Life and adventures of Sam Bass, the notorious Union Pacific and Texas train robber;

Front matter

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SAM BASS

Chapter II Fatal Mistake

Working on a Farm — Horse Racing — Beating the Indians — Texas Cowboy.

It was in March, 1875, that Bass left the employ of Sheriff Eagan. After horse racing, gambling and dissipating for some time in and around Denton, he went to Fort Sill, accompanied by five or six companions. He was absent on this trip two or three months, but what transpired during the time, is not known, though it is not believed that he carried his dissipation beyond horse racing and other forms of gambling.

When next heard of he was in the Indian Territory, that beautiful paradise of nature, the government’s home for civilized Indians and the hiding place of uncivilized white men.

It is not to be supposed that these races, like the great Ten Broeck-McCarty fiasco, drew ail the governors, senators, members of Congress, and other people in the whole region round about, nor is there any record of a heavy gate fee for the privilege of a grand sell. But in spite, of his rudeness the red-skinned racer is up to the tricks of the profession and has no trouble with a superabundance of honest scruples.

Bass found it easy enough to beat their scrubby little courers with his sorrel mare. But how to get possession of the ponies he had won was a much more difficult matter. It was in vain that he reasoned, cursed and threatened. They were not playing a losing game, they had the ponies and meant to keep them. But Bass was equally determined to have what the mare won. Therefore when night came he took all the ponies he had won and as many more as he could get his hands on and started for Texas. This is the first act of robbery recorded in his career. The ponies were driven across the State toward San Antonio, where. Bass arrived in the latter part of -,75, or early in ’78.

Here horse racing and gambling were resumed, the sorrel mare still doing the honors of the course. But shortly afterwards this fatal piece of horse flesh, which had so rapidly carried her owner down the course of ruin, was sold. Bass remained in and about San Antonio during the summer, but nothing of note occurred until about August 1st, when he joined Joel Collins, afterwards leader of the gang which robbed the Union Pacific train, in gathering up a drove of cattle for the Northern market. The nucleus,, at least, of the drove was purchased, but how many mavericks, old or young, with or without brands, voluntarily or otherwise, slipped into the drove as it moved across the country, no one can tell. But very loose notions on such points prevail in the stock ranges, and it is not to be supposed that Collins and Bass played a puritanical part as they followed their herd across the wide prairies.

The cowboy is a sui generis of the Southwest. Usually he is tall and slim, with sunburnt face, keen glittering eye and handsome moustache. His dress is of the simplest kind. A half acre of hat, more or less, covers his head. His feet are enclosed in a heavy pair of cow-hide boots, at the heels of which are a pair of clanking, clattering spurs, and in the tops he stows away the surplus ends of his pantaloons. His shirt is a flannel or calico and abhors mansard collars, and other “neck fixins.” He rides a tough little animal called a Texas or Mexican pony, which he purchases for fifteen or twenty-five dollars. It can stand more riding and less feeding than almost any kind of horse living. At his saddle is strapped a Sharp’s or Wincester rifle, and at either hip is a six shooter, while around his waist is a belt filled with cartridges. Intervening space is filled up with daggers, bottles or whiskey and plugs of tobacco.

Wlhen on the drive he stops wherever night overtakes him, sleeping as sweetly with his body stretched upon the greensward, his head upon his saddle and the glittering stars above, as if tucked away in the softest bed. He. always stops at “the store,” takes a drink, buys some more tobacco and replenishes his bottle.

When he arrives in a town or city, if he is flush, he always finds his way to a gambling saloon, where he plays more recklessly than successfully, or to a house of prostitution, where he falls an easy victim to the blandishments of some fair enchantress, and usually retires heavy in head and light in pocket.

But with all his weakness, he has some of the best qualities of manhood. He is generous, brave, and faithful to his friends, selfishness and small meanness find but little place in his everyday life.

There is no doubt that, as a cowboy, Bass snugly filled out the proportions of the type.

But not to make a further disgression, we find that the drovers arrived in Kansas some time during the fall. Here they sent their cattle on to Sidney, Nebraska, while they took the cars for the same place. It is said, by detectives that his was done because the ownership of some of the cattle was a disputed question, and that they were afraid at that time and place to be seen with them. But it is quite probable that they were tired of the drive and took this method of obtaining a rest.

At Sidney they met the herd and drove it from there to the Black Hills, where it was disposed of.

This ended the cattle business and introduces us to another phase of the bandit’s career.

Chapter III Life In The Black Hills

On the Road — Keeping a Dance House in Deadwood — Deadwood Society — Belles of the Town — Kitty Leroy, the Danseuse — Her Tragical Death — “The World by the Tail, With a Down Hill Pull” —The “Tail Holt” Slips ,

After disposing of the herd of cattle, Bass and Collins purchased two four-horse teams, and began freighting between Dodge City, Yankton and the Black Hills. In this business they continued until January, 1877, when they sold out and opened a gambling saloon and house of prostitution in Deadwood.

There is nothing puritanical or bigoted about Deadwood society.. The widest latitude of opinion and practice is allowed on all — moral questions. The conscience is not harassed with scruples and no prudential considerations harness the passions. Nobody seems to have the slightest lecollection of a father’s solemn admonitions or a mother’s prayers. Religious teaching is a withered tradition, tossed among the other rubbish of abandoned sobriety. Sunday is no better than any other day, and every other day is as bad as it can be, but night is still worse.

Every man who goes to Deadwood is shadowed by the presentiment that he will either be shot or that the mad fever in his blood will break out in the slaughter of somebody else. When he arrives in the city he needs no introduction, but to hang out his revolvers, call for a drink and lay down a greasy pack of cards. He is asked his name, for convenience sake, but nobody thinks of inquiring where he came from, why he left or what his name was before he left.

Most of the houses are saloons. The rest are theatres, faro banks and dance houses. Prostitution is not confined to special quarters but has full sweep of the range. Only respectability and virtue are crowded into corners. ,

The queens of society are the most brilliant of the demimonde. The further they have fled from the modesty of their sex, the more dashing and daring they are, the more recklessly they can handle a revolver and the straighter they can throw a dagger; the more men rave over them and the more ready they are to kill or be killed for their sake.

To show that this picture of Deadwood society is not overdrawn, and to present a fair type of the leaders of the sex, we give below a description of one of the queens who reigned in the height of her i glory at the time Bass and Collins kept the dance house. This was Kitty Leroy, a woman who has been much written about and whose tragical fate shortly after this sent her name throughout the press of the country. A Black Hills letter speaks of her thus:

Kitty LeRoy, who was killed by her husband only a short time ago, who then killed himself, was a small figure, and had previously been noted us a jig-dancer. She had a large Roman nose, cold, grey eyes, a low, cunning forehead, and was inordinately fond of money., I saw her often in her “Mint,” which was opposite my office, where men congregated to squander their money; and as Kitty was a good player, like the old grave-digger, “she gathered them in!” that is, their money. Men are, in a general sense, fools. A small tress of golden hair, or a bright eye or soft cheek will precipitate them into an ocean of folly, and women of the world (and some out of the world) know this fact and play upon the weak string of men’s hearts until all is gone — money, character and even life. Kitty had seen much of human nature, entering upon her wild career at the age of ten. She was married three times and died at the age of twenty-eight. A polite and intelligent German met her. He was going well with his gold claim; she knew it. Like the spider, she spun her delicate web about him until he poured into her lap $8,000 in gold, and then when his claim would yield no more she beat him over the head with a bottle and drove him from her door. One and another she married, and then when their money was gone, discarded them in rapid succession. Yet there was something peculiarly magnetic about Kitty. Men did love her and there are men living to-day who love her memory. Well, she’s gone. I saw her only a short time since, lying dead by the body of her inanimate husband, with whom she would not live, but with whom she was obliged to pass quietly to the grave.

Another correspondent writes of Deadwood society and very gushingly of Kitty as follows:

“There are dance houses and theatres, where the gay society congregates, and it is at such houses, as well as at the gambling houses, that the fair sex may be seen. The women, though not so bad as the men, are all strong minded, which, from a hen-pecked point of view, is the worst thing you can say of a female. Some keep bars, taverns, boarding houses, and variety shows, while a few keep gambling dens, like ‘The Mint,’ which was kept by poor Kitty LeRoy, lately killed by one of her husbands, which was the tragic end of a brilliant career; for, barring the wild, Gipsy-like attire, which fashion would fail to appreciate as intensely picturesque, Kitty LeRoy was what a real man would call a starry beauty. Her brow was low and her brown hair thick and curling; she had five husbands, seven revolvers, a dozen bowie-knives and always went armed to the teeth, which latter were like pearls set in coral. She was a terrific gambler, and wore in her ears immense diamonds, which shone most like her own glorious eyes. The magnetism about her marvellous beauty was such as to drive her lovers crazy; more men had been killed about her than all the other women in the Hills combined, and it was only a question whether her lover or herself had killed the most,

“She could throw a bowie-knife straighter than any pistol bullet except her own, and married her first husband because he was the only man of all her lovers who had the nerve to let her shoot an apple off his head as she rode by him at full speed. On one occasion she disguised herself in male attire to fight a man who had declined to combat with a women He fell, and she then cried over him, and married him in time to be his widow. Kitty was sometimes rich and sometimes poor, but always lavish as a prince when she had money. She dealt ‘vautoom’ and ‘faro,’ and played all games and cards with a dexterity that amounted to genius. ”

Kitty is supposed to have been the wife of Capt. E. H. Lewis, of Bay City, Michigan. But in 1872 she left her husband, and after that time figured as a public dancer in various part of the Union. In the winter of 1875-6 she was engaged at Thompson’s variety den in Dallas. While there she created quite a sensation among the lewd habitues of that resort, by her artistic dancing and gay rollicking and dashing manners. After a few months stay she ran away wich a well known saloon man, and together the two visited California, where they remained a few months and then proceeded to Deadwooa. Subsequently she quarreled with her paramour and married Samuel R. Curley, a note faro dealer. But the couple proved to be badly mated, and soon after their marirage Curley went to Denver, and almost immediately thereafter the broken friendship between Kitty and her paramour was restored, a fact that was communicated to Curley, who undoubtedly went to Deadwood for the express purpose of killing his wife, her paramour and himself, for he traveled under an assumed name; alighted from the coach in South Deadwood, telling the driver if asked if any passengers other than those delivered at the office had come up, to say no. He walked direct to the hotel at which the unfortunate woman was a guest, remained there all day, and in the evening sent for his rival,' who refused to to visit him. He then told a colored man employed in the house that he intended to kill his wife and himself, and true to his word went up stairs and did so.

When the bodies of the murderer and his victim were found the woman rested upon her back, in a position and with a quiet facial expression that indicated naught of the bloody deed that had been i enacted but a moment before. Close examination revealed a small bullet hole in the waist of her dress, which, upon being opened, disclosed the fatal wound in the center of her chest. In the opposite corner of the room lay the murderer upon his face, in a sickening pool, of blood, his brain , oozing out and pieces of skull protruding from a ghastly wound. His, right arm was doubled up behind him, the hand grasping a Smith & Wesson, by which the fatal deed was committed.

It is not strange that in such society as this Bass soon became fit for .crimes of the first magnitude. But before entering on his career of daring deeds he seems to have made one more effort to follow a respectable occupation. For about this time he wrote to Henry Underwood, then in Denton, that he and Collins had purchased a quartz mine, for which they had been offered $4,000, but it was a big thing and he would not sell, but when he got it worked up he would let him know all about it. He assumed his friend in the phraseology of the cattle ranche, that he had the world by the tail, with a down-hill pull. He also informed him that he would return to Texas in the Fall and would then pay off his creditors. But whether the “tail holt/’ of which he boasted, slipped or whether the mine had been salted for his special benefit by men shrewder than cow boys, is not known. But this was the last respectable piece of business in which he engaged. After this he is known to the world only as a bold highwayman, undertaking deeds of daring which but few bandits have the audacity to attempt or the nerve to execute.

What led immediately to his final plunge into a career of bold outlawry is known only from the statement which he made on his death bed. When asked the question why he began to rob he replied that he had won some money gambling and had been robbed of it and wanted to get even with them. Whether this occurred at Deadwood or elsewhere is open to conjecture, but there is some reason to believe that he referred to some occasion on which he had been beaten out of his money by sharpers. The fact that both he and Collins got rid of their cattle money so fast, indicates that if there were none more reckless and daring, yet there were much shrewder gamblers and sharpers in the Hills than Bass and Collins.

Chapter IV Launching Into Crime

Black Hills Stage Robberies — Great Union Pacific Robbery At Big Spring, Nebraska — Sixty Thousand Dollars In Gold Captured.

While in the Black Hills Bass made the acquaintance of Nixon and Jack Davis, and probably of all the men who assisted in the Union Pacific train robbery. But according to his own statement only Jack Davis and Nixon were engaged with him in stage robbing.

There were seven of these robberies in all, and some money was realized from them, but how much is not known.

It is apparent that but a short time elapsed between the stage robberies and the .capture of the railroad train at Big Spring, Nebraska.

This was one of the most daring and successful train robberies ever committed.

Collins formed the plan of the robbery, though it is believed Jack Davis first suggested it. He had come from San Francisco, and was familiar with the fact that large sums of gold were constantly passing over the route. The names of the gang, six in number, have all been ascertained since, Bass himself testifying to the correctness of the list in his dying moments. They were Joel Collins, formerly from Dallas county, Texas; Sam Bass, from Denton county, Texas; Jack Davis, from San Francisco; Bill Heffridge, who went from San Antonio with Collins and Bass; James Berry, from Mexico, Mo., and Nixon, of whose previous history but little is known.

A more daring and desperate band of outlaws was never gotten together in this country. Collins acted as leader of the band and it has been charged that he spent three or four weeks previous to the robbery at Ogalalla, Neb., gambling and associating with desperate men, from whom he organized the gang. It has also been said that he had a cattle ranche near Big Spring Station, and thus became acqainted with the habits of the station men, the operations of trains and the surroundings of the office. But this has been denied.

The time selected for the robbery was Tuesday night, the 19th of September last. As Big Spring was only a water station, the plan evidently was, to capture the few men employed about the station and keep them under guard until after the train was robbed.

At the appointed hour the bandits boldly rode down towards the station, hitched their horses conveniently near, and at once proceeded to business. With a small flourish of revolvers and the well known command, “throw up your arms,” the station agent and assistant were soon made secure.

As train time, 10 o’clock, drew near, the bright rays of the headlight were seen falling upon the distant track. Then came the long sound of the whistle, the rushing train checked its speed and in a moment more stood still upon the track. It was but the work of an instant for one of the gang to mount the engine, command the engineer and fireman to throw up their hands and there hold them helpless under the muzzle of a cocked revolver. But even before this had been accomplished, two of his confederates had boarded the express car and were ransacking its contents. They soon found a large quantity of gold in one of the safes, but the other could not be opened. It was in vain that they ordered the messenger to open it. He assured then that he had no key, that it was a time lock and could only be locked or opened at each end of the route. Jack Davis cursed and raved, beat him over the head, thrust his revolver into his mouth kno.cking out one of his teeth and lacerating the flesh, and threatened to blow the top of his head right off if he didn’t open it. But Bass said he reckoned the messenger was telling the truth, and that thdy had better give it up.

After going through the coaches and robbing the terrified' passengers the bandits slowly backed away, keeping their arms presented until they were lost to view in the darkness.

A number of shots were fired during the transaction and a few wounds were inflicted, but no one was killed.

The gold taken from the express car amounted to the sum of $60,000, no small weight for the robbers to handle under the circumstances. It consisted entirely of twenty dollar gold pieces, of the coinage of 1877, a fact which was afterwards of material assistance in ferreting out the perpetrators of the crime.

Shortly after the robbery, the gang divided the money and separated, going two together by different routes. Bass, Davis, and Nixon, for a time vanished from view. Of the others we shall speak in the succeeding chapters.

Chapter V Fated

Great Excitement Among Railroad Officals. — On The Trail — Uncle Sam’s Soldiers to the Front. — Two Travel Stained Cow Boys. — Heavily Laden Pony. — Capture of Collins and Heffridge. — They Die With Their Boots On. — Subsequent Doubt. — Collins Defended.— Short Sketch of His Life.

The Big Spring robbery created intense excitement among railroad officials and caused a general sensation throughout the country.

The large amount of money secured was looked upon as a temptation which would soon lead to another like attempt. This in connection with the heavy shipments of gold over the line would be likely to excite the cupidity of every bandit in the West, at the same time the long stretch of road through waste and desert regions, with here and there a lonely station, made it very difficult to afford adequate protection. It was determined, therefore, to capture the robbers at any cost and hazards. Large rewards were at once offered by the State authorities of Nebraska and by the railroad companies. This brought forward detectives from almost every quarter. Telegrams were sent to all officers along railroad lines, to sheriffs and officers in command of U. S. troops.

At first it was not wholly known who the robbers were or whence they came. But it so chanced that among the passengers on the plundered train was a young man named Andy Riley, a resident of Omaha. During the attack upon the train, Riley stood upon the platform and received a wound in the hand from one of the flying bullets, he was also robbed along with the rest of the passengers. He had traveled with Joel Collins on the way to Deadwood and knew him well. He had also seen him and conversed with him only a few days before, while on a visit to Ogalalla. Great was his surprise, therefore, when the robbers came through the train, to find Joel Collins among them. Immediately upon his return to Omaha he notified the officials of the fact and Collins’ name and description of his person were accordingly telegraphed in all directions.

It was shortly learned also that after leaving the railroad, the robbers crossed the Platte river, in Nebraska and were next heard of at Young’s ranche on the Republican river in Kansas.* This was on the 23d, the next Saturday after- the robbery. Intelligence ol this fact having reached Sheriff Bardsley, of Ellis county, Kansas, he at once started from Hays City, on the Kansas Pacific road, with a squad of ten cavalrymen and a detective from Denver and made his headquarters at Buffalo Station, on the Kansas Pacific. This is sixty miles west of Hays City, in the center of a wild and dreary waste. Nearby is a large ravine, in which the Sheriff and his posse camped. While there, about nine o’clock in the morning of the 26th, Joel Collins, the chief of the train robbers, and a single adherent, rode up to the lonely station.

The following account of their capture and tragical death we take from a Western daily of the 28th:

When first seen they were riding from the north, coming boldly over a high ridge of open prairie. They led between them a pony heavily laden with something which, while it was not bulky, seemed to tax the strength of the pony to carry it. The men were dusty and travel stained. They appeared to be and might have been taken for two Texas “cow boys” out on a hunt for cattle or on their way to join a herd. Had they rode straight across the track and continued their journey without stopping, no suspicion would have been aroused; but they were led instinctively to their death. They rode their jaded horses to the shady side of the principal building of the station, and one of the two dismounted, leaving his partner in charge of the horses and the pack pony. The man left in charge of the horses said they were Texas cattle men on their way home, and enquiring the way to Fort Larned. The dismounted man walked up to the station agent and enquired the way to Thompson’s store. The building was pointed out to him, but as he stood conversing he took out his handkerchief, which revealed a letter in his pocket upon which was plainly visible he superscription “Joel Collins.” This was the name of the leader of the Union Pacific train robbers, and the brands upon their horses assured the station agent that these were the men wanted by the Sheriff and his soldiers encamped a few hundred yards away. Sheriff Bardsley was notified at once, and he came up to the station and examined the horses and made other satisfactory observances. He conversed with the robber chief for some time, and asked many questions, which were freely answered. They walked together to the station and took a drink, and conversed upon various unconsequental subjects. Collins made no effort to conceal his real name. He had

-’-Detective Leech, of Ogalalla, afterwards claimed that he was in the camp of the gang on the night they divided the money, and that he knew by sight all the r.obbers. He said that he escaped capture at their hands only by hasty flight

on his horse no suspicion whatever that the telegraph had given his name and description at that little station in the middle of the buffalo plains. Bardsley then left his prey and started back to $he camp of the soldiers, who were under the command of Lieut. Alien, and ordered them to saddle up and follow him, and he would bring back the Texans.

In the meantime the two horsemen with their heavily burdened pony had started out on the open plains southward. Sheriff Bardsley and his posse started out in pursuit.

When Collins and his companions saw the Sheriff and his blue coated posse of cavalry appear on their trail, they manifested no excitement. They did not even attempt to run. On the contrary, they rode on leisurely on the Texas trail unil Sheriff Bardsley rode up and halted them. Even then they gave no sign of trepidation or excitement. Collins looked at Bardsley with the coolest effrontery and demanded his business. Said Sheriff Bardsley:

“I have a description of some train robbers which answers well to your appearance. I want you and your partner to return with me to the station. You need fear nothing if you are innocent, and if you are the man I want, then I am $10,000 better off. Please come back to the station, gentlemen.”

“You are mistaken in your men, gentlemen,” said Collins, laughingly, “but, of course there is no use to object. We will go back and have the mistake explained. We are Texas boys going home — that’s all.”

Then they turned their tired horses back towards the station. As they returned they exchanged a few brief words which were undistinguishable even by the nearest trooper. They rode a few hundred yards over the level plain towards the solitary station, when suddenly the leader, Joel Collins, broke the silence. Turning to his companion he said:

“Pard, if we are to die, we might as well die game.”

Then he drew his revolver. His partner followed his example, but before either could fire, the troops had fired a volley into them and they fell from their horses riddled with bullets. The robbers died instantly and were taken to the station for burial, but were afterwards taken so Ellis station, where an inquest was held upon the bodies.

The body of Collins was identified by a dozen of his old Texas acquaintances but for a long time the body of his accomplice could not be identified. It was at first believed to be that of Sam Bass himself, and was so telegraphed over the country and published in the papers.

Finally Anna Langs appeared in the depot, where the bodies were lying, and stated, under oath, that she recognized the body as being that of William Cotts, formerly of Pottsville, Pa., but more recently of San Antonio, Texas, and that his father resided in Pottsville. He was a light complexioned man, about thirty years of age, light hair and sandy beard, about five feet seven inches high and weighed 135 pounds.