“When I go up, I’ll go with a smile.”- Bill Carlisle
Jesse James and his gang were likely the first to rob a moving train. Jesse participated in seven such daring robberies. Few bandits had the sand to try and take on such a task alone. Ben Kilpatrick did it once in 1912 in a heist that left two men dead.
Bill Carlisle managed four solo robberies (three in a few months) in his extensive life of crime without injuring anyone. The train robberies promoted him from a common criminal to a newsworthy commodity. He became “The Lone Robber”, “The Lone Bandit”, “Big Bill” (though he was only six feet tall), “The Gentleman Bandit”, “The White Masked Bandit”, and “Wild Bill” (his favorite nickname).
Carlisle escaped from the state penitentiary and robbed a fourth train. After his release from prison Bill became a hit on the lecture circuit, giving talks about his criminal adventures. He had lived to tell and retell the tale against all the odds and the enmity of one of the most powerful companies in the United States.
Early Days
Bill was young when he began his criminal life with petty theft of coal from coal yards. He worked a variety of jobs including circus carney worker, livery hand, and ranch hand. He was once a member of the Skelton gang of rustlers working the Canadian border and Montana. He was caught by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but, as the gang was broken and he was young, the Mountie in charge let set him free.
While sawing ice Bill slipped into frigid water and received a serious case of frostbite on his feet. He refused to have his toes removed. It was a miracle that he recovered. The young man had a noticeable limp but still managed to walk remarkable distances. Bill once claimed to have walked thirty-eight miles in a night.
Carlisle became adept at hobo-craft and saw much of the nation jumping on trains. He honed his larcenous skills in these days but mostly he learned to make friends easily. The ability to be likable bought him trust and served him well. To those who hated the railroad he became their friendly neighborhood bandit.
First Train Robbery (February 9, 1916)
After his brief time with the Skelton gang ended, Bill continued his vagabond existence, adding gun running, mail delivery, and cooking to his skills. His penchant for gambling kept him in need of ready cash.
While in Denver he placed an advertisement in Denver Post claiming to be a convict seeking employment. This scam earned him a job as a silver miner, which enlisted him in a scheme to sell mining stock. The pay was poor, and he soon stole a ride on a train for Cheyenne and then another to Rock Springs. He hoped to mine coal there but lacked the necessary experience. He sought employment among the sheep camps but was turned down.
He was down to his last nickel when he noticed the fine clothes worn by the passengers on an eastbound train. It was then the idea hit him to rob a train. In his pockets were a glass gun he had bought in Colorado as a gift for his brother and a small .32 caliber pistol. On a snowy night he awaited the arrival of the next eastbound train. He had no plan for accomplishing the robbery or escaping. Even so he climbed onto the train when it slowed on a curve.
The observation car was empty except for one woman. As the cold blast of air from the back of the car announced his arrival the lady looked and beheld a tall man with a white mask holding a pistol.
“Sit where you are lady, and nothing will happen to you,” Bill told her. Instead of obeying she reached to grab the gun. Bill told her to sit down and moved to the smoking lounge.
Pulling his mask down he peeked into the dingy compartment. Then, with his mask back in place, he woke a sleeping porter and sent him to the rear of the train. The lady in the observation car removed her jewelry in anticipation of losing it to this masked man.
The brakeman approached from the smoking lounge and Bill halted him. The brakeman thought that the robbery was in gest. Bill called out, “Everybody get your hands up.” He had to repeat the command, this time emphasized by a shot into the roof.
In the close quarters of the train car, the .32 pistol had a bark more impressive than its size might command. Bill had everyone’s attention after that and ordered the porter to take the hat from a passenger and collect their money. When the porter attempted to put his few coins in the hat Bill stopped him.
Hey, Lady, Keep Your Jewelry
The collection made, Bill told everyone to stay where they were as he backed out of the smoking lounge. The hat contained $52.35. He then pulled the cord signaling for the train to slow. The lady made to offer her jewels but Bill tugged the signal chord twice to tell the engineer to speed up. He never tried to take her valuables.
Bill then headed forward to pass the hat among additional cars. In the next car he again enlisted a porter to do the collecting. The next car had sleeping berths. There Bill encountered the conductor who appeared to reach for something at his waist.
The .32 barked again and the bullet struck a berth near the conductor’s head. The conductor raised his hands as Bill continued his search of the sleeping compartments. In one there was a mother and daughter. He apologized for disturbing them and moved on. With Bill distracted while apologizing, the conductor fled into the smoking compartment.
Now For The Hard Part
Bill had to come up with an escape plan. He went outside and climbed on to the roof of the speeding train. He was intent on dropping down into the blind spot between the mail car and a baggage car. From there he could drop off the train when it slowed in the Rock Springs yard, disappearing into the night.
Plan A fell apart as the railroad workers alerted the engineer. A brakeman armed himself with a shotgun and headed for the express car. About three miles from Rock Springs the engineer slowed the train to a stop.
In desperation, Bill improvised a Plan B. As the brakes took hold, Bill jumped from the roof of the train and landed on the westbound tracks. His glass pistol shattered on the tracks. The hard fall had rattled him somewhat, but he had the presence of mind to duck under a fence and await developments. He watched the train stop. It remained in place for ten minutes and then renewed progress toward Rock Springs.
It was time to come up with Plan C. There was no place to hide, and the snow-covered ground made tracking easy for pursuers. He headed south and then crossed the railroad tracks. Bill circled around to the west keeping well north of the tracks and the road.
Midnight found Bill laying low between the railroad tracks and the wagon road. He had a close call with a passing automobile. He followed the road towards Green River until he spotted a car ahead of him, which was positioned in the middle of the road with headlights turned off. It was an ambush. Bill needed his iron legs to climb the hills around the trap.
While Bill carefully hiked his way to Green River, the Rock Springs depot was a hive of confused activity. Passengers were questioned. The robber was described as an eighteen- year-old man with brown eyes or maybe green eyes. How tall was he? What was he wearing?
With the confusing mix of descriptions of the bandit, a posse was assembled. They found Bill’s tracks heading to the south and were thrown off the trail when it crossed a well-used wagon road. The sheriff believed the bandit had been picked up by an accomplice driving an automobile on a ranch road with no outlet short of Baggs.
The sheriff was confident that the outlaws would be found along this road trapped by the heavy snows. He spread the word to other posses, like the one that followed from Green River. The sheriff returned disappointed two days later. His exhausted posse had chased a car with two men bound for Colorado all the way to Bags.
Union Pacific management in Omaha was informed of the robbery. The UP sent special trains towards Rock Springs and offered a reward of $1,000 -- dead or alive.
A Sheep Camp Is A Good Place To Hide
Investigators had been dispatched to all the ranches and sheep camps in the area. The ranchers were interrogated about strangers passing through. The investigators learned that Bill had cooked for a Barrett sheep camp for a few days.
The sheepherder described a youth who had a glass gun. There was little more information they could provide. When the remains of the glass gun were found at the robbery site, the Barretts were threatened with prosecution unless they could provide more information. They refused.
For a man on foot, it was a long, freezing hike across a windswept landscape. Shortly after the robber Bill hid for eight hours before entering Green River. There he stashed his mackinaw and set out to become invisible.
He had a large meal at a Chinese-owned restaurant. A nonchalant fugitive, Bill caught up on the local gossip while waiting for a shave at a saloon. There he read about the robbery in the Denver Post, delivered by the latest train at the depot.
While he sat in the saloon a man came in saying that the bandit was caught in Green River. It turned out that Bill’s stashed mackinaw and mask was found. The handkerchief was embroidered with a fancy “W” which the town Marshal Petre insisted was an “M.”
Authorities searched the town and guards were placed to keep the bandit from fleeing in a boxcar. The authorities never suspected that the Lone Bandit might be brazen enough to escape another way.
That night Bill bought a ticket to Laramie right under the nose of Union Pacific special agents including Charlie Levin. Bill went to the smoking lounge and relaxed in a reclining chair. It was a well-deserved rest.
Second Train Robbery (April 4, 1916)
After the first train robbery, Bill picked up ranch work cutting wood and breaking horses near Laramie Peak. The work was not steady and by the time he got a paying job he already had spent the take from his rookie train robbery.
Making his way to the Union Pacific tracks in Cheyenne. Bill jumped on the Overland Limited, intending to use the money from this robbery to finance a move to Alaska. He barely made the jump onto the train.
Pushing the surprised brakeman aside with a friendly, “Howdy,” Bill walked past the man, covered his face with a kerchief, and pulled out his pistol. Entering the observation car Bill exclaimed, “Get’em up!”
Go Ahead, Collect The Reward
When no one reacted, Bill announced to the passengers that if anyone wanted to collect the fifteen hundred dollars reward on his head, now was the time to do it. That declaration made it clear he was “The Lone Robber” who held up the train near Green River. All the passengers reached for the sky. The ladies were allowed to lower their arms.
A porter was told to pass his hat around. When a woman dropped a coin purse into the hat, Bill had the bag returned to the lady. He had to return the purse twice as she tried again to put donate the purse.
Bill allowed a male passenger to keep South America dollars and another to keep his business papers. One man kept the billfold which was a gift from his mother but not the cash within. Bill refused to take the men’s jewelry, including a large diamond ring. A lady passenger exited a stateroom and left by the front of the car.
The brakeman got word to the conductor that there was a robbery in progress and a note was dropped to a Union Pacific worker to spread the alarm. Within a few moments the telegraph spread the word of the robber. The Cheyenne depot was in chaos as the Chief of Union Pacific Special Agents, deputized a posse.
Unaware that the robbery had been reported, causing a public stir at the Cheyenne depot, Bill continued with the robbery. The passengers were allowed to lower their arms and seat themselves. The persistent unknown lady passenger tried for a third time to deposit her purse in the porter’s cap but Bill told her that she had nothing he wanted.
Taking the watch and chain from the man with the diamond ring, Bill handed the watch without its chain to the porter and instructed him to give it to the railroad superintendent with his compliments.
Skip the Heroics
Warning the passengers not to engage in any foolhardy heroics he backed out of the car. One of the admiring passengers told Bill to go ahead that he would stop anyone who attempted to prohibit the bandit’s escape.
Bill dumped the contents of the porter’s cap into a pocket and left the observation car. He jumped off the moving car and hid near the tracks for a while. The arrival of another speeding train tipped him off that the alarm must have been sounded. He hid by the highway for a while and observed the speeding cars.
Bill again put his iron legs to work covering the miles to the Burlington and Northern tracks but missed the opportunity to catch a ride on one of their trains. Posses seemed to be everywhere.
As with the previous robbery the descriptions of the Lone Bandit were varied. The six-foot tall robber was described as five-foot-ten, but the clothing was correct. The authorities published the description and added another $5,000 to the reward.
The General Manager took an express train to Cheyenne. He was determined to oversee the capture of the daring robber. The reward created more issues for the pursuit than could be imagined. Messages claiming to have sighted someone fitting the description poured into Cheyenne.
The Man Is No Hobo
Hobos were picked up and transients were jailed. The disappointed General Manager said, “Get the right man… This man is no hobo.”
Bill walked from ranch to ranch begging for food and asking for work. The ranchers were generous with the former but rebuffed Bill on the latter.
At a homestead owned by Dr. Day, Bill had a close call. The doctor had returned from Cheyenne with a newspaper. He noted similarities between Bill and the Lone Bandit’s description but could not believe that the bandit would be wandering through the snow on foot. Bill asked for directions to a place he might be able to stay. The doctor’s suspicions were aroused when Bill did not leave in the right direction to follow his recommendation. Dr. Day drove to the nearest telegraph office and sent a wire to Cheyenne, but it was lost in the chaos.
Walking all the way to Wheatland, Bill coolly approached the town marshal and inquired where to hire a car to take him to Dyer. His escape plan was on hold as Bill had a Saturday night date to keep. The marshal did not suspect that he was talking with the most wanted man in Wyoming and obliged Bill with the information sought.
The driver took Bill as far as the Pepper Ranch where he spent Friday night. When the driver mentioned recognizing Bill from a previous dance in Cottonwood, the Lone Robber decided that maybe socializing with a young lady did not fit into his escape plan.
On Saturday Bill stood the young lady up and walked to a ranch that was keeping his mail for him. At the ranch all the talk was about the latest train robbery, he and the ranchers wiled away the evening discussing that current event. They even speculated and joked as to how the reward money could be spent.
Five days after the robbery, Bill completed his walk of 150 miles by checking into the Antler Hotel in Douglas. He had luck in a card game there and won roughly $1,000. He took the train to Casper that day and was amused to see the railroad had armed its baggage handlers as protection from train robbers.
In Casper he learned that others were being held on suspicion of his crime. He addressed a letter to the Denver Post exonerating anyone being held for his crime.
In his letter, Bill wrote: “Denver Post: To prove that this letter is the real thing, I am enclosing a watch-chain which I took from the last hold-up out of Cheyenne—this chain can easily be identified. To convince the officers that they have the wrong men in jail, I will hold up a train somewhere west of Laramie, Wyoming. (Signed) The White Masked Bandit.”
Bill then took the Burlington line to Cheyenne. From there he took the train to Denver where he saw his letter printed in the paper. Freed of the guilt of others being punished in his place, Bill planned third robbery. The Lone Bandit would strike again!
(To Be Continued)
Terry A. Del Bene can be reached at terrydelbene@me.com
