Hosea Matthews (1844-1899) was an American outlaw of the Wild West who served as the right-hand man of the Van der Linde Gang until his death in 1899.
Biography[]
Hosea Matthews was born in 1844 and raised in the mountains by his mother; he only met his debaucherous father three times before his father died at the age of 75, although Matthews loved his father. Matthews became a stage actor with a goal of becoming a comedian, but he was ultimately forced to turn to crime to provide for himself. He first met Dutch van der Linde when they tried to rob each other on the road to Chicago in 1877, but they shared subversive ideals and became fast friends and partners in crime. Matthews became a master con artist, and he was known to be able to talk his way into or out of anything. He briefly left the gang after marrying a woman named Bessie, but, after Bessie's death, a heartbroken Hosea rejoined the gang, and, by 1899, he was its most senior member and Dutch's right-hand man. However, he began to feel his age, and he was upset when Dutch announced that the gang would be headed east towards New Orleans rather than west towards Texas. During the gang's robbery of the New Orleans bank, he was captured by Pinkerton agent Andrew Milton, who took him hostage outside of the bank and shot him in the chest in Van der Linde's view, saying that he had given the gang enough chances to give up. Matthews' body was later recovered and buried in the Bluewater Marsh.
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