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Author: R. Michael Wilson Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 1461748461 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
Stagecoach robbers evolved as a consequence of the discovery of gold or silver, or some other mineral treasure, and a town would "spring forth from the earth" overnight. Roads were soon built and stage lines began operating. A "pitching Betsy" would take out bullion and dust and bring in payrolls, always through country that was rough and isolated. The temptation to get rich quickly was too great for some, and the demand, "Hold! Throw out that treasure box!" was heard all too often in the Old West. Most robberies were never solved, but many robbers were caught, indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced. This book includes a collection of 15-20 of the most thrilling stagecoach robberies from 1875-1905.
Author: R. Michael Wilson Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 1461748461 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
Stagecoach robbers evolved as a consequence of the discovery of gold or silver, or some other mineral treasure, and a town would "spring forth from the earth" overnight. Roads were soon built and stage lines began operating. A "pitching Betsy" would take out bullion and dust and bring in payrolls, always through country that was rough and isolated. The temptation to get rich quickly was too great for some, and the demand, "Hold! Throw out that treasure box!" was heard all too often in the Old West. Most robberies were never solved, but many robbers were caught, indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced. This book includes a collection of 15-20 of the most thrilling stagecoach robberies from 1875-1905.
Author: R. Michael Wilson Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 1476615411 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 291
Book Description
California was the mining center of the West for half a century. Wherever precious minerals were found, road agents appeared to "mine the roads" of treasure being shipped out and payrolls being shipped in. The first recorded robbery of a stagecoach occurred in 1856, and the last in 1913. Over that period there were 458 stagecoach robberies, many with special characteristics such as a claim the robbers were Confederate soldiers, a murder, a gun battle, or a thrilling pursuit and capture. Surprisingly, there were many robberies in which the perpetrator remained unknown or in which was so little stolen the robber was not even sought out. This book gives all the details of those robberies taken from the contemporary newspapers and from a variety of other sources.
Author: James B. Hume Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 0786456248 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 283
Book Description
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.
Author: John Boessenecker Publisher: Macmillan + ORM ISBN: 1250184908 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 390
Book Description
The true stories of the Wild West heroes who guarded the iconic Wells Fargo stagecoaches and trains, battling colorful thieves, vicious highwaymen, and robbers armed with explosives. The phrase "riding shotgun" was no teenage game to the men who guarded stagecoaches and trains the Western frontier. Armed with sawed-off, double-barreled shotguns and an occasional revolver, these express messengers guarded valuable cargo through lawless terrain. They were tough, fighting men who risked their lives every time they climbed into the front boot of a Concord coach. Boessenecker introduces soon-to-be iconic personalities like "Chips" Hodgkins, an express rider known for his white mule and his ability to outrace his competitors, and Henry Johnson, the first Wells Fargo detective. Their lives weren't just one shootout after another—their encounters with desperadoes were won just as often with quick wits and memorized-by-heart knowledge of the land. The highway robbers also get their due. It wouldn't be a book about the Wild West without Black Bart, the most infamous stagecoach robber of all time, and Butch Cassidy's gang, America's most legendary train robbers. Through the Gold Rush and the early days of delivery with horses and saddlebags, to the heyday of stagecoaches and huge shipments of gold, and finally the rise of the railroad and the robbers who concocted unheard-of schemes to loot trains, Wells Fargo always had courageous men to protect its treasure. Their unforgettable bravery and ingenuity make this book a thrilling read.
Author: Philip L. Fradkin Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 074322762X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 274
Book Description
Sweeping in scope, as revealing of an era as it is of a company, Stagecoach is the epic story of Wells Fargo and the American West, by award-winning writer Philip L. Fradkin. The trail of Wells Fargo runs through nearly every imaginable landscape and icon of frontier folklore: the California Gold Rush, the Pony Express, the transcontinental railroad, the Civil and Indian Wars. From the Great Plains to the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, the company's operations embraced almost all social, cultural, and economic activities west of the Mississippi, following one of the greatest migrations in American history. Fortune seekers arriving in California after the discovery of gold in 1849 couldn't bring the necessities of home with them. So Wells Fargo express offices began providing basic services such as the exchange of gold dust for coin, short-term deposits and loans, and reliable delivery and receipt of letters, money, and goods to and from distant places. As its reputation for speed and dependability grew, the sight of a red-and-yellow Wells Fargo stagecoach racing across the prairie came to symbolize not only safe passage but faith in a nation's progress. In fact, for a time Wells Fargo was the most powerful and widespread institution in the American West, even surpassing the presence of the federal government. Stagecoach is a fascinating and rare combination of Western and business history. Along with its colorful association with the frontier -- Wyatt Earp, Black Bart, Buffalo Bill -- readers will discover that swiftness, security, and connectivity have been constants in Wells Fargo's history, and that these themes remain just as important today, 150 years later.
Author: R. Michael Wilson Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 0786479965 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 291
Book Description
California was the mining center of the West for half a century. Wherever precious minerals were found, road agents appeared to "mine the roads" of treasure being shipped out and payrolls being shipped in. The first recorded robbery of a stagecoach occurred in 1856, and the last in 1913. Over that period there were 458 stagecoach robberies, many with special characteristics such as a claim the robbers were Confederate soldiers, a murder, a gun battle, or a thrilling pursuit and capture. Surprisingly, there were many robberies in which the perpetrator remained unknown or in which was so little stolen the robber was not even sought out. This book gives all the details of those robberies taken from the contemporary newspapers and from a variety of other sources.
Author: Norman H. Finkelstein Publisher: Chicago Review Press ISBN: 1613739982 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 112
Book Description
Black Bart was not the Old West's only stagecoach robber, but he was the most famous. To many people, he was a folk hero: a robber who didn't threaten or harm passengers. He was a bandit with a sense of humor who wrote poetry. In robbing at least 28 Wells Fargo stagecoaches across Northern California between 1875 and 1883, he never fired a shot or injured anyone. His gun, it turned out, was never loaded. Newspaper stories about the poet robber's exploits and about Jim Hume, the unyielding chief detective of Wells Fargo, became popular reading throughout the West. Black Bart seemed to enjoy the chase. During one robbery the driver told him, "They'll catch you one of these days." Bart answered, "Perhaps, but in the meantime, give my regards to J. B. Hume, will you?" For eight years, each new robbery—and each new story—made Hume even more determined to track him down.
Author: R. Michael Wilson Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 1461748488 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 177
Book Description
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.
Author: Karen Holliday Tanner Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press ISBN: 0806181788 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 389
Book Description
Soft-spoken, cheerful, handsome, and well dressed, George West Musgrave “looked more like a senator than a cattle rustler.” Yet he was a cattle rustler as well as a bandit, robber, and killer, “guilty of more crimes than Billy the Kid was ever accused of.” In Last of the Old-Time Outlaws, Karen Holliday Tanner and John D. Tanner, Jr., recount the colorful life of Musgrave (1877-1947), enduring badman of the American Southwest. Musgrave was a charter member of the High Five/Black Jack gang, which was responsible for Arizona’s first bank hold-up, numerous post office and stagecoach robberies, and the largest Santa Fe Railroad heist in history. Following a decade-long hunt, he was captured and acquitted of killing a former Texas Ranger. After this near brush with prison or execution, he headed for South America, where he gained fame as the leading Gringo rustler. It wasn’t until the 1940s that Musgrave’s age and poor health brought an end to a criminal career that had spanned two continents and two centuries. Incorporating previously unknown facts about the career of this frontier outlaw, the Tanners thoroughly document Musgrave’s half-century of crime, from his childhood in the Texas brush country to his final days in Paraguay.
Author: R. Michael Wilson Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 1461750075 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 193
Book Description
Frontier Justice highlights eighteen crimes and subsequent punishments of the most interesting, controversial, and unusual executions from an era when hangings and shootings were a legal means of capital punishment. Chapters include: the bungled hanging of Tom Ketchum who was beheaded by the noose; the unique trigger for the trapdoor used to hang Tom Horn; "Big Nose" George Parrott who was skinned, pickled, and made into a pair of shoes; the double trials of Jack McCall, assassin of Wild Bill Hickok; the hanging of a woman-Elizabeth Potts; the shooting of John D. Lee of Mountain Meadows Massacre infamy; and the only use of a double "twitch-up" gallows; etc. Each action-packed chapter includes biographical information, the pursuit, the investigation, legal maneuvers, trial information, and rarely-seen photographs.
Author: R. Michael Wilson
Author: R. Michael Wilson
Author: R. Michael Wilson
Author: James B. Hume
Author: John Boessenecker
Author: Philip L. Fradkin
Author: R. Michael Wilson
Author: Norman H. Finkelstein
Author: R. Michael Wilson
Author: Karen Holliday Tanner
Author: R. Michael Wilson