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Show PARALLEL THE criminal Teiis How He Planned the ' STORIES Deed and Sought to Close I rMTi? Every Avenue of Knovvl- f Jt AMUUb edge Leading to His Guilt. C T TT T" G The Detective Shows How 1 I'M Futile These Efforts Were and How the Old Adage, Murder By HENRY C. TERRY Will Out, "Always Holds Good." (Copyright by F. L. Nelson THE WELLS-FARGO MILLION DOLLAR DOL-LAR EXPRESS ROBBERY. TT-TJ AD the plot to rob the Hed (fyl j ji( Star express on the Erie at Sj"3i Port Jervis, New York, some twenty years ago suc-T&K suc-T&K ceeded, it would have been 55 greatest haul ever made In a train hold-up. That It did not succeed is due to the cunning and faithfulness of an old employe. em-ploye. A cool million in gold was the stake played for and so bold were the men who planned to take It that the detective assigned to the case refused to believe that the attempt actually would be made. The story, as told by the principal actors on each side, is a splendid Illustration of the fact that no matter how carefully a crime Is planned the criminal cannot take into account all the details, the failure fail-ure of only one of which will lead to detection. BOB FUREY'S STORY. "The touch-off on the Red Star Express? Ex-press? Do I recall It? Well I should smile. That was one of the biggest and neatest jobs ever put up in New York. I tumbled on the business by accident acci-dent one afternoon as I was going from Washington to New York. I was sitting In the smoker puffing away on a bit of Havana, when a couple of gents dropped in and took the seat in front. I did not pay any attention to them until I overheard them talking about money bags and gold coin. I picked up from their conversation that l they were agents for an express company com-pany that had a contract for hauling money for the government, and had charge of the stuff while It was in transit from Washington to the mint in Philadelphia or to other eastern cities. cit-ies. This of Itself did not specially interest in-terest me, but when I heard them talk about how carelessly the coin was handled by the agents east of Chicago, Chi-cago, a territory In -which the cars were believed to be perfectly safe, I began thinking a bit. Before I reached reach-ed New York I had made up my mind to pick up a few additional facts on this subject. If It turned out as rosy as these fellows Indicated I would teach some of them a lesson In the art of performing their duty. I learned learn-ed from them incidentally that the Red Star Express, on the Erie, carried car-ried more money than any other company, com-pany, and that the agents guarded $1,000,000 about as closely as the ordinary or-dinary citizen would a nickel. I gave these citizens a silent vote of thanks when we parted. Immediately Imme-diately afterward I began an official avestlgation. I had learned the trade A machinist when I Was a young fellow, fel-low, 60 the first thing I did was to nake application for a job in the Erie railroad repair shops in Jersey City. While working on the car I got acquainted ac-quainted with Pop Thompson. He was called Pop because of his general good nature, and not because he was old. I made myself as friendly with him as I could. I found out where he lived In Lafayette, N. Y., a little station up the line a ways. I hired a room In a boarding house near him. We met very often, and he seemed to take a fancy to me. After a while he talked talk-ed quite freely about his business, though it was always about trips that he had made and never about trips that he was going to take. When I got this far Into the scheme I called in Johnny Dobbs, Big Jim Brady, Walt. Ilerrick and Pete Dur-aud, Dur-aud, four of the wisest crooks that ever lived, and put them onto Pop and his car, with the idea that one of them would stick to him every day and go away with him on every trip to get the run of the business. In this way Johnny Dobbs picked up In Chicago that Pop had a weak side. In short, he was leading a double life. There was no longer any use of my working in the shop, so I quit and went to Chicago to wait for Pop to turn up. It was some weeks before he landed there, but I fixed it so that I would meet him coming out of his home No. 2 In Chicago, which gave me a chance to call him down. He was not as much surprised as I thought he would be, and it was not until he got ready to return home that he suggested that it would be well to keep quiet what I had seen. I promised never to mention it, and returned with Pop. It was the first show that I had to throw out any feelers. I gently, rather playfully, hinted that Pop was carrying a large amount of money for other people, and It was a wonder to me that none of it had ever stuck to his fingers. Pop : manifested more Interest In this talk j than I had ever hoped for. He said he was tired of working for nothing. He hinted that if I could suggest any plan to make a big roll of money he was willing to listen. Then I gave him the idea, cold and plain, of hitting a rap at the Red Star car. Pop drank in all that I said like a very thirsty man, agreed to meet me the next day and give me his views. He was on deck at the appointed time, and promised to furnish me with the Information about the car and its load of coin, if I would do the rest of the work and fix it up so nothing would point to him. This seemed all right. Pop went along in the regular way, as It was arranged that we were not ; going to make the strike until the fall shipment of gold to Chicago. The time was left to Pop to select. We got the tip on Monday, that on the following Wednesday night the Red Star car would go out from the Erie depot with the big load of shiny metal. met-al. We fixed up everything to carry I out our trick. I had a long talk with Pop. He was so inquisitive about all the details of robbery, and Insisted upon up-on knowing everything that we were going to do before hand, that I became suspicious of him. One of the gang had been on his track every day without his knowledge, knowl-edge, and had never seen or heard j anything wrong, so I thought maybe : I was not fair with Pop to doubt him. After thinking It all over I concluded that the safest way to deal with Pop would be to fool him by giving him a ghost story about the details I told him the train would be flagged about five miles west of Port Jervls and the safes dumped from the car. A wagon would be In readiness to take the safes. They would then be blown open on the road. The plan was to bury the gold In a safe place and cart away only the greenbacks. Wednesday night came. The car pulled out of the depot with Pop on the first watch and his partner in the sleeper. The gang were all In the smoker. After we got in motion Pop let us into the car. We started at ' once on the big safe and had no trouble trou-ble getting into It. A few miles this side of Port Jervls, Jer-vls, at a place agreed upon, and about ten miles from where Pop had been given to understand that the robbery would take place. 1 gave the signal. We forced the door of the car and dumped the safes while we were going go-ing at full speed. About A quarter of a mile beyond, a red light was waved in front of the engine. The train stopped. We jumped when the train slacked up, and the red light disappeared. dis-appeared. We put Pop to sleep In the car with a tap on the head and closed the door, so that nothing was known of the robbery until the train reached Port .Tervis. Then we had a hustle for fair." DETECTIVE M'QU I LLAN'S STORY. I was sitting In my office late one afternoon when a messenger called and said that a detective was wanted at the office of Wells, Fargo & Co. for special business. When 1 got to the express office I was told what seemed to me to be a very fishy story about an attack that was going to be made upon the Red Star money car. The tip that the robbery was going to come off had been given to the company by Ike Thompson, who went by the name of "Pop," one of the best agents in the express car service, but I thought that there must be a mistake In it somewhere. His story was that while he was In Chicago on one of the regular trips he went to the house of his sister-in-law, and when he left he was accosted by a fellow whom he had known In Jersey City as Luke Sanderson, one of the workmen work-men In the Erie Railroad shops. In some way or other Sanderson had got the idea that the woman Thompson Thomp-son had called upon was his wife. Sanderson San-derson knew that Thompson was married mar-ried and had a family in Lafayette,' N. Y., and he took pains to suggest to Thompson that It would go very hard with him if the company should learn that he was not living on the level, as he was .earning hardly enough money legitimately to run two homes. Thompson did not stumble to what Sanderson was driving at until they were on the way back to Jersey City, going with an empty money car, when Sanderson suggested that there was an easier way to make a fortune than working for it. Thompson Is a very foxy fellow, and determined to lead Sanderson on with the belief that he was ready to go into anything that would pay big money, and he managed his part of the affair so well that Sanderson never dropped to the fact that he was being jollied. I was not sent for until several days or weeks afterward, as Thompson and the officials were not any too anxious to divide the honors in the case, as success made a big thing for all the company's employes who figured figur-ed In the case. I asked for a sight of the crook, to see If I knew him. A meeting was arranged, ar-ranged, at which I was present, and when I got my peepers on the bold Sanderson my old heart gave a thump, for I recognized him at a glance as Bob Furey, a crook on both sides of the ocean In Bome first-class jobs. Thompson was to figure only as a second fiddle In the transaction, and was to get an even share in the swag with the others when the money was divided. It was not necessary for him to have a knowledge of the details of the plans which Furey had put up to work off the money bags. The gang wanted a big boodle, and so long as we were on to their game I suggested that we should not give the gang the tip until there was really a big load of dust on board the express car, just to give the gang the laugh when they got the throw-down for losing such a dandy bundle. The day was finally set for the robbery. rob-bery. Thompson succeeded in getting all the details, so that it made the work dead easy on paper. The signal sig-nal to hold up the train, it was arranged, ar-ranged, would be given after leaving Port Jervis on the Erie railroad, which would be the signal for us to do out little act and land the gang. The train with the Red Star car was booked to leave the Erie depot at t o'clock in the evening, and In th morning I sent four men to Port Jervli to take up a position where the red light was to be given at night. I got a telegram that they had landed all right and in the evening, when th train pulled out of the depot, I was aboard with six lusty fellows, who would rather fight than eat. I saw Thompson before the train started but did not speak to him. He indicated by a nod of the head that their gang were on board the train in the front cars, and everything looked rosy. The train pulled out on time, and we went humping along at a lively live-ly rate, as we were on the fast express. ex-press. I had given instructions to my men what to do when we got to the holding-up place, I knew every foot of the ground on the Erie, and when we got within a few miles of Port Jervis I began to feel just a little bit nervous. While I was running all the details of the attack at-tack over In my mind the train slowly slow-ly pulled up, but did not come to a full stop. I looked out of the win-dow, win-dow, but did not see anything. In a moment we were pushing up the hill to Port Jervis at full speed. When we pulled up at the little depot I jumped off the car to take a final look at things, and as I passed the Red Star car I heard a moan. I listened and It was repeated several times. I could not understand It, but I felt that something some-thing had gone wrong. I did not want to make a foolish break of any kind, so I first went to the engineer and asked him what be had stopped for before reaohing Port Jervis. He said that he saw a red light swinging on the track, and slowed up. The light had disappeared before he got to it, and he could not understand It. I knew the meaning of it, and saw the game in a second. Th-gang Th-gang had fooled Thompson by giving him a wrong description of what waa going to be done. This was verified when I reached the Red Star car. The lock had been broken off, and inside the car was Thompson, lying on his back well done up. He was partly conscious, and knew enough to tell that the thieves had fooled him, and had dumped the safes on the track about three miles east of Port Jervis. They had Jumped off the train when it slowed. But If Thompson had been fooled he had fooled the gang also, for he had flung the kit of tools which was to be used to open the safes off the car, and It was dollars to doughnuts they would not be able to find them. I got an engine at the depot, and in ten minutes I was on the way back with my men. Before reaching the place I noticed lanterns flashing along the track, and I ordered the engineer to run past the lights a half mile or so before slowing up. As we went by the spot I saw the gang at work carrying the safes to a wagon. We stopped after turning a curve and Btarted back on foot. - The thieves, I concluded, had discovered dis-covered the loss of the" tools, and instead in-stead of trying to open the safes had decided to carry them away and breatt them up at their leisure. When we got back to the place the gang were about ready to move and I ordered my men to wait until they all got into the wagon before making the attack. We stood In the shadow of the trees on the roadside until the wagon came up, and then I gave the signal. One man seized the horse's head and' turned him Into a fence, and the rest of us covered the gang with guns. Two of the gang jumped and were shot. The others threw up their hands. We took the whole outfit to Port Jervis, and Walt. Herrick died on the way. Durand was shot in the chest, but recovered in time for the trial. With the conviction of Johnny Dobbs, Jim Brady, Bob Furey and Pete Durand Dur-and one of the most notorious gangs of safe breakers was broken up. |