeth was pardoned by Missouri state governor Joseph W. Folk.
• 1907 — Hedgepeth was arrested in Omaha for the burglary of a storage house at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
• March 1908 — Hedgepeth was convicted and sent to an Iowa state prison; he was released after serving one year.
• January 3 (learned January 4, 1910) — Identification was made that the robber shot and killed by a policeman New Year’s Eve while holding up a saloon in West Sixteenth Street was Marion Hedgepeth.
• December 31, 1910 — Hedgepeth was shot and killed by police during a botched Chicago saloon robbery.

Background

Marion Hedgepeth was a famous Wild West outlaw. He was born in Prairie Home, Missouri on April 14, 1856. He ran away from home at the age of 15 and became an outlaw by the time he was 20, having killed in Colorado and Wyoming and robbing trains.

Hedgepeth lived for a time in a lawless region of Kansas City, Missouri known as “Seldom Seen.” He became a member of the “famous Slye-Wilson gang of safe blowers and highwaymen.” The neighborhood was known as “Seldom Seen” because a policeman was seldom seen there.

The offences

Glendale train robbery ($40,000 taken)

Hedgepeth and the other members of the Slye-Wilson gang robbed a train of $40,000 in Glendale, Missouri near St. Louis, Missouri, with Hedgepeth escaping personally with some $10,000. The robbery occurred the day before Christmas, 1891.

On the afternoon of December 24, 1891, four masked men, heavily armed, secretly boarded the blind baggage of a St. Louis, climbed over the tender of the engine as the train was approaching Glendale Station, twenty miles from St. Louis, and ordered the crew at the point of revolvers to stop the train. They dynamited the safe in the express car after wounding the messenger and terrifying the passengers, and stole envelopes and sacks containing $40,000.

There were all the facts concerning the robbery in the possession of the police except for a meager description of the robbers. Three weeks later a little girl found a dime while playing in a shed in the yard of her home in St. Louis. The dime dispelled the mystery of the Glendale robbery which had baffled the police of St. Louis for weeks. Search for more money in the shed revealed a watch, a revolver and several express envelopes.

Police learned that a large, heavy trunk had been buried in the shed and that an expressman had hauled it away at the behest of Marion Hedgepeth. For his pains the expressman had received money enough to start a saloon.

Kansas City involvement in robbery planning (Market Street car)

One of the new policemen on the St. Louis force, who prior to his appointment worked as a bartender in Kansas City, told Chief Harrigan of the presence in the city of a man by the name of Marion Hedgepeth. The new policeman knew Hedgepeth in Kansas City and had seen Hedgepeth board a Market Street car at Jefferson Avenue about a week before the big robbery.

Burglary at Council Bluffs, Iowa (storage house)

Hedgepeth was arrested in 1907 in Omaha suspected of having been implicated in the burglary of a storage house at Council Bluffs, Iowa. He was convicted and sent to an Iowa state prison in March 1908 and was released after serving one year.

Chicago saloon robbery (shot and killed by police)

Hedgepeth was shot and killed by police on December 31, 1910 during a botched Chicago saloon robbery.

Investigation

The gang fled to Salt Lake City and disbanded after the Glendale train robbery. After being relentlessly pursued by the Pinkertons, Hedgepeth was arrested in San Francisco and brought back to Missouri for trial.

Detectives learned that Hedgepeth’s gang, composed of Adalbert Slye, “Jim” Francis and “Dink” Wilson, disbanded and left Salt Lake City. It was afterwards learned that Francis had gone to Lamar, Mo, where he robbed the station agent. Francis later killed a policeman who attempted to arrest him and was shot to death by a posse of citizens.

Wilson was traced to Syracuse, N.Y., where he was arrested for killing a detective named James Harvey. Wilson was afterwards electrocuted for the crime. Slye was found in Los Angeles, Cal., where he was conducting a saloon. He was lured to the postoffice by means of a decoy letter and was taken.

The efforts of the San Francisco police to find the trunk which had been shipped from St. Louis were rewarded. The trunk contained costly furs and had been sent to San Francisco at the request of Mrs. Hedgepeth. She was seen on the street and trailed to a flat in the central part of the city.

Officers were ignorant of the fact that Hedgepeth and his wife were occupying two flats on opposite corners and that from the window of one of them he could see the detectives shadowing Mrs. Hedgepeth as she entered the other flat. After officers had surrounded the flat in which Mrs. Hedgepeth had gone, Hedgepeth slipped from the other and made his escape.

Detectives learned that Hedgepeth had communicated with a firm of attorneys in Kansas City. By watching the mail of these lawyers they learned the man’s address in San Francisco. A decoy notice was sent to Hedgepeth telling him that important mail awaited him at the San Francisco postoffice. Hedgepeth called for the mail with two loaded revolvers in his possession and was taken without a struggle. Detectives, secreted in all parts of the postoffice, pounced upon him and, before he had a chance to defend himself, he was overpowered and taken as a prisoner.

On February 1, 1892, just two months after the Glendale train robbery, Hedgepeth steadfastly refused to admit the robbery while Slye finally confessed.

Arrest

Hedgepeth was arrested on February 1, 1892 in San Francisco along with Adalbert Slye and was brought back to Missouri for trial.

Trial

Glendale train robbery conviction and sentencing

Hedgepeth was convicted and sentenced in 1893 to twenty-five years in the Missouri State Prison. Slye was given a 20 year sentence.

Marion Hedgepeth was sentenced to twenty-five years in the penitentiary in 1893 after being convicted of a part in the Glendale train robbery which happened the day before Christmas, 1891.

The robber was then 27 years old and weighed 150 pounds.

Sentencing

Missouri penitentiary sentence (larceny and jail breaking)

In November 1883, Hedgepeth was sentenced to serve a term of seven years in the Missouri penitentiary on the charge of larceny and jail breaking. He was discharged February 16, 1889.

Iowa prison sentence (storage house burglary)

In March 1908, Hedgepeth was convicted and sent to an Iowa state prison and was released after serving one year.

Pardon by Governor Joseph W. Folk

For information Hedgepeth provided that led to the arrest and conviction of H. H. Holmes, Hedgepeth was pardoned by Missouri state governor Joseph W. Folk 14 years into his 25 year term while serving a 25-year sentence for the Glendale hold-up.

Appeals

No appeals were stated in the record.

Outcome

Aftermath

Hedgepeth died a robber.

Marion Hedgepeth’s mother lived at his former home, Prairie Home, Mo.

After his pardon, Hedgepeth came out of prison and looked like a skeleton and appeared 60 years old, with his jaws sunken, eyes deep set, and hair thin and gray. He said he was ready to be good.

The trunk shipped from St. Louis to San Francisco was later found, and detectives had learned that it contained costly furs and was sent at the request of Mrs. Hedgepeth.