The Money Train

Subway cars full of cash may have gone the way of the 25-cent token, but former MTA bosses haven't forgotten the secretive world made infamous by Wesley Snipes.

(Photo courtesy New York Transit Museum)

Late one summer night in July 1950, a group of teenagers arrived at the 175th Street and Fort Washington Avenue Station of the IND subway line. It was close to one in the morning. The token agent, Patrick McConnell, 60, noticed one of the young men standing idly nearby but he went about his business anyway, collecting coins from the turnstiles. As he did, two of the teens drew pistols. McConnell ran back to his booth to call for help. He got there, but before he could reach anyone by phone, one of the teens inserted his .45-caliber gun through the booth’s grill and pulled the trigger, piercing McConnell’s neck and leaving him to die.

The teenagers fled the scene by car, continuing to the Grand Union Hotel on East 32nd Street, where they robbed the night clerk, making away with $60. At some point in the early morning hours, they discarded their pistols in a paper bag that was later found along the banks of the Hudson River at 125th Street. Their u…