June 2, 1899 - Union Pacific No. 1 Robbery

It was just after 2am on June 2, 1899 when the conductor of the Union Pacific Overland Flyer # 1, W.R. Jones, spotted an emergency flare just before a bridge one miles west of Wilcox, Wyoming. Thinking there may be trouble on the track ahead, Jones stopped the train. There was trouble up ahead, but it had nothing to do with the tracks.

When the train came to a stop, two outlaws boarded and, at gunpoint, ordered Jones to pull the train across the bridge. The bridge itself was rigged with dynamite and detonated once the train was clear; damaging the tracks behind them and ensuring no other trains could cross. Again Jones was ordered to stop the train. This time the outlaws ordered the train personnel to separate the passenger cars from the engine and express cars, and again ordered the train pulled forward.

Two miles up the track the train came to rest for the final time. Waiting for the train's arrival were four more outlaws. The robbers led Jones and his fireman to the mail cars where they ordered mail clerks, Burt Bruce and Robert Lawson, to open the car doors. The clerks refused, causing the robbers to fire shots into the car in response. When bullets failed, the outlaws turned to dynamite. The explosion rocked the mail car and the outlaws again ordered the clerks out of the train-threatening the next explosion would cost them their lives. This time the clerks complied. Despite the effort expended gaining access to the mail car, the outlaws chose to move on to the express car.

Charles E. Woodcock was the express messenger on duty that fateful June morning. Like the mail clerks, Woodcock refused to open the car doors. Perhaps annoyed by the earlier difficulties getting the mail clerks out, the outlaws skipped the niceties of warning shots and went straight to dynamite. Minutes later the doors were blown off the car and a dazed, but unhurt, Woodcock stumbled out of the car. Once inside the car the outlaws used more dynamite to blow the express car’s safe. Too much dynamite. The express car exploded into pieces, scattering debris and money across the area. It took the outlaws nearly two hours to pick up between $30,000 and $60,000 by hand.

After fleeing the scene on foot, the outlaws rendezvoused with their horses and split up. Newspaper reports state it took another two hours to clear the wreckage before the train could proceed to Medicine Bow, Wyoming, the nearest station from the scene of the crime. Once in Medicine Bow, Engineer Jones sent word to the UPRR:

First section No. 1 held up a mile west of Wilcox. Express car blown open, mail car damaged. Safe blown open; contents gone. We were ordered to pull over bridge just west of Wilcox, and after we passed the bridge the explosion occurred. Can’t tell how bad bridge was damaged. No one hurt except Jones, scalp wound and cut on hand.

JONES, Engineer

Posses consisting of nearly a hundred men were dispatched to intercept the bandits. One posse led by Converse County Sheriff Josiah Hazen and Natrona County Sheriff Oscar Hiestand caught up with one of the two groups of outlaws near Casper, Wyoming. A firefight broke out between the two parties leaving Hazen shot in the abdomen. Hazen was taken to his hometown of Douglas, Wyoming for medical treatment where he died the following day. The three outlaws managed to escape. Witnesses believe the three men involved in the shootout with the law were "Flat Nose" George Currie and the Logan brothers, Harvey and Lonnie (known in the area as the Roberts brothers). The second group of outlaws are said to have escaped to Hole-in-the-Wall without any contact with the law.

Beyond Currie and the Logan’s, the other men involved in the robbery have been variously identified as the Sundance Kid, Will Carver and "The Tall Texan" Ben Kilpatrick. William Cruzan, Bill Jones, Elzy Lay and O.C. Hanks are often listed among the perpetrators as well. Butch Cassidy is credited as the mastermind of the crime, but no evidence places him at the scene. In fact, other than Currie and the Logan brothers, no one else has ever been positively identified as a participant. This has led to wild speculation as to which combination of Wild Bunch members were involved.

One person who was spotted at the scene, but is not considered to have participated in the robbery itself, was Cassidy’s lawyer Douglas Preston. Finley P. Gridley, an employee of the UPRR coalmines near Rock Springs, Wyoming, says he saw Preston at the scene after the robbers had fled the area.

The Union Pacific Railroad and the Pacific Express Railroad released a reward poster offering $2000.00 a head for the bandits. This was supplemented by the U.S. government who offered an additional $1,000.00 for each of the robbers, bringing the total bounty to $18,000.00. The reward posters listed the serial number of the stolen currency, which had been destined for the First National Bank of Portland, Oregon.

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