Robbers of the Rails: The Sontag Boys of Minnesota

John and George Sontag were born to rob trains. Growing up in a railroad hub city on the raw Minnesota frontier during a period of depravation and lawlessness, the brothers were exposed to both the grandeur and viciousness of train robbery. Born in the 1860s, as the time of the Civil War and the Dakota Wars, the Sontag brothers were boys when the James-Younger Gang attempted to rob the Northfield bank. For like excitment and, perhaps, easier money, they joined with Chris Evans and turned to the other side of the law, but they set their sights, not on banks, but on trains. Robbers of the Rails follows the history of the Evans-Sontag Gang's exploits in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California as these audacious men attempted to relieve the mighty railroad magnates of their considerable profits.

John J. Koblas is the author of a number of books on the lives of the James-Younger Gang, as well as on F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis.