Another chapter in my Desperadoes of the Ozarks book is about William Rudolph, the so-called "Missouri Kid," who, along with sidekick George Collins (shown at left) robbed a bank at Union, Missouri, in late December of 1902 and a month later killed a Pinkerton detective who was on the trail of the robbers. Rudolph and Collins were arrested at Hartford, Connecticut, in early March of 1903 and brought back to Missouri, where they were greeted by a group of admiring fans, including several young women, almost like returning heroes. Given the nickname the "Missouri Kid" by a sensationalist newspaperman, Rudolph escaped in July of '03 and went on the lam. He was apprehended again in January of '04 in Kansas, brought back to Missouri, and convicted in March of '04 of first-degree murder in the killing of the detective. While his trial was going on, Collins, who had already been convicted of the same crime, was hanged from a scaffold in the courtyard next to where Rudolph's trial was taking place. Despite several appeals, Rudolph himself was launched into eternity a year later using the same rope that had been used to hang Collins. I received my author copies of the Desperadoes book less than a week ago, and just a day or two afterwards there was already at least one review of the book posted on the internet at the following URL (the same review was also later posted on the Amazon website): http://dadofdivas-reviews.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-review-desperadoes-of-ozarks.html
5 comments:
Do you know any of the early history of Bill Rudolph?
Just that his father was supposed to have been a man named Anderson and that he adopted the name Rudolph after his mother, Nancy Armistead, married Rudolph. Bill also used the name Armistead sometimes, I think. He first got in trouble a few years before the Union bank robbery and murder of the Pinkerton agent, when he and some friends supposedly robbed an old couple in a rural area of Franklin County and beat them up.
I wrote a book four years ago entitled,
Where Dead Men Still Fight, a history of Stanton, Missouri,
which contains a long chapter on William Rudolph (and Collins). It will answer a lot of your questions about his early life and family and shed some light on the reason he went "bad."
It is available through amazon.com or a little cheaper, direct from me
Name and contact information for "Anonymous" is Sue Blesi email sueblesi at hotmail dot com
I am related to Rudolph & his mom cause my great grandmother was carrah armistead Meyers Cooper. Most of ancestors are from Stanton.
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