Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1891-06-20
HOW TRAINS ARE ROBBED.
MILLIONS LOST THROUGH SYS.
TEMATIC PLUNDERING.
The Men Who Commit the Robbcries
How a Big Gang of Thieves
Was Broken I'D.

iIio LltudStIS nave TWO TTdGCS Ol
losses to contend with which involve no.
only a heavy expenditure Of money but
the constant patroling of the lines by a
corps of well-trained detectives and ex-
perts. Lost or astray cars, sometimes
slde-tracked and left to the exposure Of
the weather as a temporary abode for
tramps, and oftener run off for other pur-
poses, keep a body of men busy all tie
time. A regular department has been
created, with a chief and a 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 plumber Of freight cars, the removal
Of valuable cargoes and the hiding of
the plumber. The latter is an a djunct of
the astray cars, which the robbers run
into the woods or other desolate places
their nefarious transactions.
During a 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
shrcwdes. and most expert detectives
have been bafled for weeks and months
in running down the thieves, recovering
their plumber 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
trfamps, who secrete themselves III the
cars and steal anything they can pick
up; railroad employees, who band to-
gether for the purposes of plumber, and
organized gangs of professional thieves,
who reside in the big cities and make
trips into the country, led by a local pal,
who ascertains when a carload Of valua-
bic freight is to pass over a designated
line"
Perhaps the most extensive haul of
plumber in f%reight-cars extended during
Il period of years in the sixties, and was
checked through the cxcrtions 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 q
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
g I'LL %o~I l41 81 "a
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 train 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
sequcnt developments showed that
seventy-five or eighty crews practically
were engaged in the scheme Of plumber.
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 plumber removed
to a caboose, while the conductor pulled
back the door, run the wire through the
seal and then by a blow with a board the
lock looked as if it had been tempered
with.
The plumber consisted Of liquors, CT
gars, organs, pianos, silks, ribbons, and
other valuable packages. In one instance
a freight car was converted into atcm-
porary concert room. A conductor sat
all night playing on a 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 a piano il
a Pittsburg dive. The robberies in
cluded everything except an anvil and
coffin. The plumber was sold to we'll.
know Philadelphia and Pittsburg %''fcnce.
houses" and wives, sisters and sweet
hearts were decked out with the stolen
silks, gloves, laces and jewelrJ.
When all the details were prepared an(
the time for action arrived, the arrests
began in Pittsburg in April, 1887. A.
the trains rolled into the big yards de
tectives stepped forward, revolvers il
Oa0Q, anu the crews we're IidililCulcI
The same course was pursued all alon.
the line between Pitt5bur9 and Colum
bus. Over four hundred warrants were
issued. Over one-fourth of the men ar
rested were railroad employees An,
keepers Of '~'fences.' One of the mel
who was arrested, a brakeman by til
name of Baker, made q dcsperat
attempt to murder an engineer Til
engineers and tiremen were not in IL.
plot of robbery. Brakeman Youn.
called at the Jail to visit some Of til
prisoners and was arrested. He pro.estt,
his innocence at first, bat. tinall
confessed, and a large amount OF To
plumber was found III his house. ]. K
Dunlop, one OF the gang, made q ful
confession and seventy-thrce Of tlIc me
were implicated. Scores OF the fellow
were sent TO prison--Nea Iorb Hora