Bedlam on the West Virginia Rails: The Last Train Bandit Tells His True Tale
By Wilson Casey
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About this ebook
Wilson Casey
Wilson Casey, a.k.a. the Trivia Guy, is one of the country's foremost trivia aficionados, with a syndicated newspaper column, an award-winning website (TriviaGuy.com) and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest-running radio trivia marathon broadcast. His various published works include books and daily box calendars and cover many subjects. When not out speaking, promoting, emceeing and entertaining, he lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as an avid tennis player.
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Book preview
Bedlam on the West Virginia Rails - Wilson Casey
Ga.
CHAPTER 1
Troubled Youth and Military Days
One would be crazy to rob a bank.
—Luman Ramsdell
As I watch crime thrillers on TV and in movies, it intrigues me to imagine that some are based on actual happenings. I’ve learned that only energy, tact and brass balls
are giving life to the ill-gained temporary footing of the criminals portrayed.
My times spent with Lu were not a form of hero worship but more of fascination and intrigue. This fascination grew as I kept meeting and talking with him. No matter how far-fetched the things he would tell me were, I was always able to corroborate them with newspaper articles and through extensive research about him. At first, I was in stubborn disbelief and kept telling myself that this couldn’t have happened. But the criminal activities did. Everything he was telling me really occurred. I was hearing firsthand, straight from the horse’s mouth. It was one seemingly wild tale after another. Lu filled my heart and soul with his life’s story. And everything he was telling me was the truth. All his criminal-related activities had actually been experienced through his eyes and life as a thug.
Lu was a tall, handsome teenager from a nice family in Youngstown, Ohio. He committed his first crime at age twelve when he swiped a pack of cigarettes from the local supermarket. He didn’t get caught but loved and remembered the electrifying rush of excitement when he stole. That, combined with a hatred of any authority figure, caused him to decide to take up his life of crime. He quit school, left home and formed a teenage gang.
As a youth, he stayed in trouble. His hometown area was like a Little Chicago,
filled with widespread corruption. Lu rebelled against all authority. If he came upon a vehicle running without someone in it, he would hop in and take it for a joyride. He’d steal it for the kicks. It was wrong, but he’d take someone else’s car. It was Lu’s way of mischief and fun. That was commonplace for him while growing up in the late 1930s and 1940s. People routinely left their vehicles running as they went into stores to pick up items. They were afraid that if they turned their car off, it wouldn’t start back up. After numerous successes of stealing cars, he started selling them. The local fence
could quickly get them out of state, so it was an easy method to generate fast cash for Lu and his teenage cohorts. (A fence
is a middleman between thieves and eventual buyers who knowingly purchases stolen property for later resale.) The gang could make fifty bucks per car, sometimes more. It relied on Lu as its