April 2026 • Nebraskaland 39
Read more about the case by searching "Great Omaha Train Robbery" at history.nebraska.gov
ABOVE: The old Douglas County Courthouse, right, on the site
of the present courthouse. A corner of the turreted, red-brick
county jail is shown at far right. NSHS RG3348-6-394
Searches of the suspects' apartments turned up more
evidence. Of special interest was a group photo showing the
three men plus a fourth man and his lady friend — a Denver
woman who, after being "sweated" by the police, agreed
to turn state's evidence against the others. The men were
said to be a gang of "well-known Spokane crooks and safe-
blowers" who apparently left the Pacific Northwest after
becoming too well-known to authorities.
By the time the trial was underway in November, the
defendants — apparently believing that conviction was
inevitable — tried to break out of jail. They were caught
with saws in their cells, and one of them had nearly finished
sawing through the roof of his "solitary cage." After the jury
found the five men guilty, they were immediately hustled
off to Fort Leavenworth for what was supposed to be "a life
of hard labor."
In Omaha, the schoolboys, school principal and janitors,
and members of the Omaha Police Department spent the
next four years squabbling over the reward money, which a
judge eventually divided among them.
Most of the convicted men ended up serving between
one and 17 years. One was pardoned by President Woodrow
Wilson after the others swore he was innocent, and three of
the others had their sentences commuted for good behavior.
B u t o n e o f t h e f ive, Fra n k G r i g wa re, e s c a p e d f ro m
Leavenworth with a group of convicts who "commandeered
a locomotive in the prison grounds and crashed through
a gate to freedom," in the words of historian Tommy R.
Thompson. Grigware lived for many years in Canada under
an assumed name. By the time his identity was discovered
in 1934, he was such a popular local citizen that he was
never extradited.
N
LEFT: News of the attempted jailbreak was kept from the
sequestered jury to avoid prejudicing the verdict. Omaha
World-Herald, Nov. 11, 1909.
