Samuel Bass (July 21, 1851 – July 21, 1878) was a 19th-century American train robber, outlaw, and outlaw gang leader. Notably, he was a member of a gang of six that robbed a Union Pacific train in Nebraska of $60,000 in newly minted gold from San Francisco, California. To date, this is the biggest train robbery to have been committed in the USA. He died as a result of wounds sustained in a gun battle with law enforcement officers.

Early life

Sam Bass was born in Mitchell, Indiana, on July 21, 1851; the son of Daniel and Elizabeth Jane (Sheeks) Bass. He was orphaned before his fourteenth birthday, and afterwards was raised by an abusive uncle. Bass left home due to this abuse at the age of 19.

Bass worked for about a year at a sawmill in Rosedale, Mississippi, but eventually drifted west to north Texas; where he worked for a time for Sheriff Egan of Denton. The gang split up following this heist.

  • "End of an Outlaw," aired on 29 November 1957 as the ninth episode of the CBS series Trackdown, starring Robert Culp as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman, dramatizes the foiling of the bank robbery in Round Rock, and the death of Bass during the ensuing gun battle. Gilman was substituted for the real-life Rangers involved. Bass was portrayed by John Anderson.
  • In 1959, Alan Hale Jr. played Bass in the episode "The Saga of Sam Bass", on the ABC/Warner Bros. western television series Colt .45.

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  • The Story of Sam Bass ; Round Rock, Texas Historic Preservation Society
  • Life and Adventures of Sam Bass, The Notorious Union Pacific and Texas Train Robber: Together with A Graphic Account of His Capture and Death, published 1878.
  • The City of Allen's Video - The Great Allen Train Robbery- Story about the infamous first train robbery in Texas.