CRAZY MIKE: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER

It’s hard to believe, but we have just five days left of 2024’s Frontierado Holiday Season! It’s observed on the first Friday of August each year, so this Friday, August 2nd marks the event! Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality.

“CRAZY MIKE” HOGAN – Also called Frank Hamilton, Tom Blake and Tom Moore, some sources claim this trigger-happy outlaw’s real name was Thomas Hamilton Blanck. However, researcher Mark Dugan maintained that the man was born Michael Hogan Jr. on October 28th, 1870 in Schenectady, New York.   

The parents of the future Crazy Mike were supposedly Michael Hogan and Margaret Fox-Hogan, who had ten children, of whom Mike Jr. was the eighth. The unruly and rambunctious lad completed elementary school education and went on to work as a Gas Fitter, installing pipes necessary for gas lighting on streets, homes and businesses. 

A clash with his employers led to the thug quitting and heading west in 1889. One account holds that Mike robbed some cash from those employers before fleeing. He next surfaced out west working as a railroad brakeman before setting out on his infamous True Crime saga. 

Hogan and assorted temporary accomplices spent much of 1890 carrying out armed robberies of banks, stagecoaches, hotels, saloons and sometimes random lone targets. His first killing happened on March 6th, 1890 in Weiser, Idaho over an argument during a saloon poker game. Mike shot & killed James Sweeney and wounded Judge N.M. Hanthorn.

On October 10th, 1890 Crazy Mike robbed a bank in Fairhaven (now part of Bellingham), Washington. Pursued by authorities the bandit exchanged gunfire with them and killed police officer Peter Brugh (Bruhn in some newspapers). A posse caught up with Hogan in Port Townsend, Washington, and after a brief battle they apprehended him.

Crazy Mike was taken back to stand trial in Whatcom County for the bank robbery and shooting. While awaiting trial, the young man broke out of jail before the end of the year and fled to the province of British Columbia in Canada.   

In January of 1891 Hogan was back to his usual crimes with temporary accomplices here and there. He and an unknown man robbed a stagecoach near Nelson, British Columbia and shot dead the driver for resisting. According to some sources, the haul from that caper was $4,300 in gold and silver (equal to $148,456 in 2024), by far Crazy Mike’s biggest haul up to then.   

Quickly blowing his share of the loot on booze and brothels, our man wound up in Kalama, Washington where he pulled off an armed burglary in February 1891. Arrested for that job, Crazy Mike once again broke out of jail before his trial date and took it on the run.

Before the month was out, Hogan tried cracking the safe of Woolley, Washington’s Bingham & Holbrook Bank in Skagit County. This effort went wrong but the outlaw escaped and rode south.

Crazy Mike resumed his career of crime in Oregon, California and Nevada over the next few years. He had learned from his past mistakes and managed to pull off a long string of stagecoach and hotel robberies while successfully eluding pursuing lawmen. The press dubbed him “The Jesse James of the Pacific Northwest.”

By his own account, Hogan built up enough of a nest egg to travel eastward by train, partying in various cities before returning to the state of New York for a time. When his money ran out, Crazy Mike headed back to the west to resume his criminal activities. 

The outlaw’s next verifiable activity came on April 10th, 1894. In Helena, Montana, Hogan shot to death lawman John W. Flynn for thwarting his attempt to rob a Northern Pacific Railroad depot. April 26th saw Crazy Mike kill Northern Pacific Station Agent William H. Ogle in Belgrade, Montana while robbing the railroad depot there.     

On August 17th, 1894 our man pulled off the armed robbery of several well to do customers in the bar of Helena, MT’s renowned Hotel Broadwater (at right). September 7th found Crazy Mike in Meaderville, MT, where he tried robbing a saloon but wound up fleeing after the shooting death of bartender Stephen Grosso. 

In Marysville, MT the outlaw robbed the Club Saloon on September 13th. Hogan had apparently failed to recapture his old mojo following his sojourn back east and was now pursued by countless posses for capers which had netted him very little compared to his glory days.

Crazy Mike and an accomplice named Frank Murphy hopped a train to Tacoma, WA but fell afoul of the law in Puyallup on September 20th. Marshal William Jeffery drove the two freeloaders from a boxcar and when Hogan was caught with a gun, a struggle resulted, in which the outlaw mortally wounded the unfortunate Jeffery. William perished of his wounds on September 30th.   

Our subject and the 16-year-old Murphy fled, soon robbing a farmer of a horse and wagon to facilitate their flight. On September 21st, Crazy Mike was spotted in McMillin, WA which is often wrongly called “McMillian” in online entries about this fugitive. 

McMillin Deputy Sheriffs John Ball and Harry Moore accosted Hogan and a gunfight broke out. In the end, Crazy Mike wounded Moore in the chest and escaped. By October 3rd, 1894 the outlaw was in Seattle, WA where he tried to rob the Mug Saloon and its owner William H. Codrick. 

Events went wrong and in the subsequent shootout, Hogan killed bartender Charles Birdwell (called Bridwell in some accounts) and wounded a Seattle lawman before fleeing the scene. Detective Edward Cudihee tracked down and captured Crazy Mike the following day at his rented room in Belltown.

The wanted man resisted arrest and shot at Detective Cudihee, slightly wounding him. Police Officer John Corbett helped the detective subdue Hogan and take him back to Seattle. 

Though our man tried convincing Seattle authorities that he was really a man named Thomas Blanck and not the desperado they were after, they didn’t buy it and jailed Hogan. The usual media romanticizing of criminals made Crazy Mike even more famous in the months ahead.

In Washington’s King County Courthouse Hogan was tried, and on October 18th he was found guilty. On October 20th he was sentenced to hang on December 7th but an appeal was made by his lawyers Daniel T. Cross and John Fairfield. The appeal and related hearings dragged into March of 1895. 

While waiting for events to play out in the court system, Crazy Mike led an escape of several prisoners from King County Jail. In an act that decades later would be copied by John Dillinger, Hogan crafted a fake gun out of wood and used it to bluff his way out of his cell, then freed other prisoners.

NOTE: Crazy Mike paid so much attention to detail on his phony gun that he even made fake bullets out of tobacco packet tinfoil and positioned them to look like ammo in the rotating cylinder.  

The escape took place on Sunday March 17th, 1895 around 7:30 PM. Out of the other 21 prisoners whose cells Hogan had unlocked, only 10 escaped with him, the other 11 choosing to remain imprisoned. 

Over the next few days, the scattered escapees were recaptured by a dragnet spread by over 100 men. Crazy Mike, the last fugitive still at large, was cornered near Kent, WA on the late afternoon of March 21st. In a prolonged running gunfight with pursuing lawmen, the outlaw was shot to death from 7 bullet wounds, after himself wounding one of the deputies. 

When the corpse of this “Jesse James of the Pacific Northwest” arrived back in Seattle on that night’s 7:30 train, a crowd of “fans” mobbed his coffin. The 12 policemen that Seattle Police Chief Rogers had assigned to control the crowd were nearly overwhelmed. 

On Friday March 22nd, the Coroner – Dr. Oliver P. Askam – laid out the cause of death for Hogan as the aforementioned 7 bullet wounds complicated by pneumonia which developed during the fugitive’s days on the run after escaping. 

Mortician Edgar R. Butterworth embalmed Crazy Mike’s corpse and over the next 3 days displayed it at his Butterworth Mortuary from 11AM to 9PM. Newspapers reported that in one day alone over 18,000 people filed past the open coffin of the famous outlaw. During the 3 days one female fan felt bizarrely moved to kiss the dead man’s face.   

Mike Hogan Jr. was buried in an unmarked grave on March 25th at Duwamish Cemetery.