Rare photo of Marion Hedgepeth, the train robber?

[Juha Nakari]

Having owned Horan and Sann's Pictorial History of the Wild West since the 70's the photos in the book are very familiar to me and I have many times gone Google-hunting further pictures of famous outlaws and lawmen.

Today in a jumble sale I came across a Finnish magazine from 1965 and in it a translated story of Pinkerton and Holmes, the mass murderer. Obviously train robber Marion Hedgepeth's paths crossed Pinkerton's and Holmes' and it was quite a suprise to see Hedgepeth staring at me in a photo I've never seen before.

The article was written by one Peter Paul List and I guess the story has been originally published in some American magazine in the 50's or 60's. In the photo Marion is without the derby hat and overcoat, but clearly has the same tie and stick-pin. He looks a bit fuller in the face but has the same ears, chin and eyes. Mugshot I believe.

Here's the well-known photo:

And here's the photo I've never seen before:

Any further info on Peter Paul List and the photo would be greatly appreciated - are these two pictures part of the same set and are there any other known pictures of Hedgepeth? Thank you.

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

Thanks for the information.  It does look like the second photo, but the hat is of a different style and I still think the lower portion of the face looks shorter than in the first photo, but that could because the photos were not taken from the exact same angle.  I am uncertain about the photo with the grin.  In his own photos, the Missouri Kid looked more like the son of an upper=middle class businessman who was attending college than like a murderous thief.  Have a nice week.  See you next weekend.

[Gay Mathis]

This online newspaper contains "The Grin," if it is Marion Hedgepeth among other characters, etc..You can enlarge the article on the site to read it, if you want..

The Ogden Standard, Utah, June 20, 1914, City Edition, Magazine Section--Title--"You Can't Read Character By The Eye--Famed Detectives Declare Men With The Finest Eyes In The World Sometimes Are The Worst Kinds Of Crooks"

(Newspaper Link)

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

It just occurred to me that the photos in question have to be no later than the early 1890s since Marion went to prison in 1893, when he would have been in his late thirties.  In the photos, he looks younger than that.  These photos clearly show that lookls can be decieving!

[Bob 'Buckshot' Bradley]

From an article in True West Aug 1993.

[Gay Mathis]

Thanks, Buckshot..Very interesting article..He wasn't so handsome in 1908..A crime spree can be hard on a fellow.....:)

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

In the last forty years, there have been a number of theories as to the identity of Jack the Ripper.  In the 1970s, the book Prince Jack was published and named the Duke of Clarence.  In the minie series that was done for the centennial of the murders, the chief physician was named; he was also named in the movie From Hell--but there the murders were committed because he was a Mason.  Sir Peter Ustinov hosted a panel which thoroughly discussed the case and all the panelists came up with the same person, someone nobody ever heard of--Kazminski.  The man who called himself George Chapman was a Polish immigrant who was later executed as a poisoner.

[anthony martin]

  Margaret,

   Aaron Kazminski wasn't George Chapman.Chapman adopted that last name from one of the wives he poisoned.His real name was Sewyrwin Klosowski and he murdered on both sides of the Atlantic.After leaving America he was tried and executed in England.

  Aaron Kazminski had a pathological hatred of women,especially prostitutes,was violent and delusional and was confined permanently in a London lunatic asylum.Many feel that he is our best bet as a suspect and quite a few did as well then too.

  The Ripper's spree was big international news and police forces here in America suspected several who operated in both countries.One such was Francis Tumblety,a pathological mysoginist and a quack who used to display a private collection of women's generative organs and who may also have been involved with the Lincoln conspirators.He was quite a sick little pup!