The Newton Boys - Outlaw Gang - Cottonwood, TX
N 32° 12.348 W 099° 12.308
14S E 480666 N 3563265
Their story told in a 1998 movie with the same name, "The Newton Boys" and their criminal exploits are memorialized on a marker placed by the Callahan County Historical Commission at the old Cottonwood post office at FM 1079 and Center Street.
Waymark Code: WM108ZA
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/23/2019
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The emblem of the Callahan County Historical Commission is atop this marker, which reads:
The Newton Boys - Outlaw Gang
Willis Newton (1889-1979) led his brothers Joe (1901-1989), Jess (1881-1960), and Wylie -- nicknamed Doc -- (1891-1974) and others known as "The Newton Boys" in robbing over 80 banks and 6 trains from Texas to Canada during the 1920s. Around 1885, Jim and Janetta Newton, along with four children, moved to Cottonwood, Texas. Here they had seven more children including all the gang brothers. Jim, a sharecropper and cotton gin worker, moved his family in and out of this area several times. Money was scarce and some of the boys periodically "helped themselves" to the belongings of others resulting in occasional arrests and time served. In 1914, after the family had left Cottonwood for good, Willis and friend Red Johnson robbed a train near Uvalde, Texas. In 1920, Willis enticed Joe to help him and Brent Glasscock rob banks. By 1921, Jess had joined the "business" followed by Doc after his prison escape. On June 12, 1924, during their 3 million dollar Rondout heist near Chicago -- the biggest train robbery in United States history -- Doc was accidentally shot by Glasscock. His injuries slowed the gang's escape and resulted in their capture, conviction and incarceration. Eventually, all the brothers became respectable citizens. However, Doc was arrested at age 77 while trying to rob a bank in Rowena, Texas, and Willis, at age 84, was accused of involvement in another bank robbery. There was insufficient evidence for conviction. In 1980, Joe was Johnny Carson's guest on The Tonight Show. The brother's lives inspired the 1975 documentary The Newton Boys: Portrait of an Outlaw Gang; a 1994 book of the same title; and the 1998 hit movie, The Newton Boys. In the documentary, Willis said "We never killed anybody, and we never wanted to. All we wanted was the money -- to make money." In 1994, the Chicago Tribune stated the Newton Boys "were by far the most successful bank and train robbers in American history."
Property of Callahan County Historical Commission