The Legend of Old Shep

The Legend
of Old Shep

One of the only surviving pics of "Old Shep"

    My own personal hometown bias not withstanding, the legend of “Old Shep” has, was and will always be one of my favorite legends in all of Western New York.
    Old Shep was a Civil War veteran and member of the Jesse James Gang. How he got from the Civil War to a notoriously famous gang of bandits would have been enough of a tale for any human life, but Old Shep’s tale gets even more interesting. He supposedly took a bullet during a bank heist and then fled to Western New York, finding his way to the banks of Cazenovia Creek living out his days in solitude in a shack made out of piano boxes below the old covered bridge on Leydecker Road in West Seneca.

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