Willis Newton and his brothers may not be , for most of us , as easily identifiable asCharley Arthur " Pretty Boy " Floyd . Or"Baby Face " Nelson . OrJohn Dillinger . OrAl Capone . They surely were n’t as illustrious as eitherBonnie Parker or Clyde Barrow .
That , though , may go a recollective room toward explaining why Newton and his gang were infinitely more successful at their special blade of bad bozo - cape than any of them . For much of their career , nobody — even the cops — knew who the Newtons were .
As robbers and thieves , nobody was better than the comparatively low - profile Newton and his brothers , who later were popularized in a mediocre 1998 film as " The Newton Boys . " In a nictation of about five long time in the 1920s , the Newtons ( and an occasional confederate ) pulled off about 70 bank heists ( give or take a dozen ) , ripped off six trains and , in their pièce de résistance , cleared somewhere around $ 3 million on one job . It remains the big railroad train robbery ever .
direct this : That single $ 3 million take in 1924 would be a$45 million getawaytoday .
As previous men , after their thieving mostly was over , they surfaced in a1975 infotainment , do off as both proud and practical . " Jes ' like a doc and lawyers and everybody else , " Willis said straight - faced to the camera , " it was our patronage to do that . "
The immature of the Newton brothers , Joe , even made his fashion onto " The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson " in 1980 and was much , well , charming . " Well , if you got a good railcar and a potful of money and [ you ’re ] a young man , " Joe aver when Carson ask him about his appeal to char as a banking company robber , " yeah … " .
In 1979 , a few months before his death at the eld of 90 , Willis Newton sit down in his nursing home in Uvalde , Texas , for a wide - ranging and sometimes contentious interview about his sprightliness and crimes . Historian and authorG. R. Williamsonwalked away from that talk of the town with an only different imprint of Willis , the repulse military force behind the crew .
" I sincerely believe , " says Williamson , who write " Willis Newton : The Last Texas Outlaw " and several other books , " he was a flat - out evil person . "
The Start of the Newton Gang
The sons of poor Texas sharecroppers , the four Newton Boys — Willis , Wylie ( aka " Doc " ) , Jess and Joe — mostly left school early and fell immediately into lowly offense and least sandpiper in jailhouse . Willis was about 25 , with a lengthy rap sheet already to his name , when he first robbed a bank , making off with about $ 4,700 from a job in Cline , Texas . That ’s about $ 120,000 in 2019 dollars . In 1916 , with some other outlaw , Willis took a ploughshare of about $ 10,000 ( about $ 237,000 today ) from a robbery .
Willis was glom . And he finally brought his brothers into the new family concern .
Early on , as the sidekick and an occasional confederate lined up jobs , Willis laid down some ground prescript that would help the crowd become the most prolific bank robber in history . They were rules , though , that the gang may not always have been able-bodied to survey .
" They were full - bollocks criminals , but here ’s the thing , " Williamson says . " Willis had the wisdom to know that if they killed somebody , that would change everything about how the police come after them . So it was his mandate to his brothers that they never kill anybody . "
The gang — at its height , it was the four brother and anexplosivesexpert appoint Brent Glasscock — robbed banks and the episodic train across Texas , Oklahoma , through the Midwest and even into Toronto , Canada . On at least one juncture , they robbed two banks in one day .
In Canada , in a uncommon daylight armed robbery , they were involved in a shootout during sunup rush 60 minutes that sullied their reputation for clean hits and easy pickup . But , unremarkably , a slight readiness , some nitroglycerine , perhaps , to fellate the door off a dependable , and the Newtons would be on their direction , loot in hand .
" liken to the Newtons , John Dillinger was a two - bit manipulator . Jesse and Frank James were mere amateur . Butch Cassidy was a small fry , " Williamson says . " The Newtons made blow safes and robbing trains a big business . "
Staying Ahead of the Law
The Newton boy were as meddlesome as anyone ever has been in their profession largely because of the era in which they worked and their desire to keep work . Dillinger , by comparison , rob only a distich 12 banks .
" They wanted to fly under the radar . They did n’t desire notoriety . Bonnie and Clyde , they had real photographs of them , and they did all sorting of stuff and nonsense that keep rally the constabulary . John Dillinger did a similar case thing . So did Pretty Boy Floyd , " Williamson says . " Because the public did not know what the robber that were doing these bank job and gear robberies attend like , [ the Newtons ] were n’t having to scarper from the law .
" At one point , Willis said , ' We was n’t mugs , like Bonnie and Clyde . We was just unruffled businessmen . What we wanted was the money . ' "
It avail , too , that the Newtons mostly did their work at nighttime . They did n’t push forward into savings bank flourish scattergun and yelling " Stick ‘em up ! " And savings bank , compare to today , were much easier to overcharge . Many of the banking concern that the Newtons knocked over were in small town with little surety .
" Remember , the only communication theory in the 1920s wastelegraph and telephone . No net . No interior database offingerprints . No national database of mugshots or anything like that , " Williamson says . " So they could pull these things off and nobody knew it was the Newtons . "
In between jobs , when it was convenient , they ’d go back to the crime syndicate household in Uvalde and lay low until they take more money . " The general ruling of the [ the great unwashed in Uvalde ] at that time was that all the Newton boys were ne’er - do - wells , and they were likely up to criminal action , " Williamson articulate , " but nobody experience that they weretherobbers . "
When they were on business trips outside of Texas , as Joe say Carson on " The Tonight Show , " they ’d stay in the prissy hotels and use up at the best restaurant . At least two of the brothers regularly attended sporting events like the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500 . They spent extravagantly until their money hunt down low , then planned the next line .
" Boy , " allege Williamson , " did they ever enjoy their work . They lived like rich Tulsa oilmen . "
The Biggest Job Ever
The Newton gang ’s full-grown holdup was the one that bring them down , atrain robbery outside of Chicagoin Rondout , Illinois . That was the one that netted them somewhere around $ 3 million in cash and securities .
On June 12 , 1924 , the Newtons , along with Glassock and a few newcomer , lay off a caravan on its way to dropping off cash to several banks along its route . The work party quickly load 63 bags of loot into four steal cars , but in the confusion of the nighttime raid , and after a train brakeman escaped and alarm authorities , Glasscock accidentally shot Doc Newton several time , mistaking him for a safety gadget .
The man all got away , placing the hurt Doc atop bags of hard cash , but authorities quickly found the men . A corrupt postal examiner who was in on the job , gave himself away under wiretap , a tip that led authorisation to the doctor who treated the wounded Doc . Willis made it across the edge into Mexico , and erstwhile blood brother Jesse escape for a while to Texas , along with about $ 35,000 ( about $ 528,000 today ) .
But within months , everyone involved was arrest and lead to trial , including the convalescing Doc , who was take into the proceedings on a stretcher . From theCook County Library :
Doc and Willistried to rob a bank in Rowena , Texas , later in life , when Doc was well into his 70s and Willis was 80 , but the Newton brothers spent the rest of their lives mostly on the right side of the law . Their exploits are often now considered , when the Newtons are acknowledged at all , as sidekick simply seek to make a living .
The Postscript
" I ’d knowed all them bankers was rich and they did n’t deal about hurting us poor farmers , " Willis told documentarians , " so why should I care about offend them ? Why should n’t I slip from them ? It ’s just one thief a - stealin ' from another . "
But the romanticize story , as told by Willis , his brothers and many historians , is not necessarily the truthful one .
" They were made to look a wad good than what they really were , " Williamson say . " They were crooks . They were malefactor . "
Williamson points out that in at least a few of their robbery , a muckle of shootout was regard , and a lack of preparation could have been disastrous . " A bulk of the times , when they get into these robberies where they in reality had gas pedal out and so onward , they screw up so bad , they should ’ve been killed , " he say . " Willis was good at planning , but the execution sometimes was totally out the windowpane . "
In his inquiry , Williamson uncovered damning newspaper accounts of a shootout during one of their gearing robberies in Illinois in which he claims a black porter by the name of Moon died three day after the looting from gunshot wounds . Though the Newtons swore they never killed anyone , that may not have been the case .
Nevertheless , the Newtons — the last living extremity of the work party , Joe , kick the bucket in 1989 — retain their status as folk heroes to many . And they remain , unquestionably , the most successful bank robbers the country has ever seen .
" We was wild for doing it , " Joe told Carson in 1980 . " But you ’re unseasoned then . "
