Since the first flickering silent images just after the turn of the 20th century, Americans have idolized the “outlaw” image of the Old West. Modern films continue the trend. It all came from Dime Novels, pulp fiction, printed in the late 19th century as the era of the cowboy and the badman came to an end.
During the heyday of the Western in the 1950 and 60s, it was sometimes difficult to tell if the main character was a “good bad man” or a “bad good man.” Yes, there was a subtle difference, think Lee Van Cleef versus the Clint Eastwood characters in the Italian-made “Spaghetti Westerns.”
The reality is that sometimes an outlaw was forced into a life of crime by circumstances beyond their control. At other times, these outlaws were simply bad from the start.
This is the story of a man who was the later; bad from the start.
Stephen Ogburn, alias Stephen Casey, (they all had aliases) entered the world in 1907. He was one of seven children born to Lubey Ogburn.
Like many of the outlaw stories, he headed west to find adventure. His father was stationed with the U.S. Army at Des Moines, Iowa, when Stephen left home at 16.
He found himself in Casper, Wyoming, where he worked in local restaurants and cafes before taking over the management of the Poposia Hotel and Café in Hudson in January 1925. He was just 17 years old but had a good reputation at the time.
Riverton Review – February 5, 1925
“Stephen A. Ogburn of Casper has taken over the Poposia and in the future will conduct it under the name of The Casey Hotel and Cafe. Mr. Ogburn has been in the hotel business a number of years and is up to date in that line. Hudson is very fortunate in having a man of Mr. Ogburn’s ability, and we hope the people will do their best to make it worthwhile for him to remain here.”
It was the first instance of Ogburn being associated with the name Casey.
The arrangement didn’t work out. Ogburn was too young to manage a single business, much less two establishments in the bustling coal mining town of Hudson. Just two months later, he quit.
Riverton Review – March 26, 1925
S. A. (Casey) Ogburn, who has been conducting the Casey Cafe here during the past few months, has left and the place of business was closed the first of the week. The whereabouts of Mr. Ogburn are not known.
Ogburn went “underground,” so to speak, moving about 40 miles east along the Chicago North Western tracks to Shoshoni.
In Shoshoni, they met with former Hot Springs County game warden and Shoshoni Soft Drink Emporium owner Clarence Woodard. Woodard was a well-known, but careful, bootlegger with stills hidden near Shoshoni, the Owl Creek Mountains, and above Lost Cabin.
Ogburn became partners with Jay Davis, another young man just entering the lucrative world of moonshine.
Both were impetuous, quick-tempered, and not ideal partners for Woodard.
Riverton Review – May 28, 1925
Still Shot, Hospital, Jail for Bootleggers
“One man is in jail at Lander, and another is in the hospital at the county seat as the result of a shooting scrape, officers state, over an illicit still.
According to the officers, Jay Davis and Casey Ogburn of Shoshoni were operating a still, selling the product therefrom and sharing the proceeds. Everything was going along smoothly until last week. Mr. Davis, in the absence of his partner, is alleged to have sold a quantity of hootch from the still and failed to make a division with Mr. Ogburn, who proceeded to demand an accounting.
The pair met about 7:30 o’clock Sunday on the Main street of Shoshoni, and after an exchange of words, Mr. Ogburn became infuriated. Drawing a pistol he proceeded to puncture Mr. Davis. One bullet hit its mark, entering Davis’ body above the heart and became embedded under his left shoulder. Inter being removed by a physician.
No one knows what the casualties would have been had not Deputy Sheriff James Thompson arrived on the scene. He quelled the gunman, placed him in the county jail at Lander and had Davis sent to the hospital.”
Newspapers around the state picked up the story, with the Casper Herald, published just 100 miles east of Shoshoni, adding more detail to the incident.
Casper Herald – June 10, 1925
Flying Tackle by Jay Davis Downs Assassin
SHOSHONI, — The Enterprise says:
“It seems as though “Casey” Ogburn had a little too much of a mixture in his breakfast, for he started out with a .38 to settle an argument with Jay Davis.
Their first bout took place at a cafe in Shoshoni, Davis relieving Ogburn of his gun and giving it to the proprietor of the cafe, then proceeding on his way down the street.
In a few minutes “Casey” succeeded in obtaining possession of his gun and again started out. Davis saw him coming and decided that the best thing to do was to meet him, although he, himself, was unarmed. Casey, being about 75 feet up the street, drew and fired, striking Davis in the left shoulder and causing an ugly wound. This was the last opportunity “Casey” had to shoot, for the time being, for Davis downed him with a flying tackle, shook his gun again, threw the shells out, and then proceeded to a doctor’s office to have the bullet taken out of his shoulder. On November 18, 1925, simple assault charges were levied against both men. They paid fines and did a short stint in the Fremont County Jail for the bootlegging charge. The court was lenient since this was the first alcohol offense for both men.”
Stephen A. Ogburn was just 18 and already a convicted felon. His life spiraled downhill from there.
Ogburn left bootlegging, returning to his previous career as a cook. He was hired by Henry Hougen at the Club Café in Lander. He worked there for only two months before he began arguing with Hougen over his paychecks.
He returned to Iowa briefly at Christmas, where he married his first wife, Helen. She remained in Weldon, Iowa, and gave birth to their son Stephen Thomas Ogburn on October 4, 1926. He later abandoned Helen but would occasionally see his son.
Ogburn was drinking heavily and shooting heroin occasionally. In a drugged and drunken state, he took revenge on Hougen.
Wyoming State Journal – January 27, 1926
Stephen A. Ogburn, a Shoshoni, was brought before Judge C. O. Brown in connection with the burning of the Club Cafe, a brief account of which was made in the Journal last week. The information charged Ogburn with having arranged a candle so that it would ignite some rags saturated with kerosene. He had been employed in Lander at different times and a real and imaginary wrong revolving in his head, stimulated with hooch and possibly dope, a needle having been found in his possession, may have been the motive back of the crime.
When arraigned before the court the circumstances were explained by County Attorney C. J. Christie and the prisoner admitted his guilt. Sentence was passed confining him to the state penitentiary for a term of two to four years.
The fire occurred the morning of the 26th and the alarm was turned in by Hank Boedecker, night marshal, who had to use his gun for alarm due to the congealed lubricant which bound the siren alarm. In order to ensure pressure Doedecker made a run of seven blocks to shut off the water at the skating rink. The department made quick action and the suspicious circumstances attending the fire led the men and the officers to believe that the fire was of incendiary origin.
Henry I. Hougen, owner of the building, placed the officers in charge and assisted in every way to clear the mystery. Suspicion rested on the cook and he was known to have driven a car to the rear of the cafe after midnight. Checking him up resulted in his arrest and subsequent confession.
Judge Brown sentenced Ogburn to two to four years in the Wyoming Penitentiary at Rawlins. In a stroke of luck, Wyoming Governor Frank Emerson commuted his sentence to just 18 months. As part of his early parole, he moved in with his brother in Thermopolis.
He didn’t stay in Thermopolis very long. He moved to Illinois in 1928, where he ran a shady business selling patent medicine door-to-door.
That didn’t work out either. He ended up working cattle on the William Foell Ranch in Emmons County, North Dakota. There, he met the rancher’s daughter Louise. They were married on May 28, 1929.
It was a tumultuous relationship. Ogburn couldn’t or simply didn’t want to go straight. They had a daughter, Donna Jean, born in February 1931.
Whether it was alcohol or drug use, it was never clear. Stephen Ogburn was unstable. He sold a railcarload of cattle for his father-in-law but kept the money. William Foell filed charges against his son-in-law.
It was the last straw.
STEVE OGBURN WAS ACCUSED OF CATTLE THEFT
Tragedy Occurs When Wife Asks Proof Of Innocence
By S. A. SIMMONS
Bismarck, North Dakota, Tribune
“LINTON, N. Dak., June 30 (Special) Because his wife challenged him to prove he was innocent of a charge of stealing cattle, Steve Ogburn, 26, shot and killed her and then committed suicide Monday.
The tragedy left their three months old child an orphan. Ogburn married the woman about a year and a half ago when he came here from Kewanee, Ill., as a patent medicine salesman. Last February he abandoned his twenty-one-year-old wife after charges of stealing a load of cattle from his father-in-law, William Foell, charges were brought against him.
Urges Wife Come
Since his departure he had urged his wife, in several letters to join him in his flight, she refused and today he alighted from a bus here and went to a mercantile establishment where she was employed as a clerk. Lama Roesler, friend of the woman, accompanied the couple to the home where Mrs. Ogburn lived. There the couple engaged in a dispute in the presence of Miss Roesler, argument revolving around whether Ogburn was innocent of the charge.
Miss Roesler told authorities she left the couple while they were still arguing, saying she had to return to her work. Shortly after her departure, Ogburn fired two shots at his wife, then sent a bullet through his head. Both died instantly
Child Flees
A child in the home saw the woman fall to the floor and fled outside
When neighbors gathered both were dead, Mrs. Ogburn dying from a wound in the body and one in the head.
Persons among authorities were told by Miss Roesler that while the couple engaged in argument there was no indication of the impending tragedy.”
The child who fled the scene was his son Stephen, who was just five years old and in North Dakota visiting his father. The boy watched his father murder his stepmother and then commit suicide.
Louise Foell Ogburn had four brothers, Quentin, George, William, and 11-year-old John, and a sister, Catherine, just four years younger than her.
Louise was only 21. She is buried in Emmons County.
Stephen A. Ogburn’s body was taken back to Kewanee, Illinois, for burial.
It was a tragic end to a tragically short 24-year-long life.
Not all outlaws become legends like Jesse James or Butch and Sundance.