From Richard Crabtree on the Frisco Rails Across Missouri Facebook group: He we are at the Frisco Depot at Old Orchard just up from the Frisco Depot in Webster Groves, Missouri. Photo 1) Frisco Depot at Old Orchard around 1900 Photo 2) Frisco Depot at Old Orchard Blueprint ~ MSU Digital collection Photo 3) Sanborn Map for the Frisco Dept at Old Orchard ~ MU Digital Collection
I have a strange question: does anyone know if there was ever a robbery and murders at the Old Orchard depot? I recently talked to a guy who managed a business next door. He was sort of a superstitious old timer who was going on about how his business was haunted by three people murdered at the Frisco Depot. I wondered if the supposed robbery/murders ever happened.
During the evening of Nov 30, 1891, six men boarded a Frisco train at Old Orchard, and after the train departed, they climbed over the tender and into the locomotive cab, where they ordered the crew to stop the train. The bandits used explosives gain entry to the Adams Express car. The express messenger was injured during the explosion. The robbers took $20,000-$75,000.
That's a pretty good haul for 1891. No murders though so my acquaintance's ghosts must have originated elsewhere. When he mentioned it, I'm sure I was smirking because he had to stop and tell me that he was dead serious. Thanks for the info. Is that a story you happened to know or is there a history book covering Frisco crimes?
Newspaper article(s) provided the info. It’s really surprising the number of train and especially depot robberies that occurred even into the twenties and thirties. Robbing a depot was easier than robbing a bank... little or no security, always cash on hand.
