The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-11-28
The Burglar.Proof Vault of the First National
Bank at Liberty, No., Drilled Into and
Easily Shattered to Fragments.
Terrible Denouement and Panic Attend.
ing a Bull.Fight at Arteaga.
Four Infuriated Beasts Break through the Bar.
ricade and Plunge Among the Crowd,
Trampling and Tossing the Multitude.
STEEL DOORS HAVE NO rERRoRs.


At Any Rate, Not the Steel Doors OF .
Bank. to q skiiiful Burglar.
Special TO the Indianapolis journal.
LIBERTY, No., Nov. q. Four expert
cracksmen, with the use of dynamite and
the latest improved tools, succeeded in
cracking the safe of the First National
Bank, of this city, last night, and securing
a sum of money which. though it cannot
be fixed definitely. owing to the reticence
timated at from S12, 600 to $4,000 by those
who are in o position to know. The burg
lars were scared away before they had
completed the work. and did not get into
the reserve vault of the safe, In which was
$4,000 more. principally in gold. They had
dynamite and fuse attached to this. but
for some unknown reason fed without
touchingit off.
The fret intimation of the robbery came
at 1880 o'clock this morning. when County
Treasurer kuhl, who has quarters in the
building adjoining the bank. went to his
Office. When he entered the room he saw that
the wall of the building was caving in and
on inyestion found that there had been
almost wrecked both buildings. He at
once gave the alarm and upon search 1t
was learned that burglars had been at work
successfully in the bank. They had en-
tered the bank by means of skeleton keys
which had opened the back door and
another leading to the room in which was
the vault. They then drilled holes
through the outer door of the vault and
with o charge of powder blew out
the time lock. which had been
fss Inside to hs Gpsn wss ss door TO
the burglar proof compartment. The only
money known to be outside of this door
was $500, deposited late Saturday afternoon
by the Liberty Building and Loan Associa-
tlon. They used dynamite to effect an en-
trance through the second door. They
must have used terrific charge, for the
heavy steel door was so completely blown
to pieces that not even q good d-siZed piece
of it has been found. This gave the burglars
access TO all the money which the bank
had In circulation on Saturday and the de-
posIts of merchants on that day. Being
unusually heavy. $4,000 Is considered q
low estimate of what they got On the
.dgs~smite and number of TOOLS showing
that the men went off in a hurry.
a 1t was learned that four suspicious-lOok-
ing characters had been seen In town on
ers. Two were old men and two were APP
parsntly about twenty. One of them
bought alarge quantity of putty just before
dark. and this was used with the dynamite
10 deaden the sound. Leaving the bank the
burglars went to the house of Mr.. James
Steele and stole q carriage and q team
of horses with which they made
their escape. The sheriff and a posse
traced them as far as the Milwaukee rail-
road bridge over the Missouri river at Kansas
City. where the horses were found in an al
most dyIng condition. having been driven
furiously. Here all trace OF the men was
lost, but the officials of Kansas City are
working on the case, and tonight think
they have learned who the men are. They
refuse to give names. 1t is stated that they
got across the river by means of boat,
which confederates had in waiting.