Synopses & Reviews
Rails reached the West toward the end of the 1860s, and it wasn't long before road agents graduated from robbing stagecoaches to robbing trains. For outlaw gangs, there was no venture riskier than a train robbery. But, then again, no other line of work offered such potential for instant wealth.Great Train Robberies of the Old West is an action-packed collection of gangs too notorious, hauls too large, and murders too cold-blooded to fade into obscurity.
Review
The safe was cleaned out, the take being about $4,000, and then mail clerk Robert Spaulding told the robbers that there was no registered mail aboard as it had been sent on the day time run. Cornett replied that it was alright as they were not after Uncle Sams money. We only want Goulds money.” The robbers removed the obstruction from the tracks and bid the trainmen a pleasant good night” before they rode off into the darkness.
Synopsis
During the 1800s trains carried the nation's wealth throughout the east, but no one thought to rob a speeding train until 1866. In 1870 the first western train was robbed in Nevada and within hours a second train was robbed. Railroads made every alteration to their cars and changed every procedure they could imagine to thwart the robbers, but to no avail. Robbing trains became epidemic over the next five decades, even when the legislatures made train robbery a capital crime. A few of the hundreds of train robberies stand out as thrilling and dangerous affairs, and the greatest of these (15-20) are included in this book.
About the Author
R. Michael Wilson has been researching the Old West for fifteen years, following a quarter century as a law enforcement officer. His particular interest is crime, and he is the author of one book on the subject in Arizona, and four more on other aspects of crime on the frontier. His research philosophy is "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."