Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-28
Srecial 70 the Gazette.

Neatly as Professional Could Do It.
| Special to the Gazette.
WEATHERFoRD, TEX. April 27.-Two
rather mysterious robberies were COM
mitted here last night. The Pacific and
Wells, Fargo s. Company s express Offices
they both having one office, and the
| Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe offies, were
robbed. The circumstances attending
or connected with the express office
robbery are, as near as can be learned,
as follows: Mr.. H. S. WhiteA clerk at
the Hotel Hamilton, stated thisSevening
to THE GAZETTE correspondent thasSjAst
after the arrival of the Santa Fe tram at
y o clock last night, and when he
saw the express wagon returning FROM
that train to the office, that he went to
the Office to get q valise for q guest Of
the house, supposed to have come III on
that train, as he had promised he would
do. He says when he arrived at
the office he found Mr.. C. r. VangnlesOn,
the agent of both companies, and Mr.. L.
o. Roberts, his assistant, both looking
through the safe and around the Office in
q very excited manner. After a bit
express matter and found the valise for
him. He heard enough during the time
he was in the Office to know that the safe
had been robbed and the robbers secured
between $4,000 and $500. In this, like
almost every robbery of this char
acter, it is almost impossible to
get anything definite from an official
source. Yet in this instance THE GA
ZETTE correspondent has heard that at
about clock last night Mr.. Vangieson
left the office for home, leaving MIR.
Roberts at work in the office.
At about $3.50 o'clock Mr.. Roberts left
the office for home, having prepared the
run of express and money packages
for the Santa Fe, which is made
by MIR. VIII Birdsong, and placed
the money IN the safe, which it
appears has the combination only par
TALLY turned on from the time the office
is closed at night until about midnight,
when Mr.. BirdsOng meets the
Santa Fe and places the valuable pack
ages in the safe and turns on the full
combination. Last night when he went
to the office about II :35 to get the run
for the Santa Fe he could not work the
combination as he usually did, when he
went after Mr.. Roberts, who told him to
meet the train and he would open the
safe and get the money and bring it
down to the train. When Mr.. Roberts
arrived at the Office and opened the safe
he found that the money was gone.
He Immediately ran for the
agent Mr.. Vangieson and after they
found that the office had really been
robbed they sent for officers and notified
them of the facts in the case, who have
been diligently searching in a quiet
way for the perpetrators. The express
office Is in front of large !
brick building on the east side of the |
square, being boxed up to itself, the |
rear being used for the storage of under |
takers goods. 1t seems that the |
back door is quite often left |
open as it was last night !
and it seems from the surroundings that |
the robbers effected entrance through |
this door, by showing in a window in the |
express wall which was made for ventiI-
alton, and then unscrewing the iron
inside. AS to how entrance to the safe
was effected is where the mystery comes
in, as there is no one who knows the
present combination to the safe
except the present employees of
the company. 1t was reported
that Mr.. Roberts said he forgot to lock
the safe, but nothing in this particular
could be learned, as when THE GAZETTE
asked Mr.. Roberts this
evening as to the condition in
which he left the safe last
night on retiring from the office, Mr..
Levan, assistant route agent, who ar
rived on the delayed train, refused to let
him answer the question, saying
the company had nothing what
ever to say concerning the matter
for the present at least. While the affair
is a very mysterious one, there seems to
be no suspicion resting on the employees
Of the companies.
The Santa Fe depot was entered during
the night and the safe in the
office robbed in the same way
as that of the express office, the safe
being opened by means of the oombina-
ton and S15 of Mr.. o. G.
Slack's money taken. The safe
closed and locked as though nothing
no money from the railroad company as
Mr.. Ledbetter, the cashier, had made
his remittance late in the evening. The
money taken from the express
safe was the loss of the
express company. Entrance to the
abroad office was effected by the break
ng OF a window light Just over the catch
Y Inch fastens the window. The two
'obberies being committed during
ne same night and in the same
way by working the com binatiOu
ends to make matter more mysterious.
While the exact amount secured from
he express companies is not known it is
pretty close estimate to place it at be-
ween $1,000 and $4,000, and probably
more.