Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-26
From PRkss NEWS ASSOCIATION.
PLUNDERERS RUN DOWN
AN ORGANIZED GANG OF THIEVES
 AND MURDERERs.

Their Motto was: @Never Kin Unless Com
 pelled to Do So to Gain Your Ends"
 Recruited in Ohio. Kentucky and West
 virginia-wholesale Arrests Expected.
 HUNTINGTON, W. Va, March 26.-There is at last some indication that the people of the counties of West Virginia and Kentucky lying along the Big Sandy river win be released from the domination of the band of robbers, murderers and outlaws, which has ranged up and down the country over an area of more than 100 square miles during the past eighteen months, robbing stores, postoffices and dwell ings, and not hesitating to commit murder when that crime was necessary to secure the safety of themselves or grasp the plunder they coveted In Cabel, Wayne, and Logan counties, in this state, these outrages have been most frequent, but Boyd county, Ky, and the adjacent country has also suffered severely, and even the Ohio side of the river has been subjected to the unlawful excur- sions.
 The gang was recruited from all three states, and the number has been placed at from ten to thirty-five by those familiar with them and their operations And so sue cessful were the outlaws in evading arrest that little was known of their strength or personnel Lately there has been an excep- tional number of robberies and officers were started after the gang, determined not to stop pursuit until they had been put under arrest. The band was known to be in Wayne county, and there, after persistent efforts, two of the ringleaders, brothers, named Charles and Stephen Kelly, were captured The two men were confined in the county jail, and in the hope of bettering their prospects at their trial, they made confession, which, although | startling in its nature, only confirms what has been generally known
 The Kellys said they were members of a band of twelve men recruited in Ono, Ken lucky and West Virginia, who had indulged | in robberies and murder as trade, but their motto was, ''Never kill unless compelled to ' do so to gain your end" In the confession | the kellys named as a member of their band an old man named Merida Workmen, who has served his time. They further said that | they shot and killed Edward Bush near Ce- redo last year, and that they had robbed P. Lyman & Brother, at Dunkirk; the store of J. B. Newman & Co, at the month of Berry Fork, and several private residences and | stores at Guyandotte, across the river from this place. The gang robbed, upon informa- tion furnished by a woman named Melissa Badtram, the house of Nj. H. Bayard, near Guyandotte. The woman was used as a de- coy to find out if Bayard had money in his residence. The woman is under arrest here The prisoners stated that on the night Gen. Walker was wounded near Huntington they | were on their way home from that place and | shot at some one supposed to be Walker. They intended to kill him. They recently robbed a country store in Ohio, not far from the river and in the neighborhood of Hun tington, besides participating in various other robberieS Last Thursday night they intended to rob NJ. Lander & Co.'s store al Round Bottom, and Monday night they in. tended robbing Cox's store at Cox's Landing, Cabell county, after which they would have transferred operations to Kentucky. The names of the gang are known, and more ar rests will be made in a few days