The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-11-08
A RoBBER R0OsT RA1DED.
An Organized Band, OF Plunderers Found
and Broken Up.

A ROBBER ROOST RA1DED.
An Organized Band, OF Plunderers Found
and Broken Up.
Greeavale Ne,es, October 81.
a story smacking strongly of the law
| less border legends Of the wild West and
tinged with the uncomfortable realism
/ of the "bushwhacking" days just after
the war, comes from the ordinarily quiet
and peaceful section about Looper's,
PickenB county.
It is nothing less than the tale ola
veritable band of robbers organized for
the purpose of systematic plunder and
for months carrying on their operation in
Pickens with occasional inroads into
other sections. Suspicion had many
weeks ago located the gang and quiet but
brave and determined law abiding citi.
zens had been carefully following up the
thieves, but the full extent of their oper.
ations had not been revealed until the
capture of two of the band at the house
ofSebe Pinson, near Looper's, Pickens
county. Monday night. The captured
outlaws were Fayette Pelfry, who was
brought here yesterday and put in Jail,
and Drayton Medlin, who was seriously
shot while resisting capture and ia lying
at DEATHS door at the place where he
aud his companion were surprised. From
the captors ofPelfry and from Pelfry
himself, a Neaus reporter learned the
story of the robber gang. The relation
| is strikingly like the lurid dime novel
fiction, stripped ofsome of it's blood.
Along about the first of last June Robt.
Trotter, well.to.do old man, living near
Looper's, was robbed OF three hundred
dollars in money. The robbery was a
particularly mean and bold one. The
money had been boarded up by the
honest old farmer and was the hardly
wou fruit of much and sore labor. The
old man had stored it away in trunk
hidden in his house, where he in his sim
plicity believed it perfectly safe. One
evening about dark, while the old man
and his granddaughter were at the COW
pen milking the cows. thieves entered the
house, stole the trunk, and carrying it
off to little mountain near by, broke it
| open and took out the money. No trace
was left by the robbers. .,s3
About the first of September the house
of Albert Tony, an old man living near
Columbus, Polk county, North Carolina,
was entered while the old man was away,
and about $4O0 concealed in the. house
was stolen. The circumstances were
similar to those of the Trotter robbery,
and suspicion noised 1t that they were
the work of one and the same gang.
Soon after this detectives appeared in
the Looper neigbborhood where they
had tracked the robbers of old man To-
ney. :,
About this time, Fayette or "Fate"
Pelfry, who was man Of bad reputation
and who had served q term in the peni.
tentiary for stealing mule, began to
handle more money than his observing
| neighbors could account for. He was q
renter on DR.. J. T. Anderson's place, and
soon after his crop had been laid by, he
bought COW, new suit Of clothes, q
fine pistol and other articles and still
appeared to have plenty of money.
! After the appearance ofdetectiyes on the
scene, Pelfry and Drayton Medlin, who
Lived in the same settlement, left their
homes and began to lead 9 rowing kind
of existence, spending most Of the time
at the homes of Jason Medlin and James
Medlin, brothers of Drayton, and of Joe
Medlin,. "a nephew, in the upper sections
of Greenville county.
These movements excited the suspicion
of the order-loying men in the Looper's
section, aud headed by George W. Griffin
and VIM. N. Hughes, they determined
to run down the rascals. By means OF
some clever detective work they learned
that the gang had spotted old man Ford
Cox, of the Marietta section, of this coun.
ty, as their next victim, believing that
he had much money about his house.
The house of Mr.. Cox vas to be attacked
Wednesday night, two weeks ago. On
| Tuesday night Griffin and Hughes went
to the neighborhood and securing the
assistance of r. Mays Cleveland and
R. f. Holcombe with one or two others,
they concealed themselves in Mr.. Cox 8
house, remaining there all day jWednes.
day and until Thursday morning. But
the trap failed, not because it was not
we'll set, but because the rain made the
ground 30 soft about the house that the
robbers, who lay out in an old field all
day long, were afraid their tracks would
give them away. They had come pre-
pared To enter The house disguised, with
uniforms picturesquely constructed out
| of guano sacks and with blacking for
their faces and red pepper ground fine to
sprinkle in their tracks to prevent the
dogs following them.
With the same effective detective
methods used before, the regulators
learned that the thieves had singled out
for their next raid, the house of Norman
Clardy, in Anderson county, two miles
from E Piedmont 0td-Mr. Clardy was
said to have gold in his house, it was said
as much as $4,000, aud the thieves yearn.
ed for the yellow wealth. 1t was arraDg-
ed that they should surround his house
Sunday night overpower him if necessa
ry, and rob him of his supposed board.
The details of the trip we're all planned
and everything worked smoothly up to
Sunday night. To frustrate the robbery
and catch the outlaws, Hughes and
Griffin, accompanied by r. T. Holcombe,
went to Piedmont Sunday aud getting up
select crowd ofvolunters, went to the
| Clardy homestead and aecreted them.
selves to await the oncoming of the rob-
bers. At the same time Pelfry apd the
Medlin gang were lying in the woods
near by the house awaiting the quiet of
midnight, unconscious of the enemy
concealed in the house. Here again
everything was frustrated by an accident.
A section of the party started from Pied
mont had been delayed and getting up
to Clardy's after night, ran up on the
concealed thieves and scattered them.
When this became known, Griffin and
his party, spending the night at Mr..
Simpsons near by, left early in the
morning with the hope of catching the
robber gang on their return home.
Reaching home as they knew before
the robbers had a chance to get that far,
Griffin and Hughes proceeded to set 8
net that would not fail to bag the game.
They put guard to watch Hagood' 8