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

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 ...