Silas Burr was believed to have been born in Canada although his date of birth was unknown. It had been suggested, by Burr himself, that he once ran with the notorious Edinburgh killer, William Burke, and took part in the heinous West Port murders of 1828.
His earliest verified exploit took place while he was an agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in the spring of 1912. Burr was charged with 22 counts of murder and put on trial in Sioux City, Iowa. He was found guilty on all counts and was sentenced to death by hanging. But under the orders of the mysterious Romulus, Victor Creed (Sabretooth) posing as a guard helped Burr escape from the courthouse while killing a number of others in the process.