Van Der Linde Gang

Van Der Linde Gang's History

The gang's roots lie in a fateful meeting between two petty hustlers, Dutch van der Linde and Hosea Matthews, around the mid-1870s. Van der Linde and Matthews met each other at a campfire on the road to Chicago. Hosea attempted to con and rob Dutch, but realized that Dutch had done the same and stolen from him in the meantime. They both saw the skill that the other had and laughed, deciding to team up and face the future together. The Van der Linde gang was thus founded. Around this same time, Hosea met a woman named Bessie, who would eventually become his wife.

Dutch convinced Hosea, who described himself as a "degenerate", that they could find redemption from their sinful lives by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, similar to the medieval tale of Robin Hood. Dutch had an anarchistic vision of a world without government or corporate interference, a "savage utopia" free from the pressures and intolerance of civilization. He saw himself as a revolutionary and thought that the gang could be an example to others who would follow their lead. They began pulling tricks and ripping off people they believed deserved it the most.

The pair found themselves in the town of Kettering, Ohio, where they began conning several people. They posed as international merchants, conning twelve locals into buying $300 worth of shares into a fictional Portuguese shipping company. They were eventually discovered and arrested by Sheriff Carmichael. On March 9, 1877, the pair escaped from their cell by unknown means, tying up and robbing the sheriff in the process
Later that year, the pair stumbled across a fourteen-year-old orphan named Arthur Morgan. He was an unruly child, and they decided to take him under their wing, teaching him to read, write, shoot and other useful skills. Around this same time, Dutch became romantically involved with a woman named Susan Grimshaw, who also became a member of the gang. The gang acted as a family, caring for each other. At some point, the gang acquired a pet dog named Copper, who Arthur grew close to and took care of.

During the early years of the gang, Hosea and his wife tried to leave the gang and go straight. But, Hosea slowly drifted back to the gang, unable to fight against his own criminal nature. Bessie understood his struggle and stuck by him. Dutch ended his relationship with Susan, but she still remained in the gang. Dutch, at some point later, became romantically involved with a woman named Annabelle.
For just over a decade, following the gang's first bank robbery in 1887 and the gang's arrival in Montana during 1898, they travelled all across the frontier and recruited almost a dozen and a half new members, usually people who wished/were forced to escape and live away from the encroaching borders of modern society. It is unclear in exactly when, and in what order, these people joined, but they included
In 1885, Dutch came across a group of Illinois homesteaders preparing to hang a twelve year-old boy for stealing from them. He saved the child, named John Marston, and brought him into the gang, teaching him to read and shoot just as he had done with Arthur. Arthur and John became like brothers, and Dutch often read to them from books by Evelyn Miller and Waldo Emerson, even though most of the concepts went over the young boys' heads. Dutch filled the minds of the boys with his anarchistic worldviews, instilling them with distrust and hatred for the government. He told them that America was designed to produce apathy in people. He would preach that revenge was a fool's game and that they should never kill in cold blood. Over the years, many members of the gang came to believe that John and Arthur were Dutch's favorites as he considers them as his sons, much to the envy of others.

In 1887, the gang committed its first major bank robbery. At 2 o'clock, Hosea, Dutch, and the now young-adult Arthur burst into the banking house of Lee and Hoyt. The gang made off with $5,000 in gold. After the robbery, they lingered in town, going to hovels, shanties, and orphanages handing out money, still going with the 'Robin Hood' ideals of Dutch. It was around this time (likely because of this bank robbery) that Dutch became a wanted man with a price on his head. Between 1887 and 1899, the gang carried out roughly 37 different bank robberies in various locations around the country.

At one point in the past, Dutch and Colm O'Driscoll, the leader of the rival gang the O'Driscoll Boys, had an uneasy truce between them. Dutch disliked how Colm treated the members of his gang as disposable while Colm mocked Dutch for his philosophies about trying to make a "better world". Though the exact reason is unknown, Dutch broke the truce when he killed Colm's brother. In retaliation, Colm killed Dutch's lover, Annabelle - an event which greatly angered and devastated him. These events led to a blood feud between the two gangs which would last for years.

During the early beginnings of the gang, they truly did help people in need and tried to make a difference. Dutch even once scolded Arthur for stealing from a poor man's house, saying that it made them no better than the people they were fighting against. As the years went on, Dutch gradually became disillusioned with society as the world around him grew more and more organized and "civilized", with increasing government centralization continuing to encroach on his idea of freedom. The acts of charity, giving money to the poor and helping others, slowly faded away, and the gang became fully dedicated to enforcing Dutch's anarchistic ideals and securing their own survival. Dutch even allowed the gang to become involved in loansharking through Leopold Strauss, which often targeted the type of lower class people the gang previously fought for. Instead of just thieving, the gang also began killing their opponents, much to Hosea's dismay. Despite his objections, Hosea stuck around out of loyalty to Dutch, though his faith in their "mission" gradually declined and eventually vanished over the years.