Los Angeles herald., 1891-11-13
Train Robbers Do a Bold
Piece of Work.
The Treasure Car Wrecked by the
Explosion of Bombs.
The Robbers Scared OF Before They
Had Succeeded In Riding the Safes.
An Attempted Hold Up in
the South.
Associated Press DISPATCHES.

Associated Press Dispatches.
MILWAUKEE, Wis, Nov. 1.-THE mid
night. train from Chicago on the Mil
waukee and St. Paul road, was robbed
by masked men near Western Union
Junction, at o'clock this morning. The
train had been out of the junction
{twenty-three miles south of this place.,
about half mile. when the fireman,
Edward Averill, who was putting some
coal in the furnace, was startled
by noise behind him. He
turned around and discovered two
masked men climbing over the engine
tender. Both levelled double barreled
guns at the fireman and the engineer,
"Bill' Mckay, with the injunction:
'Don't move an inch till we tell you to,
or we will blow the top OF your heads
off"
Engineer Mckay was directed to run
the train to within point about one
mile from Western Union Junction.
Here he was commanded to stop. Both
men were ordered to step down from
the locomotive. They were marched to
the express car under cover, and then
the work of blowing open the
express car began. Several bombs
were thrown into the car and the explo-
sions were terrific and must have awak-
ened every passenger on the train, but
nobody appeared on the scene. The
robbers undoubtedly were not less than
six or seven in number, judging from
the manner in which they conducted the
operations. The trainmen believe they
had team close at hand with which to
cart away the safes which were taken
bodily out of the car.
Fireman Averill's story is most COM
prehensive. "They made me walk
ahead of them to the express car" he
said, "and they gave me jimmy to pry
open the boxes. They got the messen-
gers keys, though he was in no hurry to
give them up, and they will have no
trouble in getting away with all the
money!"
The train was held over half an hour.
The entire efforts Of the robbers were
centered on the express car, and not
passenger was molested. The fireman
thinks there were half dozen men
guarding the coaches, however.
when less than five minutes out of
Western Union Junction." said Mes
senger Murphy, "the train slowed sud-
denly. A musket was poked through
the top window Of the car, and second
later terrific explosion occurred that
knocked both myself and Mr.. Cook in a
heap. Half dozen more explosions
followed, and both doors flew off the
bolts. Then two men, wearing big black
masks, clambered quickly into the car
and covered us with muskets. We
were cautioned to maintain silence
at the penalty OF getting our
heads blown off. After glancing
hurriedly ABOUT the car, the robbers
fastened their eyes on two iron boxes of
the American Express company. The
robbers brought the fireman in a little
later, and went through all the boxes.
They compelled us to hand over the
keys. They dumped the boxes out on
the roadbed. One OF the robbers kept
us covered with his musket all the time
while the other superintended the oper-
atoms of the fireman."
Messenger Murphy stated that he Sc
cured all the bills of money contained
in the safe, and that the sum is I'M
doubtedly very large one. 1t is prob
able the total amount of the robbers
booty will amount to 100000, and pos
sibly more.
An official of the st. Paul road said
the train which was held up was one
which generally carried all the money
received by the Milwaukee banks from
the east in the morning.
Agent John F. Bell, of the American
Express company, said the approximate
sum taken by the robbers could not be
learned. He said $4,000, in local pack
ages, was certainly gone, besides sums
contained in two sealed envelopes.
Some os the passengers who were
asleep did not know anything about the
"hold up" until the train arrived in
Milwaukee. Some passengers thought
there were twenty or thirty robbers !;
others thought they saw only dozen,
while others said there were more rob-
bers than passengers.
When the train started up again, the
passengers saw the safes lying beside
the track, but the robbers had dis
appeared.
When the train arrived at the Union
depot at 2 20 O'Clock, the express car
presented an appearance that would in
dictate that it had been attacked by
heavy artillery. Every door and win
dow was blown out, and the platform
and walls were shattered in half dozen
places, while the contents were piled in
an indiscriminate heap in the center of
the car. Messenger Murphy and his
assistant, G.. B. Cook, were found gath
ering up the fragments of way bills, and
looking over the remnants left by the
robbers.
The first news of the robbery was
brought to Western Union Junction by
a fagman. The Milwaukee and Racine
police were telegraphed for Immediate
2 40 o'clock.
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