Ohio history overflows with tales of enterprising thieves. Vault teller Ted Conrad walked out of Society National Bank carrying a paper sack containing a fifth of Canadian Club, a carton of Marlboros and $215,000 cash. He was never seen again. Known as one of the most successful jewel thieves in the world, Bill Mason stole comedian Phyllis Diller's precious gems not once, but twice. He also stole $100,000 from the Cleveland mob. Mild-mannered Kenyon College library employee David Breithaupt walked off with $50,000 worth of rare books and documents from the college. John Dillinger hit banks all over Ohio, and Alvin Karpis robbed a train in Garrettsville and a mail truck in Warren. Jane Ann Turzillo writes of these and other notable heists and perpetrators.

Ohio history overflows with tales of enterprising thieves. Vault teller Ted Conrad walked out of Society National Bank carrying a paper sack containing a fifth of Canadian Club, a carton of Marlboros and $215,000 cash. He was never seen again. Known as one of the most successful jewel thieves in the world, Bill Mason stole comedian Phyllis Diller's precious gems not once, but twice. He also stole $100,000 from the Cleveland mob. Mild-mannered Kenyon College library employee David Breithaupt walked off with $50,000 worth of rare books and documents from the college. John Dillinger hit banks all over Ohio, and Alvin Karpis robbed a train in Garrettsville and a mail truck in Warren. Jane Ann Turzillo writes of these and other notable heists and perpetrators.

Award-winning true crime author Jane Turzillo brings together the strippers, gangsters, robbers, shady politicians, and more from Cleveland's rough and rowdy past. From world-class museums and popular sports teams to peaceful parks and charming neighborhoods, Cleveland has a lot to offer. But it has a wilder, darker side. Along the one-block passageway called Short Vincent, tourists and celebrities mixed with bookies and mobsters for drinks and dinner, underworld gossip, and all kinds of "entertainment." In 1969, Ted Conrad disappeared with $215,000 in stolen cash. An obituary more than fifty years later finally told authorities where he went. In the wee hours of March 24, 1970, someone slipped up to the front of the Cleveland Museum of Art and planted a bomb on the marble pedestal that supported Rodin's The Thinker. Who and why remain unknown.

One of the most colorful parts of American History is the time of train robberies and the daring outlaws who undertook them in the period covering from just after the Civil War to 1924. For decades, the railroads were the principal transporters of payrolls, gold and silver, bonds, and passengers who often carried large sums of money as well as valuable jewelry. For the creative outlaw, trains became an obvious target for robbery. Willis Newton has never enjoyed the recognition and fame of the better known train robbing outlaws such as Frank and Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, the Daltons, and the Doolins, but he was the most prolific and successful train robber in the history of North America. Newton stole more money from the railroads than all of the others put together. During his lifetime, Newton robbed six trains and an estimated eighty banks, pulled off the greatest train robbery ever, netting $3,000,000, yet remains virtually unknown. So unknown was he that, despite all of his success as a robber, he was rarely identified as a suspect. Following his greatest heist, Newton and his gang member, composed of his brothers, were arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to serve long terms at Leavenworth Prison. When they were granted early release for good behavior, they lost no time in returning to robbing banks. Willis Newton’s life and times as America’s greatest, and last, train robber has been gleaned and developed from extensive interviews he granted during the 1970s when he was in his eighties. In addition, newspaper reports of his numerous train and bank robberies have been obtained and researched for precise details of robberies and pursuit.

What sort of person undertakes to rob a multi-ton train surging down a set of rails at high speed? For the Old West’s most famous outlaws, including Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Dalton Gang, and Black Jack Ketchum, it was as much about the thrill of the crime as the riches to be won, thumbing their noses at the authorities, and getting away with their crimes more often than not. These men, and at least one woman, were dare devils, rule breakers, adventurers, and rebels. In addition to their train robberies, they led colorful, dramatic, and dangerous lives. The Old West's Infamous Train Robbers and Their Historic Heists profiles sixteen noted train robbers (or train robbing gangs) along with the details of each their forty-seven hold-ups. The mechanics of each of their train robberies—planning, execution, and escape—are dissected and discussed. Pertinent background information relating to each outlaw/gang is included as well as what became of them following their train-robbery days.

ANOTHER TRUE CRIME STORY FROM J. NORTH CONWAY—NOW IN PAPERBACK! The riveting story of one of America’s most notorious crimes and the mysterious man behind it “Engrossing. . . . Conway skillfully paints a backdrop of fierce and flamboyant personalities who paraded across the Gilded Age. . . . [H]e capably recounts his story against a background of glitter and greed.” —Publishers Weekly “A page-turning account of one of the most brazen crimes of our time.” —Reader’s Digest “Conway, a college prof and ex-newspaper man, covers this ancient tale in a way that makes it feel like a hot news story.” —New York Post King of Heistsis a spellbinding and unprecedented account of the greatest bank robbery in American history, which took place on October 27, 1878, when thieves broke into the Manhattan Savings Institution and stole nearly $3 million in cash and securities—around $50 million in today’s terms. Bringing the notorious Gilded Age to life in a thrilling narrative, J. North Conway tells the story of those who plotted and carried out this infamous robbery, how they did it, and how they were tracked down and captured. The robbery was planned to the minutest detail by criminal mastermind George Leonidas Leslie—a society architect and ladies’ man whose double life as the nation’s most prolific bank robber led him to be dubbed the “King of the Bank Robbers.” An absorbing tale of greed, sex, crime, betrayal, and murder, King of Heistsblends all the richness of history with the thrills of the best fiction.

During the 1800s trains carried the nation's wealth throughout the east, but no one thought to rob a speeding train until 1866. In 1870 the first western train was robbed in Nevada and within hours a second train was robbed. Railroads made every alteration to their cars and changed every procedure they could imagine to thwart the robbers, but to no avail. Robbing trains became epidemic over the next five decades, even when the legislatures made train robbery a capital crime. A few of the hundreds of train robberies stand out as thrilling and dangerous affairs, and the greatest of these (15-20) are included in this book.

One of the most colorful parts of American History is the time of train robberies and the daring outlaws who undertook them in the period covering from just after the Civil War to 1924. For decades, the railroads were the principal transporters of payrolls, gold and silver, bonds, and passengers who often carried large sums of money as well as valuable jewelry. For the creative outlaw, trains became an obvious target for robbery. The list of America’s train robbers is a veritable Who’s Who of American outlawry and includes: Frank and Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Charles Searcy, Charles Morganfield, Sam Bass, Black Jack Ketchum, Seaborn Barnes, and others. To this cast of train robbery-related characters can be added the relentless investigations and pursuit by individuals associated with the Pinkerton Detectives, Texas Rangers, Wells Fargo detectives, railroad company detectives, as well as local and area law enforcement authorities. In addition, there are numerous tales of bravery that took place during train robberies involving heroic express car messengers, conductors, engineers, brakemen, and even passengers.

No crime is as synonymous with America as bank robbery. Though the number of bank robberies nationwide has declined, bank robbery continues to captivate the public and jeopardize the safety of banks and their employees. In A History of Heists, Jerry Clark and Ed Palattella explore how bank robbers have influenced American culture as much as they have reflected it. Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Willie Sutton, and Patty Hearst are among the most famous figures in the history of crime in the United States. Jesse James used his training as a Confederate guerrilla to make bank robbery a political act. John Dillinger capitalized on the public’s scorn of banks during the Great Depression and became America’s first Public Enemy Number One. When she held up a bank with the leftist Symbionese Liberation Army, Patty Hearst fueled the country’s social unrest. Jerry Clark and Ed Palattella delve into the backgrounds and motivations of the robbers, and explore how they are as complex as the nation whose banks they have plundered. But as much as the story of bank robbery in America focuses on the thieves, it is also a story of those who investigate the heists. As bank robbers became more sophisticated, so did the police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other law enforcement agencies. This captivating history showshow bank robbery shaped the modern FBI, and how it continues to cultivate America’s fascination with the noble outlaw: bandits seen, rightly or wrongly, as battling unjust authority.