Daniel "Dutch" van der Linde (1855 - 1911) was an American outlaw, bank robber, and gang leader of the Wild West. Known for his "Robin Hood" status and for his recruitment of a Native American gang in 1911, he was hunted down and killed in a gunfight at Cochinay in 1911.
Biography[]
A wanted poster of Dutch
Dutch van der Linde was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a family of Dutch descent; he was given his nickname "Dutch" because of his Dutch surname. His father was killed while serving in the Union Army at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, and he ran away from home at a young age; his mother remained in the Philadelphia area until her death. Dutch grew up on the western frontier, and he became an outlaw of the Wild West, recruiting a gang that included Arthur Morgan, Micah Bell, John Marston, Abigail Marston, Bill Williamson, and Javier Escuella. He was an altruistic and idealistic rogue, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. He saw himself as a champion of the poor who fought against government control and for individual liberty, but his idealism turned to extreme anger as his activities failed to change America's bureaucratic system of government. In 1899, he was wanted for the robbery of $150,000 from a boat in Blackwater and multiple associated counts of murder, and his numerous train and bank robberies across the American West led to the Pinkertons and the sheriffs wanting him dead or alive.
Downfall[]
Dutch's body
Dutch and his gang went into hiding after the robbery, going their separate ways. Van der Linde fled to Cochinay in the Rockies, and he recruited a gang of poor Native Americans from local reservations. He was rumored to have fled to Colombia, and he continued to live in hiding as Marston, on the orders of the Bureau of Investigation, hunted down the other members of Dutch's old gang. In 1911, Van der Linde and his gang robbed the Blackwater bank, and Dutch escaped from Marston and the police. Van der Linde fled back to Cochinay, and the US Army launched a full-scale assault on Cochinay to wipe out Dutch's gang. Marston chased Van der Linde to a mountain cliff, and, rather than be captured, Van der Linde allowed himself to fall back off the cliff to his death. BOI agent Edgar Ross shot his corpse to make it look better in the report, which claimed that he had been killed in a shootout.
Gallery[]
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