The weekly messenger., 1891-08-01
HOW TRAINS ARE ROBBED.
MILLIONS LOST THROUGH SYS-
TEMATIC PLUNDERING.
The Men Who Commit the RoDDeries
How Big Gang Of Thieves
Was Broken Up.

Was Broken Up
Railroad managers have two grades OF
losses to contend with which involve not
only heavy expenditure of money but
the constant patroling of the lines by a
corns of well-trained detectives and ex-
merits. Lost or astray cars, sometimes
side-tracked and left to the exposure OF
the weather as temporary ABODE Ior
tramps, and oftener run off for other pur-
noses, keep body of men busy all the
time. A regular department has been
created, with a chief and corps OF ex-
merits. whose duty it is to follow up these
astrays and return them to the COM
NAMES to whom they belong. The sec
ond and more serious trouble to railroad
corporations is the constant and system
attic plunder of freight cars, the removal
of valuable cargoes and the hiding OF
the plunder. The latter is an adjunct OF
the astray cars, which the robbers run
into the woods or other desolate places
that darkness and secrecy may cover up
their nefarious transactions.
During period covering fifteen years
the larger corporations-like the Penn,
sylyauia, Pan Handle, New York and
New Haven, New York Central and
Erie roads-have been sufferers to the
extent of millions of dollars from tins
grade of thefts, and frequently the
sbrewdest and most expert detectives
have been bafiied for weeks and months
in running down the thieves, recovering
their plunder and safely housing the
perpetrators in State prisons.
..Three grades of men commit the
robberies on freight trains, said Private
Detective L. A. Newcome. "They are
tramps, who secrete themselves in the
cars and steal anything they can pick
up; railroad employees, who band to-
gether for the purposes of plunder, and
organized gangs of professional thieves,
who reside in the big cities and make
trips into the country, led by local pal,
who ascertains when a carload OF vaiua.
BILE freight is to pass over designated
line."
Perhaps the most extensive haul of
plunder in freight-cars extended during
a period of years in the sixties, and was
checked through the eXertions OF the
late railroad detective, Gilkinson. There
had been wholesale and systematic rob-
berries of freight-cars on the Pittsburg,
Cincinnati and st. Louis Road, better
known as the Pan Handle route of tho
PENNSYLVANIA system, extending over
period of three years and involving
total loss to the Company of nearly or
quite half million dollars. Chief De-
tective Rue, of the Pennsylvania Com
pany, aided by Gilkinson and his corps
Of well-trained detectives, set at work
and labored day and night in search OF
the miscreants. 1t required two months
of persistent labor to run down the
gang, and it unearthed the most extensive
scheme of tram robbery ever known. a
, local train was robbed ard some of the
detectives had the good fortune to be in
hiding when the gang was operating.
They were railroad employees, and sub
sequent developments showed that
seventy-fve or eighty crews practically
2 were engaged i'll the scheme OF plunder.
4 The work was performed skilfully. The
r secreted detective saw the wire pulled
out of the seal, the door thrown back,
the car entered and the plunder removed
to IA caboose, while the conductor pulled
! back the door, run the wire through the
: seal and then by blow with board the
: lock looked as if it had been tamperec
q with.
f The plunder consisted of liquors, ci
S gars, organs, pianos, silks, ribbons, an(
Il other valuable packages. In one instanc
h a freight car was converted into TEN
d porary concert room. A conductor sa
II all night playing on piano while hi
1t companions danced, drank, sang ant
'i smoked at intervals, and ate their sup
per from the polished top Of the valuabl
-s Grand. When this musical empioye
!, was arrested he was humping piano i
- - a Pittsburg dive. The robberies in
20 cluded everything except an anvil and
tn coffin. The plunder was sold to vel
Y. know Philadelphia and Pittsburg "fenct
le houses" and wives, sisters and swee
ne hearts were decked out with the stole
he silks, gloves, laces and jewelry.
e. When all the details were prepared an
I'd the time for action arrived, the arrest
nd began in Pittsburg in April, 1887. A
Ell the trains rolled into the big yards d.
NJ, tectives stepped forward, revolvers
II, III hand, and the crews were handcuttet
u. The same course was pursued all alon
- the line between Pittsburg and Colun
bus. Over four hundred warrants wei
issued. Over one-fourth of the men a
rested were railroad employees ar
keepers of Ufences." One of the mt
cd who was arrested, brakeman by d