Polly Pry

Who was Polly Pry?

Mrs. Leonel Campbell Ross O'Bryan, under the pen name Polly Pry, was a controversial reporter for the Denver Post and later as a freelancer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is best remembered for her connection to the case of Alferd Packer as an investigative reporter.

At one point during the trial, her skirts saved her publishers' lives by slowing down bullets from the gun of W.W. "Plughat" Anderson, who had attacked them in an unrelated matter.

When union workers boycotted the Post for her stance on labor issues and immigration, she founded her own paper, Polly Pry. This brought further attacks from gunmen on her, this time in her home rather than her workplace.

She was a strong advocate of free speech, and came to the aid of French war orphans during World War I.