Aberdeen Herald
Aberdeen Herald
Contributed by Gigimo

Description: Bold Woman Bandit. Esther VANCE, a Banker's Daughter and Actress. She Has Figured in Many Daring Hold-Ups in the West - Now Reported Dying at Her Home in Virginia City - A Dramatic Career.

Date: January 10 1901

Newspaper published in: Aberdeen, WA

The career of Esther VANCE, bandit and convict, who is said to be dying at her home in Virginia City, Nev., surpasses in dramatic interest the story of many a writer of fiction. She was born in St. Charles, Mo., the daughter of a banker, and received good educational advantages. She had a beautiful voice and the better to develop it she was sent to Paris to study music. After her father's death the fortune left by him melted away and in 1874 Esther appeared in San Francisco as a candidate for stage distinction. Her success was considerable, but she gave no effort to make it permanent, but sought enjoyment in long country trips, riding on horseback throughout the State, visiting the mining camps, and sometimes with companions, but more frequently alone, pursuing an erratic career, always carrying a considerable sum of money, and moving about in saloons and dance houses equipped with a handsome brace of pistols, in the skillful use of which she gave exhibitions. She had many suitors attracted by the amazonian novelty of her life, but she preferred the company of gamblers, who had no interest in lovemaking, and finally she chose as her companion Bud REECE, one of the most notorious of his time, who changed his name to VANCE and became known as her husband.

Known in Mining Camps.

When the prosperity of the Comstock began to fade away and sterner business methods reduced the miner's pay from $40 to $50 a day to $5 and $6 the gambling fraternity of Virginia had to seek new fields. About the same time all the mining properties in the Sierras, both in Colorado and Nevada, were capitalized and operated by companies using the hydraulic system and the wild life of these auriferous lands settled down into orderly ways, and Bud VANCE and his amazon partner disappeared. They were heard of at Helena, Mont., at Leadville, and in Arizona, and finally came a story of Chihuahua, Mexico, that both had engaged in a successful defense of a roulette game in which they were wounded, and the woman was shot in the side and seriously hurt.

In 1885 Esther was back in California and soon afterward occurred the robbery of the California express in the Napa Valley, in which she, her husband and a Mexican were implicated. A number of other train robberies followed, chiefly on the line of the Central Pacific Road, and principally in the Sierras. The method of these was varied, but the description of the persons concerned was repeated and the figure and identity of Esther VANCE began to take form in all of them. That a woman took part in these exploits is well known, for, in female attire, she made no special effort to conceal herself, as one instance on the Denver and Rio Grande Salt Lake City express will show. The evening train westward was just pulling into Colorado Springs when a man and a woman drove up on a buckboard with a large case containing an enormous dog. The woman hailed the agent and prepaid the express charges on the dog to Salt Lake. She attended the box to the car door and handed the express messenger a $5 gold piece.

"Take good care of my dog, won't you"" she said. "I will send him something to eat on the train - at Marshall Pass, say - and give him water, won't you?"

At Marshall Pass a man appeared at the car door with some meat and a pan of water. "I reckon I had better feed him myself," he said. "He's rather fierce." And thus he gained admission to the car. The pan would not go into the box and the stranger began with a knife to cut a larger opening for it. In the meantime the train started and the messenger told the visitor he must leave the car.

"Just a moment," was the reply, and as the messenger walked back to open the door to give him exit the stranger fired upon and shot him fatally in the neck. He then admitted his accomplices, who were hidden on the front platform, and leisurely looted the car. Then two of them passed through the train and deliberately robbed every passenger. One of those who gathered the watches and money was told by the other to let the women alone. "Not at all," was the scoffing retort. "They don't need the money they never earned, and can get more the same way."

This person is supposed to have been Esther VANCE, and there is some reason to think it was she also who shipped the dog, entered the sleeping car, changed her dress to a man's apparel, and shot the messenger.

In 1887, on the night of the 12th of July, the Beowawe stage, with passengers and mail, broke down in a shallow ford through Stony Creek. At the same time two horsemen rode up and volunteered to aid the driver. They rode alongside of the stage and, taking the passengers on the croup of their saddles, carried them to dry land. Then with a lariat they made fast to the stage and helped to pull the vehicle to the bank. This being done one of them ordered the whole party, some nine in number, to clasp hands and to hold their arms high in the air. This command was enforced with a pistol by one of the riders, who sat astride of his horse smoking a cigarette. His companion deliberately cut open the mail pouches, opened the letters, and stowed their valuable contents into his poncho. Neither of the robbers wore a mask, but both had long black beards, which were afterward found to be false and were used for the purpose of disguise. The passengers were then ordered to deliver their valuable, and the highwaymen with a mocking laugh rode away.

The pursuit was at once begun, and continued for days until the thieves were run to earth at a spring which issues from a cleft in the mountains and flows into Lake Tahoe. The only approach to it was by a narrow passage through which the stream flowed, and here Bud VANCE made his last defense. Three persons who approached were shot down fatally, but it was not until the surrounding hills were ascended, from which fusillade after fusillade was poured down into the robbers' retreat, that their answering fire was silenced. Then a rush was made up the gorge. The man was dead, shot with several bullets, and the woman was lying by his side, her hip broken by a ball from a Winchester express rifle. She was in man's dress, and was heavily armed. Being taken to Washoe County prison, she was recognized as Esther VANCE and was indicted for robbery and murder.

On her subsequent trial, when she was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, she cursed at the judge and jury. She was sent to Carson, where she spent four years in the prison hospital. Pity was then aroused for her and her sentence was suspended. She then took up her residence in the house in Virginia City where she is dying.

Submitted: 01/31/16 (Edited 01/31/16)

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