The Wilcox Robbery 1899: What Is Called The Old West
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The Wilcox Robbery 1899
The wild Wild West back in the 1800’s was home to old western towns, cowboys, and Indians. The history of what is called the old west is very interesting. It also in some ways is similar to today. In the modern world, we often think gangs as a bunch of people dressed up similar and big thugs walking down the street, but even in the early days there were gangs committing all kinds of crimes big or small. One of these despicable gangs in the old west was Butch Cassidy and The Wild Bunch. They pulled off a crazy robbery that everyone heard about. The money they got away with was even hard to believe. The most famous, was the Wilcox train robbery back in 1899.
It was morning of June 2, 1899, an engineer sent a telegram from Wyoming; it said: 'First Section No. 1 held up a mile west of Wilcox. Express car blown open, mail car damaged. Safe blown open; robbed of its content….' Right after, engineer W.R. Jones' report, a dispatch was sent from the Union Pacific Railroad offices in Omaha, Nebraska. They were offering a reward of $1,000 for each and every one of the robbers dead or alive. Later the Pacific Express Co. made the same exact offer the…show more content… The Union Pacific Overland Flyer No. 1 had two sections, each pulled by its own locomotive. The first section was flagged down by two mysterious men with masks on and lanterns, at milepost No. 609 at 2:18 that rainy Friday morning. Thinking that a small wooden bridge ahead might have washed out overnight, engineer Jones brought this first section to a screeching stop. The two men, boarded the locomotive and ordered Jones and the fireman, named Dietrick, to pull forward to the bridge and stop again. One of the robbers put dynamite under the trestle of the train, was lit and Jones was again ordered to pull ahead 'and be quick ‘bout it.' When he moved too slowly for the criminals, one of them hit with a