Jesse James great train robbery

An icon of the old west is the ruthlessness of it all. The wars between cowboys and Indians, a gunfight in the town square, and of course train robberies. One train robbery in particular wasn't famous for the amount of money that was taken, but for the sheer boldness of it.

On July 21st, 1873, a gang of men loosened a section of track on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway. They were none other than notorious outlaw Jesse James, and his gang. Jesse James is most famous for his bank robberies but this robbery would make him one of the first men to hold up a moving train. The bandits tied a rope to the track and when the train rounded a corner, they dislodged the rail and sent the train flying off the track, killing the engineer. James and his brother boarded the train and found a safe owned by the U.S. Express Company. They expected it to be filled with gold but instead it filled with a mere two thousand dollars, so the gang robbed the passengers on the train to make up for the lost money.

The boldness of robbery a moving train was a relatively knew idea, but for an outlaw like Jesse James it was no big deal. Hopefully you'll come back for more stories of the old west!