The heist would have been the perfect crime, but Agar later confessed to authorities after he was arrested for a separate offense. According to one newspaper report, Every man in the posse had a Winchester rifle within easy reach and a 45-calibre pistol in his pocket. They were arraigned on December 3 before U.S. Commissioner Pomeroy, and were bound over for trial, with bail set at $300 each. . Shutterstock. A feisty, beautiful widow bands together with three cowboy buddies to recover a cache of gold stolen by her husband and her attempt to clear his son's name. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. At a rate of 90 freight cars ransacked per day, Union Pacific estimates that thefts against its trains are up by more than 160 percent over the last year . Yet in following moments, the shadows of all are short. This didn't go unnoticed, and according to UC Berkeley, this was one of the cases that led to the development of modern methods of criminology. One night in August, 1963, robbers stopped a freight/mail train north of London and grabbed a then-record 2.6 million British pounds - worth over $40 million pounds ($60 million dollars) at this writing. Cunningham reached Malta on his injured horse, spread the news of the robbery and joined a posse that soon left for the holdup site. By the time he went to the gallows, he was known as Black Jack Ketchum. In the years that followed, the Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy went on a rampage with the so-called Wild Bunch, a loosely-knit band of outlaws who robbed trains and banks and stole mine payrolls in the Rocky Mountain West. A local newspaper reported, Loungbo was supposed to have gone from Malta to a ranch on the Missouri. The safe haven might have been Bob Coburns Circle C Ranch. June 17 - 18, 2022; 9:00 p.m. Velvet Falls Dance Hall The Mountain Village Resort 2022 Summer Music Series! Well make it interesting for you and well take even bets or give odds that you dont take us. Soon after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid sailed from New York for Buenos Aires in 1901, Harvey Logan rode north from Texas with Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan. The 1973 John Wayne film The Train Robbershad won many hearts upon its release. Gavin Newsom on Jan. 20 visited the site of the wreckage and spoke about how terrible it all looked. The biggest train robbery in British history came in 1963, when a gang of 15 thieves stole more than $7 million in banknotesthe equivalent of $60.5 million todayfrom a Royal Mail train.. They escaped with it, and when the so-called Ketchum Gang showed up in New Mexico, they settled in. Security is incredibly tight and the task seems an impossible one. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Eighteen members of Congress sent a Jan. 19 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting that the Justice Department use every tool available to end this type of violence and organized crime.. Join us for our annual CAR-B-Q earlier in the day on Saturday! They also took a similar package containing $500 for the American National Bank, Helena, a bolt of green silk fabric, a package of watches and a bag filled with silver coins. . Criminals are caught and arrested, turned over to local authorities for booking, arraigned before the local courts, charges are reduced to a misdemeanor or petty offense, and the criminal is released after paying a nominal fine. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. We see a change of camera and a change in the direction of the shadows of the horses/riders. Choteau County, Mont. The men split their take and disappeared into the night. Further, newspapers sensationalized these offenses and, in some cases, exaggerated the amounts of funds stolen, the ease of committing these offenses, and the boldness of the robbers. On October 6, 1866, one of the first train robberies in America occurred when the Reno brothers boarded an eastbound Ohio & Mississippi Railroad passenger train near Seymour, Indiana, and entered an Adams Express Company car. Only according to HistoryNet, that's not precisely true. The biggest happened on June 12, 1924, when the Newtons along with a few Chicago gangsters and a crooked postal inspector forced a mail train to stop in Rondout. The Pinkertons kept him under surveillance, opened a dossier on him and gave him the cipher name Wolf in their reports. After switching the gold with their dummy lead weights, they resealed the boxes and disguised the loot in their luggage before exiting the train in Dover. Trousdale only fired a single shot, and the bullet hit Kilpatrick just above the left eye. Stephanie Lewis 10 subscribers A daring daylight fall day train robbery at the Frontier Outpost with Sherriff Harlow and Deputies Liam, Tyler, and Judd along with Clutch who tries to rob the. He was finally buried and covered with a cement slab to guarantee his travelin' days were over. The four men were taken to Helena, where the train conductor identified them; they were then moved to Great Falls under extremely heavy guard. Two days later, Bill Madden was also arrested in Malta and taken to Fort Benton, where he too was held over for trial. The film also starred Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson and Ricardo Montalban in major roles. On Wednesday, July 3, 1901, the westbound Great Northern Railroad Coast Flyer No. Most of the gang was arrested in a matter of days, save Jess Newton. According to Round Rock Texas, the real Bass was a little different than the Robin Hood-like figure immortalized in song and story: for the real guy, robbing trains was just sort of you know, a laugh. But over time, the railroads wised up. When the guards surrendered, the bandits made off with several mail sacks containing a staggering $3 million in cash and bonds. When one conjures up fanciful notions of Wild West lawlessness, the image that comes to mind is that of movie scenes of daring train robberies by gangs of robbers on horseback. When it comes to famous Wild West outlaws, Sam Bass is up there, too. Shooting the lock would not have caused it to disintegrate. It was never found, even though the brothers all looked for it after serving their time. Logans friends Jim Thornhill and Bob Coburn always made sure that Logans Rock Creek Ranch was well stocked for him. The train is carrying a strong box full to the brim with money and the local Outlaw Gang knows it. Live Music by Tylor & The Train Robbers at Velvet Falls Dance Hall Friday & Saturday nights. Meanwhile, on December 8, a trial was held for the four outlaws still jailed in Great Falls. What is true is that the train's first section was flagged down and boarded by the first group of robbers, who by the time they were done, found somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000 in bank notes, gold, cash, and jewelry. An interview with historian Richard M. McMurry on his 2023 book, The Civil Wars of General Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate States Army.. Now, rather than robbing just a few people, armed gunmen could rob 200-300 people, vastly expanding their profits. One night, under the cover of darkness, a man stole the plaque commemorating the Iowa train robbery. At 3 a.m. on November 29, the Great Northern westbound express No. We had previously seen: 1. As soon as they arrived in town on December 1, however, they stopped in a saloon for a shot of courage. This appealed to many of the hardened outlaws as the railroad pushed its way westward in the following decades. It was the Southern Pacific Train No. Union Pacific took specific aim at Gascon for creating an environment where the train robbers are quickly back on the street after committing their crimes. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. During the era depicted, the price of gold in US dollars was fixed at $20.67 per troy ounce. Today, that would be a haul worth around $1,460,000. The crash killed the engineer and badly injured another man, but the rest of the cars lurched to a stop on the tracks. After receiving a 20-year hard labor sentence for the robbery, he escaped jail in June 1903, but did not elude the law for long. As the cold set in, he took refuge in Alex Blacks Saloon with his pals Bill Madden and Harry Bass. When last seen was riding bay horse branded Half Circle Cross on left shoulder. Union Pacific Railroad says 90 containers on average are getting hit each day, The Wall Street Journal reported. Disappointed, the men resorted to robbing the stunned passengers of their money and valuables. The James-Younger gang rode off with nearly $3,000worth about $51,000 today. The environmental and financial costs of Mexico's Maya Train tourism project are already massive, but authorities revealed another, unexpected cost of President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador's pet project on Tuesday. The citys George Soros-backed district attorney, George Gascon, has pursued a course of not prosecuting basic crimes in the city and generally taking a lenient approach to criminality, to say the least. He escaped from jail, and in 1921, he hopped onto a Southern Pacific train, grabbed $187,000 in securities and cash, then hopped right off. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. As the trio started to leave, a local sheepherder named John Cunningham came upon the scene and realized what was happening. But as an exercise in pleasantness, 'The Train Robbers' is an interesting addition to the late history of the traditional unpretentious Western. When the train did not come to an immediate halt when the emergency cord was pulled, the suspicious conductor raced through the passenger cars toward the engine cab. That, says Tahoe Quarterly, is when a train left San Francisco carrying the payroll of a mining operation in Virginia City, Nevada: around $41,800 in gold and silver coins (or, about $2.2 million today). Davis was arrested, served only part of his sentence after turning in a group of prisoners he saw escaping, and was shot and killed in 1877 he had gone back to stagecoaches. In the early morning of August 8, the robbers rigged a false red signal light near a section of track called Sears Crossing. Arizona had just decided to make train robbing a capital offense, so Smith's comrades were each handed a 25-year sentence. Written By Disha Kandpal The 1973 John Wayne film The Train Robbers had won many hearts upon its release. When the Southern Pacific Railroad was robbed at nearby Walkers, Ore., Madden was immediately suspected; however, nothing could be proved. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! As soon as the last car cleared the gap, the bandits dynamited the bridge, stranding the approaching second train on the other side. Thinking the man was a hobo, Smith ordered him off the train. So, railroad thefts in Los Angeles might result in empty store shelves in, for example, Wichita, Kansas. At the time, they mainly delivered packages and bank drafts. If he did not have the combination, dynamite was used to blow it up. There's been a lot of train robberies in American history, but one of the most famous is likely the robbery of the Union Pacific Overland Flyer No. Some even added cars with armed men and horses who could be deployed to chase down any bandits who robbed the train. Fresh snow was on the ground, and the tracks of the bandits were very clear. L.A. It's no wonder, then, that they were tempting targets for the blossoming nation's ne'er do-wells. 23 entered by robbers just west of Malta. And it's no wonder, really: his very first robbery was accidentally one of the biggest. 5175. Roy Gardner, says Legends of America, was the last of his kind. Malta today is still in cattle country, and the train still rumbles through town on a regular basis, although it is now part of the Burlington Northern Railroad. Spooked by the high police presence in the area, the men eventually divided the loot and split up. The gang escaped in their cars, but in the confusion of the robbery an accomplice accidentally shot one of the Newton brothers several times. According to employee lists, one of his co-workers was Harvey Logan, a local rancher and rustler also known as Kid Curry. He headed to Texas and came up with the brilliant idea to bury his share of the money, but later, he realized he'd been so drunk when he buried it that he had no idea where it was. She was lost, confused, and hadn't eaten in days, and Smith stopped to help her. Filming took place in Sierra de rganos National Park in the town of Sombrerete, Mexico. Today? James and his gang are credited for pulling off the world's first armed robbery from a moving train. The 1973 film 'The Train Robbers' starring John Wayne and Ann-Margret is still a fan favourite. The Sundance Kids reputation grew to mythic proportions in part because reporters often confused him with his Wild Bunch cohort Harvey Logan, who was dubbed Kid Curry and was responsible for killing at least nine law enforcement officers in five different shootings. The outlaws also promptly left Malta, but the Sundance Kid and Bass did not make it far. A hoot. Logan and his clan had owned a horse ranch in Landusky, Mont., and it now provided a safe hideout, especially needed since Texas authorities suspected Logan of murder. In the late 19th century, Robert LeRoy Parkerbetter known as Butch Cassidyled a gang of train robbers who went by the colorful nickname The Wild Bunch. This band of stickup men was responsible for several railway heists, but perhaps none was as famous as 1899s Wilcox Train Robbery in Wyoming. Read full review. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Its hard not to see the looting as a sign that civilization itself in California is shifting into reverse. To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and well consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular We Hear You feature. [9], Quentin Tarantino later called it "so light it's barely a movie, but that doesnt mean its not amusing."[10]. Lane even gets help from some of his old in retrieving the gold. After the locomotive came to a halt, two masked men boarded it and ordered the engineer to cross a nearby bridge. As an actress and singer, she is credited as Ann-Margret.. She is known for her roles in Pocketful of Miracles (1961), State Fair (1962), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Viva Las Vegas (1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Carnal Knowledge (1971), The Train Robbers (1973), Tommy (1975), Magic (1978), The Villain . Both Sundance and Harvey would soon be members of the Wild Bunch, which was led by Butch Cassidy. They fired their guns to stop him, but only succeeded in nicking his horse slightly on the hip. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Donna B. Ernst, who lives with her husband, Paul, in Pennsylvania, is a frequent contributor to Wild West magazine and has written five books. "Hey, Sam. When they hopped on board the train in Dryden, Texas, Kilpatrick was coming off a 10-year stint in Atlanta and either he'd lost his edge in prison, or men on the outside had gotten a little tougher. Video captured by CBS photojournalist John Schreiber recently went viral showing the aftermath of rampant train robberies occurring in Los Angeles. And don't forget, this was also a time in the nation's history where trains were just as important as the internet is to us today. It's an odd one, for sure, but sometimes, it happens. 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