
In 1887, Dutch led the gang's first major bank robbery alongside Hosea and young Arthur. Over time Dutch came to regard Arthur and John as his favorite 'sons'.
DUTCH VAN DER LINDE DEATH HOW TO
Dutch taught John how to read, write, fight, shoot and ride just like he had previously done with Arthur. Dutch intervened saving the boy's life and inducted him into the gang. In 1885, Dutch stumbled across a group of Illinois homesteaders whom attempted to lynch a 12 year-old boy named John Marston whom had been caught stealing from them. This event caused Dutch and Colm to become arch-enemies and sparked a years-long blood feud between the two rival gangs. In retaliation Colm murdered Annabelle which left Dutch greatly angered and heartbroken over her death. Although the exact reason is unknown, Dutch broke the truce and killed Colm's brother. The two maintained a loose and uneasy partnership as Dutch disliked how Colm treated his own men as disposable, Colm likewise mocked Van der Linde for his philosophy in making a 'better world'. Some time later Van der Linde met the infamous outlaw named Colm O'Driscoll and the leader of his own gang The O'Driscoll Boys.
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He later ended his relationship with Susan as he met and deeply fell in love with a woman named Annabelle. Around this time, Dutch became romantically involved with a woman named Susan Grimshaw, who also became a member of the gang. Teaching him how to read, write, hunt, fight, shoot and ride becoming their first protégé. The pair decided to take the boy under their wing.

Later that year, Dutch and Hosea encountered a 14 year-old street orphan named Arthur Morgan. On March 9 th, 1877 the pair managed to escape from their cell by unknown means, tying up and robbing the sheriff in the process. Unfortunately they were eventually discovered and arrested by Sheriff Carmichael. Impressed by the other's skills, the pair laughed and decided to partner up and founded the Van der Linde gang.ĭutch and Hosea later found themselves in the town of Kettering, Ohio, where the two posed as international merchants, conning twelve locals into buying $300 worth of shares into a fictional Portuguese shipping company. Hosea attempted to rob him only to realize that Dutch likewise had done the same and stolen from him. In the mid-1870s, Dutch met a con artist named Hosea Matthews at a campfire on the road to Chicago. To attain these desires, Dutch began to resort to a life of crime. Van der Linde valued freedom and liberties above all else and dreamed of living an independent existence. At the age of 15, he left his home as he was a disobedient child and rarely got along with his mother, who died in 1881 and was buried in Blackwater, although Dutch only found out several years later from an uncle of his. His father fought for the Union in the American Civil War and died in battle (heavily implied to be the Battle of Gettysburg) because of his father's death, Van der Linde developed a sworn grudge against Southerners.

Dutch was born in 1855 to a woman of English descent named Greta and a father of Dutch ancestry somewhere near Philadelphia.
