Alonzo Van Oden (15 March 1863 – 11 August 1910) was a Texas Ranger who was killed in the line of duty.

Four months after Oden's birth, his father, accompanied by rancher George Hindes, encountered Julian Gonzales (a horse thief from Starr County, Texas).

On Christmas Eve 1868, his cousin William "Buck" Taylor was gunned down and killed, in a shooting which many attribute to have been the start of the Sutton–Taylor feud.

For a time he worked the region surrounding San Antonio but was sent west to serve with Ranger John R. Hughes.

Because Jones and his small band of Rangers were mistakenly inside Mexico when the ambush had taken place, there was to be no prosecution of those responsible.

However, still working undercover, Ernest St. Leon supplied a list of names of those known to have taken part in the killing to Captain Jones.

Outlaw, intoxicated and furious at what he deemed mistreatment by a local judge, had shot and killed Ranger Joe McKidrict inside a brothel.

Lon Oden continued working as a Ranger, and by this time he had developed a considerable reputation due to the numerous and mostly unknown outlaws and cattle rustlers he had either killed in shootouts, arrested, or hanged.