Sam Bass (outlaw) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sam Bass
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Sam Bass
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| Born | July 21, 1851 Mitchell, Indiana, U.S.
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| Died | July 21, 1878 (aged 27) Round Rock, Texas, U.S.
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| Cause of death | Gunshot wounds |
| Occupation | Outlaw |
Sam Bass (born July 21, 1851 – died July 21, 1878) was a famous American outlaw and train robber from the 1800s. He led a group of six men who robbed a Union Pacific train in Nebraska. They stole $60,000 in new gold coins from San Francisco, California. This was one of the biggest train robberies in U.S. history. Sam Bass died from injuries he got during a gunfight with law enforcement officers.
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Early Life of Sam Bass
Sam Bass was born in Mitchell, Indiana, on July 21, 1851. His parents were Daniel and Elizabeth Jane Bass. Sam became an orphan before he turned 13 years old. After that, his uncle raised him. Sam left home when he was 19.
He worked for about a year at a sawmill in Rosedale, Mississippi. Later, he moved west to north Texas. There, he worked for a short time for Sheriff Egan in Denton. Sam also tried working with cattle, but he found the work too hard and the pay too low.
Sam then bought a horse and started racing it. He lived off the money he won from these races for several years. When his horse became too old to race, Sam and a friend named Joel Collins started a cattle drive. They moved cattle for ranchers near San Antonio, Texas. In 1876, they took the cattle to Nebraska. However, they lost all their money, and the ranchers' money, by gambling in Deadwood. Deadwood was a gold rush town in the Black Hills.
The Trap for Sam Bass
Sam Bass managed to avoid the Texas Rangers for a while. But then, a member of his gang, Jim Murphy, became an informant. Jim Murphy's father was very sick and had been taken by the lawmen for questioning. They would not let him see a doctor or get medical help. This made his condition much worse.
Lawmen sent a message to Jim Murphy. They told him they had his father and would keep him from getting medical care unless Murphy met with them. Knowing how sick his father was, Murphy agreed to the meeting. There, he sadly agreed to help the lawmen.
John B. Jones was told where Bass and his gang would be. An ambush was set up in Round Rock, Texas. Bass and his gang planned to rob the Williamson County Bank there.
The Final Shootout
On July 19, 1878, Bass and his gang were looking around the area before the robbery. They bought some tobacco at a store. Williamson County Deputy Sheriff A. W. Grimes noticed them. When Grimes asked the men to give up their guns, he was shot and killed.
A gunfight started. As Bass tried to run away, Texas Rangers George Herold and Sergeant Richard Ware shot him. Soapy Smith and his cousin, Edwin, saw Ware's shot. Soapy shouted, "I think you got him!"
No one in Round Rock, and none of the Texas Rangers (except Jim Murphy), knew what the Bass gang members looked like. After Seaborne Barnes was killed, Sergeant Ware had to ask Murphy to identify the body. No one else knew who the man was. Ware himself said he had seen the three men earlier in town. But he did not know they were the Bass gang.
Sam Bass's Death
Sam Bass was later found in a field west of Round Rock. He called out to the lawmen, saying, "Hey, I'm over here. I'm Sam Bass, the one you are looking for." Williamson County Deputy James Milton Tucker took him into custody.
Sam Bass died the next day, on July 21, 1878. It was his 27th birthday. No photo was taken of Bass while he was dying or after he died. This was even though the Texas Rangers were under a lot of pressure to capture or kill him. To this day, no confirmed photo of Sam Bass exists. A year after his death, his sister visited Round Rock. She said the photo on the wanted poster shown to her was not her brother.
Sam Bass was buried in Round Rock. His grave is in what is now called Round Rock Cemetery. His grave has a new headstone. The original one was damaged by people taking pieces as souvenirs. What is left of the original stone is on display at the Round Rock Public Library.
Sam Bass's Legacy
There are roads named after Sam Bass in Round Rock, Texas, Denton, Texas, and west of Sanger, Texas. Every year, during Round Rock's Frontier Days celebration, actors re-enact the famous shootout in the old downtown area.
Rosston, Texas celebrates "Sam Bass Day" every year on the third Saturday in July.
There is also the Sam Bass Fire Department of Brushy Creek in Round Rock, Texas.
Sam Bass in Stories and Movies
Sam Bass has been shown in many books, radio shows, TV shows, and movies.
- In 1936, a radio show called Death Valley Days told the story of Bass's last days.
- Calamity Jane and Sam Bass is a 1949 Western movie. It stars Yvonne De Carlo and Howard Duff.
- In the 1951 Western movie The Texas Rangers, William Bishop played Sam Bass.
- In 1953, Sam Bass was a character in a newspaper comic strip about Laredo Crockett by Bob Schoenke.
- In a 1957 episode of Tales of Wells Fargo, the main character Jim Hardie tries to join Sam Bass's gang. Chuck Connors played Sam Bass.
- A Lone Ranger episode about Sam Bass was broadcast on April 24, 1944.
- In 1959, Alan Hale Jr. played Bass in an episode of the TV series Colt .45.
- The 2015 Western movie Kill or Be Killed was loosely based on Sam Bass and his gang.
