Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-19

sess, and when occasion requires it he can
be as genteel and mlld-a-mannered man as
| e'er cut throat or scuttled ship. To his
| other crimes of murder and theft is added
polygamy. There is no telling how many
times he has been married, and his wives
are all intelligent, good-looking women.
| The same man told an interesting story
OF gang of Texas train robbers. They
were led by the notorious Brack Connect at
first, and when he ''bit the dust" under the
famous Alfred Allee's pistol, the leader
crime of this gang was very similar to that
OF the Daltons Thursday night, except the
former were foiled in their attempt by a
| posse of officers on the train. The Whitley
| gang had its rendezvous in Wilson and Atlas
cosa counties, Tex, about 100 miles south of
San Antonio. Alice, who has perhaps killed
more men than any other man alive, with
the possible exception of Bat Masterson,
OF Creede, Col, owns ranch in that coun-
try, and knew every one of the gang In
the winter and spring of 18S7-88 they had
held up trains promiscuously over Texas.
Thieves Quarrel Among Themselves
Finally they got in q row among them
selves over the division of spoils, and one
of their number named Harrall gave the
whole gang away to United States Marshal
John T. Rankin at San Antonio. Harrall
told Rankin of plot to rob through ex-
press of the Southern Pacific Railroad, near
the little station of Harwood, 12O miles
east of San Antonio. The Marshal had
Harrall remain with the robbers and report
to him daily in cipher the progress of the
plot and Of their movements. This Harrall
did faithfully. When the situation grew
threatening Marshal Rankin, with heavily
armed posse, Alfred Alice among the num-
Der, left San Antonio one night in Feb
ruary, 1888, in the express cor which the
robbers intended to loot
When the train reached Harwood, Bill
Whitley and another of the gang, heavily
masked, boarded the engine and, with
neer and fireman, made them run the train
out from Harwood couple of miles and
there stop in deep, dark cut The rest of
the gang, to the number of is, were am
bushed at the point where the train was
halted. Then the fireman, in obedience to
command from Whitley, cut the mail car
off from the train, and this was run on down
the road mile and half further. The
robbers had mistaken the mail car for the
express car in the black darkness and they
left behind not only all the Doodle, but also
the heavily armed Marshal's posse, who
were sitting in the express car, waiting for
an opportune moment to spring out on the
bandits and annihilate them.
The Nerve of a Law Student
The only occupants of the mail car were
the postal clerk and thin, n,dudish-looking
youth, just from law school, His name is
Duval West, and his father had been Chief
Justice of Texas. Young West, with the
the true Texan spirit for adventure, had
Joined the posse for the experience His
bo lnS%
have been permitted to accompany Marshal
Rankin and his intrepid deputies, though
his delicate features and pale complexion
were against him. The doors on one side of
the mail car were left open.
When the eng gine was brought to a stop
the robbers made the engineer climb up the
side of the car to light it. A big torch was
faring in his hands. No sooner had the
engineer poked his head in the door than
West, the dudish-looking young law stu
dent, blazed away at him with both barrels
of shotgun loaded with slugs. The lead
plowed through the engineers right cheek
and tore all the flesh off as closely as if il
had been scraped with knife.
The engineer fell back wounded, and then |
the robbers saw they would have to make q
fight. They turned their Winchesters and |
pistols loose, and filled the side of the car |
full of bullets.
The Gang Run to Earth,
West had four or five double-barreled |
shotguns, and he kept up such hot fire |
from the inside of the car that the robbers,
IL in number, thinking whole company of |
soldiers with battery of artillery was after
them, took to their heels and fled. The /
one lone, delicate law student had vanquished |
the worst gang of train robbers that had |
ever infested Texas, while the Marshal's |
posse we're resting on their arms in the ex-
press car, momentarily expecting an attack.
In few hours after the fight was over the
posse with bloodhounds were on the trail
Of the bandits. The robbers scattered, but
Rankin kept hot on the trail of Bill
Whitley. In day or two he overlook him
IN HarralPs house, in Wilson county.
The Marshal and three deputies surprised
he bandit and ordered him to throw up his
hands Instead of doing this he reached for
his brace of pistols, and was literally rid
lied with bullets. Others of the gang were
run to earth one at time, arrested and sent
20 the penitentiary. The last to be CAP
,ured was Bud Powell. Two weeks ago he
vas arrested near Helena, Mont, where he
had been living for three years under an
assumed name and as leader in the Pres
,yterian Church. He was carried back to
San Antonio for trial, and now the religious
elements of both Helena and Antonio are
pleading for his liberation from custody,
ontending that he has been converted"