National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; gift of Pinkerton’s, Inc.

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After Laura Bullion’s arrest in 1901 for her participation in a Montana train robbery, a St. Louis policeman who was booking her remarked, “I wouldn’t 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.”

Bullion was found with forged banknotes and, after being charged, spent the next two and a half years in prison. She admitted to police that her accomplices in the robbery were Harry Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid) and Ben Kilpatrick (the Tall Texan).

Although women do not figure prominently in the history of western crime, Bullion was closely associated with the Wild Bunch and helped the gang in numerous robberies. This mug shot of Bullion was made by the police following her arrest in St. Louis.

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