October 20, 2011--The Outlaw Marvin Kuhns part deux from the Rant in February 2008...

 After the two weeks of near perfect fall weather that kicked off October, reality has set in....yesterday being on of the most miserable days in recent memory, at least weather wise...48 may have been the high, and consistent and steady rains through out the day....

However all wasn't lost:  My old buddy Dick Finke, up from Florida for a few weeks, before heading back to the sunny Gulf Shores stopped by.  We grabbed coffee and soup for lunch at a small local coffee house....then headed out towards one of the north side of Grand Lake bars, where we downed a couple of beers, him with Bud, me with a couple of long neck bottles of Sam Adams Octoberfest.  We ended up at his son Ross's place, then finally dinner with Ross and his girlfriend at a local golf course side restaurant.  By the time I arrived home, I didn't have much interest in the opening game of the World Series...good thing too, since the hated Cardinals took game #1 by a 3-2 count of the Texas Rangers....game #2 is tonight in St. Louis....

I will be at Paulding, in the rain and mud, for a Junior High game...the conditions, if they play the game, will not be pleasant....

Today will mark part 2 of my Early 1998 blog post about Marvin Kuhns...It appears I finally have figured out how to get the entire story on with having to use links....my learning process on Blogger, despite 4 1/2 years of doing this, is still a learning process....

enjoy part 2:


Marvin Kuhns...the Indiana/Ohio Outlaw part 2____

Dad came into possession of Marvin Kuhns' pistols and the other material pertaining to the outlaw sometime around 1970....dad passed away on Christmas Eve 1972. For the last 10 years of his life the old man had become interested in antique collecting, and became quite good at going to auctions...bring home boxes of what we thought were "junk" or tables and other funiture that cluttered up the garage. What at that time I didn't know(although mom sure did), Stan Houseworth knew what he was looking for....he had an eye for what was valuable, even if others couldn't see it. When he passed away at the age of 55 of a sudden heart attack on December 24, 1972, he left quite a collection of collectibles and antiques.

I began an interest in the collectibles part of his hobby when my dad's sister Aunt Eva passed away.....some of the stuff I sold off a few years ago, I could kick myself for doing.....but hindsight is 20-20. Anyway, on to Marvin Kuhns part 2.

Marvin Kuhns, a desperado, born in Noble County, Indiana, in 1867 had a speciality....he was a horse thief, he came from a good solid family, so the stories go, and had a decent education for those days. That all come to a sudden end, in a battle of bullets on Sunday June 2, 1907.

After a life of crime...burglary, horse thievery, and finally murder....Kuhns was put on trial in northern Ohio, at the Seneca County Courthouse in Tiffin, Ohio. The date was June 22, 1891....Marvin was accused of killing his partner in crime(another horse thief) William Campeau, on November 16, 1890. Kuhns was captured in Churubusco, Indiana(a town I travel through on many occasions), near his home town on December 6th...he was captured after a shootout on the main street of that northeast Indiana city....he was arrested by an off duty Fort Wayne(IN) police officer...in addition to the murder, Marvin also had warrents out for his hide, for stealing horses in Noble County....Marvin was in a fix, even if he got off for the killing, he was going to jail back in Indiana.

Much disagreement still rests today if Kuhns was the actual killer, or if even the extradition to Ohio was legal and above board.....regardless, he was tried and found guilty...after all Marvin Kuhns had a past, and even as a teenager had broken out of the county jail in Albion, Indiana, on 3 seperate occasions. Guilty he was, according to the jury, and he was sentenced to the Ohio Penitentiary...the sentence was "life at hard labor".

The sentence, like some today, really didn't mean life....Ol' Marvin, with the help of his girlfriend/advocate, Kate Hagans petitioned the Governor of Ohio, Myron Herrick for his release....and on July 25, 1905, Marvin Kuhns was pardoned by the Ohio Pardon Board, with the approval of Herrick. He returned to Albion and married Kate a short time later.

Marvin's life as a free man however could not erase his past and his personality issues...he returned to the life of being a horse stealing outlaw......it would be his ultiimate demise, in less than 2 years Kuhn would make the mistake of stealing a horse and buggy, and making his way through my birth county, Van Wert, Ohio.....that would be his last mistake on this earth, and make for some great items and stories that he would leave behind.



That final chapter is next___________

------------------------------------------------------

Photos-Sheriff Fred Hott's .38 Smith and Wesson, manufactured in 1905, still in near mint condition today, it was used to end the run of Marvin Kuhns, as described in the June 7, 1907 article in the Van Wert(Ohio) Times Bulletin....