On 6 October 1866, brothers John and Simeon Reno staged what is generally believed to be the first train robbery in American history. Their take was $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana.
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At a rate of 90 freight cars ransacked per day, Union Pacific estimates that thefts against its trains are up by more than 160 percent over the last year. In the year ending October 2021, the increase was a mind-boggling 356 percent.
The robbers escaped with an estimated £2.6 million, which would have been worth about £46 million today, which they split amongst themselves. Most of the cash has never been recovered.
Police recovered approximately 10% of the money, although by 1971, when decimalisation led to a change in UK currency, most of the cash that the robbers had stolen was no longer legal tender.
The Wilcox robbery occurred on the night of June 2, 1899, at Wilcox a small station west of Laramie, the express car being blown open and a large sum of money secured. Posses from several parts of the state started out in pursuit of the bandits, who took a course north through Casper. The Last of the Gang.
Bandits, cheats, desperados, hobos, ravagers, renegades — you name the hooligan, and the Wild West has it in spades. There are plenty of opportunities for these ne'er-do-wells to pillage and plunder in the mostly uncharted western lands, but robbing trains has become the trendiest.