The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1891-06-24
HOW TRAINS ARE ROBBED
MILLIONS LOST THROUGH SYS
TEMATIC PLUNDERING.

The Men who Commit the Robberie,
How a Big Gang of Thieves
Was Broken Up.
Railroad managers have two grades o.
! losses to contend with which involve moi
| only heavy expenditure of money but
the constant patroling of the lines by &
corps of well-trained detectives and ex,
perts. Lost or astray cars, sometimes
side-tracked and left to the exposure OF
the weather as a temporary abode foi
tramps, and oftener run off for other pur
! poses, keep body of men busy all tho
/ time. A regular department has been
created, with chief and corps of ex-
perts, whose duty it is to follow up these
! astrays and return them to the COM
| panies 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
sylvania, Pan Handle, New York and
| New Haven, New York Central and
Erie roads-have been sufferers to the
extent of millions of dollars from this
grade OF thefts, and frequently the
shrewdest and most expert detectives
have been baffled 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 valua-
BILE freight is to pass over designated
| line"
Perhaps the most extensive haul of
! plunder in freight-cars extended during
| u 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 the
| Pennsylvania system, extending over a
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 and 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
were engaged in the scheme, of plunder.
The work was performed skilfully. The
srcreted detective saw the wire pulled
out of the seal, the door thrown back,
the car entered and the pnlnder removed
| to a 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 tampered
with.
The plunder consisted Of liquors, ci-
gars, organs, pianos, silks, ribbons, and
other valuable packages. In one instance
a freight car was converted into a tenn
porary concert room. A conductor sat
| all night playing on piano while his
| companions danced, drank, sang and
smoked at intervals, and ate their sup
| per from the polished top of the valuable
| Grand. When this musical employee
was arrested he was humping piano in
| a Pittsburg dive. The robberies in
cluded everything except an anvil and a
coffin. The plunder was sold to we'll
know Philadelphia and Pittsburg "fence-
| houses and wives, sisters and sweet
hearts were decked out with the stolen
! silks, gloves, laces and jewelry.
When all the details wereprepered and
! the time for action arrived, the arres,A
| began in Pittsburg in April, 1887. As
the trains rolled into the big yards de-
sectives stepped forward, reyolvers in
| hand, and the crews were handcuiled.
| The same course was pursued all along
the line between Pittsburg and Colum-
bus. Over four hundred warrants were
issued. Over one-fourth of the men ar
rested were railroad employees and
| keepers of ''fences." One of the men
who was arrested, a brakeman by the
name of Baker, made desperate
attempt to murder AN engineer. The
| engineers and firemen were not in the
plot of robbery. Brakeman Young
called at the Jail to visit some of the
! prisoners and was arrested. lie protested
| his innocence at first, but finally
confessed, and large amount of the
| plunder was found in his house. j. II.
Dunlop, one of the gang, made a full
confession and seventy three of the men
were implicated. Scores of the fellows
were sent to prison.-AeJ, York World.
Two Senses of an ApOstrOphe.