Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-08-01
THE LEADER OF THE ROBBERS,


blue denim pants and ceat Of thin
material. No sooner had he enter
cd the car, than two other fellows
in masks appeared at the door, with
a revolver in each hand which they
leveled at the heads of the inmates.
The scoundrel in the car did all the
talking, and he commenced as soon
as he was in-shouting at the top of
his voice "Give us those keys, cd
d-n you, give us those keys or I'll
blow your brains out! Give us the
money, or I'll blow you to hell!'
"We want money! Where's them
safe keys-quick, Cd d-n you, or
some Of you'll get killed." At the
same time Ne pointed his pistols
close to tho heads Of his astonished
listeners. "Where's the bullion
give us the bullion" Then he shout
ed to his men: crush in and help!
Come on! D-n such set of rob.
bers as you are-rush in and help!'
Some one told Burgess to give
the scoundrel the safe key, and he
did,so. The fellow unlocked the safe,
the men at the door telling the in
mates that if they stirred they would
shoot their heads off.
The chief robber seized satchel
belonging to Burgess, and crammed
the safe packages into it, and as he
did SO he said, "Hcre isn't half as
much as we want-where's the bull
lion, give us that bullion % BY this
time he was on his feet. Mr.. Kill
lingsworth pointed to the bullion on
the floor, saying, "there it is under
your feet I" The robber replied,
;" We don't want them things-give
us the bullion, d-n you, or We'll
blow your brains out p Then he
appeared to forget all about the bull
lion, and asked if there was any
money in the mail bags. =" No, not
cent" replied the agent. Then the
fellow put his revolver close to Mr..
KS head, as he had before to Mr..
Burgess, and said, "Hand out your
knife, ID quick" Mr.. X. surren-
dered his knife. Then the robber
picked up a mail sack: "That's for
Chicago, is it?" eyes" "Is there
any money in it?" "No." He drop
ped that sack, picked up another
one, threw it down, and asked,
"Where's the other safe-haven't
got half enough money yet-where's
the other safe?" Burgess replied
that there was no other safe. Then
the eyes of the marauder fell upon
a packing chest, usually carried in
in an express car for loose articles,
and asked, "What's that?"-at the
same time picking up some of the
articles, which he threw down again
with "d-n them things" The
man was an ignoramus, at least
about bullion. He supposed that ii
was coin and that there were bags
full of gold in the safe. He didn't
believe that the gold bars and silver
bricks on the floor of the car were
anything better than lead.
At last the bold william thought il
time for him to leave. So he picked
up Mr.. KS. satchel, containing reg.
lister books, a package OF letters, and
a few private articles, and bade the
whole five get out before him, at the
same time pointing his revolver at
two of them, and telling the men al
the door to keep sharp watch. Out
the five gentlemen walked, and fol
the first time got view of the wreck
The chief directed them around the
place where the engine lay, at the
same time expressing the hope that
nobody was killed-they didn't want
to kill anybody, all they wanted was
money! He asked if anybody was
killed-and just then Burgess saw
the engineer sitting between the EN-
CINE and the tender, both on theil
sides. He went up to him, founG
that he was dead, and told Mr.
Royce so. The head robber ex
pressed sorrow, and really spoke as
if he meant it, and repeated his re
mark that they did not intend te
hurt anybody. Then all the robbers
went off toward their horses, which
were hitched about a hundred yards
south of the track, and, mounting
them, rode away towards the south
west. Mr.. Killingsworth felt Ger
tain, however, that only FIVE of the
robbers were mounted. In fact HI
saw but five, though others sale
there were seven all told. They die
not run TO their horses, but walked
in deliberate manner, and wen
across the country just as deliber
ately.
The above includes all the mail
features of Mr. KS. statement. HI
was sometime in relating his expe
rience, but he said "the whole thing
did not last more than five minutes,
and, in fact, no person had time t.
recover from astonishment before
the robbers were gone. 1t seemed
incredible to him that so mucl
should have been said in SO short :
time. After Supt. Royce and th'
rest had been released from surveil
lance, they had opportunity to view
THE SITUATION.
The robbers had chosen a goot
place for their deed-and this ant
the way in which they ditched tn,
engine, were the only evidences o
smartness they gave. The localit,
was one of the most lonely on th,
whole line, and the place of opera
tion was in a cut with the banks fit
teen feet high on either side, and a
the rounding of a curve, too. Tn
way they managed to throw the en-
CINE was to unspike rail, and re
move a fish-plate at one end; the,
tied a rope to this end, and whe1
the engine was within few yard
of the place the rail was pulled to
wards the other side of the track
and thus the engine would fall from
instead of towards the scoundrels
who held the rope and were con
cealed among the weeds in ditch
The engineer had Stacked speed
little on the curve, but still was 20
ing at the rate of nearly twent
miles an hour. The engine and ten
der turned over into the ditch, tn