The Last Train Robber

One of the most colorful parts of American History is the time of train robberies and the daring outlaws who undertook them in the period covering from just after the Civil War to 1924. For decades, the railroads were the principal transporters of payrolls, gold and silver, bonds, and passengers who often carried large sums of money as well as valuable jewelry. For the creative outlaw, trains became an obvious target for robbery. Willis Newton has never enjoyed the recognition and fame of the better known train robbing outlaws such as Frank and Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, the Daltons, and the Doolins, but he was the most prolific and successful train robber in the history of North America. Newton stole more money from the railroads than all of the others put together. During his lifetime, Newton robbed six trains and an estimated eighty banks, pulled off the greatest train robbery ever, netting $3,000,000, yet remains virtually unknown. So unknown was he that, despite all of his success as a robber, he was rarely identified as a suspect. Following his greatest heist, Newton and his gang member, composed of his brothers, were arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to serve long terms at Leavenworth Prison. When they were granted early release for good behavior, they lost no time in returning to robbing banks. Willis Newton’s life and times as America’s greatest, and last, train robber has been gleaned and developed from extensive interviews he granted during the 1970s when he was in his eighties. In addition, newspaper reports of his numerous train and bank robberies have been obtained and researched for precise details of robberies and pursuit.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park comes classic historical thriller about Victorian London’s most notorious gold heist. London, 1855, when lavish wealth and appalling poverty exist side by side, one mysterious man navigates both worlds with perfect ease. Edward Pierce preys on the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of his century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England’s industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, but studded with all the suspense and style of fiction, here is a classic historical thriller, set a decade before the age of dynamite—yet nonetheless explosive…

A cunning and formidable opponent of the law, Bill Miner, a.k.a. The Grey Fox, spent half of his life behind bars and the other half planning and executing robberies to fuel his love of fancy clothes and the good life. Described as the master criminal of the west, this dashing thief carried out Canada's first train robbery in 1904.

Bill Carlisle was the last of the Old West’s real outlaws. But, unlike many of the other famous characters of the early days, Bill was not the gunfighter type. Bill never shot or injured anyone in his hold-ups; further, he never robbed a woman passenger. He had, like most old-time cowboys, a wholesome respect for women—all women. This story of his life reads like the dime-novel fiction of an earlier day, but every incident of his daring and gripping exploits is a matter of record throughout Wyoming and all Western states.

Gordon Goody is the mystery man of the Great Train Robbery, the most notorious theft in British history. Regarded by his partners as tough and fearless, he has kept his silence for five decades. Until now. Raised in rural Northern Ireland, Goody served as an army sergeant but chose a life of crime and became one of the most professional and prolific robbers in London. He and his gang were offered the job of a lifetime: details of a Glasgow to London mail train laden with cash, provided by The Ulsterman, whose identity Goody reveals for the first time.

One of the most colorful parts of American History is the time of train robberies and the daring outlaws who undertook them in the period covering from just after the Civil War to 1924. For decades, the railroads were the principal transporters of payrolls, gold and silver, bonds, and passengers who often carried large sums of money as well as valuable jewelry. For the creative outlaw, trains became an obvious target for robbery. The list of America’s train robbers is a veritable Who’s Who of American outlawry and includes: Frank and Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Charles Searcy, Charles Morganfield, Sam Bass, Black Jack Ketchum, Seaborn Barnes, and others. To this cast of train robbery-related characters can be added the relentless investigations and pursuit by individuals associated with the Pinkerton Detectives, Texas Rangers, Wells Fargo detectives, railroad company detectives, as well as local and area law enforcement authorities. In addition, there are numerous tales of bravery that took place during train robberies involving heroic express car messengers, conductors, engineers, brakemen, and even passengers.

Relates how Mr. Yowder outwits a gang of bank robbers with the help of some friendly rattlesnakes.

Frank's long-suffering parents decide it's time for a holiday – looking after a whole zooful of animals is VERY hard work. Leaving Gran in charge, they set off. But the further from home they get, the more anxious Frank gets. What if Gran can't cope? What if his animals need him? He decides to take drastic action – with dire consequences! A nail-biting follow-up to the bestselling Baby's First Bank Heist and Baby's First Jailbreak.

The fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores. In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller, dreamed of a railway connecting the island of Key West to the Florida mainland, crossing a staggering 153 miles of open ocean—an engineering challenge beyond even that of the Panama Canal. Many considered the project impossible, but build it they did. The railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for more than twenty-two years, heralded as “the Eighth Wonder of the World,” until its total destruction in 1935's deadly storm of the century. In Last Train to Paradise, Standiford celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, bringing to life a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’s wrath.

Definitive account of the famous 1963 Great Train Robbery - and its aftermath. In the early hours of Thursday 8th August 1963 at rural Cheddington in Buckinghamshire, £2.6 million (£50 million today) in unmarked £5, £1 and 10-shilling notes was stolen from the Glasgow to London nightmail train in a daring and brilliantly executed operation lasting just 46 minutes. Quickly dubbed the crime of the century, it has captured the imagination of the public and the world's media for 50 years, taking its place in British folklore and giving birth to the myths of The Great Train Robbery. Ronnie Biggs, Buster Edwards and Bruce Reynolds became household names. But what really happened? This is the story of four talented villains who took the criminal world by storm, of the 'perfect crime'. It is also the story of ruthless policemen, determined to hunt the robbers down and to make sure nobody slipped through the net, not even the innocent. It is the story of an Establishment under siege, and of one mistake which cost the robbers 307 years in prison. Fifty years later, here is the story set out in full for the first time, a true-life crime thriller, and also a vivid slice of British social history.