 Very little is known of Dortmunder's childhood.It is mentioned in more than one book that he was abandoned at birth and raised in an orphanage in the fictional town of Dead Indian, Illinois, run by the Bleeding Heart Sisters of Eternal Misery.Dortmunder married a nightclub entertainer whose stage name was 'Honeybun Bazoom' shortly before he left the country to serve in Korea in 1952.