Typed Letter Signed By The Last Outlaw Pat Crowe

PATRICK THOMAS CROWE (1869-1938). Crowe, also known as Frank Roberts, was an American criminal whose exploits as a bank and train robber and kidnapper made him a prominent celebrity and writer early in the 20th century. TLS. 1 pg. 8 x 10. July 11, 1921. Boston. A typed letter signed Pat Crowe to Mr. Edward L.B. Howard: Business duties have prevented my granting your humble requests to present. It will be my pleasure to send you at an early date, a petition relating to our national welfare, that I would be pleased to have you circulate among your friends By 1921, the celebrity surrounding Pat Crowe had begun to fade. The publicity that surrounded his success at being the first man to successfully obtain a ransom for kidnapping and not be captured, and years later being acquitted of kidnapping despite 40 prosecution witnesses and no testimony on his behalf, had faded, and Crowe was working as a nightwatchman for the Salvation Army in New York. His references to national welfare and, later in the letter, to publicity campaigns, likely have to do with his work for the Salvation Army. In 1938, Crowe would die greatly impoverished in Harlem, yet 100 people still attended his funeral mass. This letter is therefore a good reminder of a man who was his generations Jesse James, though even more media-savvy. It is in very good condition.