Outlaw Sam Bass spent much of his brief adulthood in Denton. While he died, Texas Rangers asked him to name his gang members. He said, “It’s again’ my profession to blow on my pals.”

His notoriety in death would reach across the United States and to England.

Born in Indiana on July 21, 1851, Bass grew up without formal schooling on his uncle’s farm after his parents died. In 1869, he boarded a steamboat for Rosedale, Mississippi.

Bass was 5 feet, 8 inches tall, 140 pounds, with an engaging laugh, beautiful white teeth, black hair, a mustache and dark brown eyes. His good looks made it easy for people to believe he wasn’t an outlaw.

While working in a Mississippi sawmill, Bass mastered poker and the revolver. He moved to Denton at age 19, working at Bob Carruth’s ranch southwest of Denton and handling horses at the Lacy Hotel on the northeast corner of Denton’s downtown square.

Bass took a farmhand job with Sheriff William Egan, developing a reputation as a hard worker, driving a wagon down back roads in Denton, Collin, Grayson, Cooke and Dallas counties. According to the book “The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense” by Walter Webb, the roads he frequently drove became escape routes. Egan eventually hunted Bass.

In 1874, Bass bought a racehorse named “Denton Mare.” After winning races in North Texas, Bass ran out of luck in San Antonio. He and Joel Collins decided to drive longhorn cattle from Texas to Kansas. Bass and Collins gambled their $8,000 cattle drive profits away in Ogallala, Nebraska, and Deadwood, South Dakota. After going broke prospecting for gold in South Dakota, they unsuccessfully robbed stagecoaches.

At 10:48 p.m. on Sept. 18, 1877, Bass, Collins and four gang members held up a Union Pacific passenger train. After finding only $450 in the way safe, they brutally beat the express manager to open the through safe, but a timer prevented it. Gang members found $60,000 in freshly minted gold $20 coins in wooden crates, equivalent to $1.5 million today. They also took $1,300 from passengers, making it the largest single robbery of the Union Pacific railway.

After splitting the money six ways under a full moon, the gang scattered. Bass and Jack Davis stashed gold coins under a wagon seat and headed for Texas. When soldiers approached, they pretended to be cowboys looking for bandits. Collins and two other gang members were killed within weeks of the robbery.

Back in Denton, Bass explained his wealth as a result of a gold strike. His money and engaging personality made him popular with residents, and he formed a new outlaw band that robbed four trains within 25 miles of Dallas. Bass repeatedly eluded angry citizens chasing him.

Texas politicians promised law and order in 1878. A special company of Texas Rangers made an example of Bass, and Denton soon crawled with law enforcement officials eager to catch him. The “Bass War” from April until July engaged the gang in multiple shootouts. Bass led Rangers on long chases, narrowly escaping because his work for Egan familiarized him with back roads, densely wooded areas and creeks. Bass was a master of hide and seek.

On April 28, 1878, Texas Rangers surprised the Bass gang at Jim Murphy’s Cove Hollow house outside present-day Sanger. Bullets struck Bass’s cartridge belt and rifle stock. Uninjured, he fled, saying, “Hell, boys, they’ve hit me at last. Let’s get out of here.”

After skirmishes, Bass sometimes rode to town to purchase supplies, and the gang frequented bars. Bass tipped generously.

Pilot Knob Hill was a Bass hideout with the best view of Denton. A June 11 fight resulted in posse Riley Wetzel’s accidental shooting in the calf by one of Egan’s men. On June 12, the posse killed gang member Arkansas Johnson. Henry Underwood rode off and never returned.

The gang headed south, believing it would be calmer. They were dead wrong.

Jim Murphy was arrested when Texas Rangers surprised the Bass gang at Murphy’s house near present-day Sanger. Murphy eventually turned informant and rejoined the gang. As the band headed south, Murphy notified Texas Ranger Commander Major John Jones of the gang’s intended location.

Bass reached Round Rock on Sunday, July 14, 1878, often walking past Rangers and deputies pursuing him as he scouted the area. On Friday, July 19, Bass, accompanied by Frank Jackson and Seaborn Barnes, went to town to case the bank, hitching their horses on the corner of Lampasas Street. Williamson County Deputy Sheriff Caige Grimes decided to investigate one of the men wearing a pistol, not realizing it was the Bass gang.

Grimes found them buying tobacco in Kopparel’s General Store. He asked Bass if he had a gun. Bass replied “yes” as all three opened fire on him, killing Grimes before he could draw his gun. Six bullets were found in Grimes’ body. Travis County Deputy Sheriff Morris Moore, waiting outside, opened fire, shooting Bass in the hand. A gang member’s bullet pierced Moore’s lung, but he survived.

Ranger Dick Ware was lathered for a shave when he heard gunfire. He sprang from the barbershop, lather still on his face, firing at the gang. Jones backed up Ware after hearing gunfire from the telegraph office. A bullet lodged in the stone wall behind Jones. A one-armed man referred to as Stubbs joined them using Grimes’ gun.

When the gang reached their horses, Ranger George Harold and a citizen identified as Connor shot at the men with rifles, killing Barnes and wounding Bass. It was never determined who shot Bass. Harold believed he did, but Bass later reported he was shot before he got to the horses by a man with lather on his face. Jackson helped Bass mount his horse and returned fire, but Bass was fatally wounded.

Rangers didn’t pursue Jackson and Bass because they didn’t know how many gang members waited, but Bass and Jackson were alone. Bass persuaded Jackson to leave him. The next day, Saturday, Bass was found 3 miles north of Round Rock, bleeding to death, leaning against a live oak tree. “Hey,” he called weakly to searchers. “I’m over here. I’m Sam Bass, the one you’re looking for.”

Rangers took Bass to Round Rock, where he died at 3:27 p.m. on Sunday, July 21, 1878 — his 27th birthday. Grimes was the only person Bass ever killed.

Bass was buried in Round Rock. Rangers decided not to take his body to Austin because they didn’t have ice to keep the body from decomposing. The Round Rock Historical Collection relies on documented shootout details for the annual Frontier Days re-enactment.

Murphy’s poisoning death a year later was ruled accidental. Jackson returned to Denton for a few days, but accounts vary on where he lived the rest of his life.

After his death, Sam Bass was immortalized in a ballad and Madame Tussaud’s London wax museum, sensationalized in newspapers and exaggerated in legend.

“Life and Adventures of Sam Bass, The Notorious Union Pacific and Texas Train Robber” can be accessed on the UNT Portal to Texas History.

A version of this story appeared earlier in the Denton Record-Chronicle.

Annetta Ramsay, Ph.D., is a licensed and nationally certified counselor who has lived and worked in Denton for many years.