Orville "Reverend" Swanson (born in 1851) was an American clergyman and outlaw of the Wild West who was associated with the Van der Linde Gang.
Biography[]
Orville Swanson was once a Protestant clergyman, but he indulged in alcohol and sex and accidentally married a married woman, leading to the federal authorities seeking to arrest them for bigamy. The law caught up with them in San Francisco, but the woman fled to Shanghai. Swanson soon became a morphine addict who lost his self-esteem, his direction, and most of his religion. He later saved the life of Dutch van der Linde, who recruited him into his gang; only the fact that he had saved Dutch's life kept him around the camp, where he was mostly useless and looked down upon by the other outlaws. Swanson would go on to leave the gang during its decline and became a reformed man; by 1907, he had become the minister of the First Congregational Church in New York City.
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