Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-08
Six Masked Men Stop the Fort
Worth and Denver
And Rife the Mail and Express Cars
But Make a Comparative
Water Haul.
The Rangers Promptly Notified and Are in
Pursuit Before the Trail is
--.: Very Cold.


supposltion was that the redoubtable
Capt. Bunch had been the head and
front of all the robberies in this state,
and it was supposed he was so hard
pressed that he would have no time to
concoct another scheme of that kind, but
either there is another Bunch or the rob-
Der captain has found his way back to
country with which he is familiar. How
ever this may be, Texas is afflicted with
another train robbery.
Yesterday morning about 3 clock the
south-bound Fort Worth and Denver
mail and express train stopped at Chey-
"une water tank, some 375 miles from
rort Worth, without anything worthy of
notice having occurred. As the train
stopped SIX men, all heavily masked
with piece of cloth dropping down 10
their breasts from the mask and a white
handkerchief tied over their fOreheads,
having nothing but their eyes ex-
posed, appeared on the scene.
Three of them went TO the locomotive,
the other three went toward the passen-
ger coaches. The engineer, O 'Brien,
was ordered to get off his locomotive aud
bring his coal pick with him. O'Brien
could Go nothing but comply and obeyed
the orders of the big robber who acted as
chief of the gang. Going to the
EXPRESS CAR
the big rObber called out to J ohm Marsh,
the Pacific Express company messenger,
to open his door and to be in q hurry
about it. Marsh not complying the rob-
Der ordered O'Brien to break down
the door with his coal pick
and when the blows did not seem Iusty
enough urged him to use more muscle.
Finding they could not get i'll very
quickly and possibly being afraid the
passengers might attempt q rescue, the
chief robber ordered one of his men TO
uncouple the mail and express cars
from the passenger coaches, told three
of the robbers to remain with
the passenger coaches, :. and with two
others marching the engineer back to the
locomotive and boarding it, ordered
O'Brien to pull out. Just at the bank
of the Canadian between one aud two
miles from the tank the engineer was
ordered to stop the section OF the train
ne had with him ana then again COM
manded to take his pick and march to the
express car. What followed can BEST be
told in the words of Express MessengeF
Marsh 81 was, says Mr.. Marsh,
standing. in the door Of the express car
prepared tSl deliver package at Chey--
enne, only a quarter of q mile, away,
when [ heard some one say, throw up
your hands, throw them zap hisher3
and looking out toward the locOmOt5Re
I saw the engineer, 0 Brien, with his
hands over his head and several masked
men on the locomotive. That settled it g,
knew what was up and at once closed
the doors to my car and piled a lot OF
trunks against them. All the through
packages were locked in the
safe and only three packages
on the outside containing but g
triaing sum. | then put ont the lights in
the car and awaited Developments, which
came soon enough. A hammering began
at the door and I was ordered to open the
door. I could tell that they had O'Brien
with them and were forcing him to break
down the door After some hammering
the robbers began to shoot INTO the car,
and the fusilade was a lively one.
In a few minutes the hammeung stopped
and [ could tell the train was moving
again. Coming to a stop a second time,
the pounding at the door was repeated
and the shooting was resumed. At last
q part of the door was broken off and a
torch used about the locomotive was
showed into the car, and then
gun pushed in and I was
ordered to open the door and told this
was my last chance; that if l did not
open it when they got III they would kill
me. O'Brien asked me to open up, say
ing the robbers said they would kill me
if I refused so l told them l would, and
as I opened the door one of the robbers
jumped into the car and got three pack
0UaS Thpv made q water b9ul 0
next to nothinga''
MAIL AGENT WALCOTT TALKS.
D. Z. Walcott, the postal clerk who
runs on the Denver, was found in front
Of the Ellis last night and asked to tell
about the train robbery. 81 was in my
car with Mr.. RinehaTt, who has been n
clerk in the Denver Office, but was on his
way to Fort Worth to work in the
superintendent 5 Office here. I heard
the first three or four shots
just after the train stopped at the coal
| chutes near Cheyenne and was satisfied
that we were in the hands of train rob-
bers. l told RineharJ my suspicious. -
ooh, pshaw, only COW boys shoot
| ing, - said Riuehart.
s'Well, wait and see, - l answered,
and then I went to work, gathered all
| the registers but one and put them under
sack on the floor ana locked
the doors and turned out
| the lights. In a few minutes the train
pulled out again and as the bell cord
tore through the mail car like lightning
l could tell that part of the train had
| been uncOupled from us, and that we
were being moved on. 1 think it must
have been about two miles further
on, about half way between
| Cheyenne and Tascosa, when we stopped
again. could hear the robbers pound
ing away at the express car and firing off
their guns, which must have been Colt s
so caliber. Then three orffour shots
were fired into the mail car and we were
| ordered to open up.
81 wouldn t bother the mail'' said
one of the robbers, ''we don t want any
truck with Uncle Sam -
eyes we do, too, we can get enough
for breakfast and drinks'' replied the
| other fellow.
81 opened the door and an active fell
low hoped into the car and told us
| to light up. We did it and then he