However, its hard to overlook the general breakdown in law and order in Los Angeles that has coincided with the national violent crime spike. He began to race towards Malta to sound the alarm when the Kilpatrick and Hanks spotted him. This tale comes with a bit of bad timing, too. Prison records indicate that Bass received a pardon and early release on January 1, 1897; he then disappeared from all record. Arizona had just decided to make train robbing a capital offense, so Smith's comrades were each handed a 25-year sentence. 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. | 9 Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio locomotive. The Real Story Behind Mall Security Asking Man to Remove Jesus Saves T-shirt, House GOP Eyes Investigation of Big Tech-Aligned Election Grants, Twitter Knew a Democrat Attack on Devin Nunes Was False, but Declined to Debunk It Publicly, Rep. Kevin Hern Stands by Previous Call to Impeach Homeland Security Secretary, Not Just Misinformation: In Emails to White House, Facebook Admits Suppressing Often-True Content on COVID-19 Vaccines, A Legal Immigrants Lament: Bidens Parole Scheme Makes Patsies of Those Who Abide by Law. Successfully eliminating these offenses not only stabilized rail transportation but also, in part, signaled the taming of the Wild West.. Woodside later had to have his arm amputated. Once the train halted, the thieves ordered railroad employees to open the mail car and safes in the express car. The thieves were later arrested after they tried to get medical assistance in Chicago. All of them are hoping to get a share of the reward. Perhaps it was the ghost of Jesse James, acting to ensure his legacy would never be forgotten. Contrary to the method romanticized by Hollywood, outlaws were never known to jump from horseback onto a moving train. After a series of adventures and battles they return to Texas with the gold where there is one final battle. During the shootout at the abandoned railroad crash site, when John Wayne is talking to Ann Margret, tire tracks can be clearly seen in the sand. Foolishly, the thieves returned to Malta. England, 1850s. The breadth of the theft is astonishing. The Los Angeles train robberies dont look like the daring scenes of old Hollywood Westerns, but they do create an incredible image in their own way. 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.. ThePinkerton National Detective Agency quickly identified the criminals, but this robbery unleashed a long and deadly era of train robberies in the United States. All Rights Reserved. He spotted Bobs 14-year-old brother Walt out on a knoll and slowly rode over alone. Most train robberies are high profile crimes committed by armed bandits, but the Great Gold Robbery was the railway equivalent of a cat burglary. The only one that stood in their way, says HistoryNet, was a Wells Fargo & Co. messenger named David A. Trousdale, who was not about to put up with any of this nonsense. Gardner was released in 1938 and committed suicide the following year. The Train Robbers is an above-average John Wayne actioner, written and directed by Burt Kennedy with suspense, comedy and humanism not usually found in the formula. Despite its modest haul, the Adair robbery shocked the public for its sheer boldness, and went a long way toward establishing Jesse James reputation as a folk hero and celebrity criminal. Thomas, Kevin (February 7, 1973). 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. His neckerchief was in then out of then under his collar. Train Robberies. At 10 p.m. Detective W. Ed Black of the Great Northern Railroad arrested Bass and a man named William Hunt as they saddled their horses outside Alex Blacks Saloon. The train pulled away from Dryden, and that's when they stormed the engine. / Grady says: However, Kilpatrick, riding in the passenger car, noticed the three men heading forward with their guns drawn, and he fired a couple of warning shots at them. The first chance he got, he hit Hobek, and kept hitting him but it only took three blows for his brains to leave his head. The gang had been led to believe it would contain a large cache of gold bullion, but upon opening it they found only a meager $2,000. / When the Southern Pacific Railroad was robbed at nearby Walkers, Ore., Madden was immediately suspected; however, nothing could be proved. That was in 1892, and they ended up hitting the jackpot: around $20,000, or a whopping $575,000, adjusted for inflation. Sure, $10,000 is a lot of money, but in 1866, it was even more: adjusted for inflation, their haul was worth around $177,000. ", medieval diseases, such as typhoid and tuberculosis, parents showing up at school board meetings, Deep policy understanding from over 100 experts. The Pinkertons kept him under surveillance, opened a dossier on him and gave him the cipher name Wolf in their reports. The Reno Gang of Indiana were train robbers. 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. Try the Morning Bell and get the days most important news and commentary from a team committed to the truth in formats that respect your timeand your intelligence. Some people are cut out for living a life of crime. Along the way, they also killed a handful of the train's crew. The conductor none the wiser then kept on going. Human injury and death rates were sometimes high because many trains were derailed as part of the robbery, or cars were sometimes dynamited. A post shared by Mountain Pictures (@borderlesstourist) on Jul 26, 2020 at 2:06pm PDT, A post shared by Dizzy Dames (@twodizzydames) on May 9, 2020 at 7:22am PDT, Read |Where was 'Once Upon a Prince' filmed? 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. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. They transported everything from people to the essential supplies that allowed us to settle the farthest reaches of the country, and according to American Heritage, the practicality of the railroads was just one small part of it. The train was going to pass through a little town called Adair on July 21, so they decided that was the perfect time to strike. You still might be able to go treasure-hunting for some of the lost loot. If you've ever just wanted to kick something out of sheer frustration maybe you should. 3 pulled away from Malta, Montana, on the afternoon of July 3, 1901, conductor Alex Smith saw a tall, red-faced man board the blind baggage. Yet in following moments, the shadows of all are short. The robbers stopped the train by turning off a green track signal and, with batteries, turning on a red signal. It was hit during the night of June 1 to 2, 1899, and the story as it's often told is the heist was pulled off by Butch Cassidy and his gang. Generally, train robberies were a distinctively American crime, seldom occurring in other nations. The Train Robbers (1973) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Shadows cast from the hotel towards the water tower. The holdup was the work of the Hindustan Republican Association, a band of militant revolutionaries who sought to free India from British colonial rule. Trending. They should have. All ten of the revolutionaries escaped without injury, but in the chaos of the heist one passenger was killed in an accidental shooting. The earliest of these heists came on the evening of July 21, 1873, near Adair, Iowa. Between 1919 and 1924, they'd be responsible for a shocking 87 bank robberies and six train heists. | He is thoroughly soaked top to bottom, including the back of his shirt sleeves and the whole of his shirt front. 1. It was hit during the night of June 1 to 2, 1899, and the story as it's often told is the heist was pulled off by Butch Cassidy and his gang. Have an opinion about this article? In total, the gang made off with around $30,000 in unsigned banknotes before disappearing into the mountains. While at Deer Lodge, two of Hanks fellow inmates had been Harry Bass and Bill Madden, both serving time for the first Malta holdup. The film also starred Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson and Ricardo Montalban in major roles. From high profile capers by the likes of Jesse James and Butch Cassidy to a raid by a gang of Indian political dissidents, find out more about six of historys most audacious rail heists. The boxes had been kept in double-locked safes and showed no signs of having been tampered with. Disappointed, the men resorted to robbing the stunned passengers of their money and valuables. Ebaugh, alias J.E. By the time he went to the gallows, he was known as Black Jack Ketchum. "Hey, Sam. And yes, they were all arrested. "Wayne as Wayne in 'Train'". After escaping the scene, the robbers hid out for several days in a nearby farmhouse, where they celebrated by playing Monopoly with their two-and-a-half tons of stolen cash. Lane said: And here's where the good deed comes in: along the way, he came across a woman wandering in the prairie. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Find out where was this action thriller filmed. "That's your problem." "[8], The film holds a score of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 6 reviews. Thieves climb onto the trains when they stop, use bolt cutters to break into containers and help themselves to the goods, discarding what they dont want or cant carry.. There's an old saying: no good deed goes unpunished. Brack Cornett - Texas Train Robber. Short upper lip, exposing teeth when talking. The bright green cars travel past the robbery sites where one Kid pocketed a pittance and slipped away and another Kid grabbed a fistful of dollars that he never got the chance to spend. Logan then ordered engineer Jones to disconnect the baggage and express cars from the passenger cars and to pull forward again. As their target rounded a blind curve, the thieves used a rope to dislodge the track, causing the locomotive to derail and topple into a ditch. As they are walking past the end of the train they meet the Pinkerton Agent who tells them, as the train is pulling out, that Matt Lowe was never married and that Mrs. Lowe is really a prostitute named Lilly who fooled them into helping her get the gold for herself. In the opening sequence the depot sign indicates that the town is Liberty, Texas. The Train Robbers is a 1973 Western Technicolor film written and directed by Burt Kennedy and starring John Wayne, Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson and Ricardo Montalban. As the train full of horsemen pulls into the station, there is a brief shot of the back of the stock car and it has steel ends, which was not common practice until the early twentieth century. When the locomotive stopped at the light, more than a dozen men in ski masks appeared, beat the driver with a metal rod and uncoupled most of the cars. 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.. 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. | (Automatic handgun scene.) However, when she meets Lane played by John Wayne, he convinces her to retrieve the gold and collect the $50,000 reward instead. [5] Shrestha's injuries to his left arm required two months of medical treatment, but he recovered full use of his injured hand. When the Pinkerton man is shooting at Lane and his cronies there is a group of outlaws plainly visible to his right, yet they ignore him. If he did not have the combination, dynamite was used to blow it up. Bass (and the members of his gang who survived) were back to train robbing the next year, and did they need it? The thieves then threw bottles of noxious formaldehyde into the windows of the passenger cars, leaving the trains 17 armed mail clerks gasping for air. Security is incredibly tight and the task seems an impossible one. | Join us for our annual CAR-B-Q earlier in the day on Saturday! Bidens Border Disaster Isnt Incompetence. You can find the Jesse James HIstorical Site at 1156 . Sam Bass and His Train Robber Gang. One of those masked men was Big Jack Davis, who wasn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill robber he was one of Virginia City's most upstanding and respected businessmen, who just happened to moonlight as a stagecoach robber. 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. The heist was discovered in May 1855 in Paris, when authorities found that the gold in four lock boxes shipped from London had been partially replaced with lead shot. Cassidy had agreed, so while he may have gotten some of the loot and he may have joined up with the gang later, it seems likely that he did keep his word and didn't technically participate. An interview with historian Richard M. McMurry on his 2023 book, The Civil Wars of General Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate States Army.. For years, he and his brother worked as cowboys for hire until, says Legends of America, they learned there was a train heading their way with a lot of cash on board. 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. Investigations relating to thefts of cargo, burglaries of company property, and acts of vandalism occupy most of the agents time. Although it took three attempts, they blew the safe open and reportedly took eight hundred sheets with four notes on each being three ten-dollar and one twenty-dollar bills in unsigned bank notes belonging to the National Bank of Montana. The park is best known for its diverse arid land setting, which gave the film its rugged vibe. During this time, the Reno Gang fromIndianabegan to terrorize the Midwest. California Gov. Smith to open the express car doors and jump out, which they immediately did. Written By Disha Kandpal The 1973 John Wayne film The Train Robbers had won many hearts upon its release. Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated December 2021. Here are all major filming locations. Both Sundance and Harvey would soon be members of the Wild Bunch, which was led by Butch Cassidy. The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. In close up, it hangs straight and undisturbed. In 1868, an Adams Express car was attacked again at Seymour. Find out as a passenger on the Train Robbery featuring action packed shoot outs, period costumes, and fun entertainment for the whole family. Two days later, Bill Madden was also arrested in Malta and taken to Fort Benton, where he too was held over for trial. The men split their take and disappeared into the night. Shooting the lock would not have caused it to disintegrate. We see a change of camera and a change in the direction of the shadows of the horses/riders. Harvey Logan was tracked down outside Knoxville, Tenn., where he was captured on December 15, 1902. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. [citation needed] On arriving in town, Grady takes a shower from the railway's water tank. And fortunately for them, the only witness to their crime was killed while they were out on bail and waiting for their trial. Mayer of the Great Northern Railroad authorized a $500 reward for each of the outlaws, and the governor of Montana offered to match the railroads reward. Wild Bunch, aka: Hole in the Wall Gang (1896-1901) Led by Butch Cassidy, the Wild Bunch terrorized the states of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada for five years. The easily identified bills were traced as the men took chances cashing in the forged bank notes. Menu. In the opening scene where the train comes into town it goes past the water tank, in the next scene the train is parked at the tank taking water. January 27, 2022, Packaging debris and items looted from rail cars but then abandoned litter train tracks near the the Union Pacific rail yard in Lincoln Heights in Los Angeles on Jan. 15. It was all par for the course on the Left Coast these days, though its a telling glimpse into the mentality that has allowed the Golden State to decay in recent decades. 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. It's wide-open fun and dynamite. Opening scene: Mrs. Lowe and Lane walk towards Grady & Calhoun, Mrs. Lowe and Lane cast shadows towards the rail track (left to right across the screen). After forcing the driver to move the remaining cars to a rendezvous point a mile up the track, the thieves formed a human chain and quickly transferred 120 bags of moneymost of them containing bills set to be removed from circulationinto three waiting vehicles. She wishes to do so to clear her familys name. Alternate Versions But as an exercise in pleasantness, 'The Train Robbers' is an interesting addition to the late history of the traditional unpretentious Western. Here's an example. But the other original train robbers have gathered a gang and will try to get the gold at any cost. 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