Bedlam on the West Virginia Rails: The Last Train Bandit Tells His True Tale

By Wilson Casey

In 1949, two bandits from Youngstown, Ohio, boarded a B&O passenger train from Washington, D.C., to Detroit. In the West Virginia mountains near Martinsburg, Luman "Lu" Ramsdell and his gang stopped the train to rob and terrorize nearly 150 people on board. They pistol-whipped several and shot at others before exiting the train to next rob a tavern and hijack getaway cars. National headlines likened the event to the exploits of Jesse James and the infamous days of the Wild West. Lu and the gang led authorities on a chase that ended with a harrowing shootout five blocks from the White House. Climb aboard with author Wilson Casey for a firsthand account from the head bandit himself in this true tale of America's last moving train robbery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Mar 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781625854261

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.

Book preview

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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