The plan was a simple one, but required some serious preparation. They’d be going into territory unfamiliar to all but one of them and it was a long ride from Missouri. They needed provisions, horses, and spending money. Earning it was out of the question, so the gang decided to raise funds by robbing a train.
On July 7, 1876, the gang rode in groups of two westwards from California, Missouri, and met at around 2pm about two miles east of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Bridge across the Lamine River. The gang at this point included Frank and Jesse James, Bob and Cole Younger, Hobbs Kerry, Clell Miller, Charlie Pitts, and Bill Stiles.
Shortly after sunset, at about 9.30pm, they approached the bridge and captured the watchman. They then proceeded half a mile westward along the track to Rocky Cut, a manmade canyon cut through a hill two miles east of the town of Otterville. They were waiting for the Missouri Pacific No. 4 Express, going from Kansas City to St. Louis. It had the engine, two sleepers, three coaches, a baggage car, and an express car of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad containing two safes – one of the Adams Express Company and the other of the United States Express Company.
The train reached Rocky Cut at around 10.30pm. The bandits had piled railroad ties on the tracks in case the train didn’t stop. As the train approached, the watchman was forced at gunpoint to flag it down with a red lantern while some members of the gang stood nearby and others stayed on the sides of the cut. The engineer didn’t brake in time and the “engine climbed up on the ties, rising fully ten inches off the track, and then stopped and of its own weight settled back on the track.” Kerry and Stiles hurried up behind the train and placed a barrier there too.
To intimidate the passengers and crew, the bandits whooped and fired shots in the air. They kept up such a fusillade that most witnesses estimated the gang at twice or three times their actual number. Anyone foolish enough to stick their head out the window to see what was going on was told in no uncertain terms to put it right back in again.
Two bandits boarded the engine and captured the engineer and fireman. Three others entered the express car side door, which was open in the hot summer evening. All but one of the robbers wore masks. The baggage master, a man named Conkling, was in the car and got captured. The express agent, J.B. Bushnell, had already fled to one of the sleepers where he convinced a brakeman to hide the keys in his shoe. Bushnell then sat down and pretended to be a passenger. Conkling was led through the train at gunpoint until he came to the agent and pointed him out. The guns swiveled from Conkling to Bushnell and the agent quickly pointed to the brakeman. The guns swiveled again.
The bandits marched all three back to the express car. They opened the United States Express Company safe and dumped the letters and packages into a wheat sack. None of the keys fit the Adams Express safe, however, because it was a “through” safe, meaning none of the packages were being delivered to any waystations. All were going to St. Louis and that’s where the key was. One of the bandits retrieved the fireman’s coal hammer (a short-handled combination pick and hammer) and knocked a hole through the side of the safe. A bandit tried to reach through the jagged hole and only managed to scrape himself. One of his comrades with smaller hands plucked out the contents and put them in the sack.
No images of the Missouri Pacific No. 4 Express are known to exist. This is the No. 76, built in 1875 at the cost of $6,600. It is a Type 8800 class, the same type as the No. 4. (Missouri State Archives)
The passengers, meanwhile, were in a state of panic. Some hid under their seats, others joined a prayer service led by a preacher, while the more practical hid their valuables. A woman began to cry and a male passenger reassured her that he’d protect her with his life, to which another passenger suggested, “Why, then, don’t you go fight those fellows in front?” The lady’s self-proclaimed knight in shining armor had no response to that. One of the robbers was overheard suggesting that they rob the passengers too, but another robber who appeared to be the leader said they’d already been there an hour and needed to go.
They did rob the newsboy’s concession chest and its stock of snacks and cigars. An eyewitness account said, “The way the candy disappeared would have done credit to any seven-year old.” The cigars disappeared at a similar rate. One hungry robber greedily munched one of the newsboy’s pies, smearing the filling all over his face. Incensed at this robbery, the newsboy set off his pistol, possibly a Derringer. Nobody was hurt and the robbers laughed. “Hear that little son of a bitch bark!”
The detectives who foiled the Granby heist heard that Kerry had returned to that town after an absence and was now flashing a bundle of cash. They put two and two together and arrested him on July 31. By that time he only had $20 left, having lost the rest of it gambling. In exchange for a mild sentence (four years) he named all his accomplices and told the whole story of the Rocky Cut train robbery, also known as the Otterville robbery.
The gang then said “good-bye boys” to the crew, warned them of the blockage behind the train, and untied the watchman, who had been left bound and gagged beside the track during the entire affair. No passengers were robbed and nobody hurt, not even the newsboy who shot at them. This chivalrous behavior was in stark contrast to some of their other robberies and the bloodbath that was to come at Northfield. The gang rode off with about $15,000 in cash, bank drafts, and papers. The local United States Express agent claimed that much of the paper would be unredeemable and thus the bandits really only got about $8,000 or $9,000. Kerry later claimed his share was about $1,200, which supports the agent’s assertion. On the other hand, given that Kerry was only a friend of a friend and claimed to have only stood lookout during the actual robbery, his share may have been smaller. The gang broke up into groups of three and crossed the Osage River near Warsaw to elude pursuit.
Robbery of the Missouri Pacific Express
On the night of July 7, 1876, eight members of the James–Younger gang robbed the Missouri Pacific No. 4 Express at Rocky Cut two miles east of Otterville, Missouri. This heist was to raise money for the Northfield raid. The gang blocked the tracks with a pile of cross-ties and forced the watchman from a nearby railroad bridge to flag down the train with a red lantern, the signal for an emergency stop. The watchman was left tied up by the side of the track while two bandits captured the engineer and fireman. Three more entered the express car and forced the employees to open one of the two safes. Nobody had a key to the other safe so it had to be broken open with the fireman’s coal hammer. While all this was going on, two bandits piled more cross-ties behind the train so it couldn’t get away, and a constant firing into the air was kept up to intimidate the passengers. Many passengers hid their valuables or joined in a prayer service led by a traveling preacher. No passengers were robbed but the newsboy’s concession chest was plundered. The teenager was so outraged by this that he tried to shoot one of the robbers with his Derringer, to no effect.