Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1891-06-26
HOW TRAINS ARE ROBBED.
MILLIONS LOST THROUGH SYS-
TEMATIC PLUNDERING.
The Men Who Commit the Kobberies
How a 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
corps of well-trained detectives and ex-
perts. Lost or astray cars. sometimes
side tracked and left to the exposure of
the weather as temporary abode for
tramps, and oftener run off for other pur.
poses, keep a body of men busy all the
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
T, extent of millions of dollars from this
grade of thefts, and frequently the
shrewdest and most expert detectives
have been baflled for weeks and months
in running down the thieves, recovering
their plunder and safely housing the
perpetrators in State prisons.
gsT nf fha
robberies on freight trains," said Private
Detective 1. 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 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 a
total loss to the Company of nearly or
quite half a 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
secreted detective saw the wire pulled
out of the seal, the door thrown back,
the car entered and the plunder removed
to caboose, while the conductor pulled
back the door, run the wire through the
seal and then by a 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
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 were prepared and
the time for action arrived, the arrests
began in Pittsburg in April, 1887. AS
the trains rolled into the big yards de-
tectives stepped forward, revolvers in
hand, and the crews were handcuffed.
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, 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. He protested
his innocence at first, but finally
confessed, and large amount of the
plumber was found in his house. ]. r.
Dunlop, one of the gang, made full
confession and seventy three of the men
were implicated. Scores of the fellows
were sent to prison. Men York World.
The antfttra ut in (taIiforpia