Sam 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 was the biggest train robbery ever committed in the USA. He died as a result of wounds sustained in a gun battle with law enforcement officers. Early life Samuel Bass was born in Mitchell, Indiana, on July 21, 1851; the son of Daniel and Elizabeth Jane (Sheeks) Bass. His father was a member of the mixed-race Bass family of North Carolina. He was orphaned before his thirteenth birthday, and afterward raised by an uncle. Bass left home at age 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. He tried his hand at wrangling cattle, but was unfulfilled by the hard work and low pay. Bass eventually bought a horse and raced it, living on the proceeds for some years. After the horse became too old to race, Bass and a partner, Joel Collins, formed a cattle drive for several ranchers in the San Antonio, Texas area. In 1876, they drove the cattle to Nebraska, but squandered their (and the ranchers') proceeds by gambling it away in the gold rush town of Deadwood in the Black Hills area. Life of crime Now broke, Bass and Collins tried working as freighters, but could not make a living at it, so they formed an outlaw gang preying on stage coaches. The gang literally struck gold when they robbed the Union Pacific Railroad gold train from San Francisco on September 18, 1877. They intercepted the train at Big Springs, Nebraska. The robbery netted the gang over $60,000 (equivalent to about $ million in 2022), and they split up. Bass promptly headed back to Texas and formed a new gang responsible for a string of stagecoach robberies. In 1878, the gang held up two stagecoaches and four trains within 25 miles (40 km) of Dallas. Although the robberies netted them little money, they became the object of a manhunt by Pinkerton National Detective Agency agents and a special company of the Texas Rangers headed by Captain Junius Peak. A trap is