Distinctly Montana Magazine

92 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 6 S U B S C R I B E S U B S C R I B E T O D AY T O D AY A N D B R I NG DI S T I NC T LY MON TA NA A N D B R I NG DI S T I NC T LY MON TA NA W H E R E V E R T H E R OA D TA K E S YOU. W H E R E V E R T H E R OA D TA K E S YOU. SUBSCRIBE TO DISTINCTLY MONTANA MAGAZINE AND GET IT DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO YOUR HOME (WHEREVER IT MAY BE!) distinctlymontana.com/subscribe SEND A CHECK FOR THE AMOUNT MATCHING THE SUBSCRIPTION PERIOD YOU'D LIKE: 1 YEAR - $39.95 2 YEARS - $69.95 3 YEARS - $99.95 MAIL CHECKS TO: DISTINCTLY MONTANA • PO BOX 84 • BOZEMAN, MT 59771 TO SUBSCRIBE BY PHONE, CALL 406-600-7660 In interviews, Laura described prison life with composure. "Prison life is what the prisoners make it," she said. She spoke of sewing, letter-writing on Sundays, and the monotony of days measured in routine. She admitted she had learned too much about the world's wickedness. Released in September 1905, Laura imme- diately sought legal avenues to shorten Kilpatrick's sentence, even petitioning for executive clemency. When he was released in 1911—only to be rearrested on an old Texas charge—she followed him. The case collapsed for lack of evidence. In March 1912, Kilpatrick attempted anoth- er train robbery in Texas. This time, express messenger David Trousdale killed him with a wooden mallet inside a railcar. Some spec- ulated a third accomplice waited nearby with horses, as at Wagner. Laura's name surfaced in whispers, but no proof linked her to the attempt. After 1912, she faded from the outlaw nar- rative. By 1918 she was living quietly in Memphis, Tennessee, claiming to be the bereft war widow of a man named Maurice Lincoln. She worked as a seamstress in de- partment stores, her past buried beneath careful silence. Laura Bullion—the only confirmed female participant in a Wild Bunch train robbery— died on December 2, 1961, at age eighty- five. She was laid to rest in Memphis Me- morial Park Cemetery. In life, she was a shadow rider in men's clothes, waiting with horses in the dark. In legend, she became something rarer: a woman who stepped across the boundary of her era and into outlaw history. Laura Bullion

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