06/09/2026
Through historic accounts and Hollywood Westerns, many people are familiar with train robbers such as Frank and Jesse James, the Younger Brothers, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Far less known today is the notorious Rube Burrow, often called the "King of the Train Robbers."
Born in Lamar County, Alabama, in 1855, Reuben Houston Burrow worked on the family farm before moving to Stephenville, Texas, in 1873. He intended to make a living as a farmer and rancher, but after crop failures in the mid-1880s, Burrow and his brother Jim turned to train robbery. They formed a gang that included William and Leonard Brock, Henderson Brumley, and Ned Thornton.
The gang carried out train robberies across Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas, becoming one of the most wanted criminal organizations in the South. Their crimes attracted the attention of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which made Burrow a top target.
During a shootout aboard a train in Nashville, Tennessee, Rube was wounded and his brother Jim was captured. Burrow continued his criminal career, becoming increasingly violent as robberies and gunfights often ended in death.
On October 9, 1890, Burrow was captured at a cabin near Myrtlewood, Alabama, and taken to jail in Linden. Less than a day later, he tricked guards into removing his restraints, produced a hidden pistol, and escaped. Outside the jail, he encountered Jefferson Davis Carter, one of the men involved in his capture. In the gunfight that followed, Rube Burrow was shot and killed, bringing an end to the career of one of the South’s most notorious train robbers.
