1584 Thomas Leary

 Thomas Lewis (1855-19??, aka Thomas Leary, Kid Leary). American sneak thief and bank robber.
After a first arrest in 1874, Lewis was arrested again in 1877 by New York detectives for the robbery of the Cambridge National Bank of Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, no evidence was found, and he was released.
A month later, Lewis was arrested for stealing a trunk with $10,000 worth of jewelry from a salesman by arranging for the trunk to be diverted at a railroad depot. Lewis was convicted of this crime and sent to Sing Sing for a term of five years.
In October 1881 he robbed the Baltimore bank.
In 1893 he was arrested for concealing a kit of burglar’s tools–possession of which was a felony. He was sentenced to another five years at Sing Sing.
Perhaps seeking different luck, Lewis went west. He was arrested in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 1903, for his involvement in the robbery of the Eagle Bank. Upon walking out of prison, Lewis migrated to Chicago and he was never heard from again.

- "Dark red hair. Eyes, bluish gray. Complexion, light."  https://criminalsrevised.org/thomas-lewis-6/

 

1581) Gilbert James Fitzgerald

Gilbert J. Fitzgerald (aka James Fitzgerald, The Kid, Red Fitz, 1856-1933). American banco steerer.
 He was born to Irish immigrants who had settled in Milwaukee.
In 1881 he formed a gang with Billy Harris and Johnny Norton, and headed to New Orleans.
The following year the gang headed north to Boston, where they happened upon the most prominent bunco victim in history: Charles Francis Adams–son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams; and himself a former Ambassador to Great Britain. Fitzgerald was found guilty and sentenced to five years in the Massachusetts State Prison.
In 1915, Fitzgerald was arrested for being one of the operators of an elaborate “wireless wiretap” betting parlor con, first developed by Larry Summerfield and Timothy Oakes. Fitzgerald’s partners in this venture were Charles and Fred Gondorf; and Fitzgerald was sometimes introduced to others as “Harry Gondorf.” If the name sounds familiar, it is because that was the character name of the wireless wiretap operator (Paul Newman) in the movie The Sting: Henry Gondorff.
Fitzgerald was free by 1917. Over the next several years, he took several trips to Havana, which was then a resort for wealthy Americans.

-  “Red hair, dark auburn eyes, sandy complexion, straight nose, beard red (when worn), hair very thick and coarse... He was known among his friends and acquaintances as ‘Reddy,’ a name applied to him perhaps on account of his fiery red hair." https://criminalsrevised.org/113-james-fitzgerald/

 

1580) Ellen Darrigan

Ellen Darrigan (1853 - ?). English-born New York shoplifter.
It is claimed that she got married three times: to Jerry Dunn, to John Mahaney and to Billy Darrigan, an old New York thief. She was considered a pretty woman until Billy broke her nose in 1875.
Ellen was arrested in New York City in 1875 for shoplifting and was sentenced to four years in State prison. She served terms in several other cities.
In 1885 she was arrested after leaving a dry goods store in NYC and the police found in her skirt a piece of beaded cloth, valued $50. Ellen was convicted and sentenced to five months.

 
- "Red hair, hazel eyes, light complexion." https://books.google.it

 

1579) Charles Hylebert

Charles Hylebert (born John William Heil, aka Cincinnati Red, aka Red Hyle, 1850 - 1904). American hotel thief.
He was born and raised in Cincinnati, where he learned the butcher's trade. He started his career as a thief when he was twenty and soon began one of the most celebrated hotel thieves in the US.
In 1880 he was arrested and sentenced to the Georgia penitentiary for a hotel robbery in Atlanta. In 1885 he was sentenced to four years in the Northern State prison at Michigan City.
Red escaped conviction during the years between 1889 and 1904, though he was arrested and tried many times: in Chicago, Washington, Baltimore, Louisville, and New York.
In November 1904, Heil was found unconscious in a rooming house in Chicago. The stove in his room was leaking gas. The coroner declared that he died from accidental asphyxiation.

  
- "He was called Red Hyle on account of his red hair and florid face." https://books.google.it

 

1443) Edward C. O'Kelley

Edward Capehart O'Kelley (1857 – 1904). American killer who killed Robert Ford, who had killed the famous outlaw Jesse James to receive a bounty.

On 8 June 1892, while Ford was preparing to open his saloon, O’Kelley walked into the tent with a shotgun. Ford was turned away from the front entrance. O’Kelley called out, "Hello, Bob." As Ford turned around to see who spoke, O’Kelley fired his shotgun, hitting Ford in the neck and killing him instantly.

O’Kelley never explained why he had shot Ford. According to one account, O’Kelley married a relative of the Younger Brothers Gang and became friends with Jesse James, who became a cousin by marriage. Another version contends that con man Soapy Smith assured O’Kelley he’d be famous if he killed Ford. One theory involves the accusation that O’Kelley had stolen Ford’s diamond ring, and the dispute had escalated. O’Kelley was initially imprisoned for life, though his sentence was later reduced to 18 years. In the end, O’Kelley served only around 9 years at the Colorado State Penitentiary before being released due, firstly, to a 7,000-signature petition in favour of his release, and, secondly, to a medical condition.

 

- "O'Kelley was also known as Red O'Kelley due to his bright red hair..." http://www.vlib.us/old_west/guns.html

 

- "The man who killed Ford also went by “Red” O’Kelley because of his red hair." https://tomrizzo.com/day-retribution/

 

 

1258) Edgar J. Watson

Edgar J. Watson (1855 - 1910). American outlaw. He had supposedly gotten into trouble in Columbia County in northern Florida, to which his parents had migrated sometime after 1870, and had then gone out to the Indian territory (later known as the Oklahoma Territory) where he allegedly killed Belle Starr, herself allegedly an outlaw. He then returned to Florida and killed a man in Arcadia, apparently in self-defense. After that Ed Watson moved to the Ten Thousand Islands area, then part of Monroe County, where he bought a claim on the Chatham Bend River and began raising vegetables.
Locals began to notice that each season, a new crop of farm workers would arrive at Watson's plantation, but then disappear, only to be replaced by different ones the following year. Maybe, some began to theorize, Watson was killing them all at the end of the season so he didn't have to pay them.
In the autumn of 1910, two men and a woman, all employees of Watson, were found murdered on his property. By this time everyone instantly knew to suspect Watson. Watson, for his part, blamed yet another local outlaw - a man named Leslie Cox - and asked the sheriff of Fort Myers to deputize him so he could hunt Cox down. The sheriff didn't believe Watson's story, and denied the request.
Watson visited Smallwood's Store and purchased ammo which he loudly admitted he planned to use to assassinate Cox. According to legend, the woman at the store deliberately sold him ammo that had been ruined by flooding during the hurricane. When Watson showed up at the boat dock, he found a posse of locals who were fed up with him. Watson, not knowing his ammunition was wet, fired into the crowd and the gun wouldn't go off. He dropped the rifle and reached for his revolver, but he was too slow. The posse immediately shot back and gunned him down on the spot.

- "He was extremely tall, red-headed, and possessing, they say, of unnaturally small hands and feet."  http://floridazone.blogspot.com/2015/03/edgar-watson.html

- "Over 6 feet, unusually tall for the time, and extremely strong, Watson’s appearance was additionally distinctive in that he had red hair and beard, and hands and feet that seemed visibly too small for a man of his size."  https://americanhandgunner.com/…/the-lessons-of-edgar-wats…/

- "He knows Watson’s great-granddaughter, Edith, he says, who lives nearby and “has a head of red hair like E. J. Watson.”  https://www.oxfordamerican.org/…/695-the-legend-of-chokolos…

- "He was a two-hundred-pound, red-headed man, with a quick and sometimes quirky temper."  https://www.coastalbreezenews.com/…/the-killing-of-mr-wats…/

- "Watson was a ruggedly good-looking man with red hair and a beard..."  https://books.google.nl/books…

928) Bill Doolin

William "Bill" Doolin (1858 – 1896). American bandit outlaw and founder of the Wild Bunch, a gang that specialized in robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas during the 1890s.

- "At six feet two inches tall and a mere 150 pounds, outlaw Bill Doolin was a stringbean cowboy with auburn hair, blue eyes and reportedly wore a “ragged brindled” mustache."  https://truewestmagazine.com/kill-bill/

- "The son of a Johnson County, Arkansas, farmer, Doolin was six feet, two inches tall, weighted 150 pounds, had auburn hair, blue eyes, a hooked nose and wore a ragged mustache."  https://www.nps.gov/fo…/learn/historyculture/bill-doolin.htm

- "Here Emmett became the saddle companion of slender, six-foot-two, auburn-haired, drooping-moustached, gander-blue-eyed Bill Doolin."  https://books.google.it/books…

925) Cole Younger

Thomas Coleman Younger (1844 – 1916). American Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War and later an outlaw leader with the James–Younger Gang. He was the eldest brother of Jim, John and Bob Younger, who were also members of the gang.

- "Cole stood almost six feet tall and dressed well. He had curly, light auburn hair and freckles."  https://truewestmagazine.com/cole-younger/

- "Where he got his fiery red hair, no-one really knew. Cole had green eyes and a red stubble for a goatee."  https://books.google.it/books…

- "... but Cole was a red-haired beef of a man with sideburns..."  https://books.google.it/books…

923) Sam Brown

Sam Brown (1831 - 1861). Alabama-born outlaw, active during the California and Nevada Gold Rushes. He and his boys robbed gold and payrolls in both locations.
On July 6th, 1861, in Genoa, Nevada, he harassed German innkeeper Henry Van Sickle, pulling a pistol and chasing him through his own establishment in front of over two dozen guests. July 7th saw the rematch, as Van Sickle engaged Brown in a running gunfight and eventually shot him to death. Accounts claim Brown had killed between 15-20 men.
Henry Van Sickle went on to be a major figure in Nevada politics. The man’s clash with Long-Haired Sam Brown and subsequent career was, by some accounts, the inspiration for the fictional short story by Dorothy M. Johnson The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

- "He stood 6 foot tall, weighed 200 lbs. and had long flaming red hair and whiskers."  https://visitcarsonvalley.org/demise-bad-man-sam-brown/

- "His face had a florid complexion, topped by coarse red hair and long whiskers."  https://thetahoeweekly.com/2018/06/sam-brown-sierra-bad-man/

- "... Long-Haired Sam Brown had a beard and long red hair..."  https://glitternight.com/…/gunmen-of-mystery-from-the-old-…/

- "It was Stewart, red-haired like the loutish Brown, but a bigger man..."  https://truewestmagazine.com/justice-comes-to-nevada/

Van Sickle station in Genoa, Nevada

915) Big Harpe and Little Harpe

Micajah "Big" Harpe, born Joshua Harper (before 1768 – 1799), and Wiley "Little" Harpe, born William Harper (before 1770 – 1804). Murderers, highwaymen, and river pirates who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi. They are often considered the earliest documented serial killers in the United States, reckoned from the colonial era forward.
Loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution, the Harpes became outlaws after the war and began robbing and killing settlers in the remote frontier west of the Appalachian Mountains. They are believed to have killed thirty-nine people, and possibly as many as fifty. As the Harpes' crimes gained notoriety, vigilante groups formed to avenge their victims, and they were eventually tracked down and executed around the turn of the century. Their legendary savagery has since entered American folklore, appearing to have been motivated more by blood lust than financial gain.
Though many historical accounts identify them as brothers, it is also possible they were actually first cousins named Joshua and William Harper who emigrated from Scotland in 1759 or 1760.
Their hair colour is disputed. According to the description given by Kentucky Governor James Garrard, they both had black hair, while other sources describe one or the other as red-haired.


Big Harpe:

- "He was described as typically being "diry and shabby," the darkness of the grime offset by a thatch of "fiery red hair."  https://www.findadeathforum.com/showthread.php…

- "He wore no covering on his head, so the natural protection of thick, coarse hair, of a fiery red, uncombed and matted, gave evidence of the rudest exposure."  http://hendersonkyhistory.com/HarpeBros.htm

Little Harpe:

- "His description of Little Harpe was similar, except he had red hair and "bore a look of cunning and treachery."  http://www.thepastwhispers.com/ALHN_Harpes.html

- "Big Micajah, described as bony and muscular, was the brawn to the brains of red-haired Wiley..."  https://www.scotsman.com/…/the-harpe-brothers-scots-who-bec…

- "Wiley, or Little Harpe, was at times described as having black hair, but in fact he seems to have been red-headed."  http://helenroulston.com/whoweretheharpes.html
 
- "Red hair was the particular mark of Little Harpe."  https://books.google.it/books…

- "Little Harpe was small and wiry, with fox-red hair."  https://books.google.it/books…

- "Wiley had flaming red hair, was sllightly smaller in stature and went by Little Harpe."  https://books.google.it/books…

298) Jesse James

Jesse Woodson James (1847 – 1882). American outlaw, bank and train robber and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of western Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. He and his brother Frank James joined pro-Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" operating in Missouri and Kansas during the American Civil War. As followers of William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, they were accused of participating in atrocities against Union soldiers and civilian abolitionists, including the Centralia Massacre in 1864.

- “The fact that Jesse James suffered from ophthalmic conjunctivitis is in sync with J. Frank Dalton having died a blind man. But the man who Ford killed in 1882 did not suffer from ophthalmic conjunctivitis. Neither did he have red hair like Jesse. The man who Ford killed had black hair.” http://virtualcities.com/ons/tx/y/as/txy60a23.htm

- “The man who was killed and buried in Missouri did not have the eye problem, and according to the doctor, also had black hair. Jesse James had red hair." http://www.durangotexas.com/eyesontexas/…/granbury/james.htm