OCR Text |
Show to assist in throwing their treasure boxes J.0 tue car and the fireman, messenger and his helper were order to leave the car, followed fol-lowed by three robbers with their rifles leveled upon them. The four trainmen were compelled to walk about a quarter of miie Up the track. Meantime the locomotive headlight had been extinguished. extin-guished. The robbers then sent the engin-cer engin-cer and tircman into the cab and ordered the train to pull out of thj The safe contained between $2000 and $3000, and the way bills which were taken and probablv destroyed. When the tram arrived at Fra'nkville a telegram was seat to Western Union Junction and a posse sent to the scene. BY MASKED B A Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Express Ex-press Held Up by a Clever Gang of . Kobbers This Morning. The Passengers Carefully Guarded 'WTiile They "Went Through the Express Car in Approved Style. THE SAFES TAKEN BODILY. It is Said That the Amount Secured Will in all Probability Exceed $100,000. IT WAS VERY QUIETLY AND QUICKLY That the Gang Brought the Train to a Halt and Blew the Express Car Into Fragments Frag-ments Stories of the Train Men. Milwaukee, Nov. 12. The midnight train from Chicago on the Milwaukee & St. Paul road was robbed by masked men near Western West-ern Union Junction at 1 o'clock this morning. The train had been out. of the junction, twenty-three miles south of this place, about Lalf a mile when the fireman, Edward Aver-ill, Aver-ill, who was putting some coal into the furnace fur-nace was startled by a noise behind him. He turned around and discovered two masked men clambering over the engine tender: Both levelled their double-barreled guns at the fireman and Engineer ''Bill'' McKay, with the injunction: "Don't move an inch until we tell you to or we will blow the top of your d d heads off." Engineer McKay was directed to run th train to a point about one mile from Western West-ern L'nion Junction. . Here he was commanded com-manded to stop. Both men were ordered to step down and out of the cab. They were marched to the express car under cover and then the work of blowing open the express car began. Several bombs were used. The fireman thinks they were thrown into the car, and the explosions were terrific and must have awakened every passenger on the train, but nobody appeared on the scene. The robbers were undoubtedly not less than six or seven in number, judging from the manner in which they conducted operations. opera-tions. The train men believe they hod a team close at hand, with which to cart away the safes w hich were taken bodily out of tins cars. Fireman Averill's story is the most comprehensive. com-prehensive. "They made me walk ahead of them to the express car," he said, "and they gave me a jimmy to pry open the boxes. They got the messenger's keys, though he was in no hurrv to srive them- ud. and thev will have no trouble in getting away with the money." The train was held for over half an hour. The entire efforts of the robbers were centered cen-tered on the express car, and not a passenger was molested. The fireman thinks there were half a dozen men guarding the coaches, hjwever. 'Xho first news of the robbery was brought to Western Union Junction by the flagman. Thi Milwaukee and Racine police were telegraphed tele-graphed for immediately, and Detective on which he left at 2:40 o'clock. "Less than five minutes out of Western Union Junction," said Messenger Murphy, "the train slowed up suddenly. A musket was poked through the top window of the car and a second later a terrific explosion occurred oc-curred that knocked both myself and Mr. Cook in a heap. Half a dozen more explosions followed and both doors flew off their bolts. Then two men. wearing big, black masks, clambered quickly into the car and covered us with their revolvers. We were cautioned to maintain silence, on penalty of getting our heads blow n off. "After glancing hurriedly about tl'e car, the robbers fastened their eyes upon the two iron boxes of the American Express company. com-pany. Tne robtters brought the fireman in a little later and went through .11 the boxes. They compelled us to hand over the keyes. They dumped boxes out on the road bed. One of the robbers kept us covered with his musket all the time, while the other superintended super-intended the operations of the fireman." .Vesscnger Murphy stated that they secured se-cured -all the bills of money contained in the safe and that the sum was undoubtedly a very large one. It is probable that the total aniouut of the robbery today will amount to $100,000, and possibly more. An official of the St. Paul road said the train which was held up was the one which generally carried all the money received by the Milwaukee banks from the east in the morning. Agent John F. Bell, of the American Express Ex-press company, said to a reporter that an approximate ap-proximate statement of the amount taken by the robbers could not be learned. He said $5000 in local packages was certainly gone, besides the sum contained in two sealed envelopes. Some of the passengers who were asleep did not know anything about the "hold-up" until the train arrived in Milwaukee. Other of the passengers thought there were twenty or thirty robbers. Still others thought they saw only a dozen, while others said there w ere more robbers than passengers. When the train started up again the passengers saw the safes lying beside the track, but the robbers had disappeared. When the train arrived at the union depot at 2:20 o'clock, the express car presented an appearance that would indicate that it had been attac ked by heavy artillery, every door and window being blow n off, and the plat-foim plat-foim and walls were shattered in half a dozen places, while the contents were piled in an indiscriminate heap in the center of the car. Messenger G. C. Murphy and his ai-sii-taut, C. H. Cook, were found gathering tip the fragments of way bills and looking over the remnants left by the robbers. They Got So Cash. Chicago, Nov. 12. General Manager Earllnz of the St. Faul railway received a dispatch this morning saying that the robbers rob-bers did not get any booty from the express car held up near Western Union Junction this morning. The dispatch said that the robbers, after gaining admission to the express ex-press car, commanded the messenger to open the safes. He refused and the safes were then pitched off the car on the ground. In the meantime the rear brakeman, understanding the situation, sit-uation, rushed back to Junction and got an engine. The ensine and posse at once went to the scene, and the robbers fled. The j robbers had tried to force open the doors of the safe, but were unsuccessful. The train went on to Milw aukee, and the fast mail train which left Chicago later picked up the safes and carried them to Milwaukee. The police of Milwaukee and the secret service of St. Paul together with the sheriff of Racine county are iu pursuit of the robbers. rob-bers. Their iliarht was so hasty that they did not take the precautions to cover their track so the officials believe they will get them before noon today. Express Messenger Murphy reported at the headquarters of the American Express company here and gave an account of his experience. He detailed the 'facts as given in the previous interview adding that a number of shots were fired. The three robbers, after gaining entrance, demanded and got the keys to the safe at tho muzzles of their guns. The engineer was compelled to force open the local safe containing con-taining money and valuables consigned from Chicago for points between Chicago and Lacrosse. As the through safes had combination locks the robbers were unable to get into thein.1 The robbers then compelled the train men |