Ben Kilpatrick

Ben Kilpatrick was born January 5, 1874 in Sonora, Texas. Gaining notoriety riding with the Ketchum Gang and later the Wild Bunch, Kilpatrick would become known as “The Tall Texan.”

At the age of twenty-three Ben Kilpatrick joined the Ketchum brothers and Will Carver in the robbery of a Colorado & Southern train near Folsom, New Mexico on September 3, 1897. The outlaws escaped with $3,500.

After riding with the Ketchum’s, Kilpatrick joined forces with the Wild Bunch. He is said to have taken part in the gang’s June 2, 1899 robbery of a Union Pacific train outside Wilcox, Wyoming. It is believed that Kilpatrick participated in the August 29, 1900 robbery of another Union Pacific train, this time outside Tipton, Wyoming. Kilpatrick’s girlfriend Laura Bullion is said to have had a role in the Tipton robbery as well.

Following the robberies in Tipton and Winnemucca, Nevada the Wild Bunch, including Kilpatrick regrouped in Fort Worth, Texas to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Will Carver. Kilpatrick joined Carver, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Harvey Logan for a group portrait now known as the infamous “Fort Worth Five” photograph. The photograph soon found its way into the hands of the law and as a result on thousands of wanted posters across the country.

The Wild Bunch split up after Fort Worth and Kilpatrick evidentially took the opportunity to visit relatives in Eden, Texas. Harvey Logan and Will Carver soon paid the native Texan a visit. During their visit Kilpatrick’s neighbor stopped by to speak to the Kilpatrick’s regarding a dispute over pigs. Thornton and the Kilpatrick’s had been feuding over the pigs for some time. Unfortunately for Thornton, the feud was about to take a turn for the worse.

On March 27, 1901, Thornton was shot and killed, presumably by Logan. The three outlaws wasted little time leaving the area after Thornton’s death. Four days after the neighbor’s death Will Carver was spotted by authorities picking up supplies in Sonora, Texas. Confronted by the authorities Carver engaged the officers in a shootout and was killed on the scene. Kilpatrick and Logan, waiting for their compatriot just outside of town, managed to escape with their lives.

Four months later Kilpatrick joined Logan and O.C. Hanks in the robbery of a Great Northern train on July 3, 1901 outside Wagner, Montana. The men made a clean getaway following the robbery but for Kilpatrick his life on the run was about to end.

Kilpatrick and his paramour, Laura Bullion, found themselves in St. Louis, Missouri the November following the Wagner robbery. On November 5, Kilpatrick was arrested for passing bank notes stolen from the Wagner train robbery. The following day, Laura Bullion was arrested as well.

Kilpatrick initially refused to give his real identity, instead providing the authorities with a number of aliases. Inexplicably one of the names Kilpatrick chose to give was Harry Longabaugh. Why he would chose to give the alias of an outlaw as, if not more, wanted than himself defies all logic.

A telegram sent from St. Louis reads in part:

“ We have under arrest John Arnold, alias John W. Rose, alias Cunningham, alias Harry Longbaugh, partially identified today as Harry Longbaugh. We have taken about $7,000 money known to have been taken from the Great Northern express car at Wagner, Montana, July 3. This man undoubtedly one of the robbers.”

Several days later Kilpatrick admitted to his true identity. Kilpatrick and Bullion pled guilty on December 12, 1901 to passing stolen bank notes and were sentenced. Kilpatrick received fifteen years hard labor to be served in a prison in Ohio, later he was moved to a federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia. Bullion received five years in a Massachusetts women’s prison. It is said that when she was released, Bullion found a home near Atlanta to be near her lover. The wait may have outlasted true love as another story has Bullion hooking up with a ranch and living the quiet life until her death in 1961.

Ben Kilpatrick was released from prison on May 29, 1911.  

Less than a year later, on March 12, 1912, Kilpatrick and Ole Hobeck attempted to rob a Southern Pacific train near Sanderson, Texas. After stopping the train and securing $37 the express car messenger, David Trousdale, tricked Kilpatrick into examining a package he told the outlaw to be of great value. As Kilpatrick’s attention was turned, Trousdale struck the outlaw in three times in the head with an ice mallet. Kilpatrick died on the scene along with Hobeck who was shot in the head by train personnel.

Back