Jonas Hitler

Jonas Hitler (c. 1809 - November 1840) was an American outlaw.

Death
In December of 1840, the Sheriff of Washington-on-the-Brazos jailed an outlaw named Eugenio Gutierrez. Among Gutierrez's possessions was a gourd banjo. When asked how he came to possess it, Gutierrez admitted to having been with a group of rurales who killed a renegade somewhere in northeastern Mexico in the previous month, and it was from him that the banjo was taken, along with a few other objects. The banjo was confirmed to belong to Hitler by his companions, and he was declared dead as of November, 1840.

Name
Historians have taken note of Hitler's surname, as it stands out in an absence of notable people with the name who are not known to be relatives of German Dictator Adolf Hitler. Early census information shows that an influx of German and Austrian immigrants to Ohio and the surrounding states occurred at the turn of the 19th century, with Hitler being the most common romanization of surnames such as Hiedler, Hettler, or Hüttler. While the exact ancestry of Jonas Hitler is uncertain, it is clear that his name is not an anomaly in the given time period and location.