135th ANNIVERSARY OF SIDNEY ROBBERY: In 1880, 480 pounds of gold was stolen in Sidney – and the case remains unsolved

In February 1880, a jackscrew was stolen from the roundhouse of the Union Pacific Railroad Company in Sidney.

On March 10, 1880, the freight clerk's office was entered by nonconventional means, and gold – 480 pounds of it – was removed. No one was ever apprehended.

The arrival of gold into Sidney was nothing new or uncommon. The discovery of gold from the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory was in full swing by 1876.

Sidney and Cheyenne County had elected a new sheriff in 1875. "Con" McCarty took office in 1876. The terms were for two years at that time. The two years of "Con" were arguably the wildest two years in the history of Sidney. "Con" never ran for re-election.

Sidney was given its name in honor of Sidney Dillon, an attorney for Union Pacific whom was also elected the president of the railroad. March 10, 1880, also the date of his being elected to the presidency of the Union Pacific, is the date his name sake of a town rewarded his joyous election celebration with the stealing of his gold. Thank you Mr. Dillon, and congratulations.

Many accounts of this robbery have been told and written about and are simply in error, or just lacking of necessary valuable information.

The famous stage named "Old Ironsides" had hauled many shipments of gold to both Cheyenne, Wyo. and Sidney. This shipment was to go to Sidney although it carried gold for both directions out of Sidney.

The manifest states there were 600 pounds of gold on board this particular shipment: 120 pounds to go to San Francisco to the mint, consisting of 15 bricks weighing 8 pounds each, and another 480 pounds to go to Omaha. This was contained in six bars of 75 pounds each and four bricks of eight pounds each. The stage arrived at its appointed time in Sidney; the stage driver even had to slow up after leaving the Greenwood station as the weather had been abnormally warm for some days, and the stage road was in very good shape. The train departing for the west would not be in Sidney for some time, so the driver, Scott Davis, and his "shotgun" enjoyed a leisurely trip into Sidney.

Old Ironsides arrived about a half hour before the westbound train did. The 120 pounds of Gold was placed on it, and it departed. This was March 9, 1880, and the eastbound train to handle the other 480 pounds of gold would be along the next day, March 10, 1880. The gold was always placed on specially constructed cars as there were train robbers working the West at this time.

All went according to schedule, gold properly stored, and this caused no extra attention in Sidney as this was just another common event of the railroad. At noon, the freight agent, Chet Allen, left as always to go for his lunch, the gold being secured. Allen never took a full, hour break and was back in 40 minutes, but knew something was wrong when he could not enter his own freight office, but had to get Joe Coburn and Henry Snyder to help force the door open as it had been bared from the inside.

The three men just stood in amazement, looking at the now empty room, a hole had been cut in the floor and was now exposed. Looking down through the hole in the floor, the cellar was very visible and told the story of how the robbery had been completed in mid-day without anyone the wiser. This great Sidney Gold robbery was referred to at that time as the largest gold bullion robbery in these U.S.

The weather had been extra nice in the Dakota territory for early March when gold from Lead City, the Homestead mine, and gold from the Deadwood Gulch and the Esmeralda mine in Black Tail Gulch, and Central City, of the Black Hills was placed aboard the west's famous converted stagecoach into what was referred to as "Old Ironsides." It was a specially made to order in the transportation of heavy metal, gold. About the only thing that could penetrate this early version of a tank was a canon ball fired at close range.

The Black Trails mine was producing quality ore and owned principally by Robert Law and W. H. Hibbard, along with some minor partners. The superintendent of the stage line was Luke Voorhees, who had accompanied this large gold shipment to Sidney and personally oversaw the operation of loading the west bound train as the proper amount of gold, 15 bricks at 8 pounds each for 120 pounds, as this was the top priority gold in the entire shipment. This gold was to be minted into gold coins at the San Francisco mint. The east bound gold was to go to smelters in Omaha and not the U.S. Mints. It contained some 480 pounds of gold, six bars at 75 pounds each and four bricks at eight pounds each, but this gold was judged to be secondary. The federal government's gold was always considered to be the top priority.

The timing of the arrival of both Old Ironsides and the westbound train was of prime importance then, and this was carried off on Tuesday, March 9 perfectly. Now the other gold must be storied to await the arrival of the eastbound train with its specially constructed freight car. Just too many bandito's out there.

The Union Pacific office in Sidney notified Robert Law in Cheyenne, as he was the superintendent of the Mountain Division of the Union Pacific railroad, of this robbery. Jeff Carr and James "Whispering" Smith accompanied Law on a special engine and made it from Cheyenne to Sidney in about two hours. These two men were of the Rocky Mountain Detective Association.

Inspection of the freight office and the hole in the floor along with the cellar beneath it told the story of a well-planed robbery that took some time and had some very expertise involved in the planning. Whoever committed this robbery was an old hand at these sorts of crimes.

The missing jackscrew was in the cellar, and plainly most of the drilled holes in the floor had been made at least a month before this date, as they were aged. The hole had then been completed by sawing from beneath the floor to cut nearly a perfect circle beneath the buffalo rug under the freight office desk and chair. Someone knew exactly what the distance was from the walls to drill these holes, and then cut out the hole. Yes, this had to have been aided by inside person.

Detective Smith immediately fingered the obvious person, freight agent Allen. Everyone knew he would be the first person of suspicion, but in reality, the last one to do this type of robbery, as he would obviously be under the gun. Allen was tried later for this robbery, found entirely innocent and set free. Allen was of course ruined. Allen had been transferred from Cheyenne to Sidney only two years before the robbery. This freight agent Allen is not to be confused with the Cheyenne County clerk, also named Chester Allen.

Luke Voorhees produced his documentation to Superintendent Law that agent Allen had indeed signed for the gold, so the stage line was not responsible for this enormous loss of gold, but that it was solely the responsibility of the Union Pacific. Robert Law did keep a cool head, took everything into consideration, asked if there were any yard workers working over the noon hour in the immediate location. Two men came forward; one stated that he did notice a couple of strangers near one of the coal bins or chutes shortly after noon. They stated that these coal chutes are secured by locks, so the locals do not help themselves to Union Pacific coal.

Robert Law noticed a freight cart with a canvas tarp on its top some 30 yards from the freight office and in front of the second coal chute and asked if that was where it was usually placed. The cart seemed out of place, as these carts were usually right along side the freight office. The yard workers stated this was the coal bin that the strangers were interested in. Law then had Smith investigate the coal bin, and it appeared that the coal was too neatly aligned on the surface, so the order was to check underneath the surface layer of coal. Much to everyone's surprise, six gold bars, weighting some 75 pounds each were found. Who ever committed this robbery had used this cart to carry the heavy load to the coal chute and buried the gold there with the intent of returning later to take their time in transferring it to a horse drawn wagon. This meant that of the 480 pounds of gold, 450 pounds of it was now located, leaving only four gold bricks weighting about eight pounds each, or another 32 pounds of gold. There was a leather pouch containing some $1200.00 in face value in already minted gold coins, some of the $20, $10, $5 and $2.50 that was also missing.

This action was all under taken within the full view of the public's eye, in the middle of the day, but no one seemed to suspect anything out of the ordinary. Cheyenne County Sheriff Robert Howard was not even in town at this time, but was in the neighboring state of Colorado. Robert Oberfelder of the Oberfelder & Co. general merchandise store directly across the tracks and beside the Moore Co. store had just gone to the freight office to inquire about a shipment to his store and was told to get out, there had been a major robbery. Oberfelder left, but went to the Sidney Telegraph office and informed them of what had happened. The Telegraph editor immediately went to the tracks and took a picture of a wagon freight train passing in front of the stores on Front Street, directly south of the freight office.

The value of this photograph shows that it was indeed a nice early spring March day, contrary to some reports from witnesses later on. Scott Davis, the stage driver of Old Ironsides told many differing accounts of the type of weather and his part in this robbery. Davis, like some others of the day, relished in every opportunity to enhance his own images and capabilities. One would not know the truth if this photo was not available.

Davis liked to tell of sheriff "Con" McCarty arriving with a heavy over coat on and wanting to take over this investigation. Davis hinted that "Con" could easily have hidden some gold inside his large coat. "Con" was not the sheriff, nor did he wear any over-sized coat this day that he and his wife were to stand before the local Judge. They had both finished their court appearance and gone to Front Street to get lunch at about the time of the robbery and before the train with Law and company on board arrived in Sidney. While eating, he saw a crowd assembling at the freight deport and before heading back to his ranch, investigated the commotion. Davis and "Con" must have had a run-in when "Con" was sheriff as Davis truly disliked "Con." Davis fingered "Con" immediately as one of the robbers.

Superintendent Law explained to no one in particular yet to everyone there that was in hearing distance that this robbery had been accomplished by some old hands at this sort of action. The rapidity and quietness and daring in mid-day under full view of everyone and yet out of sight of everyone, along with the planning that obviously had gone into this ahead of time, the precision and patience of obviously more than one person, and keeping it quiet was amazing.

This robbery was indeed a Rembrandt. No group of cowboys could have pulled this off. Only experienced robbers, no amateurs.

Union Pacific Detective James Whispering Smith had Allen jailed and went looking for his suspected assistants in this robbery. After visiting with several of the more respected citizens of Sidney, they fingered the ex-sheriff, "Con" McCarty, as a strong candidate to conspire with Allen. Smith checked out the whereabouts of McCarty at the time of the robbery. Smith needed to look no further than the local courtroom. "Con" and his wife Kate where standing in front of the Judge at the exact time of the robbery for failure to pay their debts for the construction of their new home east of Sidney. The McCarty's were deep in debt and did need money as they had built this new home described as the nicest in Cheyenne county and had purchased the Capitol Saloon. "Con" certainly could use some extra cash at this time, but he had the best alibi in town. Smith never pursued any investigation of McCarty knowing of his airtight alibi, and this did anger some of the local citizens, as they just knew he had to have a hand in this robbery and most likely masterminded the entire heist.

Some reports state he was the active sheriff, but he was not. He did however own the Capitol Saloon, but only owned it for a year, from July 1, 1879 to July 1, 1880. When he sold the Capitol, he retained the ground it was located on as he needed money in June as well for past debts, and a monthly income for rent of his land seemed like a good idea.

Smith, who was cut out of the pattern of most of the U.P. detectives of that time, being very quick with a gun and handy with the dukes, spent about a year in Sidney investigating this robbery. He did more than his fair share of drinking and shot a couple of individuals – Patty Walters, a bar keep at the Capitol Saloon, was his first victim. Walters did not die from Smiths wounds but did get into another shoot out later and was then killed by Hugo Hoppy. Walters was working when this robbery occurred and had nothing to do with it, although he did enjoy some attention.

A new comer to Sidney, Dennis Flannigan, who was barbering at the time, blamed Smith for ruining his reputation in Sidney, as Smith knew of him in Omaha as being a drunkard. Flannigan was in jail in Omaha when this robbery occurred, so could not have been involved. Flannigan went looking for Smith, found him and would not be happy unless he had his shot at Smith. Flannigan got it, and was buried shortly thereafter in the Sidney Boot Hill Cemetery.

It seems that many individuals lived for many years until they arrived in Sidney. Life expectancy was a lot shorter in Sidney. Smith did also receive an uncontested divorce from his wife in St. Louis while in Sidney. After both shootings, Smith had been arrested and placed in the Sidney jail, but both times was bailed out by the solid citizens of Sidney who were becoming increasingly angered by the criminal acts that were taking over the community. This all came to a head in just a little over one more year.

The Union Pacific railroad seemed to be completely satisfied with the quick recovery of most of their gold, and the decision was made that they should try to sit on this robbery as much as possible, take what loss they would have and move on. The fear was there may be some other want-to-be robbers lurking about in this untamed west that all their trains had to travel through, and attempt something similar. One robbery of this type was more than enough.

This crime was never solved, nor was the missing gold ever recovered. Having the documentation of several sources – states historical societies, Union Pacific records, old records from the stage lines, of course all types of newspaper stories and court records in Sidney along with other historical sources – I am able to piece together some facts that were not available in 1880.

The Sidney Telegraph issue of Feb. 9, 1901, had an interesting obituary of Frank Mallon. Mallon was an ex-Confederate Civil War veteran who had been placed in charge of the coal chutes in 1870, and later the round house was added to his duties. The screw jack was reported missing from the round house about a month before this robbery. The gold bars were hid in the coal chutes. No one ever questioned Mallon. He was born in Ireland and immigrated while very young with his family to Louisiana. He lived alone, had never married and was reported to be rather strange in nature, but had become very wealthy, before he passed. Mallon left everything to his attorney.

A known train robber from Missouri was shot and killed in the spring of 1882, Jesse James. James' wife, Zerelda, within a month's time had sent a card to the Sidney Telegraph allowing that she would not be cashing in on or benefiting from any inside information she may have on James' exploits. Why would she bother to acknowledge Sidney, the Telegraph, or even know of Sidney?

I feel strongly that the two strangers around the coal chute that the rail workers saw were Mallon and James. These two individuals would be strangers this far west, and in a community that saw many strangers daily come and go, they would not stand out or be recognized in Sidney. The James gang is credited with a lot of crimes that they had not committed, but by the same token, they probably are not given just dues for some others that they did.

Mallon would have had access to the freight office of Allen about any time he wanted. Mallon could have measured by walking off the distance from any or all of the walls to get the precise location of placing the screw jack, drilling the holes from beneath the floor, sight unseen by anyone, and the buffalo rug on the floor to keep the operators feet from becoming cold in those type of days, completely covered the screwed holes.

Time for a big heist was quickly coming to an end, as other methods of transporting the gold from the Black Hills were quickly approaching.

By records, Sidney handled in 1877 a total of 3,246 pounds of gold from the stages from the Black Hills. In 1876, Sidney had 3,108 pounds of gold shipped through it. These are the two years that "Con" McCarty was sheriff, and none of the gold was lost or stolen. That's a lot of gold coming down from the hills of Dakota to Sidney and placed on the Union Pacific railroad.

The robbers had to have had the coal chute's lock opened for them to place the gold under some of the coal. Once again, suspicion would be Mallon as he controlled the keys for these locks. Shortly after the Telegraph reported they had received James' wife's card and placed its contents in the Telegraph, Mallon transferred to Montana for a period of time. Mallon later retired and returned to Sidney to live out his days and is buried in the Sidney Greenwood Cemetery.

I have no idea if this gold ever left Sidney or was ever found, as some fake gold bricks did appear after a fire in the Capitol Saloon, later called the Tobin Opera House. Many untrue stories have been produced and told, some by individuals, and some that were even associated with this event.

"Con" McCarty relocated to Idaho, and is buried in a pioneer cemetery in Boise, Idaho, and died poor. James "Whispering" Smith went on to have several other law enforcement jobs, but in the end in Denver, committed suicide.

Who actually did commit this Rembrandt of a gold robbery? The planning and precision of this crime has to be admired. Yes, it had to be accomplished by experienced old hands, as the Omaha Bee of March 11, 1880, stated. There had to be an inside assistant as well, someone with capabilities of obtaining the screw jack and providing aid in being able to allow for the use of the coal bin.

I would not discourage anyone from looking for this gold, as it may still be right in or near Sidney. Many famous and infamous individuals boots touched the ground in Sidney and around Sidney, during the time period known as the "romantic wild west of America," which has more than its share of tales of the old west to tell. And sadly, most have been buried very deeply so as to give Sidney an image of being civilized and respected.

This gold bullion robbery of March 10, 1880, was absolutely the largest one of this kind in these U.S., not just Nebraska, up to that point in time and should have been covered much better and is deserving of another look.

Hollywood made a movie about "Whispering" Smith staring Alan Ladd, and TV had a series that ran a couple of years with Audie Murphy staring as Smith. Neither took facts very serious but were entertaining.