Data in the 1880 Federal Census suggests she might have been born on a farm in the township of Palarm, Faulkner, Arkansas and might have grown up in Tom Green County, Texas. The 1900 Federal Census shows a 23-year-old Laura Bullion, born October 1876 in Arkansas and notes her occupation as "housekeeper" living with her grandparents E. R. & Serena Byler, her aunt Mrs. Mary Allen and her three children at the Byler homestead in Commissioner's Precinct Number 4, Tom Green County, Texas.
In an arrest report dated 6 November 1901, her age is mentioned as 28. If the birth year of 1876 is correct, she would have been 24 or 25 years of age at that time. Her death certificate states Laura's age as 74 and her date of birth as October 4, 1887. If the birth year of 1876 is correct, she would have been 84 or 85 years of age at the time of death. The certificate is issued under the name Freda Bullion Lincoln, a false identity she assumed when she moved to Memphis, claiming to be the war widow of Maurice Lincoln and making herself about ten years younger than she was.
Laura's father had been an outlaw and was acquainted with outlaws William Carver ("News Carver") and Ben Kilpatrick ("The Tall Texan"), both of whom Laura met when she was around 13 years old. Her aunt, Viana Byler, married Carver in 1891 but she died from fever soon after the marriage. At age 15, Laura began a romance with Carver.
She also worked as a prostitute for a time, until reaching the age of either 16 or 17. It's believed she returned to prostitution from time to time, working mostly in the brothel of Madame Fannie Porter in San Antonio, Texas ... a frequent hideaway for gang members.
When she first became involved with Carver, he was riding with the Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum gang, and Laura wanted to join him. However, he would not allow it at first, and they only saw one another between robberies. While in Utah and on the run from lawmen, Carver became involved with the Wild Bunch gang, led by Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay.
In the early 1890s, she became involved romantically with Ben Kilpatrick ("The Tall Texan"), after Carver began a relationship with a prostitute named Lillie Davis, whom he had met while at Fannie Porter's brothel in San Antonio, Texas. As the gang robbed trains, Laura supported them by selling stolen goods, and making connections that could give the gang steady supplies and horses.
Laura became a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang in the 1890s; her cohorts were fellow outlaws, including the Sundance Kid, "Black Jack" Ketchum, and Kid Curry. For several years in the 1890s, she was romantically involved with outlaw Ben Kilpatrick ("The Tall Texan"), a bank and train robber and acquaintance of her father. Members of the Wild Bunch nicknamed her "Della Rose", a name she came by after meeting Della Moore. She was also referred to as the "Rose of the Wild Bunch".
By 1901, she was again involved with Carver, as well as occasional involvement with other members of the gang. When Carver was killed by lawmen on 1 April 1901, she was back with Kilpatrick again, and the two fled to Knoxville, Tennessee. Della Moore and Kid Curry met up with them there, and the four stayed together for a number of months, until October, when Della was arrested for passing money linked to one of the gangs robberies.
After the Great Northern Train robbery in 1901, she and Kilpatrick fled east to evade the law and traveled under the names "Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Arnold".
On 6 November 1901, she was arrested on federal charges for "forgery of signatures to banknotes" at the Laclede Hotel in St. Louis. She had $8,500 worth of robbed banknotes in her possession, stolen in the Great Northern train robbery. In the arrest report, Laura's name is filed as "Della Rose" and her aliases are stated to be "Clara Hays" and "Laura Casey & [Laura] Bullion". Her profession as prostitute.
According to a New York Times article, she was "masquerading as "Mrs. Nellie Rose" at the time of her arrest. The same article also mentions the suspicion that she, "disguised as a boy", might have taken part in a train robbery in Montana. The paper cites Chief of Detectives Desmond: "I wouldn't [sic] think helping to hold up a train was too much for her. She is cool, shows absolutely no fear, and in male attire would readily pass for a boy. She has a masculine face, and that would give her assurance in her disguise."
On 12 December 1901, Kilpatrick was arrested. Curry escaped capture on 13 December 1901, killing two Knoxville policemen in the process. Laura and Kilpatrick were both convicted of robbery, with Bullion being sentenced to five years in prison, and Kilpatrick receiving a 20-year sentence. She served three and a half years before being released in 1905. Kilpatrick was not released from prison until 1911.
Kilpatrick stayed in contact with Bullion through letters. By the time of his release from prison in 1911, she had become involved with at least four other men, but they never reconnected nor did they ever see one another again. Kilpatrick was killed robbing a train on 13 March 1912. By that time, all the members of the Wild Bunch gang were either in prison, dead or had served a prison sentence and moved on to other things in their lives.
In 1918, Laura moved to Memphis, where she spent the remainder of her life working as a householder and seamstress, and later as a drapery maker, dressmaker and interior designer. In Memphis she used the names "Freda Lincoln", "Freda Bullion Lincoln" and "Mrs. Maurice Lincoln", claiming to be a war widow and her late husband had been Maurice Lincoln. She also made herself ten years younger, claiming to have been born in 1887.
According to her obituary, Bullion died of heart disease at the Shelby County Hospital at 6:45 p.m. on December 2, 1961. The memorial service was held two days later, at 11:30 a.m. on December 4. She is buried in the Memorial Park Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee). She was the last surviving member of the Wild Bunch gang. Her bronze grave marker has a border of embossed rose vines and reads:
Freda Bullion Lincoln
Laura Bullion
The Thorny Rose
1876 - 1961
For a number of years prior to her death, Laura was one of only three people who had actually known the mysterious Etta Place, girlfriend to the Sundance Kid. Place simply disappeared in 1909, following his alleged death in Bolivia. At that same time, a woman named Eunice Gray began operating a brothel in Texas, Gray was often speculated to be Etta Place. Only Laura Bullion, Ann Bassett, and Josie Bassett could have confirmed otherwise.
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