Great Stagecoach Robberies of the Old West

R. Michael Wilson
Falcon (2006)
ISBN 0762741279
Reviewed by Mark A. Raborn for Reader Views (12/06)

“The first ‘Old West’ stagecoach attacked and robbed was traveling to Marysville, California, in 1856, several years after gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill. Six decades later, in December 1916, the last stagecoach robbery was accomplished at Jarbridge, Nevada. During those sixty years stagecoaches were attacked in sixteen of the seventeen western states, with North Dakota the only state spared the experience.”

R. Michael Wilson’s “Great Stagecoach Robberies of the Old West,” is a historical collection of some of the greatest crimes ever committed against the stagecoach couriers of yesteryear’s treasures. The work is divided into sixteen episodes that transport the reader to a time long ago; for, “This was the Wild West, and men, good or bad, who faced death bravely, were much admired.”

The scenes are set with all their rawness: the stench of the sweating horses, burnt gunpowder, and congealing blood permeated the dust-laden trails where, often, the innocent, were suddenly caught in a struggle for mortality. “The coach had just come under a projecting rock…when a man stepped out of the trees and ordered, ‘Halt!’”

“In but a moment six more men stepped into view from the brush, and each man, with his face blackened as a disguise, was holding a shotgun pointed at the driver and messenger or at the coach. They ordered the passengers to alight, and within the coach there was a scramble as the passengers retrieved their weapons. Parker, Mers, and Dinan started to comply with the order to disembark, guns in hand, when one or more of them fired at the robbers, but without effect. The three were already on the ground when the robbers returned fire, riddling the coach with buckshot, which instantly killed Mers and Dinan, mortally wounded McCausland and Parker (passengers), and inflicted a serious but not fatal wound on messenger Parks. Once the shooting ceased, Williams (coach driver) jumped from the boot (driver’s seat) and Brown from the interior, and they escaped into the brush. The robbers quickly reload their double-barreled shotguns and fired at the fleeing pair; since (they) were already into the brush, the road agents missed their targets.
When McCausland was shot, he fell over onto Carpenter, pinning him to the floor of the coach so he could not escape and so completely drenching him with blood that the robbers thought both men were mortally wounded.”

Wilson recounts these events with an engaging rhythm that imparts historic facts with the prose of a story-teller. One is almost immediately overcome with the impression that this was the “real” old west. These were actual people involved in real crimes, with genuine criminals who were often “pulled up a tree” right on the spot, upon being caught.

“The gold rush into the Dakotas, Idaho and Montana started a decade after gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California. The roads to and from the diggings went through hundreds of miles of the most desolate country imaginable, but as it happened, particular places seemed ideal for the road agents (common term for “stagecoach robber”) to congregate and ply their trade.”

Wilson’s account not only recognizes the criminals by whom these events are made famous, but also the brave men who tracked them down and brought them to justice, regularly imperiling their own life. One such man was Stephen Venard, who “distinguished himself by single-handedly shooting down three armed and dangerous road agents…and then apologized for the excess when it took four bullets from his Winchester to get the job done.”

“Great Stagecoach Robberies of the Old West” is a work that offers a rare glimpse into the past: an opportunity to see how our American predecessors lived, struggled, died and cleared the path for the great country we know today. I highly recommend “Great Stagecoach Robberies of the Old West” for anyone interested in peering through a “keyhole” in time for a glimpse of life, and death, in the real Old West.

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