Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-24
THE TRAIN ROBBERY
1
Story Of Frank N. Hanley,
the Messenger.
SCENES ABOUT THE SPOT
How the Train Was Stopped and
the Express Car Broken Into
at STEMS Pass.

The HEnALD's representative was at the
Southern Pacific Depot this morning at
1910 oclock, when train No. 20, from Ell
--paso and the East arrived. Mr.. Frank N.
Hanley, the messenger for Wells. Fargo &
Company was found in his car, and asked
to relate the facts about the robbery of the
train Wednesday night at STEMS Pass. He
said: 1--WE arrived at STEMS Pass at about
twenty minutes after P. M,
being an hour and a half late.
/ We only lay there few. moments
during which time l saw, as is usual, g
large crowd of men standing around, but OF
course attached no Importance to that;
When we started Immediately closed and
4 locked my doors and sat down to fiX up my
4 way bills. II was clear, moonlight night
II We had not gone very far when heard the
e bra rakeman-I think his nane is Surimi---
speak to some men on the front platform of
sthe car. l don't know what he said,
but Immediately | heard two, reports,
5, pieded, and then the train Stacked up and
4 heard the brakeman jump off and run to
the rear; at the same time heard another
shot, then heard voice say to the engineer, en-
! and cut the express car off from the rest of
Il the train and run down the track" Imme-
q diately after he said that heard him call
out to his pardner, shoot that fireman, # he
1Sn %an diSp siiSp sop, iesms for he 'os Game nfs
the rear platform Of my car accompanied
by one Of the robbers and cut it loose. The
other man then made the engineer pull
down the grade. He went about a mile
Aand a half before he stopped, and then the
hen came with the fireman and engineer
! to the. rear door Of my car. A voice said to
the engineer, Tell him." tmeanin.g mel
out, Hanley, they have got the dead
T1sa Tfst heard sn the & i%S: SraEeman "nad talking
I thought he was trying to get three tramps
off the top of the car but when heard the
first two shots and felt the train Stacking
UP, knew IL was train-robbers, and then L
thought would put the coin in a treasury
box aud throw it out the window; but then
remembered it was q moonlight night and
the train was almost still, so 1 couldn't
do that. Then got my gun and cartridges
and got down between the two safes. There
was nothing in the car but the safes and
couple of boxes of cactus. These boxes
pulled around in the best way / could.
When the engineer called out to me first l
waited four or five minutes before L
answered. knew couldn't shoot through
the door because both the fireman and
engineer were there. Harper begged me to
give up, and said that if l didn't the
robbers would blow the car up with dyna-
mite, so went to the door ana was imme-
diately covered with two Winchesters.
When got the door open one of the men
fs,ud, is there anyone else in there? l said,
Maybe there is He said We don't want no
guessing. If there is another man in there
you're a dead man. I said there wasn't
any more, and then l opened the safes and
gave them the Jew remaining packages of
coin. and they searched the car, pick
| ing up every piece, and looking nnder
my mattress and every Where-there was
not, should say, more than $1,000 in the
car. 1t was an exceptionally light run.
After taking everything one of the men Il
think he was cowboy thanked me, and
said he was sorry to trouble me, and that he
hOnQ6
etc. He took my gun and cartridges, and
then left, after thanking the engineer and
freman, with great deal of ceremony.
man was about "a years old, heavy
would weigh 175 pounds, was about 5
Il - inches high, had bright eyes and
there were only two) wore black masks
that concealed their faces entire
liz, with the exception Of their eyes.
lonly caught q glimpse OF the other one
one l think l would know again. The
tramps on the Car got up there to steal a
ride, and had nothing to do with the matter.
The mail clerk never showed up during the
car. After they left we went back and got
the rest of the train. No, never had any
Experience like this before. have been in
fhe service twelve years. 1t was very lucky
fh ~ came when they did, for it was the
ishtest trip 1 ever saw. had not counted
he money, and don't know exactly how
1Hch there was, but there was not over
1000. This morning when ! got up.
&and dynamite cartridge under my pill
"; here it Isl, and Mr.. Hanley produced
candle wrapped in brown paper. They
Bst have put that there when they
trched for the money. It is big enough
fblow the car to atoms" Mr.. Hanley is
3werfully built man, and II he had had
" show, could have made most sue
Sgful resistance.