My friends and relations, they live in the Nation,
They know not where their boy has gone,
He first came to Texas and hired to a ranchman
Oh, I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.
Go gather around you a crowd of young cowboys,
And tell them the story of this my sad fate;
Tell one and the other before they go further
To stop their wild roving before 'tis too late.
-The Cowboy's Lament
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas! I'm doing a series on two of America's most famous outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The didn't start their careers together so I'm charting each of their paths individually until they meet up. Unlike the movie, they weren't best friends who traveled around the country together.
In the last few posts we've been talking about Harry Longabaugh(Sundance) and I've been calling him Harry because at this point in his career he's been acting like good ol Harry and not like the Sundance Kid. He has to earn that nickname. lol.
Harry, Harry, Harry...
When we last saw him he was partying it up in saloons and carousing around chasing girls. He was also drinking up a storm with other cowboys who'd been laid off as they tried to figure out what to do next.
So what do you do if you get laid off and you're 23 years old and have your whole life in front of you? Oh, that's an easy one, you plan on robbing trains for a living!
Harry started scheming with another cowboy by the name of Bill Madden. At this point they were hanging out at a saloon in Malta, Montana which is just 50 miles from the Canadian border.
It wasn't long before they met another laid off cowboy named Harry Bass and that was good because robbing a train was a three man job the way they had it figured, and Bass was sick of being broke.
The Great Northern Railroad ran through Malta so they didn't even have to travel far to learn the times and security features of the train. Plus, which trains might be carrying cash.
The (great?) train heist
The boys chose a passenger train coming through town, it had to stop and fill up with water because those were steam engines back then. One of the boys had ridden a mile outside of town and started a big bonfire beside the tracks.
The other two boarded the baggage car with their faces covered with bandannas. As soon as the train moved away from the station they climbed over the coal car and pulled their six shooters on the fireman and the engineer, ordering the engineer to stop the train when he saw the bonfire.
When the train came to a stop two of the boys jumped off and ran back to the mail car which held the safes. The one who'd started the bonfire held the engineer and fireman at gunpoint. The other two got to the mail car which had an attendant who was ordered to open the larger of two safes.
What money?
The attendant told them he didn't have the combination because it was wired by telegraph upon arrival to it's destination. They ordered him to open the smaller safe which he did but it only contained less than $20 in cash and a package which they took.
They also went through the mail but found no valuables. When they threatened to shoot the attendant if he didn't open the large safe and to "open it or he would die," the attendant replied.."Very well then, I suppose I've got to die!"
The thieves were stumped at this statement but reckoned he was telling the truth and they didn't have plans to murder anyone. They jumped off the train, signaled their partner holding the engineer hostage so he could join them, and rode off on the horses tied up next to the bonfire.
Not the world's smartest thieves
So the grand total of their haul, since the package was valued at under $50, I don't know what it was, plus the $20 in cash amounted to $70! lol. Pitiful.
What's even more pathetic is that they forgot to rob the passengers in the passenger cars. They had all kinds of money, gold watches and jewelry.
In fact, one of them had $2,000 cash on him that he intended to have put in the safe but he got there late and didn't have time. That one $2,000 in cash is the equivalent of $55,000 today.
Another amateur mistake is that their bandannas kept slipping down on their faces during the robbery so the investigators had good enough descriptions and sketches to identify all of them. lol. You can't make this stuff up!
And if all that wasn't bad enough, they chose to do this robbery on a Sunday. Well, with banks closed there were no cash transfers going to them, normally there would be large bags of cash during the business week.
So not only was he running with a bad crowd, he was running with a dumb crowd!
Bass and Madden go down
In addition to that, Bass and Madden showed up at that same saloon two days later and were promptly arrested, they didn't know they'd been indentified.
Of course one of the men, Madden, talked and gave up Harry so a warrant for his arrest was issued and he had his first Wanted Poster. Madden gave Harry's name as Harry Loungbo though, so the wanted poster had the wrong name.
Bass and Madden were sentenced to prison. Madden got 8 years because he gave them information on Harry and Bass got 10 years.
Harry was long gone. He vowed to give up outlawry and go back to being an honest cowboy, prison was no place for him so he rode.
Tomorrow we'll catch up with Butch and see if he was able to outrun the posses after the Telluride bank robbery.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
PS- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:
You've ever stolen the clothes off a Scarecrow!
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STOPGot to love the dumb crook stories. At least they didn't blow the doors off with ten times the C4 they needed like some "other" outlaws...
By the way, you may appreciate this article about a bank robbery in Northfield, MN. Because robbing banks in Northfield always goes so well, right?
howdy again sir fotosdenada! wow they keep robbing the bank there and get away with it? dang. those are smarter thieves than what I wrote about!
True, but the last guys that tried that ended up getting chased across the country by angry Minnesotans!
lol. yes there's a moral to that story!
Great story! Sundance & friends weren't too good at train robbing first time out! Forgetting to rob the passengers was a huge mistake. Getting identified is even worse - and those 8 and 10-year sentences the boys got is nothing to laugh at. Voted and Resteemed, keep 'em coming! :-)
Well thank you so much sir Keith! yes sir, most of the time those prison sentences were such and such years "at hard labor"..now, I don't know what that means exactly but knowing society back then I think it must have been pretty tough! I should do a post on prison terms back in the 1800's and what it was like.
Whatever it was like, I'm sure it was much harder than today! Sounds like a good idea for a post.
I think I might check it out. At least we didn't send them to Canada, that would have been cruel and unusual punishment!
Right. Or Kansas or Texas. Those places would be extra cruel. I've been to both of them, and I know.
haha! well in the summer they might think they're in hell if they're in Texas and I've had so many people tell me how horrible it was driving across Kansas and they thought they'd never get to the other side and it was the most boring trip of their lives! lol.
Of course... that's why any sane person would drive across Nebraska or South Dakota instead. Or better yet... fly over! ;-)
Really is all I can say janton! Jail sentences were very hefty in those days weren't they? Harry is now roller coasting to a life of crime I am guessing as the Sundance Kid, right janton?
howdy angiemitchell! well, Sundance says he's going straight now but we know that can't be! but maybe he will for awhile. Hey, talk about stiff sentences, Mrs. J is a guard at our country jail, and boy, you don't want to get in any kind of trouble in Texas! The sentences here are crazy serious and strict for minor violations. We're shocked.
Wow, rehabilitation is not the thing in Texas?
Howdy angiemitchell! well they don't have many programs for rehabiliation. In fact, Mrs. J and I are wanting to start a half way house for women when they get out because they is very little help available.
But my point is that the judges and juries here are extremely tough on people that get in trouble.
for instance, Mrs. J told me about a lady who had two glasses of wine and she got pulled over and was issued a DUI ticket, she went to court and was sentenced to 8 months in jail! She lost her job and everythiing else.
Another young girl broke into a vacant house that was on the market to be sold, she didn't even take anything, she was just being dumb and impulsive....but now she is facing 17 years for breaking and entering! She's only 19 years old.
So that's why I said don't get into trouble in Texas.
Howdy angiemitchell! well they don't have many programs for rehabiliation. In fact, Mrs. J and I are wanting to start a half way house for women when they get out because they is very little help available.
But my point is that the judges and juries here are extremely tough on people that get in trouble.
for instance, Mrs. J told me about a lady who had two glasses of wine and she got pulled over and was issued a DUI ticket, she went to court and was sentenced to 8 months in jail! She lost her job and everythiing else.
Another young girl broke into a vacant house that was on the market to be sold, she didn't even take anything, she was just being dumb and impulsive....but now she is facing 17 years for breaking and entering! She's only 19 years old.
So that's why I said don't get into trouble in Texas.
Harry certainly picked a dumb lot to run and rob with. Looking forward to when he meets up with Butch.
me too but that might be awhile. I hope you're patient! lol. I think those guys just drank too much when they made their plans!
Yes, and they probably drank moonshine. That stuff would kill the brain cells. 😂
I guess nobody is born with a head for whatever they are doing. They need time, and practice to hone their skills - robbing trains included. :-)
haha! yes sir Vincent and lots of practice! But it's a dangerous occupation to practice at! lol.
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Howdy steem-plus and thanks for the upvote!
Howdy sir @janton! It's been a while...
Missed reading your old cowboy stories!
Howdy there joelai! good to see you, thanks so much for stopping by! I will go over to your blog tomorrow when my voting power charges back up! lol. Thank you for commenting!
Always a pleasure @janton!
Hi there @janton, I have never stolen the clothes of a scarecrow but I still feel myself a desi version of redneck :D
haha! but if you saw a scarecrow you might think about taking it's clothes! They probably don't have scarecrows over there anyway.
We do have scarecrows over here, but they do not put any branded new clothes over them to be taken away like that :D the clothes they put on are hard for even the birds to take home
haha! hey hananali, they dress the scarecrows in rags over there so people won't steal them it sounds like, good idea!
did you see the reminder about getting free SPP?
I saw the reminder about SPP but I was shy to reply back because I didn't understand a single word of it, I feel like being the joey of friends here, have you seen that famous TV show of late 90s and early 20s?
I know who you are talking about but I never watched that show. But sometime you are going to study the steem-plus posts and learn how it works?
If it is helping then surely, I do not know anything of it as of now. If there is an easier to understand procedure I will surely want to do it, that is free help, why not
Thought I better come check up on you! Find you hanging out with Sundance 😂
Haha! howdy sugarcreek! I miss seeing you around ... I just went to look at your blog and I've missed some posts, I'm sorry about that, dang. I got used to not going over there I guess. Good to hear from you, I'll go check out your new post!
That's OK your support is always appreciated ♥
As you said " you can't make this stuff up, lol. Honestly, if I wouldn't know that Harry will become notorious bank robber I would never guess he could, after this fiasco, lol. I am just glad they didn't kill anybody!
Oh my gosh and the redneck joke; that is too much, lol
Haha! howdy Miss Lena! Well, I think Harry just needed to get connected to a good planner and Butch is a very good planner and thinker. On his own though, not so much! lol. I thought the joke was great too, thank you!
Love this amusing segment @janton Not very sophisticated thieves were they? Must catch up with the next episode. See you there.
howdy trudeehunter! Thank you so much for reading and for the support, I like Australians! lol
You are very welcome indeed my friend. And the feeling is mutual. From what I've seen of Texans they are very amiable.......and have a great sense of humour. 😃
Howdy this fine Tuesday trudeehunter! As far as Texans go, I think it used to be much safer to say that but nowadays with huge migrations coming in from New York and California its a real mix of people. Half the time when you meet someone new they're from out of state and not very Texan at all! It's a sad state of affairs in some ways because Texas has been a God-fearing conservative state but the liberals are working to turn her into a socialist, atheist state.
Sadly, this is a sign of the times Janton and very widespread throughout the world.
These are fantastic!
Howdy today sir optout! Thanks so much, their story is a tremendous one!