Pat Crowe

Pat Crowe
Crowe's arrest photo in Butte, Montana, United States
Born	Pat Crowe 1869 Iowa, United States
Died	1938 (aged 68–69) Harlem, New York City, New York, United States
Cause of death	Heart attack
Nationality	American
Other names	Frank Roberts
Occupation	Criminal, speaker, writer
Criminal charge	Bank robbery, train robbery, kidnapping
Criminal penalty	Six years in Joilet prison
Criminal status	Served
Spouse(s)	Hattie Murphy (separated)
Children	None
Conviction(s)	Larceny

Pat Crowe (1869–1938), also known as Frank Roberts, was an American criminal who was implicated in the 1900 kidnapping of Edward Cudahy, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska. He later became a lecturer and writer.

Crowe's criminal notoriety as a bank and train robber and as a kidnapper gained him fame across the United States when he began writing and speaking about his exploits in the early 20th century. According to Time magazine, Crowe's "misdemeanors began with robbing Omaha streetcars in 1890 and included a diamond theft, homicidal attempts, a visit to and escape from Joliet prison, hold-ups and pilfering on railroads".

After his last acquittal in the Cudahy trial, the Omaha Daily News described him as "one of the few really spectacular and truly named desperadoes" of the day, while an obituary called him, "one of the most colorful figures in American criminal history".

Today, his written personal narratives of the Cudahy story are studied for their authenticity.

Crowe was born on a farm outside Davenport, Iowa, and had 11 siblings. Soon after he turned 13 his mother died, and Crowe moved to South Omaha, Nebraska, a new town centered on a growing meat packing industry. Along with a partner named Pat Cavanaugh, Crowe opened a butcher shop in the area at age seventeen. Soon after, his shop was closed by the large operation owned by Edward Cudahy. He was hired by the Cudahy Meatpacking Plant shortly thereafter. Cudahy fired Crowe after he was caught stealing money from the operation.

Crowe held a variety of jobs and committed small crimes until the early 1890s. Using the alias Frank Roberts, Crowe perpetrated a variety of crimes. After being detained by police in a pawnbroker's shop in Chicago, Crowe got in a gunfight with police. He was arrested and sentenced to six years in the Joilet prison for the gunfight and the alleged attempted robbery of the pawnbroker's shop. However, he did not serve this entire sentence: Governor Fifer pardoned him after having only served seventeen months. In 1897, Crowe, again as Roberts, was sent to trial in Denver, Colorado, for burglary and larceny of a jewelry store. However, he jumped bond and was never tried.