News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The doomed bank robbers of Medicine Lodge. photo provided
On April 30, 1884, four robbers hit the bank in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. The robbery quickly went bad: Bank president Wylie Payne and chief cashier George Geppert were gunned down. In a dying effort, Geppert sealed the vault and the robbers were forced to retreat with nothing to show for the violence.
Len Gratteri, proprietor of Old West Collectibles in Sisters, is an expert on the events surrounding the Medicine Lodge bank robbery, particularly the life of one of the robbers, known as Ben Wheeler. He is the co-author of the well-regarded biography "William Sherod Robinson - Alias Ben Wheeler." During 21 years of research for the book, Gratteri collected a treasure trove of items associated with the bloody 1884 incident.
Like more than a few Western outlaws, Ben Wheeler was also a lawman, and Gratteri collected his badge from his days as assistant marshal of Caldwell, Kansas. He acquired the badge through connections with Wheeler's descendants. The badge is a featured item in the Heritage Auctions catalogue for its major June 14 Western collectibles auction in Dallas, Texas.
The badge is a particularly attractive auction item, Gratteri explained.
"Authentic badges with provenance are getting harder and harder to find," he said.
Among Gratteri's collection are Wheeler's .44-caliber Colt single-action revolver, and photographs of the robbers and possemen who tracked them down.
Gratteri told The Nugget that the Colt was in a British collection, and was acquired after changes in British gun-laws forced many to give up even historic handguns.
Things did not end well for Ben Wheeler and his accomplices. A dozen cowboys who were hanging about a stable across the street from the bank formed a posse and immediately gave case to the escaping bandits. They trapped them in a box canyon and forced them to surrender.
As the Heritage Auctions book notes, "Imagine the shock when two of the robbers turned out to be Henry Newton Brown, marshal of nearby Caldwell, Kansas, and Ben Wheeler, his assistant marshal."
The posse took their captives to the Medicine Lodge jail, but the good citizens of Medicine Lodge were in no mood to await due process. An angry crowd formed, and the four robbers were convinced they were about to be lynched. When the mob forced open the jail doors, the outlaws made a break for it. Brown was cut down by a couple of shotgun blasts that tore him nearly in two. Wheeler made it a hundred yards before gunfire brought him down. He was badly wounded; the mob made sure of him by stringing him up on an elm tree, along with his two surviving compadres.
Wheeler came to a gruesome end, and all for not one red cent. Ironically, his legacy - as it's come down in the world of Western heritage collectibles - is worth an estimated $100,000.
Gratteri is gratified at the attention the Henry Brown/Ben Wheeler Collection has received from Heritage Auctions.
As his friend Michael Cocciolo notes, "This small-town collector basically hit the big-time with this auction house."
Old West Collectibles is located at 183 E. Hood Ave. in Sisters.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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