Edward Bonney

He is best known for his undercover work in exposing the "Banditti of the Prairie", resulting from his investigation of the torture-murder of noted Illinois pioneer and frontiersman Colonel George Davenport.

Between March 14 and April 11, 1844, he was chosen by Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who was a friend, to be a member of the Mormon theocratic "Council of Fifty.

[2] After the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844, Bonney, who as a non-Mormon was considered an outsider by the Nauvoo church elders, lost his influential status among the Council of Fifty.

During the next several years, he worked with law enforcement agencies, in Montrose and Lee County, to hunt down various criminals, in the area, as a sort of freelance bounty hunter.

Bonney gradually attained a reputation as a skilled detective, adept at "piecing together odd bits of information and rumor", although he was often subject to suspicion and persecution for his Mormonism.

After learning "crime doesn't pay" Birch finally became an honest man and twelve years later, was one of the founders of the Pinos Altos gold mining camp in 1858 in the New Mexico Territory.

Following the trial and execution of Granville Young and the Long brothers, Edward Bonney returned to Lee County, Iowa Territory the following year and was indicted by the local district court for murder and later acquitted.

Bonney lived in Rock Island, Illinois for a time and before moving to Chicago in Prospect Park in DuPage County where he was appointed as the second postmaster of the town.

Private Edward Bonney was medically discharged, from the Union Army, on December 23, 1863 and went back to Chicago, dying on February 4, 1864, as the result of his crippling leg wound.

Edward Bonney moved from New York in 1837 to the frontier with the intent of founding the city of Bonneyville in Elkhart County, Indiana . Bonney constructed a hotel and saw mill but when the settlement failed to grow into bustling town, he sold his land holdings in 1841 and left. Present-day Bonneyville Mill County Park is all that survives of Bonney's dream.
The Spanish silver peso was the most common currency found on the American frontier . Edward Bonney was arrested in 1842 for counterfeiting in northern Indiana . Ironically, from 1845-1846, as a detective and bounty hunter, Bonney posed undercover as a counterfeiter to infiltrate a faction of the Midwestern , outlaws known as the " Banditti of the Prairie " and track down the infamous murderers of Colonel George Davenport . The "Spanish milled dollar" was minted in Mexico and was considered U.S. legal tender . As a result of this, the Spanish coin became one of the most counterfeited coins in the United States , until the Coinage Act of 1857 .
Edward Bonney in 1844 was the aide-de-camp of Lieutenant General Joseph Smith the supreme commander of the Nauvoo Legion and a member of the Mormon Council of Fifty
The Banditti of the Prairie outlaws in an illustration from Edward Bonney's book The Banditti of the Prairies including Robert H. Birch and his accomplices attacking and murdering Colonel George Davenport at his home on July 4, 1845. Bonney went on a man-hunt pursuit for the fugitive murderers from Illinois to Ohio to Chicago and back to Rock Island, Illinois , bringing them into custody .
In his pursuit of the Banditti of the Prairie William Bonney posed as a phoney counterfeiter and was arrested and searched by law officers in Indiana along with real outlaw William Fox . Note: Bonney was quite tall and had a muscular physique
Edward Bonney in top hat and dark suit in front of gallows at the 1846 execution of the Long brothers And Granville Young for the torture-murder of Colonel George Davenport and members of the Banditti of the Prairie
Title page of the 1850 first edition publishing of the Banditti Of The Prairies by Edward Bonney
Siege of Vicksburg , Mississippi, May 19, 1863. Private Edward Bonney serving with the troops in 127th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army participated in the long campaign against the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River , from U.S. Army Center of Military History painting in "US Army in Action" series