What sort of person undertakes to rob a multi-ton train surging down a set of rails at high speed? For the Old West’s most famous outlaws, including Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Dalton Gang, and Black Jack Ketchum, it was as much about the thrill of the crime as the riches to be won, thumbing their noses at the authorities, and getting away with their crimes more often than not. These men, and at least one woman, were dare devils, rule breakers, adventurers, and rebels. In addition to their train robberies, they led colorful, dramatic, and dangerous lives. The Old West's Infamous Train Robbers and Their Historic Heists profiles sixteen noted train robbers (or train robbing gangs) along with the details of each their forty-seven hold-ups. The mechanics of each of their train robberies—planning, execution, and escape—are dissected and discussed. Pertinent background information relating to each outlaw/gang is included as well as what became of them following their train-robbery days.

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.

One of the most colorful parts of American History is the time of train robberies and the daring outlaws who undertook them in the period covering from just after the Civil War to 1924. For decades, the railroads were the principal transporters of payrolls, gold and silver, bonds, and passengers who often carried large sums of money as well as valuable jewelry. For the creative outlaw, trains became an obvious target for robbery. Willis Newton has never enjoyed the recognition and fame of the better known train robbing outlaws such as Frank and Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, the Daltons, and the Doolins, but he was the most prolific and successful train robber in the history of North America. Newton stole more money from the railroads than all of the others put together. During his lifetime, Newton robbed six trains and an estimated eighty banks, pulled off the greatest train robbery ever, netting $3,000,000, yet remains virtually unknown. So unknown was he that, despite all of his success as a robber, he was rarely identified as a suspect. Following his greatest heist, Newton and his gang member, composed of his brothers, were arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to serve long terms at Leavenworth Prison. When they were granted early release for good behavior, they lost no time in returning to robbing banks. Willis Newton’s life and times as America’s greatest, and last, train robber has been gleaned and developed from extensive interviews he granted during the 1970s when he was in his eighties. In addition, newspaper reports of his numerous train and bank robberies have been obtained and researched for precise details of robberies and pursuit.

From the bestselling author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes an enthralling novel about Victorian London’s most notorious gold heist. London, 1855, when lavish wealth and appalling poverty exist side by side, one mysterious man navigates both worlds with perfect ease. Edward Pierce preys on the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of his century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England’s industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, but studded with all the suspense and style of fiction, here is a classic historical thriller, set a decade before the age of dynamite—yet nonetheless explosive…

In January 1, 1885, Wells, Fargo & Company's chief detective James B. Hume and special agent John N. Thacker published a report summarizing the company's losses during the previous 14 years. It listed 313 stagecoach robberies, 23 burglaries, and four train robberies but included little or no details of the events themselves, focusing instead on physical descriptions of the robbers. Widely circulated, the report was intended to assist law enforcement in identifying and apprehending the criminals believed still to present a danger to the company. The present volume revisits each crime, updating Hume and Thacker's original report with rich new details culled from local newspapers, personal diary entries, and court records.

Describes some famous train robberies of the Old West and the involvement of such notorious outlaws as Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and the Dalton Gang.

The train robbery by the James-Younger gang in 1874 at Gads Hill, Missouri, was a big news item of the day. Americannewspapers from as far away as New York and Boston carried the story, and journalists in St. Louis, Chicago, and even European cities wrote scathing editorials about the crime. In time, the excitement subsided, but the raid at Gads Hill had a lasting effect on the lives of the James and Younger brothers. Dramatic events that occurred during the robbery, retreat, and pursuit brought the bandits world-wide attention and became the source for much of the Jesse James legend we know today. Here, told largely by trainmen, passengers, farmers, detectives, outlaws, news reporters, and others who were directly or indirectly involved with thecrime, is a true, documented account of Frank and Jesse James, the Younger brothers, and Missouri�s first train robbery. Many of the photographs included have never been published.