Health & Fitness
History Blog: Safecrackers at the Alvarado Train Station
After trying to break into safe at the station, three crooks escape after a shoot-out with Sheriff officers.
In late December, 1909, three men broke into the Alvarado train station looking to break into the safe and make off with some easy money. Here is the details of the event as reported by the Oakland Tribune:
Three safecrackers broke into the Southern Pacific Depot in Alvarado and attempted to blow up the safe said to contain between $500 and $600. They were scared away when the 1:30 a.m. train pulled into Alvarado and saw the three men in the station. They notified the dispatcher in Oakland who notified the police. Sheriff Frank Barnett and a posse took up after the men who eventually got away after a gunfight.
A few days later another newspaper report linked the three men to another series of crimes that took place earlier in Novato:
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The bandits that tried to blow up the Southern Pacific train station at Alvarado last Sunday and then fought a pistol duel with sheriff’s officers are described as being the same bandits who stole a launch from Sausalito last May and robbed the Hamilton Brothers at Novato. The launch these robbers used to get away is the same in every respect as the launch used in Novato.
From the second article it looks like the three men escaped from Alvarado via the boat (launch) that they stole from Novato. The most likely place for the boat to dock was the old Union City landing on Alameda Creek at the end of Horner Street.
