Sam Bass

Sam Bass (1851-1878) was a Nineteenth Century American train robber and western icon.

Born in Indiana, in 1851, Bass moved to Denton, Texas as a young adult. He acquired a prize racing mare, and made his living from racing horses from 1874 to 1876. He led a cattle drive north thereafter, which successfully completed its mission, but as to which he squandered the proceeds rather than follow the established business custom of paying the creditors on the drive. In 1877, he and others in his gang began a string of train robberies, including the first such robbery in Texas history in Allen, Texas. He began a spree of robbery and murder. After betrayal by a confederate, Bass was killed by law enforcement authorities near Round Rock, Texas in 1878, around his 27th birthday. As with many contemporary figures of the American West, Bass captured the public imagination in contemporary stories and songs, being portrayed as was common in this era by some as a ruthless desperado, but by others as a kind of Robin Hood figure whose misdeeds allegedly were not visited on the poor but only upon the monied classes.