Connecticut western news., 1886-11-03
DARING EXPRESS ROBBERY.
A Messenger Gagged and Bound to
 the Safe in His Car-Fifty Thou. sand Dollars Stolen.

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 2S.-One of the most sensa- | tlonal robberies ever committed in this end of
 the world occurred last night, thetvictim being
 the messenger of the Adams Express Company
 s, on the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad. Shortly after midnight Henry, R. French,
 freight Superintendent of the Adams Express Company of this city, received a telegram
 dated at Pacific, Mo-, which read as follows:
 MT. Fotheringham, your express messenger,
 was bound, gagged and robbed of $50, 900 be- tween here and the gravel pit, twenty miles back.
 Superintendent Damsen gives the following
 as the result of the examination of the mes-
 senger: "Mr. Fotheringham says that as he
 was about to go ont on his run last night mad
 came to him with 8 letter purportiIig to b6
 signed by myself and MT. Barrett, instructing
 him to take the bearer, Jim Cummings, on his
 run as fur as Pierce City, for instructions. In
 accordance with these supposed instruc-
 tions Fotheringham took the stranger and
 set him to work checking up. Then
 he began his own work. Fotheringham was
 standing with the back to the stranger, his
 coat off and the handle of his revolver sticking
 out of the pistol pocket. About ten or fifteen
 miles out of Union Depot he was attacked from the rear. The stranger gripped his neck with one hand and grasped his revolver with the other Before Fotheringham realized what was being done he was thrown to the floor. He struggled and fought, but the stranger overcame him and bound him hand and foot. Then he put the gag in his mouth and tied him to the safe. Having secured the messen- ger, he proceeded to go through the safe and take all there was in it. Several pouches of silver he cut open, but left them when he found out what they contained. At Mincke some men working in a limekiln Tagged the train on account of an obstruction on the track
 While it was standing still someone tried to get into the express car, but the robber stood over Fotheringham with @ revolver and pre- vented him making any effort to cry out. At or about Pacific Station the robber took his plunder and opening the front door of the car went out on to the platform and closed the door after him. What he did after that Foth- erlngham does not know He lay on the floor of the car until the train reached St. Clair, when he was able to get the gag out of his hearing him, endeavored to get in the back door, and finding it locked went around to the front door, which the robber had left open They released the bound messenger"
 'Fotheringham says the robber was about six feet high, twenty-four years of age, and weighed about two hundred pounds. He had dark, straight hair, cut close, Q thin, dark mustache, low forehead, and wore dark clothes and dark grey overcoat. Fofhering- ham was gagged with handkerchiefs tied in around his head His hands were tied to- gether behind his back with silk handker- chief. His legs were fastened with straps taken from valises in the car and with cords ana With the heavy strap which was around the safe. He was tied to the handle of the safe."
 From the conductor of the train on which Fotheringham returned the following story was obtained as having been told by the mes- left on my usual run last night, and just as we pulled out of the depot 8 large man came into the car and handed me two letters. One of these-the first, I read-was, l supposed, from W. H. Damsen, instructing me to show the bearer MT. Cummings, the route. Supposing some changes were about to be made, I had no suspicious and greeted the stranger, Mr. Cummings, very pleasantly. After we rode nearly an hour I returned to my desk to do some work, when I received stinging blow over my head. I have an indistinct recollec- tion of falling and of being jerked to my knees, when was tied hand and foot, and hard sub | stance was thrust into my mouth. Then was | dragged to the safe and lost consciousness.
 When recovered saw a crowd about me | and noticed that Cummings was gone and the | safe door was open. I at once realized that | was robbed, and that is all I know about it."
 Fotheringham is single man, twenty eight l years old, and has been directly in the employ | of the company since last May. His run is | from St. Louis to Vinati, l. T., and return. Prior to May he was employed jointly by the Adams and Pacific, and ran from Sedalia to point ln Texas. AS far as can be learned he is } young man of exemplary habits, but the closest and minutest inquiries fail to elicit any information about his private life