13,675
edits
Slingin' Seamus: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
slippin seamus (close in on his head)
mNo edit summary |
(slippin seamus (close in on his head)) |
||
| Line 35: | Line 35: | ||
With the end of the Mór gang, Larcus and Michael Colla began to work as a duo in various criminal enterprises, but for the most part this period between gangs - which lasted from July 1874 to May 1875 - was spent cattle rustling, the area in which Larcus had the most experience to date. Referred to simply as the "Aliania boys" by the papers and contemporaries, Larcus and Colla spent most of this time living outside of town due to the negative reputation Larcus had incurred on himself. As Marcus Enni had taken the lion's share of the bank robbery proceeds with him, the two began plotting the biggest job yet - the robbery of a government train which was passing near Aliania. Running by monthly, the two observed its routine for several months in early 1875. The train was responsible for the delivery of gold to local banks as well as weapons to local garrisons. Larcus reasoned that, in addition to the obvious value of the gold, government-procured munitions would be a valuable trading asset with other gangs. Between the proliferation of weapons and a prestigious "score", Larcus believed he could rebuild his reputation. Larcus and Colla gathered four hired guns to join them for the heist which occurred in late May 1875. It was successful, and his effort to sell guns to other gangs worked as anticipated, restoring his standing among outlaws and allowing him to return to Aliania as a far richer man. Larcus and Colla would form a new gang with the four men they used for the train robbery, a gang that newspapers would go on to call the "Seamus Express" due to its association with train robberies. | With the end of the Mór gang, Larcus and Michael Colla began to work as a duo in various criminal enterprises, but for the most part this period between gangs - which lasted from July 1874 to May 1875 - was spent cattle rustling, the area in which Larcus had the most experience to date. Referred to simply as the "Aliania boys" by the papers and contemporaries, Larcus and Colla spent most of this time living outside of town due to the negative reputation Larcus had incurred on himself. As Marcus Enni had taken the lion's share of the bank robbery proceeds with him, the two began plotting the biggest job yet - the robbery of a government train which was passing near Aliania. Running by monthly, the two observed its routine for several months in early 1875. The train was responsible for the delivery of gold to local banks as well as weapons to local garrisons. Larcus reasoned that, in addition to the obvious value of the gold, government-procured munitions would be a valuable trading asset with other gangs. Between the proliferation of weapons and a prestigious "score", Larcus believed he could rebuild his reputation. Larcus and Colla gathered four hired guns to join them for the heist which occurred in late May 1875. It was successful, and his effort to sell guns to other gangs worked as anticipated, restoring his standing among outlaws and allowing him to return to Aliania as a far richer man. Larcus and Colla would form a new gang with the four men they used for the train robbery, a gang that newspapers would go on to call the "Seamus Express" due to its association with train robberies. | ||
==Seamus Express gang== | ==Seamus Express gang== | ||
The Seamus Express gang was formed in May 1875 following the first of eighteen successful train robberies by Slingin' Seamus. The next seven years would be Larcus's career "peak", as the gang was extremely successful over this time, successfully robbing seventeen more trains while failing on only four occasions. This made Larcus rich and the [[Urcean frontier]] a dangerous place to be given the widespread proliferation of military arms among criminal gangs. During this period, Larcus operated openly within Aliania and became de facto leader of the town; as a result, it entered a period of steady population and economic decline such that, by 1880, it was a glorified gang camp, with about twenty camp followers (mostly prostitutes) and about forty private citizens, with a saloon (that Larcus now owned) being the focal point of town. Administrative problems and lack of available manpower meant that efforts to arrest Larcus were poorly organized, and following the defeat of a large posse of about twenty five men in July 1877, the Royal government ceased sending men after Larcus and instead focused on train security. With each successful robbery, the gang grew, going from the original six (Larcus, Colla, and the original four train bandits) to over thirteen men including Larcus and Colla. The gang remained proficient in small scale cattle rustling schemes between major heists, and by 1878 most ranchers would divert their herds in circuitous routes to avoid Aliania. | |||
During this period, much of Larcus's attention focused on his rivalry with Marcus Enni, who on two occasions hired assassins to try and kill Larcus. The rivalry came to a head on August 19, 1879, when the Seamus Express gang ambushed the Enni gang in the town of Buscharach, far from Larcus's Aliania. As both gangs fought, Enni tracked down Larcus. Both men agreed to a one-on-one duel which would allow the gang members of the other to go free; Enni pledged revenge for the death of Gaius Mór. Eyewitness testimony is contradictory; some stated that the men had a conversation in which Larcus maintained his innocence, but most witnesses say neither men said anything. Larcus drew first and killed Enni in the duel, ending the five year old rivalry. Larcus honored the agreement and let Enni's men go. Newspapers at the time stated some of Enni's men joined the Express Gang, and historians believe the gang had somewhere between twelve and seventeen steady members during this period. | |||
Beginning in mid-1880, efforts were made to pacify parts of the frontier, this time employing other means besides large armed posses. In November of 1880, the Royal authorities entered into secret negotiations with Larcus, offering to legitimize his control over Aliania as a nominal government official along with a subsidy in exchange for Larcus and his men "settling down" there and no longer engaging in train heists or cattle rustling. Historians are divided on whether or not this was intended as a temporary solution after which time Larcus would be liquidated, but Larcus appears to have thought the offer genuine. He would write that agreements with the Royals "was not in his character" and that such an agreement would be a "comfortable retirement, or in other words death" that did not suit his needs. He decided to leak the correspondence to the papers, causing a major political scandal. Rejecting the offer and leaking the papers lead to a renewed effort to hunt Larcus down and would prove his undoing. Throughout 1881, a plan was devised to trap Larcus away from his base of power in Aliania by running a train through Somerville, which was relatively nearby but far enough away that the gang could not easily retreat if an ambush was set. | |||
===Somerville train heist and last stand=== | ===Somerville train heist and last stand=== | ||
==Legacy== | ==Legacy== | ||