User:Tysto/1901 B&O Robbery

The 1901 B&O Robbery was a major robbery of $20,000 in newly minted $20 gold pieces and silver certificates being shipped from the San Francisco Mint to the Southern Pennsylvania National Bank via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Coverage of the heist in the contemporary press added to the fame of Sam Bass and his "Black Hills Bandits."

History

The Robbery

On September 16, 1901, Sam Bass, Jack Davis, and Sarah "Sary" Minervy, robbed a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train at a stop in Bremen, Indiana. Under the cover of night, The Black Hills Bandits, as they were referred to, made off with “$20,000 in newly minted twenty-dollar gold pieces and $20 dollar notes from the express car and some $300 in foreign coins bound for exchange” (Clayton). Boarding the express car at 10:48 on a Sunday night after stopping it with a log across the tracks, the bandits abandoned the way safe, used for storing passenger’s valuables, and focused on moving the gold and banknotes, which were more readily available, without alerting the crew, which was engaged in examining the damage done by the log.

This seizure of the B&O express train No. 14 just outside Bremen, Indiana, resulted in no fatalities and only minor injuries to the express car attendant, who was subdued and tied up. Eight days after the robbery, Bass, Davis, and Minervy were captured under false names Clark, Bender, and Theaman. One thousand, eight hundred, and forty dollars was recovered from their persons (McEntire 195), in addition to a key on one of the men. Minervy carried only a little money and a book of poetry. It was found that she had enabled the robbery by insisting that the train crew put her bulky jewelry boxes in the main safe, requiring them to remove a quantity of gold and scrip. These were later found to be filled with costume jewelry.

Legacy

All three were convicted of assault and armed robbery for this and other robberies, including the death of a Chicago railroad conductor in a previous crime, and never saw release from prison. Each took ill and died, with Minervy living longest: until 1939, very shortly before she was due to be released. The bandits refused to divulge the location of the remaining loot, but cellmates in later years said that Davis had hinted at burying it in a cemetery east of town. However, if there ever was such a cemetery, it has since been lost.

Curiously, both Bass and Davis sported fresh tattoos upon capture, images which were deemed suspicious in nature and which "seemed to be code or a map". Photos were taken and etchings printed by the local newspapers, but no solutions were forthcoming. Minervy, who seems to have been the brains of the robbery as much as Bass, eventually tried to patent—from prison—a "vanishing ink" which disappeared upon application of heat. In the later years of her incarceration, Minervy's constant companion was another book of Victorian poetry with a lace bookmark made from a piece of the dress she wore when arrested. On her death, the book, bookmark, and newspaper clippings were donated to the Bremen Public Library for a historical display.

Because Southern Pennsylvania National Bank failed and its assets were bought by Dauphin Deposit Bank and Trust Company, which itself failed, the 1901 B&O Robbery loot is considered abandoned treasure and subject to no legal claims if it is found.

Additional reading

• "City of Round Rock - Sam Bass." City of Round Rock - Home.
• Clayton, Richard W. "FrontierTimes - Outlaws: Sam Bass." Frontier Times - Cattle, Brands, Etc.
• Gard, Wayne. "Sam Bass," The Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association (TSHA).
• O'Neal, Bill. "Bass, Samuel." Encyclopedia of Western Gun-Fighters. Norman [u.a.: Univ. of Oklahoma, 1983; pp. 35–36.
• Gard, Wayne. "The Sam Bass Legend." A Treasury of American Folklore: Stories, Ballads, and Traditions of the People. Ed. Benjamin Albert Botkin. New York: Crown, 1944.
• McEntire, N. C. Sam Bass: The Ballad and the Man. Western Folklore v. 62 no. 3 (Summer 2003) p. 189-214.
• O'Neal, Bill. "Samuel Bass," Encyclopedia of Western Gun-Fighters. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983; pp. 35–36.
• "Outlaw Gangs in the American West." Legends of America - A Travel Site for the Nostalgic and Historic Minded.
• Pierce, Michael D., "Sam Bass and Gang." Journal of Southern History 67.2 (2001): 475. Expanded Academic ASAP.
• "Sam Bass and His Train Robber Gang," Legends of America. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
• "The First Train Robbery in Texas," Dir. Mark Kaufmann. Prod. Tom Keener and Mark Kaufmann. By Tom Keener. Perf. Craig Erickson. Allen City TV.

Category:American folklore Category:Train robberies Category:Robberies in the United States Category:California crime history