The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1885-05-09
BOLD ROBBERY.
An Express Car Robbed of Large Sun
of Money-Express Messenger and
Baggage-Master Shot.

daring and atrocous express rol berry in
the history of the West, taking into consid-
GRAFTON the surroundings, was perpetarted
on the Louisville, New Albany and Chi
cago Railroad last night. Just after the
Chicago express due here at Has p.
M, had taken water at the Harrodsburg
tank and got under headway, ten miles
below here. a man entered the ex-
press and baggage car and
struck Baggage-master Webber, who was
lying down at the time, over the head with
a bludgeon, rendering him unconscious;
then quickly passed to American Express
messenger George Davis, and attacked him.
Davis is supposed to have been lying down
also, as he was through messenger, with
no goods to transfer until he reached Green
castle. Davis was also dubbed, and evil
IDENTIFY attempted to shield himself with his
arms, as his head and arms bear cuts
and bruises. Just what took place
between the robber and Davis
will never be known, as Webber
was insensible and Davis can never tell
Probably Davis made a good fight, as his
pistol, with two empty chambers, was
afterward found near the place, and the
robber is known to have been wounded
in some way, but when Webber fully
recovered consciousness the robber was
standing over him with his revolver
to his head, and poor Davis had
a bullet through his brain. Webber
was compelled at the point of the pistol
Davis and unlock the express safe. The
robber then rifled the safe, and turning
put ball into the head of Webber. The
shot rendered Webber again insensi-
BILE, but regaining consciousness in short
time he saw the robber still in the car, evil
IDENTIFY intending to ride to this place, the
next stopping point. Webber then manag-
ed to struggle to his feet, unnoticed
by the robber, and grasped the bell-rope
and gave the alarm. The robber
was evidently taken unawares at this and
became wild in his actions, running
through the car time or two, then sta
toned himself at the door leading to the
passenger coaches and kept watch until
the train slowed up, when he jumped off
and disappeared. When the train men
entered the express car and took in the
situation they seem to have become great
ly alarmed, for, although the moon was
shining brightly, they neither made any
attempt to pursue the robber nor
even to stop and alarm the inhabitants of
the little town of Smithville, a short dis
tance this side of where the robber jumped
off, as they might have done, but ran on to
this place, where they. left the wounded
men, Davis and Webber. Word was i'm
mediately sent to j. o. Howe, local ex
press agent here, and getting four trusty
men to join him, he obtained an engine and
went back to the scene of the robbery.
Nothing, however, was seen of the rob-
Der, but about $3.50 in bloody packages
was found where he jumped from the train,
and soon after daylight some $15 in silver
was found some forty yards further away
with considerable blood in the locality,
showing the robber was bleeding, but
whether from a wound received at the
hands of Davis in a struggle or in jumping
from the train can not be known. The
whole country was aroused, and the citi-
zens are nearly all out hunting him.
He was tracked by drops of
blood some two miles in west
erly course. At one o'clock this
afternoon special train with two hundred
armed men went to the scene to get on his
track and scour every nook in hopes that
he is so badly wounded he will hide in
some of the rough country near, where he
can be caught If he was not seriously
wounded however, and when he left the
train was only seeking to evade pursuit by
the train men, he may have
taken another course and
placed several miles between him
self and the scene of the robbery before
morning. While only one man was seen
by Webber, travelling advertiser, who
went out when the train stopped to water
to throw off some dodgers, says he saw
two, one of whom was concealed behind a
freight car on side track and the other
with stick in his hand, passed forward
toward the express car. Webber describes
the robber as a man about six feet tall,
slender, sandy or light complexioned and
thirty years old, with small light mus
tache which he thinks was false. Web
ber has the robbers ball in his neck yet,
| and may possibly recover, but the sur
geons think there are few
chances for him. He was taken
! to his home at New Albany to-
day. Davis was lying unconscious at the
Orchard House to- day with no hopes of his
recovery, and was taken to Louisville this
evening. The amount of money obtained
by the robber is variously rumored to
be from $500 to $1,000, but the
local agent here, basing his lestimate
on what he knows of the route, claims
it will prove not to be over $1,000. The
latest news in regard to the robber tonight
is that man answering his description
was seen some twelve miles from the scene
of the robbery at eight O'Clock this morn
! ing, and he is supposed to be an ex convict
sent from this county whose term has just
expired.