Even a scholarly British cultural historian like Spargo can fall prey to the romance of the American train robber. Captivated by a photograph of the handsome Oliver Curtis Perry (1865–1930), she vividly relates his dramatic life in a popular but prodigiously researched biography. In 1892, Perry robbed the American Express Special of a fortune in jewelry and cash as it sped out of Syracuse, N.Y. Identified by a former colleague, he was pursued by Pinkerton detectives while his exploits were sensationalized in tabloid stories that celebrated his daring. Five months later, trying to rob the same train, he was caught after an exciting chase that included Perry’s hijacking of another train. Severely emotionally damaged by virtual abandonment in childhood, Perry could still be charming and worked the media to his advantage. His supporters included Amelia Haswell, who ran a Christian mission. Spargo vividly describes the trial that resulted in a 49-year jail sentence, as well as Perry’s desperate attempts at escape, which led to his incarceration in facilities for the criminally insane. During this period, Perry deliberately blinded himself and went on a hunger strike to protest the conditions of his imprisonment. While entertainingly bringing her subject to life, Spargo also reveals the terrible conditions that existed in New York State prisons and asylums during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Photos, map.
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*Starred Review* Spargo, raised in Cornwall, England, and now a professor in Liverpool, has had a long-standing fascination with the American Wild West, fueled by the fact that one of her uncles was a carpenter for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and built a shooting range for Annie Oakley. This book takes off from a single photograph taken in the 1890s (featured on the cover of the book) of a train robber who looks handsome, intelligent, a bit conflicted, and curiously contemporary. The outlaw, Oliver Curtis Perry, robbed a train steaming through New York of a fortune (twice), bringing the Wild West to the East. Perry became, to the 1890s, the kind of romanticized hero/villain that John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde became in the early twentieth century. This book is a remarkable blend of biography, history, and cultural study, as Spargo (in an arrestingly and refreshingly nonacademic way) both presents Perry's heart-pounding exploits as robber and prison escape artist and explores the ways in which he manipulated the press of the time to win public sentiment. Spargo also shows how the public, against a backdrop of robber barons amassing huge fortunes at public expense, was ripe for the picking by this Robin Hood-like outlaw. Fast paced, action packed, and absolutely intriguing. Connie Fletcher
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