The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-02-21

for a long time been infested with most
daring highwaymen. More than 20 distinct
crimes of this nature were com
United, and one farmer who resisted,
William Gray, was murdered a few
days ago, John Bingen, plumber, was ar
rested on suspicion, and he soon made a full
confession duplicating the other men, John
Ryan and Charles Miller The latter was
his first accomplice, but his heart failed and
later Ryan was his companion. 1t was Ry-
an who hilled Grace The confession in
full is given in the st. Louis papers, rand the
following extracts are taken from the Times
OF yesterday:
THE FIRST CRIME.
Bingen says that he preached the matter
to Miller in December, and soon after made
the first attempt He goes on: We got on
the Fifth street railroad and rode out as far
as the car went, and walked beyond Baden
We waited out there some time, / think
about or o'clock in the evening. There
were not many wagons passing had been
out on the road considerable, and was
pretty well acquainted. After we got out
there Miller's grit failed him, and he
wanted to come back home We
started back home and met wagon. l told
him that as he had been to the trouble of
going out to stop that wagon without doing
anything more that night. He said. "All
right" had Mr.. Fish's revolver, which l
had borrowed by telling little story about
it, 1 stopped the man and demanded his
money He stopped his wagon and said ''all
right" He pulled out his pocketbook and
gave it to me. / asked him how much was
in it. He said he had but 80 cents, as he had
got some groceries in town that day. Charlie
spoke up and said that he did not think
that he was telling the truth. So he got up
in the wagon and searched him and found a
dollar and a half in his pants pocket. He
asked laf haal I
it TO him without looking at it. 1 told him
to drive on and that we were very sorry that
we had to resort to that business for liv-
ing We both shook hands with him and
told him not to have hard feelings against
us more than he could possibly help. He
drove on, and we got on the cars at Baden
and came TO town.
ANOTHER AcooMPLICE.
The next robbing was with Johnny Ryan
We went out on the Fifth street cars and
walked from there out beyond Baden. We
waited about an hour and bay team came
along. We stopped the team and demanded
the mans money. We had no revolvers.
We had pieces of gas pipe from the shop.
| had one piece and Charlie another,
L think. Charlie got on one side of the
road and | on the other. 1 and
Charley challenged the driver and Johnny
jumped on the wagon and searched him.
divided the money equally and Johnny
took the watch. Johnny told us afterwards
that he got $12 for the watch, and we divided
that between us. This wagon was stopped
about o'clock in the evening
After this they got holder and took to
using pistols. The went out just before
New Years and Bingen says of a raid on the
Natural Bridge road
A LIVELY NIGHT.
We reached "a big white gate on the north
side of the road where we stopped. The
next wagon was spring wagon with one
man in it. We both challenged him. John
ny got up in the wagon and searched him.
He had two hay tickets and pocket. book,
which Johnny threw away. We then let
him proceed. We remained a short time
and three hay teams came along together.
We concluded to tackle two only, so we let
the first team go on. Johnny stopped one
and the other. Johnny took both revolvers
and searched them. One man had $12 and
the other $18, so they stated.
We let them drive on. We remained
hay team came along. Both of us challenged
the wagon, and Johnny held both re-
volvers, and searched the driver. Before
could finish, another hay team came up. /
jumped down, and we had great trouble in
stopping the other team. We let the first
team proceed without getting anything
.lO
searched him and got SO. He then drove
of. This all occurred about s o'clock in the
evening. We then started for the
CITY, and before reaching the
saloon we halted another hay team. John
held the revolver the same as usual
and searched the men. got some money.
Don't know how much. We were in har-
ry and took pocketbook and all. We pro-
| ceeded towards the city until we got within
about half a mile of the street railroad
| terminus. We met two hay teams. but let
| the first pass We halted the second, which
| contained man and boy. The boy had a
small watch which he said was not
worth more than So or 81 and be-
| longed to his brother. We did not take it,
| When the first wagon had gone some dis
| lance the driver fired back one shot The
second wagon, after passing. also fired one
| shot We then went north half a mile to a
lane. then entered one leading into the main
road. took cars for the city and went home.
| / took one car and Johnny took the next.
\ RoBBING PALTRooS.
| After New Year they took TO the road
| again. There were some encounters in
| which shots were fired, when they chal-
| lenged a large wagon. Bingen says: In
the meantime l loaded my pistol with two
charges. We challenged the team. 1t
stopped We searched both men but found
nothing and let them drive on. About 10
or 20 yards further on we met wood
wagon containing two men in the
front part of the wagon. The
driver was on the left side. We walked up
and challenged the men. The driver
| stopped. As he halted the team I saw the
man on his side throw up big revolver in
front of him. He did not raise himself
from the bed of the wagon. l stood right
in front of him and told him to drop that
revolver. He muttered something which
| could not understand and appeared to be
so nervous and excited that he could not
comprehend the situation at all. 1 saw that
he was paralyzed with fear and he could not
drop it, so felt not at all frightened when
saw him acting so strangely. He could have