Willy Majors

Willy Majors. . , Born in 1829 in Tennessee to an itinerant family, Willy had no place to call home. At an early age he ran away and worked in the galley of a riverboat until he was old enough to get in on the gambling. Willy bounced around as a drifter and a gambler and always seemed to be on the shady side of the law. He tried his hand at some legitimate work but always ended up with his hand in the till when it shouldn't have been. He spent time in some county jails for stage coach and train robberies. He joined up with some notorious outlaws but soon left the gang because he didn't believe anybody needed to get hurt, you just needed to relieve the rich people of some of their money. Willy knew that his time was running out, with the spread of the telegraph and the photograph he knew it was just a matter of time before he would get caught or killed and he didn't want either., He eventually drifted into Fort Worth to do some gambling at Hell's Half Acre where he overheard some talk about a big cash box coming to the Fort Worth Stockyards by train for the upcoming cattle, horse and mule auction. Willy saw it as his way out of his life of crime and a chance to get out of the country and go straight. He knew enough about trains to know the best time to hit would be at its last stop at Grapevine just before getting to Fort Worth. He headed for Grapevine with the idea he could take the Express Car by himself while the train was getting water and coal and off loading freight and passengers. He would then head straight for Galveston and take the first steamer out of there to his new life of respectability.