Eddie Cudahy and Pat Crowe
Hunt for a 'Desperado'
Crowe was not fully reformed.
He committed stickups in
This was the sum of Crowes lawbreaking before the
But the yellow press at the turn of last century could lather up a story with even more superlatives and hyperbole than we see today.
The Omaha Daily News judged Crowe one of the few really spectacular and truly named desperadoes of the day. It said he committed his deeds with a dash and abandon and dare-deviltry that marked the deeds of the picturesque old scoundrels of the days before civilization laid them on the shelf.
The Omaha Examiner crowed that the accused kidnapper threatens to give
The papers seemed to know everything about Pat Crowe. But no one could find him, not the Pinkerton detectives, not the cops, not the press.
In January 1901, Crowe sightings were reported far and wide, from Central America to
Pinkies, cops and scribes rushed from one reported false sighting to the next.
The public and press soon grew impatient with the balky hunt for
The Beatrice (
The Omaha Examiner added, Dont be too hard on the police. Occasionally some of them catch the grip.
Police hounded Crowes estranged wife, Hattie, and brother, John, who lived across the Missouri River in
Chief Donahue ordered Crowe wanted posters printed up by the thousands. They were shipped and posted across