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Hiram Bebee
| Name: Hiram
Bebee |
| Aliases: George
Hanlon, the Sundance Kid |
| Date of Birth:
1867 |
| Location of
Birth: Unknown |
| Occupation: Criminal |
| Relationships:
None |
| Affiliations: None |
| Date of Death:
June 2, 1955 |
| Cause of
Death: Natural Causes |
| Location of
Death: Utah State Penitentiary |
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Hiram Bebee, the man
who claimed to be the Sundance Kid, is
something of an enigma. By all accounts
he was a bit of a crank, although many reports claimed the Sundance
Kid to be cantankerous as well.
In 1919 Bebee was
sentenced to ten years in San Quentin for larceny; serving only 1 year and
7 months of his sentence before being released. Sometime later, when Bebee
was in his sixties, he moved on to Utah where it was rumored he was
involved in bootlegging whiskey. Those who remember him from Utah, tell of
his expert marksmanship-a skill that would get him into trouble later in
life.
In 1945, Bebee was
involved in an altercation with an off-duty marshal at a saloon in Provo,
Utah. The marshal physically removed Bebee from the bar and tossed him
into BeBee’s pickup truck. Inside the cab Bebee grabbed his gun and shot the officer dead. He was convicted
the of murder and
sentenced to death; serving his time at the Utah State Penitentiary. The
sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
While some believe
Bebee’s claim to have been the Sundance Kid, most discount the notion.
A major inconsistency in Bebee’s story is his height. While the Sundance
Kid was known to be between 5’10” to 6’ tall, Bebee’s recorded
height was between 5’3” and 5’5”. Short of a serious case of
osteoporosis, Bebee could not have been the Sundance Kid.
Hiram
BeBee died in prison of natural causes on June 2, 1955. He is buried in
the Salt Lake Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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