The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-06-08

OUTHhlE, ". l., June line Qetalls OF
the robbery last night of the Wells Fargo
express car of the Santa Fe passenger
train make a story of unexampled out
lawry on the part of the bandits and of
brave resistance On the part of the GUS
todians of the express company's prop
erty. The robbers were at work the best
part of an hour attempting to intimidate
the express messengers into SUBJ
mission, and during all that time
the messengers were risking their
life in the defense of the
company's property. The robbery WAS
an unique one in the history of Indian
territory outlawry In the first place the
ROBBERS got everything in sight. Again
during a battle between the messengers
and the bandits, in which fully two hun
bred shots were fired, not man was
wounded. Then again the robbers were
of gentlemanly appearance and deport-
ment in their relations with the trainmen.
who were not pressed into their service,
and with the passengers, several OF whom
conversed with the robbers leader.
Finally the robbery was doubtless COM
mitted by the notorious Dalton gang. for
whom large rewards are still standing
and who were even then being tracked by
a detective and his posse, who were be-
hind them not more than days journey
on horseback. 1t was 10 o'clock when the
train reached Red Rock, in the northwest
corner of the Otoe and Missouri reserva-
ton in the Indian strip. JUST as it was
pulling out a few minutes later two
men with black masks covering their
faces. Jumped suddenly into the engines
cab from the tender and, covering the en-
gineer and fireman with their revolvers,
commanded them to run the train down TO
the stock yards and TO stop at given sig
nal Carl Mack, the engineer, and Frank
Rogers, the fireman, obeyed the command !;
TO have resisted would have meant their
death.
When the train stopped the two robbers
were joined by five masked companions.
Their leader commanded engineer and
fireman to walk back to the express car
and commanded the fireman to break
open the door with his coal pick.
l.. G. Whitllesy, the messenger, and j.
A. Refill, the guard, anticipating what was
going on when the train came to stand
still. had blown out the lights in the car
bandits opened fire upon the men from
all sides, but the two men within re-
sponded promptly, aiming all their shots
at the door. The highwaymen shot into
the car from all quarters, even getting
under it and shooting through the floor.
Their firing, however, was all to no effect,
for the messengers bravelv stood their
ground.
In the meantime one of the robbers had
chopped a hole in the door of the car
large enough TO admit mans body and
the fireman was told to crawl through it
into the car This placed him literally
between two fires and Engineer Mack
seeing that it meant death to his COM
panion explained the situation TO the
messengers within and told them to cease
firing
When the robbers at last entered the ex-
press car, they covered those within with
their guns, and with a sledge hammer and
chisel broke open both the way and
through safes and robbed them OF every
thing of value. They also took $50 and q
gold watch from the guard of the express
car. Messenger Whittlesy had hidden his
money and watch and the robbers goi
nothing from him.
The robbers are described by several oil
the passengers, who talked with them, as
being well dressed and OF gentlemanly ap'
pearance and bearing. This is especially
true of the leader, who apologized to the
engineer for a rough remark made by one
of his crowd, and promised him that II
| should not occur again. The leader, IN
conversation with passenger, asked tol
some smoking tobacco. The passenger
reached into his coat-tail pocket for it.
when the robber told him if 1t was III his
hip pocket he had better not attempt &c
| get it.
The amount secured by the robbers il
unknown as the express company has
made no statement After the robbery the
men mounted their horses and rode OF &c
the southwest. The Daltons are charged
with the crime, and judging from the
description given of the robbers by those
who are acquainted with the Daltons Il
was undoubtedly the notorious gang. A
detective and posse had been on the lat
| ter's track for some time.
Only day or two ago, one OF the gang
bought eighteen boxes of cartridges a.
| Oklahoma City and afterward escaped
the vigilance of his pursuers.
A strong posse was organized here late
last night and went up to the scene OF the
robbery on freight train. 1t is thought
the robbers can be easily tracked on &C.
count of the wet ground.
ON GETTYSBURG'S FIELD.