Episode #82: The First Train Robbery in the West & the 1870 Zodiac Back

2/15/2026: On today’s episode, Valerie tells the quintessential 1800s story of seven bandits who attempted the first train robbery in the West. The heist went like clockwork aboard the Central Pacific Overland Express Train, Engine No. 1, but things fell apart quickly afterward thanks to a lone crack investigator and the less than stellar fortitude of a few of the would-be criminals. Next, in the Zodiac Back, Amy Jo covers the present day astrology, as well as Pluto in Taurus, Neptune in Aries, and Uranus in Cancer, during the Gilded Age, and then, balloons are back, with a man who was way into eclipses, photography, and escaping the Siege of Paris.

Cover Photo: Courtesy Special Collections Department, University of Nevada, Reno Libraries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYjxtDtNDNk

Photograph of the Virginia & Truckee railroad from the late 1800's. (Not the Overland Express) Courtesy: Nevada Historical Society

Central Pacific Railroad - Map and Profile Map of the Line from Omaha to San Francisco

A view of the Truckee River and railroad tracks just west of Verdi, near the location of the first train robbery in the American West in November 1870, photo courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Major Players in the 1870 Verdi Robbery, Top Clockwise: George Downey, Chief of Police, James H. Kinkead, Undersheriff, B.F. Lackey, Officer, James Gilchrist, Tilton Cokerell, J.H. Chapman, A.J. Davis, Chief of the Band, John Squeers, C.T. Roberts, R.A. Jones

Undersheriff of Washoe County, James H. Kinkead

The original 'Great Train Robbery' plaque that was put up in the Bar-M-Bar in Verdi until the business closed.

The Great Train Robbery Marker - Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, June 3, 2013

AP Crittenden murder astro chart

Jupiter Pluto conjunction astro chart - July 27/28 1869, Oct 29 1869

Cartoon of the “New Comet”

Screenshot of eclipses table

Illustration of the first hot air balloon flight - 1783,  Drawing shows Jacques Charles and Nicolas Marie-Noel Robert standing in their hydrogen-filled balloon waving flags, beginning their ascent from the Tuileries Gardens, Paris, with the former Tuileries Palace in the background. Thousands of spectators are gathered in the foreground to witness the first manned gas balloon flight.

Lockyer Telespectroscope

Sources/Photo Sources

Intro Sources:

NA

The First Train Robbery in the West Sources:

https://travelnevada.com/nevada-magazine/the-great-train-robbery/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB-X0xYOFJA 

https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2019/feb/19/nevadas-first-and-second-train-robbery/

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=66022

https://yourtahoeguide.com/2017/06/verdi-train-robbery-part/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1217964711/?match=1&terms=robbery

https://genealogytrails.com/nev/state/robtrain.html

The First Train Robbery in the West Photo Sources:

https://travelnevada.com/nevada-magazine/the-great-train-robbery/ 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=66022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB-X0xYOFJA

https://mynews4.com/news/knowing-nevada/gallery/knowing-nevada-the-train-robbery-in-the-west?photo=2 

https://tahoequarterly.com/looking-back/verdis-historic-train-heist

1870 Zodiac Back Sources:

Retrograde Planets

https://horoscopes.astro-seek.com/astrology-ephemeris-january-1870 

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/science/space/this-day-in-weather-history-december-22-1870-helium-co-discoverer-observs-solar-eclipse

https://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=1069

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-solar-eclipse-of-22d-december-1/

https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-high-flying-death-defying-discovery-of-helium/

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2007ja012943

https://bcma.bowdoin.edu/antiquity/the-united-states-of-antiquity/1870-1900/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-solar-eclipse-of-22d-december-1/

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2007ja012943

https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-high-flying-death-defying-discovery-of-helium/ 

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100559587  

https://www.nature.com/articles/054632a0 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_shower https://masteringthezodiac.com/pluto-in-taurus https://www.zodiac-x-files.com/signs/taurus-pluto.html  https://masteringthezodiac.com/pluto-in-taurus https://patrickwatsonastrology.com/planets-in-signs/pluto-in-the-signs/pluto-in-taurus/  https://mooncalendar.astro-seek.com/solar-and-lunar-eclipses-1870 https://www.astrolink.com/en/interpretation/uranus-in-cancer  https://patrickwatsonastrology.com/2020-jupiter-pluto-conjunction-profits-philanthropists-and-plutocrats/v https://patrickwatsonastrology.com/planets-in-signs/neptune-in-the-signs/neptune-in-aries/        https://www.reddit.com/r/Advancedastrology/comments/1l8vj6e/uranus_in_cancer_and_rebuilding_the_us_after_wars/                                                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon

https://www.goldenlotusmala.com/blogs/meditation/neptune-enters-aries?srsltid=AfmBOoocHXiRXyFpW0mimDc-Y5hQKDJeZq5mAeiQy8o7inTOdee4ThTr https://www.famsf.org/artworks/the-new-comet-from-harpers-weekly-august-6-1870-p-502

https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/13128/the-new-comet--a-phenomenon-now-visible-in-all-parts-of-the   

https://masteringthezodiac.com/uranus-in-cancer

https://www.selfgazer.com/blog/uranus-in-cancer-traits-meaning

https://patrickwatsonastrology.com/planets-in-signs/uranus-in-the-signs/uranus-in-cancer/

https://www.astrologyfromthesoul.com/post/history-of-neptune-in-aries-1-000-years-in-analysis

1870 Zodiac Back Photo Sources:

https://mooncalendar.astro-seek.com/solar-and-lunar-eclipses-1870

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=228583

Nov 3 1870

Mar 4 1870 jupiter pluto

https://www.csub.edu/~gsantos/jpgs/img0049.jpg

https://www.sciencehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/lockyer_telespectroscope_final-768x892.jpg