2 “Give me my pay, you son of a bitch!” he hollered.
The man counted out the money and shoved it at Tom. “Take it and git the hell
outta here.” Tom grabbed the money and shoved it in his saddle bag, mounted his
horse and rode off. “Wait for me!” Sam shouted after him.
3 When they finally stopped, Tom was still livid.
“Those bastards ain’t gonna get away with this!” he declared. “Whataya wanna
do?” Sam asked his brother.
4 “We’re gonna need some supplies from that storehouse
of theirs,” Tom answered. Sam looked puzzled. “We’ll do it tonight – when it
gits dark,” Tom explained. That night, they took what they needed from the
storehouse. Three days later, they robbed the post office/store at nearby
Liberty.
5 As soon as the brothers had absconded with their
loot, the postmaster and owner of the business (Levi Herstein) gathered
together a group of his friends and decided to pursue the bandits. When they
finally caught up with the brothers, a gunfight ensued. Levi and one of his men
were killed, and the rest of the vigilante posse headed back to Liberty. Then
Sam and Tom slipped into Arizona Territory and spent the winter there.
6 The following May, Tom hooked up with Will Carver
and Dave Atkins to rob a train. “Will and I will take the engine while Dave
rides ahead and sets up down track,” Tom explained. “Make sure you cut the
telegraph wires, and that you got enough dynamite to blow that safe,” he told
Atkins.
7 When everything was ready, they rode off together
toward the depot and watering stop at Lozier. As planned, Dave split away from
his companions before they reached the depot and headed to the spot where they
had agreed to rob the train.
8 Tom and Will continued on to Lozier and slipped into
the coal car of a west bound train and made their way to the engine. With guns
drawn, they slipped up behind the engineer and fireman.
9 “Turn around real slow like,” Tom demanded. The very
surprised and frightened crew complied with the demand and slowly faced the
bandits. “We’re gonna take a little ride, boys, and nobody needs to get hurt if
you do what your told to do,” Will grinned.
10 They made them stop the train at the place where
Atkins was waiting for them. Then, together, they made their way back to the
express car and used the engine crew as hostages to force their way into the
interior.
11 They pushed the expressman aside and tied some
dynamite to the safe and lit the fuse. However, when they emerged from their
cover, the safe was still intact and its contents remained shielded from their
grasp. They tried again without success. Finally, on the third try, the safe
was blown open.
12 It was worth the wait. Each one of the trio carried
a sack full of cash away from the train that day. When they got back to their
hideout and had a chance to count the money, they discovered that they had
taken almost thirty thousand dollars in cash! Now, however, they were being
pursued by marshals, deputies and Texas Rangers.
13 In the meantime, Sam returned from visiting their
older brother in Texas and was impressed with his “little” brother’s haul from
the train robbery. “You wanna git in on the next one?” Tom asked him.
14 “What have y’all got planned?” Sam asked. “We’re
gonna hit the Union Pacific in New Mexico,” Will replied. “I think I’m in!” Sam
grinned.
15 This time, they targeted a southbound train at the
Twin Mountains Bend. Once more, they succeeded in opening the safe on the third
try. “We’re gonna have to git better at figurin out this dynamite!” Dave
exclaimed. Adding to their frustration, they only managed to garner three
thousand five hundred dollars in cash and some jewelry from the heist.
16 They headed for Turkey Creek Canyon and then for
Arizona Territory again. The gang, however, was restless in their new hideout,
and they were still dissatisfied with their latest haul.
17 So they decided to rob yet another train. The plan
was similar to the one which they had employed in the Lozier heist.
18 Dave and Sam kidnapped the railroad station agent
at Stein, and Will and Tom road ahead and kindled a bonfire on each side of the
tracks. As the train approached, Sam ordered the agent to display the red light
and stop the train.
19 When the train came to a complete stop, Dave and
Sam climbed onto the engine. “You’re gonna ease this train on down the tracks
and stop when you see two big fires,” Dave explained to the engineer.
20 The engineer complied, but this time the gang was
in store for a little surprise of their own. The marshals had somehow found out
about their plans and were ready for them.
21 When the gang approached the express car, the
agents inside were waiting for them. They opened fire on the would-be thieves
and forced them to scurry for cover. The bandits gathered together their
wounded comrades and barely managed to escape the scene of the crime and make
it back to their hideout.
22 After that failure, the gang’s attention turned
eastward. The year 1898 saw two train robberies by the Ketchum Gang in western
Texas. And, although they easily alluded the men who had been dispatched to
capture them, they argued all the way back to New Mexico.
23 “I’m gittin damn sick and tired of y’all bellyachin
all the damn time!” Tom told them. “You cantankerous bastard!” Sam shouted
back. “Yeah, we don’t need to hear no more a your fuckin mouth,” Will agreed.
“Both of you can kiss my ass!” Tom replied.
24 “I’ve had enough of this shit!” Sam declared. “I’m
right there with ya,” Will chimed in. “Go on, then, get the hell out!” Tom
screamed. “That’s just what we’re gonna do,” Sam told him; and they both left.
25 The following year, Sam and Will convinced
Ellsworth Lay to join them in staging another train robbery near Twin Mountain.
Ellsworth (or Elzie as his friends called him) was a good friend of Robert
Leroy Parker (better known as Butch Cassidy). Together, they made off with over
forty thousand dollars in cash.
26 Luck, however, was not with the new trio. A
seven-man posse overtook the thieves and quietly surrounded their campfire. Lay
was hit first.
27 “Come on down here, and I’ll shoot your ass off!”
Sam shouted. At almost the same moment, a bullet ripped through his left arm.
Even so, Will never missed a beat. He was able to hold off the posse until
nightfall.
28 He helped Sam to mount his horse, but his wound was
too severe. Will had to abandon him on the trail. He died in custody a few days
later.
29 In the meantime, Tom had decided to settle an old
score with a store owner in central Arizona. He ended up killing the man and
his bookkeeper (who had heard the commotion in the room below him and had
unwisely decided to investigate it). This prompted the formation of yet another
posse and another narrow escape into New Mexico Territory.
30 Unaware of what had happened to his brother, Tom
then attempted to rob a train a few miles south of Folsom by himself. Like his
brother before him, Tom’s luck had abandoned him that day. The conductor fired
his shotgun in Tom’s direction and filled his right arm with buckshot. Tom’s
career as an outlaw was over.
31 He was taken into custody, and his arm was
amputated a few days later. A year later he was convicted for his train
robberies in New Mexico Territory and sentenced to death.
32 On April 26, 1901, he was finally led out onto the
scaffold and hanged. Unfortunately, the rope was too long; and he was
decapitated when his body fell through the trap door.
33 As for the other members of the gang, Elzie Lay
went to prison immediately. Dave Atkins followed a few years later. Will
Carver, the only member of the gang who was not dead or facing prison time,
eventually joined forces with Butch Cassidy and his friend Harry Longabaugh
(better known as the Sundance Kid).
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