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Show BLACKMAIL BANDITS NOT CAUGHT YET Footprints Show Line of Retreat Through Adjacent Ad-jacent Orchards. PLANS OF OFFICERS FAIL TO WORK OUT Twenty Men in Ambush to Respond at the Critical Criti-cal Period. (Special to The Telegram.) CM DEN. April . In a pistol and "sawed off shotgun'' duel shortly after 10 o'clock last night two bandits secured 11000 In sold that they had demanded In letters written several daye aa-o from Mr. Thomas B. Lee and Mrs. Ralph Bristol. Each woman had been warned not to give any Inforoutlon to the police, but to await orders as to where and when the money was to be delivered. The letters nrarlsd thai she a"! hor had obtained other money by blackmailing methods In Of den and that Meed am as D and Bristol would avoid trouble by following fol-lowing instructions and asking no questions. ques-tions. Shortly after ifl o'clock last night John Lambert, a former deputy sheriff of Weber We-ber county, accompanied by a Plnkerton agent. ift Ogden for the place of meeting meet-ing on Canyon road, near Olenwood park. Lambert was dressed In woman's garb. The police and sheriff had bean notified and twenty men were waiting In ambush to capture the blackmailers. Suddenly two men stepped out of the shsdows and confronted Lambert and the driver, who was the Plnkerton man. They pointed sawed off shotguns and demanded the delivery of the money. The sack of gold was handed over and then tha two officers commenced to shoot at the bandits. Tbs shots were returned and the horse ran away. The officers In ambush wars wttbln 100 yards of the desperadoes, but whan thay reached the place where the money had been turned over no trace of them could be found. Boot print!- showed that they made their way through the orchards to the north Bandits at Large lp to a late hour this afternoon no trace of the bardlts had been discovered. While the offlcers who delivered the money believe that one or both of the bandits were wounded, the trailing of their footprints from the point of the shooting through a number of orchards to Twelfth street, failed to reveal any blood spots. The footprints of two men ware t raced through t he ore ha rds for nearlv a half mile. Along the trail that the bandits hsd taken was found an empty shotgun and empty pistol shells. It Is the opinion of those engaged in the hunt for the bandits that they dropped the empty sheila as they ran and reloaded their weapons. Aa soon as the two men had received the monej they gave orders to the driver of the rig to "drive on up the road and don't look back." The two men In the rig John Lambert. a former deputy sheriff of Weber county, and James Jackson, a Plnkerton agent, failed to observe the order. They commenced com-menced to fire as soon ss they could secure their guns. Their firing was to have been the signal sig-nal for other officers In waiting to rush out. For -some reason, however. It Is claimed that the other officers did not respond promptly to the signal and the bandits escaped. The two men In the buggy had a "sawed ff' shotgun and s revolver snd two automatic revolvers. Plana Oo Awry. The plan was to ttave the shotgun ready and the revolvers, so that they could be reached on a aecond's notice. It is said that Lambert took off his overcoat over-coat on the way to the scene, and that at the critical moment it slipped down between the two men, carrying with It the shotgun and the revolver. This left me l wo men wnuuui a wwo"" mhmi they could reach Into their pockets and get action with their automatics. They opened fire, which was returned by the bandits, who were carrying away a sack of gold containing )100o. The bandits ban-dits returned the shots. The money which the bandits carried away wag a contribution, under threat of personal Injury, In-jury, of Mrs. Thomas D. Deo. widow of Thomas D. Dee. and Mrs. Ralph Bristol, president of the Ogden Cement company. Several day ago the two women received re-ceived letters from someone who signed himself aa "A much wanted man by the officers of Ogden, but they can't find Mm." The writer demanded $;" from each of the two women and admoniahed them not to communicate the request to the officers. The author of the letter strongly Intimated In-timated that he was connected with the holding up of the Oregon Short Llns train near the Hot Springs on the night of June SC. 110, and the holding up of a westbound Southern Pacific train on the night of January 1. 1V11. whan two colored col-ored porters lost their Uvea. He also boasted that he had a hand In the robbery rob-bery of Mrs. James Culver In September. mi. Mrs. Culver Robbed. Mrs. Culver was robbed of diamonds valued at over ti&OO. l ater she received word that If she would go to a certain spot on Twelfth atreet In Ogden and brine with her fSOU her diamonds would be ret umed to her. Mrs. Cu IV er ke pt the appointment. She was robbed of the S0 which she carried to ae-ure the re- turn of her jewelry, but did not receive the promised gems. In the recant letter the bandits told Mrs. Dee and Mrs. Bristol to see Mrs. Culver. Mrs. Doe and Mrs. Bristol Ignored the warning. They informed the police, the sheriff and the Plnkertnns. Following the Instructions given by the bandits for the meeting place and the delivery of the money, John lambert, a former deputy sheriff of Weber countv. who was dressed as a woman, and James Johnson, a member of the Plnkerton force, left the Bristol home shortly after 10 o'clock last night and drove to tha agreed meeting place. In the meantime a number of officers had been placed tn the vicinity and a stgnaj agreed on. Hand Out Gold. Th Plnkerton man was driving. Suddenly Sud-denly two men appeared and demanded the delivery of the money. The two men. Lambert and Jackson, had two sacks, ons filled with waaher and the other with gold. "No monkey hualnsea, now,' said one of the two man aa he pointed a short shotgun at th hoad of the supposed wo-man. wo-man. The sack containing the Si 000 In gold was handed over and a moment later the two officers tn th buggy commenced to fir. That they expected Immediate assistance as-sistance from the offlcers known to be tn ambush is the statement of Mr. Lambert thla morning. The offlcers In ambush failed to respond. though they were within with-in 100 yards of ths scene of th holdup. This afternoon every available officer In Weber county, together with th poll po-ll e of Ogden and a number of Plnkerton Plnker-ton men. are following even th slightest ciu that la offered, bat no trace of th bandits Is to be had. Word of the robbery has been sent to every- lntrmountaln city and this afternoon after-noon th Information is being sent to every big city in th country. Th description, however. Is meager. It Is of a tall and short man. Rewards aggregating over $15,000 have been offered for the capture and conviction convic-tion of the men who held up tha Southern Pacific on the night of January l. 111, and who ar Relieved to be Identical with I the blackmailers. |