The Newton Boys Were the Baddest Bank Robbers You've Never Heard Of

Willis Newton and his brothers may not be, for most of us, as easily identifiable as Charley Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Or "Baby Face" Nelson. Or John Dillinger. Or Al Capone. They certainly weren't as renowned as either Bonnie Parker or Clyde Barrow.
That, though, may go a long way toward explaining why Newton and his gang were infinitely more successful at their particular brand of bad guy-ness than any of them. For much of their career, nobody — even the cops — knew who the Newtons were.
As robbers and thieves, nobody was better than the comparatively low-profile Newton and his brothers, who later were popularized in a middling 1998 movie as "The Newton Boys." In a blink of about five years in the 1920s, the Newtons (and an occasional accomplice) pulled off about 70 bank heists (give or take a dozen), ripped off six trains and, in their pièce de résistance, cleared somewhere around $3 million on one job. It remains the largest train robbery ever.
Calculate this: That single $3 million take in 1924 would be a $45 million getaway today.

The Newton Boys Were the Baddest Bank Robbers You've Never Heard Of