Jay Gould was an American railroad executive, a financer and speculator. He was born on May 27, 1836 in New York. His aggressive, and probably illegal methods made him on of the five richest men in America. This also gained him the reputation of one of the most unscrupulous "robber barons" of the 19th-century American capitalism. Gould died on December, 1892 leaving a fortune estimated at $77 million.