How were stagecoach robberies usually executed?
Phillip Payne
Scottsdale, Arizona
Most stagecoach robberies were done on foot, usually on a slope where the stage had to slow to a crawl. A couple outlaws hid in the brush, with their horses picketed nearby. Trying to run down a stage on horseback was mostly the stuff of Hollywood.
Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian and vice president of the Wild West History Association. His latest book is Arizona Outlaws and Lawmen; The History Press, 2015. If you have a question, write: Ask the Marshall, P.O. Box 8008, Cave Creek, AZ 85327 or email him at marshall.trimble@scottsdalecc.edu.
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