The Foolish Pirates
The May 14th 1948 issue of The Rexport Enquirer carries this interesting story. Entitled "The Foolish Pirates", it tells the tale of a group of men recently arrested for piracy on the high rails.
The leader of the gang, one Jimmy Patella, had apparently since childhood been besotted with the ideals and romance of piracy.
Many were the books he had read about derring-do, hunts for gold, hot tropical islands and bloodthirsty deeds.
One night, in a drunken dare, he and his bar mates decided to become pirates for real.
As they were more than a hundred miles from the sea, and had no sailing experience, they were slightly stymied, until one of them proposed the next best thing - hijack and then run the Pirate Train across the national rail network, paying due attention to proper signalling, as well as kidnapping, stealing and carousing along the way.
This plan was put into action at the local station, where they daringly boarded the 17:49 to South Fopps with nothing more than platform tickets.
Their extreme adventures had begun, only to come to a shuddering halt when they realised that in fact, as a getaway vehicle, a train was not ideal.
As it was always going to stop at the next station, whatever they did, the plan quickly fell into disarray.
The addition of a surprise ticket inspector half an hour in scuppered the last of the plan.
This photograph was taken by the local police department shortly before the lot of them were taken to the courthouse, where all were found guilty.
They were then escorted to a suitable place of execution.
Poor romantic Jimmy Patella.
The Foolish Pirates
The May 14th 1948 issue of The Rexport Enquirer carries this interesting story. Entitled "The Foolish Pirates", it tells the tale of a group of men recently arrested for piracy on the high rails.
The leader of the gang, one Jimmy Patella, had apparently since childhood been besotted with the ideals and romance of piracy.
Many were the books he had read about derring-do, hunts for gold, hot tropical islands and bloodthirsty deeds.
One night, in a drunken dare, he and his bar mates decided to become pirates for real.
As they were more than a hundred miles from the sea, and had no sailing experience, they were slightly stymied, until one of them proposed the next best thing - hijack and then run the Pirate Train across the national rail network, paying due attention to proper signalling, as well as kidnapping, stealing and carousing along the way.
This plan was put into action at the local station, where they daringly boarded the 17:49 to South Fopps with nothing more than platform tickets.
Their extreme adventures had begun, only to come to a shuddering halt when they realised that in fact, as a getaway vehicle, a train was not ideal.
As it was always going to stop at the next station, whatever they did, the plan quickly fell into disarray.
The addition of a surprise ticket inspector half an hour in scuppered the last of the plan.
This photograph was taken by the local police department shortly before the lot of them were taken to the courthouse, where all were found guilty.
They were then escorted to a suitable place of execution.
Poor romantic Jimmy Patella.