6. The Hunt and Kill For a Robber who Accomplished the Smallest Train Robbery in History
Elmer McCurdy’s second train robbery was just as bad as his first train robbery. The plan for the second one was to rob a Katy Train which was carrying $400,000. However, McCurdy and his partners got on a passenger train instead and only made out with a coat, gun, the train conductor’s watch, $46, and whiskey. A newspaper which wrote about McCurdy’s robbery stated it was “one of the smallest in the history of train robbery.” While McCurdy found refuge on a ranch, a $2,000 reward was placed on him. People speculate that it was one or more of the ranch workers who called authorities on McCurdy.
The next morning, on October 7, 1911, three sheriffs and bloodhounds surrounded the barn where McCurdy was sleeping. On October 8, one sheriff recounted what happened to McCurdy in the Daily Examiner. The sheriff said they had surrounded the building by 7:00 when a gun was fired at them. The shooting between McCurdy and the officers went on for about an hour. The shooting ended when one of the officers shot McCurdy in the chest, which killed him. Elmer McCurdy was then brought to the coroner’s office where unknown to the officers, McCurdy would become a traveling exhibit.