William L. "Wild Bill" Carlisle (May 4, 1890 – June 19, 1964) was one of the last

train robber Train robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains. History Train robberies were more common in the past when trains were slower, and often occurred in the American Old West. Tr ...

s of the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

known as the "Robin Hood of the Rails" and "The White-Masked Bandit".'William L. (Wild Bill) Carlisle, 74, one of the last train robbers of the West, has died of cancer.' - ''

Omaha World-Herald The ''Omaha World-Herald'' is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper ch ...

'', Omaha, NE, 20 Jun 1964, Page 18

Early years

Bill CarlisleSome sources claim he was born as Walter Lawrence Cottrell born in

Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee, United States * Cheshire or the County Palatine of Chester, a ceremonial county in the North Wes ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in 1890, the youngest of five children born to David Cottrell, a 60-year-old

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

veteran and his 37-year-old wife Salome Lentz Cottrell. Some sources claim he was born as Walter Lawrence Cottrell. His mother died when he was nine months old and because of his father's ill-health he and his siblings were taken to an

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

.'Bill Carlisle, Gentleman Bandit' on the Wyoming History website
/ref> In 1893 aged 3 he was claimed by his family but was passed from relative to relative. As a teenager he began to ride the

freight trains Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons ( International Union of Railways) haule ...

and by 1905 he was a

hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; and a bum neither travels nor works. E ...

. In 1907 aged 17 he rode the train to

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

to work as a

ranch hand A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

.Morelos, Kathie ''Bill Carlisle'' on the 'Wyoming Frontier Prison' website
/ref>

Train robber

By early 1916 he was destitute, with only a

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

in his pocket; he decided the quickest way to obtain cash was to hold up a train. Carlisle robbed his first train in Wyoming on 9 February 1916 wearing a white

bandana A kerchief (from the Old French ''couvrechief'', "cover head"), also known as a bandana, bandanna, or "Wild Rag" (in cowboy culture), is a triangular or square piece of cloth tied around the head, face or neck for protective or decorative purpos ...

over his face and armed with a toy pistol and a .32-caliber pistol. During the robbery he gave coins to a guard to make up for his lost tips, gave a dollar to a man to pay for his breakfast and bowed to a woman who tried to take his gun from him. He held up two more trains over the next two months. He was caught on 22 April 1916 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the

Wyoming State Penitentiary The Wyoming State Penitentiary is a historic and current prison in Rawlins, Carbon County, Wyoming, which has operated from 1901. It moved within Rawlins to a new location in 1981. In 2018, it is a Wyoming Department of Corrections state maximu ...

in Rawlins on 10 May 1916 after a two-day trial, even though he never shot anyone during the robberies and did not take money from women, children or servicemen. In prison he worked in the shirt factory.

Escape

Because of his good behavior in prison, in 1919 his life sentence was commuted to 25–50 years. However, Carlisle decided he could not wait that long to be released, and on 15 November 1919 he escaped from Wyoming State Penitentiary by being carried outside the walls in a packing crate with a shipment of shirts. He again robbed a train on November 18 but found most of the passengers were soldiers and sailors returning from service in France during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; Carlisle did not take money from these. When a young man pointed a revolver at him Carlisle knocked it away, but it went off and injured his left hand. He was arrested again on 2 December 1919 in a cabin near

Glendo, Wyoming Glendo is a town in Platte County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 205 at the 2010 census. History The town was incorporated in 1922. The California Trail, Oregon Trail and Mormon Trail passed south of Glendo. The Overland Stage Line ...

having been hunted by a

posse Posse is a shortened form of posse comitatus, a group of people summoned to assist law enforcement. The term is also used colloquially to mean a group of friends or associates. Posse may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Posse'' (1975 ...

who shot him through the lung while capturing him, necessitating his being carried down from the cabin strapped to the back of a pack horse. Following surgery to remove the bullets in his lung and hand and a 33-day stay in hospital he returned to Wyoming State Penitentiary on 18 December 1919.

Later life

Carlisle was paroled on 8 January 1936 for good behavior and on 23 December 1936 he married Lillian Lavina Berquest (died 1962), the superintendent of the local nursing home who took care of him after an operation for a ruptured appendix. The couple raised an adopted daughter and opened a cigar shop and newsstand in

Kemmerer, Wyoming Kemmerer is the largest city in and the county seat of Lincoln County, Wyoming, United States. Its population was 2,656 at the 2010 census. History Explorer John C. Frémont discovered coal in the area during his second expedition in 1843. The ...

before moving to

Laramie, Wyoming Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was estimated 32,711 in 2019, making it the third-largest city in Wyoming after Cheyenne and Casper. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern ...

where they opened a gas station and later a

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...

, which flourished partly because of his train-robbing reputation. During the 1940s he toured the United States to promote

Westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

. The rights to his story were bought in 1950 but the film was never made. He wrote his

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

in 1946,Carlisle, William L. 'Bill Carlisle, Lone Bandit: An Autobiography' Pasadena, Calif.: Trail’s End Publishing Company (1946) and received a full pardon from the Governor of Wyoming in 1947. Carlisle sold his motel in Laramie in 1956. After his wife's death in 1962 he returned to Pennsylvania and died there from cancer in 1964 aged 74 in the home of his niece, Mrs. Hilda Cammie and her husband Francis.

References

Notes Footnotes

External links

American Heritage Center - Digital Collections - Train robberies --Wyoming. by William L. Carlisle
- High Noon Western Americana website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlisle, William L. 1890 births 1964 deaths People from Chester County, Pennsylvania People from Kemmerer, Wyoming Train robbers Writers from Pennsylvania Writers from Wyoming