Orlando Camilla Hanks (1860 - 1902)

Born 18 Dec 1860 in DeWitt County, Texas, United States

Ancestors

Died 16 Apr 1902 at age 41 in San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, United States

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Biography

From Find A Grave [Bio by William A. Mills - 2018]:

He was born as Orlando Camilla Hanks. Later in life, he was known as "Deaf Charley", a member of the "Wild Bunch" - bank and train robbers - including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

In 1979, as part of their "Wild Bunch" collection of toys, the Kenner Toy Company manufactured a "fast-draw action figure" of O. C. Hanks, which was associated with the 1979 movie, in which O. C. Hanks was played by Brian Dennehy in Butch and Sundance: The Early Days.

His father died in 1863 when Camilla was about three-years old, during the Civil War - and he is buried on Confederate Hill, Loudon Park Cemetery Baltimore, Md. On August 22, 1872, his widowed mother, Laura Amanda Hanks married James W. Cox, but he died at the hands of outlaws the following year - just days before the birth of their child, James W. Cox, Jr. on May 18, 1873.

Camilla's career as an outlaw was long and adventurous, and he spent time in prison along the way. On May 30, 1901 O. C. Hanks was released from the Deer Lodge, Montana penitentiary after serving eight years for his part in the Big Timber robbery in Teton Co., Montana in 1894.

About a year later, he was shot and killed by Texas officers at San Antonio, Texas on April 16, 1902, while resisting arrest for the Great Northern express robbery at Wagner, Montana. He was forty-one years old. At first, they thought he was Wyatt Hanks, as his brother's name was on the clothing that he was wearing. His mother (Mrs. L. A. Cox) was called in from Abilene, Texas to verify that it was actually Camilla Hanks who was shot.

His burial information is documented by Record of Burials by The City Sexton, San Antonio, Texas, pg. 159, line 24, O. C. Hanks. The Funeral Director was Zizik.

Sources

• Find A Grave: Memorial #192546952

Also:

• numismaticnews.net/article/bank-notes-forever-tied-to-wild-bunch - Numismatic News, "Bank notes forever tied to Wild Bunch," 2016