The Great Train Robbery

History - Newark

The Great Train Robbery
Printed Courier-Gazette, February 1991
By Theresa Colacino

Oliver Curtis Perry, in the late summer of 1891, hopped an express train at Troy and he was going to do something that no one else had done - rob a train single-handed. He was a petty thief on parole after serving time as a juvenile delinquent and as a prisoner.

He was now about to launch his first major criminal caper. This crime made the first pages of newspapers across the country.

When the train stopped in Albany, Perry got out, walked around the depot carrying his valise and casually positioned himself just ahead of the engine, in the shadows beyond the station platform. When the train started again, he jumped on the rear deck of the express car, just behind the locomotive. By boring a hole through the upper panel of the locked rear door of the express car, he could see the American Express messenger Burt Moore at his desk near the middle of the car. By boring more holes, he was able to enter the car and at gun point, stole $5,000 in small bills plus some jewelry.

He backed to the end of the car, pulled the bell rope and, as the train was approaching Utica, the train slowed down and he unlocked the door, jumped off the platform and vanished in the darkness. When the train came to a stop, no one believed Mr. Moore and as a result he was fired. Perry lived a leisurely life in Syracuse. When his funds ran low, because his first train robbery was so successful, he decided to rob the same train again.

On Feb. 3, 1892, at 5 a.m., as No. 31 train pulled slowly out of Syracuse, the conductor noticed a shabbily dressed young man with a valise loitering on the station platform. He knew that No. 31 carried no passengers on this run and wondered what the young man was waiting for. The conductor failed to see Perry dash for the train and swing onto the iron ladder of the express car that held the most valuables. Railroad men called it the "money car."

Perry had heard that the car carried $78,000 in currency, plus thousands in jewelry. He climbed atop the swaying car and crawled toward its mid-section, clutching a valise against his chest.

The train was moving 40 miles an hour as Perry donned a red cloak and mask from the valise and armed himself with a pistol. He fastened a rope ladder fitted with grappling hooks to the ventilation roof and flung the ladder over the side of the car. As the train was passing through the town of Jordan, Perry climbed down the ladder until he could peer into the window of the car and see Daniel T. McInerney, an express messenger and a native of Rochester, seated in front of the company's open safe. Freeing a foot from the ladder, Perry pushed away from the car, then swinging forward, crashed through the window. McInerney swung around as the masked intruder exploded through his car amid a swirl of flying glass. "Hands up or I'll kill you," Perry yelled, pointing his pistol at McInerney.

Undaunted, McInerney jumped up and reached above his head for the cord of the air whistle. A shot from Perry's gun tore into McInerney's uplifted hand but McInerney still managed to pull the cord. Perry shot him again, this time in the right thigh. McInerney dropped to the floor, Perry fired again. The bullet ripped along the edge of McInerney's scalp just above the left eye, putting him permanently out of the fight. Perry began rummaging through the safe just as the train jolted to a halt and as crewmen rushed into the car, Perry pointed his pistol at them and ordered the conductor to start the train to move on, but not before the conductor had told one of his men to hurry back to Jordan and sound the alarm.

At the Port Byron station, the train stopped and the now-armed crew converged on the money car only to find Perry gone. They assumed the bandit had jumped off just as the train had started up again but Perry had no intention of jumping out in the middle of nowhere. He abandoned the loot and retreated to the roof, dragging up the rope ladder and lying flat against the ventilator extension, which concealed him from the depot side of the railroad station.

The train went on to Lyons. The town constable and a doctor boarded the train to remove the wounded McInerney. Word of the hold-up had spread and a crowd had collected around the money car. While everyone's attention was on the messenger being carried from the train, Perry slid down on the offside of the Lyons depot. Clutching the valise containing cape, mask and ladder, he made a wide circle around the train and, unnoticed, joined the assembled villagers in front of the money car.

At that moment, Emil Lasass the conductor, appeared on the car platform. Someone in the crowd shouted, "Who did it?" The conductor's glance traveled over the crowd and fixed on Perry. He recognized him as the man he had seen at the Syracuse depot. But how could that man have arrived at the same time as the train - unless he had been on the train?

"That's him!" the conductor yelled, pointing at Perry. "I know him. I saw him in Syracuse. He's the bandit! Get him!"

Perry quickly stepped away from the crowd holding a pistol in each hand. "Stay where you are!" he said. Nobody moved. He backed away into the railroad yard, stepping carefully over the tracks. Nearby, a freight engine was working up steam. Suddenly, Perry turned and made a run for the engine, climbing up the steel ladder, guns still in hand. A moment later, the crowd watched the engineer and fireman tumble out of the cab. Their locomotive was seized by the bandit. With a roar of steam, the freight engine began to roll slowly out of the yard, its beacon lighting the track stretching west to Newark. The train robber was escaping in a stolen locomotive.

The conductor dashed to a passenger train about to leave the depot. With the help of crewmen, he uncoupled the cars. Accompanied by an engineer, a switchman and Jerry Collins, Sheriff of Wayne County (with a shotgun), started off in a faster locomotive and shot past the express train which in turn, reversed its engine and went after the robber. Back and forth between Lyons and Newark the two trains zoomed past each other. It was an uneven race.

When Collins' passenger train quickly came abreast of the train carrying Perry, Collins fired at the cab. Perry fired back with his pistol. While Collins and his crew crunched low under the fire, Perry suddenly threw his engine into reverse. Sparks showered from the screeching wheels as the freight engine came to a halt and then slowly began moving backwards. The surprise move had put the train with Collins several yards away from the freight train before the engineer could stop it and put it in reverse. Then the pursuit was on again, back toward Lyons, but Perry again changed directions and started back toward Newark. More shots were exchanged when the two engines roared past each other. No one was hit.

Collins and his crew ran out of ammunition and headed back to Lyons for more guns and men - leaving the track to Perry. But not for long. Perry was approaching the Blue Cut, just outside of Newark, the engine ran out of steam and had to be abandoned, along with his valise. Cutting cross-country, Perry stole his first horse at the Samuel Goetzman farm, which is the first place on the Fink Road, after leaving Route 31. (The barn is gone, but the large brick house is still there.) He then proceeded east and took the first right turn, which is the Old PreEmption Rd., traveled about three miles south until he reached the farm of Frederick and David Beal.

Because of the deep snow and the discomfort of riding bare back, he decided to change horses. He demanded a horse and cutter (a small one-horse sleigh) and when the Beal brothers hesitated, he pulled out a revolver and shot between them. His demands were met.

Phelps township was only a half-mile away. He continued southward about two miles and then turned westward to Cedar Swamp, which is about three miles south of Marbletown. He pulled up outside of Newark, abandoned the buggy and again took off cross-country.

Cold and exhausted, Perry hid in a cedar swamp on a grassy knoll. He built a crude barricade of stone and fell asleep. He was soon surrounded by farmers carrying all sorts of weapons. The farmers had been aroused by men on horseback who yelled, "horse thief" around the country-side. A horse thief did not fare too well when he was surrounded by a group of angry farmers. Soon, a posse organized by Collins arrived and Perry quickly surrendered to them.

That site is now a pile of field stones. The Beal brothers had to have powder picked from their faces because of the nearness of the gun to their faces when Perry first fired. Collins' capture of Perry won him nation-wide publicity.

Perry was confined in the Wayne County Jail and was fitted with special leg irons connected by a length of log chains. The metal devices stayed on until his case was heard before State Supreme Court Justice William Ramsey. Ramsey had little sympathy for someone who not only robbed trains but stole them as well. He sentenced Perry to 49 years at Auburn State Prison.

Perry's confession of the first hold up cleared Burt Moore, but American Express never re-hired him. McInerney recovered and was rewarded with a handshake from his employer.

Perry proved to be a belligerent prisoner, feisty and uncooperative. He swore that he would never serve out his term and made several unsuccessful attempts to escape.

Two years after he was jailed, Perry was judged mentally unbalanced and was transferred to a prison for the criminally insane where he died at the age of 65 in 1930. He had served 39 years and had made good one boast - that he would never serve out his term.

In the museum at Lyons, there is a collection of over 60 weapons taken by Jerry Collins from prisoners he captured - including those used by Perry.

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