The Newton boys

July 27, 2023

We watched a movie a couple weeks ago about the Newton Boys, so I thought I’d share some info about them ..

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Doc ~ Willis ~ Joe ~ Jess

“As robbers and thieves, nobody was better than the comparatively low-profile Newton and his brothers, who later were popularized in a middling 1998 movie as “The Newton Boys.” In a blink of about five years in the 1920s, the Newtons (and an occasional accomplice) 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 largest train robbery ever.” (history.howstuffworks.com)

~ a $3 million take away in 1924 would be $45 million today

“Well, if you got a good car and a potful of money and [you’re] a young man,” Joe said when Carson asked him about his appeal to women as a bank robber, “yeah …”.

~ the four Newton boys were sons of poor share croppers
~ they all left school at a young age, getting involved in petty crimes and doing time in jail
~ at about 25, Willis already had a lengthy rap sheet already to his name, when he decided to rob a bank, making off with about $4,700 from a job in Cline, Texas, eventually getting his brothers involved
~ Willis mandated that they never kill anybody
~ the brothers robbed banks and the occasional train across Texas, Oklahoma, through the Midwest and even into Toronto, Canada
~ on at least one occasion they robbed two banks in one day
~ in a rare daytime heist in Canada, they were involved in a shootout during morning rush hour that sullied their reputation for clean hits and easy getaways

“Compared to the Newtons, John Dillinger was a two-bit operator.
Jesse and Frank James were mere amateurs. Butch Cassidy was a small fry….
The Newtons made blowing safes and robbing trains a big business.”
~ historian, G. R. Williamson

to read more: The Newton Boys were the baddest bank robbers you’ve never heard of (history.howstuffworks.com)

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