Renegades of the Rails

Railroads were open season for Oklahoma and Indian Territory outlaw gangs. Glenn Shirley, the late historian of Oklahoma’s frontier history of lawmen and outlaws, said there were more stagecoach and train robberies in the Twin Territories than anywhere on the Western frontier. The first railroad to enter pre-state Oklahoma in 1871, was the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, known by the pioneers and locals as “The Katy.” The first Katy train robbery on record was committed by a band of