|
|
 
|
© 2014 CPRR.org. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of the User Agreement which permits personal use web viewing only; no copying; arbitration; no warranty.
|
|
|
GREAT
TRAIN ROBBERY
OUTSIDE
VERDI, NEVADA, 1870.
Wells Fargo gold coin taken from the Central Pacific
Overland Express
A train robbery outside Verdi Nevada ... took place after midnight on the night of November 4-5, 1870, with 5 bandits lead by a sunday school superintendent by the name of John Chapman. The train was the Central Pacific Overland Express. According to the report, $41,600 in gold coin was taken and after a two state chase they were all caught, tried, and convicted.
First Report of the Robbery of the CPRR Eastbound Overland Express of $41,600
in Gold Coin at Verdi, Nevada.
November 5, 1870.
The Kansas Daily Commonwealth
November 12, 1870
NEVADA.
Reno, November 5.—The Central Pacific passenger train, bound eastward, due here at 1 o'clock, A.M., arrived at Verdi, a small station 11 miles west of Reno, on time. Just as the train was starting from a station, three masked men boarded the express car, and five more immediately came to their aid from the rear cars. These five evidently from the west on the train. Six stepped on the express car, which they detached from the main train by cutting signal rope, etc. ; two jumped on the engine, placing pistols to the engineer's head, commanding him to move on, which he did.
Two brakemen endeavored to keep the masked men off the express car, but pistols, placed at their heads, compelled their retreat. The conductor rushed forward, but pistols stopped him ; finding a hatchet, he came forward again, in time to see the engine a express car separated from the train and flying down the track. The robbers then placed the fireman, express and mail messengers in a mail room and locked them up ; when within six miles of this city they stopped their train, broke open the express boxes, and robbed them of $41,600 in gold coin.
Later investigation shows that they put the coin in old boot tops, and escaped to the mountains. A double barrel shot gun and pick were left by the robbers, at the quarry where were they opened the boxes. All the telegraph wires were cut west of Reno. Two of the Western Union wires, however, were repaired by daylight.
Parties are searching the mountains, and will probably be able to throw more light on their bold robbery during the day.
CPRR Timetable from the December, 1870, issue of
"Appleton's Railway and Steam Navigation Guide."
Courtesy of the Bruce C. Cooper Collection
Nevada Territorial Enterprise newspaper reports of this first train robbery on the Pacific Coast:
Courtesy Darius Scarbro.
November 6, 1870
November 11, 1870
November 12, 1870
November 13, 1870
This train robbery has often been cited as the first one
in the world. While one of the earliest it was not the first of its kind,
as the following letter of December 6. 1912, from Wells, Fargo & Co.
proves: "Miss Jeanne Elizabeth Wier, Secretary and Curator, Nevada Historical
Society. Reno, Nevada-Dear Madam: Your letter of December 1. to Mr. Christeson.
Vice-President and General Manager of Wells. Fargo & Co., has been
referred to me to give you the information you desire. The first train
robbery in the United States occurred near Seymour, Indiana. shortly after
the close of the Civil War, by the Reno brothers. The Renos some time after
the hold-up at Seymour, Indiana. robbed the County Treasurer's office at
Gallatin, Missouri. of $20,000. There were several hold-ups and train robberies,
principally upon the Indianapolis, New Albany and Jefferson Railroad, now
part of the Pennsylvania System. during the years 1867 and 1868; the Adams
Express being operated on those roads. In 1968. the Adams Express lost
$90.000. The train robbers were Frank Slim. Billy Reno. Miles Ogle and
Charles Anderson. They held up a train near Seymour, Indiana. threw the
messenger into a ditch near the train and robbed the Adams Express safe
of $90,000. The Verdi hold-up in Nevada in 1870 was the first train robbery
on the Pacific Coast. Yours respectfully. John F. Seymour, Special Agent."
THE FIRST TRAIN ROBBERY
ON THE PACIFIC COAST
By JAMES H. KINKEAD
COL.
JAMES H. KINKEAD
Mr. Kinkead, ever a modest man. has written this article
in the third person. The "Washoe County officer" was Mr. Kinkead himself.
This article is taken from a pencil manuscript left by Mr. Kinkead at his
death, and from other papers in the possession of the [Nevada
Historical] Society.
The officer who made the arrest of the robbers, and of whom C. C. Goodwin wrote: "He believed Nevada had everything that was needed for a man who had brains and physical strength and the pluck behind the two to carry through his plans."
On the morning of November 5, 1870, news was flashed around the civilized world that the Overland Express train which had left San Francisco the previous morning, carrying the gold to the miners at Virginia City, had been "held up" and robbed near Verdi, a station about ten miles west of Reno, and that over $40,000 had been taken from the Wells-Fargo strong box by masked men heavily armed. This being [one of] the first train robberies in the world, it almost took away the public breath, and for a while caused great excitement and much newspaper comment on two continents.
Every enemy of law and order was vociferous in praise of the boldness and nerve of the perpetrators of the robbery, and Nevada acquired the dubious credit of being [one of] the first States in the Union that could produce a set of outlaws daring enough to stop and rob all express train. Immediately large rewards were offered by the authorities of Washoe County, by the State of Nevada, by the then Central Pacific Railroad Company, and by the Wells-Fargo Express Company, for the apprehension of the robbers, these rewards aggregating $30,000. It is needless to say that many men were working on the case in a few hours.
The bold-up occurred in this manner: Just as the train pulled out of the Verdi station it was boarded by five masked men. Two of them climbed into the cab of the engine and covered the engineer and the fireman with six- shooters. The engine was surrendered at once. Another boarded the front platform of the express car, while two others took possession of the rear platform. After the train bad proceeded about half a mile east of Verdi, the men on the engine ordered the engineer to whistle "down brakes:' This was before the days of air-brakes and one short blast of the whistle brought the brakemen to the platforms, where they began the work of setting the brakes. This was also a signal to the three men on the express car to cut the bell-rope and pull the coupling-pin at the rear of the car. As soon as this was done the engineer was ordered to "give her Steam," which he did at once, and when Conductor Marshall went forward to ascertain what had caused the stoppage of the train, he discovered lie had lost his engine, mail car, and express car.
The robbers then speeded down the grade with this part of the train, leaving the other cars at a standstill. The engineer, realizing what was being done, at first refused to pull out, but the muzzle of a pistol against his temple caused him to obey orders. The fireman wa's nearly frightened out of his senses and did not have to be told more than once to do anything.
At a point four or five miles west of Reno the engine came to a halt because of an obstruction oil the track, placed there by a confederate of the robbers. They had figured that the engineer might run past the place designated for the hold-up or might play them some trick by opening the throttle and jumping from the engine.
After the engine was Stopped there was a knock at the door of the express car, and Frank Minch [Note by the Secretary: Previous versions have given the messenger's name as "Marshall," but Mr. Kinkead's manuscript contains the spelling as given above.] the messenger, galled out, "Who's there"? and the reply was, " Marshall." The messenger then opened the door and, instead of seeing Conductor Marshall as he I expected, was confronted by the muzzle of a double-barreled sawed-off Shotgun. [He afterwards said that he "looked into something which resembled two stove-pipes. but proved to be only a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun.] He was taken completely by surprise and surrendered without any fight. After telling him to sit down in the corner of the car and keep quiet, the robbers threw the Wells-Fargo sacks of gold, containing $41,000, through the side door of the car into the brush, thanked the messenger for giving them so little trouble, adding that they were glad they did not have to kill him, shouldered their booty and disappeared into the darkness. [Mr. Kinkead says: “The mail car was not looted and the mail clerk knew nothing about the hold-up until he arrived in Reno."]
Meanwhile Conductor Marshall was allowing his headless passenger train to drop slowly down the grade, anticipating danger of an unknown character, but boldly facing it. When his train arrived at the scene of the robbery he found that the work of the robbers wa's finished and the engineer and fireman were busy removing the obstructions from the track. The train was then "made up" and continued oil its way, reaching Reno thirty minutes after midnight, only thirty minutes late.
Washoe City was then the county-seat of Washoe County, and the first news of the robbery reached the Sheriff's office at 8 o'clock in the morning. The message came from C. C. Pendergast, Wells-Fargo agent at Virginia City, and read: "Train robbed between Truckee and Verdi; robbers gone South."
The Sheriff, Charley Pegg, and his undersheriff [James H. Kinkead] immediately saddled up and struck for the mountains by a short cut, assuming that the robbers would take the Truckee route between Truckee and Carson and Virginia. Thus they expected to head off the robbers. After striking the trail the officers followed it northerly for a few miles and then returned to Washoe City, for they were convinced that no one had passed over the trail since a light fall of snow a week before. The message from Pendergast proved to be misleading, since the robbery occurred below Verdi instead of above it, and the officers lost the first day. They were just in time, however, to catch Dwyer's stage to Reno at 9 o'clock that night. The Deputy Sheriff took passage on this stage, and upon reaching Reno learned that the Wells-Fargo detectives and some of the railroad and Reno officials, together with a posse of citizens from Reno. had been out all day on a "sure clue" which afterwards proved to be a false one.
Early the next morning the Washoe County officer with a fresh horse went to the scene of the robbery, and after carefully examining the ground, discovered one footprint which was easily distinguished from the others. It was made by a boot having a very small heel, such as the dudes and the gamblers wore in those days and our wives and daughters wear now. No laboring man or railroad employee ever wore that boot, and it was too soon after the robbery for the curious to have visited the ground, so the officer in charge of the party knew that if he could find that track and follow it after it left the scene of the robbery he would be sure to land at least one of the robbers. After spending some time examining the ground up and down the track he finally reached a point about a mile west where the small heelprint and two of the larger ones left the track and led off to the north. The robbers had evidently walked for quite a distance on the railroad ties to prevent being trailed. The officer followed these tracks up Dog Valley Creek and over Dog Valley Hill, where it was easy trailing in the snow, into Sardine Valley, Cal. At the Sat-dine Valley House he gained valuable information. Three strangers had lodged there the night before. [They were Squiers, Parsons. and Gilchrist.] Two had left early in the morning and the other one was still in his room [Gilchrist was too sore to travel farther: his feet were worn out.] when a party of hunters from Truckee, led by James Burke, arrived at the house. They were well supplied with shotguns, and the stranger in the house at once mistook them for officers. Running out of the back door he hid in the barn. In the meantime a man had arrived from Truckee and reported the train robbery. The lady of the house then related to the hunters the particulars of the coming to her house of the three men late the previous evening. She said that one of the men was still there and seemed to be nervous and worn out. James Burke, although not an officer, concluded to arrest the man, who proved to be Gilchrist, a miner from Virginia City, who, up to that time, had borne a good reputation. This, no doubt, was his first venture in the "hold-up" business. He was taken into Truckee by the hunters.
The landlady of the Sardine Valley House gave the Washoe County officer a very good description of the other two men. She described them accurately and went into details about their clothing. Among other things she said that one of them wore "gambler's boots," and from her description of the other man, the officer rightly guessed that he was John Squiers, an old stage robber whom the officers of Storey County had been trying to land for years. He was heading for Sierra Valley, where his brother Joe, an honest blacksmith, resided and where he thought he could rest in safety until the excitement caused by the robbery had subsided. After feeding and resting his horse, which had been on the go since daylight, the officer in about an hour took up the hunt for the other men.
It was now 10 o'clock at night and the snow was falling fast. The officer was out of his jurisdiction and unacquainted with that section of the country. He therefore found it necessary to procure a guide to put him on the right road to Sierra Valley; otherwise he might land at Webber Lake or Downieville many miles away. There were several men at the Sardine Valley House, but none of them bad "lost any robbers," and they refused to act as guides. A boy, however, volunteered for ten dollars to go with the officer as far as Webber Lake Junction and put him on the right trail to Loyalton in Sierra Valley, but with the distinct understanding that, in case the robbers were encountered, the boy was to turn back and let the officer fight it out alone. Nothing of the kind occurred, however, and at about midnight they arrived at the little town of Loyalton in Sierra Valley, Cal.
Arousing the landlord of the only hotel in the village, !the officer made himself known and asked if there were any strange guests in the house. The landlord replied that he had one, and described him, but the description did not fit either of the men sought. The officer, however, thought best to take a look at the man and asked the landlord to show him to the room.
By this time, either from the cold or from the thought of a desperado being in his house, the landlord's teeth were chattering, and be declined to go; but giving the officer a candle, told him the man was in room 14. The hotel had just been built, and had not been painted, and on account of the damp weather the doors were swollen and the door of room 14 could not be shut tight enough to lock. For this reason the occupant had placed a chair under the knob on the inside of the room and had gone to bed, probably feeling quite secure against intruders.
The officer after reaching the second story of the hotel readily found room 14, and noticing that the door stood partly open, be gently pushed it until the chair moved sufficiently to enable him to get his arm through the crack and remove the obstruction. This he did without awakening the sleeper, and the first object that attracted his attention after entering the room was a boot, lying on the floor, with the little!! heel that had made the tracks he had followed for so many miles, and, that afterward cut such an important figure in the trial of the robbers.
After entering the room the officer found his man sleeping like a log and first proceeded to remove a six-shooter from under his pillow with out disturbing his slumbers, and also went through his clothes in search of further evidence to connect him with the robbery. Enough was found to assist in the later conviction of the men. When the officer finally aroused him to place him under arrest, he bounded from his bed and landed in the center of the room like a wild animal. Rushing back to the bed, be reached for his gun, but found it missing, while the officer, covering him with a Henry rifle, commanded him to get on his clothes, which he did without any further parley. He then was marched on ahead of the officer and down the street to a saloon where he was bound and placed under guard, while the officer went in search of the other man. The man arrested in the hotel proved to be Parsons, a gambler from Virginia City.
Proceeding on toward Sierraville, Cal., the 0fficer found John Squiers brother's house. The officer knew Squiers and believed that he would have some trouble in taking him "in the open" A riving at Joe's house before daylight and before any one was astir, he placed himself in the rear of the house, in the willows, and waited. Presently a man came through the kitchen and left the door ajar, proceeding to the barn with a pail on his arm, evidently about to do the morning milking. The officer slipped into the house through the kitchen and into four separate rooms where men were sleeping before lie found the man he was looking for, Here again the officer had the luck to disarm the man without waking him, and gathering up his clothes and boots he aroused him and at the muzzle of the rifle drove him out of the house and then allowed him to put on his clothes.
While this was being done, the mail who had entered the barn came out, and Squiers immediately yelled to him that lie was being robbed. The household was soon in commotion and the crowd was growing noisy. After securing the prisoner, the officer made a speech to the crowd explaining that he was, in officer in discharge of duty and that he had arrested Squiers on suspicion of complicity in the train robbery. Squiers, however, knowing the officer, claimed that the latter had no right to make an arrest in California. This view was concurred in by the crowd, especially as Joe Squiers, the brother of the captured man, was a respectable citizen of the valley, where he had many friends. It began to look bad for the officer. But a team Was being hitched up and when it was ready and standing in the rear of the saloon, the prisoner was rushed into it and the officer succeeded in getting away from the crowd and eventually landed both Squiers and the other prisoner in the Truckee jail where Gilchrist already was confined.
On arriving at Truckee, the officer telegraphed to H. G. Blasdel, then Governor of Nevada, for a requisition on Governor Haight of California, and on the following day this arrived and the prisoners were taken across the line into Nevada over the same railroad whose train they had assisted in holding up. While awaiting the requisition Gilchrist had been kept separate from the other men and had been "sweated," with the result that he made a complete statement before a Notary Public, in which he gave the names of all the parties connected with the robbery.
A telegram was immediately sent to Wells-Fargo in Virginia City, directing the arrest of "Jack" Davis, and another was sent to Reno calling for the arrest of John Chapman, Sol Jones, Chat Roberts and Fill Cockerell. Davis was arrested in Virginia City by Chief of Police George Downey and Constable Ben Lackey; and Jones, Roberts and Cockerell were taken in Long Valley by a posse headed by Chief Burke of Sacramento and Louis Dean of Reno. Chapman, who was in San Francisco on the day of the robbery, came up to Reno on the following day, and was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Edwards. [Note by the Secretary: According to one account Mr. Kinkead recognized the signature of "J. Enrique" as belonging to Chapman before he left Reno In pursuit of the robbers. He learned that Chapman was in San Francisco and was expected home in the morning. He provided for his arrest. (Nevada Bugle, June 29. 1912.)] This completed the arrests. The entire gang had been rounded up in less than four days after the robbery occurred and most of the money was recovered. [$40.000 was recovered.] Gilchrist showed the officers where the money was cached, saying that it was the intention to let it remain there until the excitement of the robbery had Subsided, when it was to have been dug up and divided.
A grand jury was immediately called by Judge C. N. Harris of the District Court of Washoe County; indictments quickly followed; and the men were put on trial early in December. They were convicted and, with the exception of Gilchrist and Roberts, they were all landed in the Nevada State Prison oil Christmas Day of the same year.
The trial was a memorable one in the criminal annals of Nevada. Judge C. N. Harris presided. W. M. Boardman was District Attorney, and Thomas H. Williams appeared for Wells, Fargo & Co. AttorneyGeneral Robert M. Clarke, a brother-in-law of the Washoe County officer, anti who later successfully prosecuted the United States mint thieves at Carson City, represented the State. The celebrated criminal lawyer, "Jim" Croffroth of California, appeared for the Central Pacific Railroad Company. The prisoners were ably defended. Judge Thomas E. Haydon of Reno appeared as special counsel for Chapman, and the others retained William Webster of Washoe City, who was later the editor of the Reno Journal.
Map of the Peavine Copper Mines, 1867
The tunnel where the robbers hid is just below the word 'Standard" in the center of the map. From it to the eastward is the line of a "Proposed Branch Railroad to Truckee."
It was a great legal battle and the principal fight was over Chapman. He was in San Francisco on the day of the robbery, [Squiers, Parsons, Davis, and Cockerell also attempted to prove alibis and produced witnesses who swore falsely in their favor.] and his attorney claimed that the State of Nevada had no jurisdiction in his case. In order to bring him into the jurisdiction of this court it was necessary to prove a conspiracy and that the conspiracy was hatched in Nevada. This was shown to be the case by the confessions of Gilchrist and Roberts, who were promised immunity if they would tell the whole story. [As no man can be convicted solely on the testimony of an accomplice. it was necessary to have corroboration.] Their evidence was also corroborated from other sources. Gilchrist and Roberts testified that the job was put up at Chat Roberts's ranch in Nevada, Chapman being present. At the time it was arranged that Chapman was to go to San Francisco and watch the shipment from Wells, Fargo & Co.'s office and to send a cipher message to Sol Jones at Reno who would then notify the other men who were to await the coming of the message in an old tunnel in the Peavine Mountains north of Reno.
Sol Jones also testified and explained the meaning of the cipher message, which read: "Send me sixty dollars tonight without fail" and was signed "J. Enrique" Jones testified that it meant: "Be on hand tonight without fail" Jones had been promised the lowest sentence under the law to testify on behalf of the State. This he did and was later sentenced to five years in the State Prison.
Chapman denied the sending of the telegram. But the Western Union operator at San Francisco brought the original message into court and swore positively that Chapman was the man who delivered it to him early in the morning of November 4. [The operator was able to swear positively to the identity of the sender of the message from the fact that it was the flrst message received that day and the sender requested and paid for a return message to notify him of delivery. This made necessary two more trips to the office, and the operator had taken particular notice of the man.] His attorney, however, still mantained his contention of the lack of jurisdiction, and produced authorities to support his argument. Among others was one from California, where in a certain robbery case the defendants were tried in one county while the robbery was committed in another, and the Supreme Court of California granted a new trial on the ground of lack of jurisdiction. But General Clarke, in a remarkable argument, successfully combatted the contention of Chapman's attorney, and on appeal the Supreme Court also held that the conspiracy was concocted in Nevada, Chapman being present; that the sending of the telegram from San Francisco was a part of the same unlawful act which culminated in the train robbery in the State of Nevada, and that Chapman in law was as securely within the jurisdiction of the court as any other of the defendants, and that if he could not be tried in Nevada the law certainly could hot reach him. in California, since the sending of the message from California did not constitute a crime against that State. [Secretary's note: See Nevada Reports, Hawley's Republication, 1869-72. 632 ff.]
The sentence of the convicted robbers ranged from five to twenty-three years, Jones getting the lightest sentence, and Chapman and Squiers the heaviest. [Gilchrist and Roberts, on account of their testimony. were allowed to go free. Squiers got 23 years, Chapman 20. Parsons 18. Davis 10, and Jones 6.]
The sending of these men to the penitentiary nearly wiped out the stage-robbing industry in Nevada, for it imprisoned the men who for years had been stopping the Wells-Fargo stages. The officers of Washoe and Storey Counties bad long been convinced that "Jack" Davis and John Squiers had been in every hold-up, but their work bad been so smooth that whenever they bad been brought before a jury they had succeeded in establishing a "reasonable doubt." Chapman was known to be a ringleader of the robber gang. A short time before Wells, Fargo & Co., in order to protect their stages, had put on an extra guard in addition to the regular messenger. Guards also traveled behind the coaches on horseback. The gang soon concluded that there was no more easy money to be had out of the stages, so they were forced to change their base of operations. Chapman and Squiers conceived the idea of holding up a railroad train. It was a remarkably well-concocted plan, and all the details were worked out to perfection, the only mistake being in the selection of the men. They did not need Gilchrist and Jones, who were novices in the business and gave up everything they knew under pressure of the sweat-box.
The convicted men all served their terms in the penitentiary except Davis. A few years after the Incarceration there was, a break at the Nevada State Prison, in which several guards were killed and Warden Denver tied up. The convicts had complete control of the place, but Davis refused to pass through the open gates, and in fact rendered some assistance to the officers. For this be was pardoned, having served five years. Within a year after his discharge he attempted to hold up a stage in White Pine County, but Eugene Blair, a Shotgun messenger, got the drop on him and riddled his chest with buckshot making a truly "good Indian" of him.
Of the others connected with the robbery nothing is known of their lives after their discharge, except Squiers, who next tuened up in California where he was convicted of jury fixing and served five years in
San Quentin. A few years ago he was a spectator at he Gans-Nelson fight in Goldfield. He is now a gray-haired, decrepit old man, who, if still living, is too old to do much damage in this world.
Of the officers who took a prominent part in the arrest and conviction of the train robbers all are dead save the one who followed the small footprints through the mountains until they led him to the lair of the robbers. He it was also who collected most of the evidence used at the trial and for these services received most of the large reward. [Died June 9,1912.]
> I am researching the robbery of the Central Pacific Overland Express at
> Verdi, NV on November 4, 1870, in connection with a book I intend to write
> on a related incident which occurred a year later in Mono County, CA. I
> need to know the names of the perpetrators, details of the robbery, the
> following convictions, etc. Can you provide me with information or web
> sites? Thanks for your assistance.
>
> ... A related incident was reported in the Reno Daily Crescent
> edition of November 12, 1870. Different perpetrators than the November 1,
> 1870, incident.
>
> There is also a brief note about the November 1 incident, the one in which
> I am most interested, in the December 24, 1870, edition of the Reno Daily
> Crescent.
>
> The men were sentenced in Washoe County on December 25, 1870.
> After being lodged in Nevada State Prison, the perps were involved in a
> major breakout. Most of the folks were eventually recaptured, but the guy
> with the notched boot, that led to capture of all the railroad robbers, was
> never caught after the breakout.
> I would like to determine what engine and cars were used in the make up of
> this train.
> I am making a Wells Fargo display and would like to made a static display of
> the train in HO scale. Wells Fargo Advancing the American Frontier, starting
> on page 123, has an account of this robbery. The article also states the train
> was held up twice on the same trip. The first at Verdi on 11/5/1870 just
> after midnight. It states that the train was held up again 320 miles east of
> original site near the Utah line twenty hours later. It listed the train as
> Number one. It is described as a small brisk locomotive with red trim and
> balloon stack the train make up is described as a Silver Palace car, a little
> yellow day coach and combined baggage and express car. Many question exist.
> What model of train? 0-4-0, 2-6-0, 4-6-0 ???????? Caboose or not? What
> type? Was the listed cars the only cars on the train or just those reported.
> Etc. Any help will be appreciated. I have lived in the Henderson NV area
> for over 20 years, almost feel like a native with this growth.
> SASS Life member #316.
Joshua S. Hagler wrote on 9/18/2003:
> I am looking for information on a railroad spur between Evanston, Wyoming and Kemmerer, Wyoming [and]
> information about a possible train robbery that occured in this area. ...
Late
Breaking News! — Report another CPRR Train Robbery