4, carrying passengers and cargo from San Francisco, stopped at a remote water station in what is now the village of Big Springs, in Deuel County, Nebraska.
Under cover of night, an outlaw gang known as the "Black Hills Bandits" – including leader Sam Bass, Joel Collins, Jack Davis, Tom Nixon, Bill Heffridge, and Jim Berry – boarded the train at 10:48 PM and proceeded to rob it.
While the accomplices did not believe the lock was on a timer, making it impossible to open the safe before the train reached its destination, Bass realized the attendant was not lying[1] and called off his rowdy comrade.
[1] Opening the boxes, the gang discovered a fortune in "$20 gold pieces headed from the San Francisco Mint to an Eastern bank".
[4]: 195 Berry, having been wounded during a conflict with law enforcement, died a short distance from his home in Mexico, Missouri; $2,840 in cash was recovered from his person.
Before the job, the fatherless outlaw had worked as "farmer, teamster, gambler, cowboy, saloon owner, [and later as a] miner"[6] in order to support himself.
He paid handsomely for services rendered: "payments of twenty dollars for a dozen eggs or a pan of warm biscuits were reported from many directions".