Wanted Dead or Alive! A Collection of Criminals!

Stick um' up! Don't move a muscle! You might have been making a bank deposit, traveling atop your stagecoach or riding the train to El Paso when you heard those famous words. Either way, the Western frontier in the 19th Century was no place for the fainthearted. States like Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Montana and many others were terrorized by bandit gangs, outlaws and lone-wolves looking to take the money and run.

Cowan's Auctions will be auctioning off (lot 282) A Rare & Important Album Containing CDVs and Cabinet Cards of Wells Fargo Highway Men, Train Robbers & Other Criminals; in their Property of N.Flayderman & Co., Plus Selected Additions Sale on Feburary 21st. I sure hope whoever used this index flipped through it like lightning in a bottle, before their card was drawn.

Lot 282, Rare and Important Album Containing CDVs & Cabinet Cards of Wells Fargo Highway Men, Train Robbers, & Other Criminals; Estimate ($7,000 - $10,000)

A majority of the criminals featured in this portfolio committed offenses against Wells Fargo Bank, as the accompanied letter from 1967 issued by the Railway Express Agency attests, "The official office copy kept by Wells Fargo in New York..to be used by the special officers, detectives and officials of the company." Photographed, personalities include infamous memebers of the Oklahoma Cook Gang, Josh L. Craft, Jim Wallace, Handsome Bandit, Derby Kid, Henry Starr, James-Younger Gang, the Doolin-Dalton Gang and many other unapologetic bandits.

This sale will also feature a variety of collectibles, antique weapons and historical documents such as a Colt Model 1860 Army Percussion Revolver, Flintlock Fullstock Kentucky Rifles, Bowe knives and rare and historical civil broadsides and imprints, folk art solider carved pipes and canes, important 18th - 20th century manuscript archives and more!

Click here to view the full catalog: Cowans Auctions, Property of Flayderman & Co., Plus Selected Additions on February 21st. Click here to read more and see additional images of lot 282, Rare and Important Album Containing CDVs & Cabinet Cards of Wells Fargo Highway Men, Train Robbers, & Other Criminals; Estimate ($7,000 - $10,000).