Roaring into the lives of Americans with sweeping changes, the 1920s marked the passing of an era. The horse-and-buggy had given way to a four-wheel, mechanized contraption known as an automobile. The wild west was tamed, and the American frontier was bursting with new towns, shops, banks and schools. Corporate America now reigned supreme in a land which had once been characterized by heroic settlers pushing westward against incredible odds.

But this new American dream of opportunity and prosperity had not yet reached all the country's citizens. Take the Newton Boys, for example. Living in Texas, a state which was still wild, rough, wide open and without rules or limitations, brothers Willis, Jess, Dock and Joe were barely making lives for themselves as farmers or horsemen.

Willis, the most enterprising of the Newton clan, had taken a stab at big business, only to be squeezed out by the country's most powerful oil barons. Determined to take their fair share of the wealth they saw all around them, the Newton brothers decided to turn to a career for which they seemed to have a natural affinity. They became America's most prolific bank robbers.