August 29, 1900 - Union Pacific #3 Robbery

On August 29, 1900 the Union Pacific passenger train #3 pulled into Tipton, Wyoming, stopping just long enough to pick up passengers and take on water before continuing west. Unfortunately for the Union Pacific the train one of the passengers they picked up had a lot more than travel on his mind that day.

Once the train set back into motion, a lone gunman snuck made his way to the front of the train sneaking up on the engineer, Henry Wollenstein. The outlaw jammed his gun into the engineer’s ribs and ordered him to stop the train when he saw a fire up ahead. A short distance down the track Wollenstein saw the signal and stopped the train as ordered.

Waiting at the fire were three more men. The outlaws ordered the conductor, E.J. Kerrigan, to separate the passenger cars from the rest of the train and pull the train a safe distance from the stranded cars before stopping again. The outlaws made their way to the express car where, ironically, they found Charles E. Woodcock manning the car just as he was at the Wilcox robbery.

Learning nothing from experience, Woodcock refused the outlaws demands to open the express car. Finally, after being threatened with dynamite and flat-out ordered to come out by the conductor, E.J. Kerrigan, Woodcock opened the doors. This time his stubbornness may have been a stall tactic. While the outlaws were attempting to cajole Woodcock out of the car, he managed to hide two packages of cash the bandits never discovered.

After gaining access to the express car, the bandits used dynamite to blow the safe. Skilled as they were in the use of dynamite, it took three charges to crack the safe, in the process blowing the side and roof of the express car wide open and damaging the car next to it as well.  It took the outlaws well over an hour to pick up the money that was scattered by the explosions.

When they finished gathering the money, the outlaws mounted their horses and rode off into the night. The train continued on to Green River where authorities were notified. Several posses were formed, including the so-called super posse led by famed U.S. Marshal Joe LeFors. Sheriff Pete Swanson of Rock Springs, Wyoming formed a posse as well.

The Union Pacific railroad sent out a press release stating the robbers managed to steal $50.40 for their efforts. Express car messenger Charles E. Woodcock contradicted this figure, placing the true amount around $55,000.

The individuals most commonly associated with the robbery are Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, Harvey Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, Laura Bullion, O.C. Hanks, William Cruzan and Will Carver. Eight suspects for a crime that, according to witnesses, only involved five men. Sundance biographer Donna Ernst believes that the Sundance Kid was not involved in the robbery as he would have been near Winnemucca, Nevada at the time preparing for the First National Bank of Winnemucca bank robbery that occurred 21 days after Tipton on September 19, 1900. Harvey Logan and Will Carver are also known participants of the Winnemucca robbery. If you take out Sundance, Logan and Carver, you’re left with five participants: Butch Cassidy, Ben Kilpatrick, Laura Bullion, O.C. Hanks and William Cruzan.

As they managed to do so many times before, the outlaws escaped their pursuers with relative ease. The closest the law came to catching them was the LeFors posse reached the Snake River near the Colorado border and were in visual range of three men with horses climbing the slope on the other side of the river. Despite outnumbering the outlaws twelve to three, the posse remained cautious. The decision was made to make camp for the night and pick up the trail the following morning. The posse managed to pick up the trail and followed it for several miles until they discovered three horses apparently left by the outlaws when they switched out for fresh mounts. With the outlaws one fresh horses, and their own horses exhausted from the chase, the posse realized there was no way they could catch up with the criminals and abandoned the chase.

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