Kieran Duffy (died 1899) was an Irish-American outlaw of the Wild West who was affiliated with the O'Driscoll Boys and the Van der Linde Gang. While he went from being a distrusted and abused captive of the Van der Linde Gang to being a well-liked comrade, he was later murdered by his former gang members, the O'Driscolls, at the Shady Belle plantation in Louisiana.
Biography[]
Duffy as a captive
Kieran Duffy was the son of Irish immigrants who came to the United States to become farmers in California, only for both of his parents to die of cholera. Duffy was orphaned and then thrown out of the stables which had once employed him, and a brief stint in the US Army also did not work out for him. He was forced to turn to crime, joining a gang of outlaws which was quickly killed. Duffy later encountered the O'Driscoll Boys, who offered him to ride with them or die, so he decided to join them, although they forced him to do the most menial work at camp. In 1899, he was captured by Van der Linde Gang member Arthur Morgan as he attempted to flee the gunfight at Colter, Wyoming, with Marston lassoing him from his horse in the Rockies and taking him back to the Van der Linde camp. Dutch van der Linde coerced him into turning on his own people, and he became a member of Van der Linde's gang in his own right. Ironically, his old employers wanted him dead, while his new allies were still suspicious of him, and he was disliked due to his poor hygiene. He later befriended Morgan, saving his life from an O'Driscoll outlaw and later reflecting that joining the Van der Linde gang was the best choice he ever made. However, while passed out drunk outside the gang's Louisiana bayou hideout at Shady Belle, he was captured by the O'Driscolls and tortured into giving up the Van der Linde gang's location. The O'Driscolls then had his eyes gouged out and his body sent back to the Shady Belle on horseback, with his decapitated head being held in his cupped hands. Morgan was devastated that he was unable to save Duffy's life when Duffy had saved his, and he later avenged Duffy by ensuring that Colm O'Driscoll was hanged for his crimes.
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