The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-06-03
HELD UP" BY THE DALT0NS
Santa Fe Train Robbed by Notorious
Gang in the Cherokee Indian Strip.
The Express Men Fought Hard. but the Out
laws Perforated the Car with Bullets and
Took On Unknown Amount from the Safes

GUTHRIE, o. T., June 2-Train.robber
held up the south bound Chicago Il Gal
weston passenger tram on the Santa Fe. due
here at 11:S0 last night. and robbed the ex-
press car. The train was delayed two
hours and half. The robbery took place
at Red Rock, water station in the Chero-
kee Strip.
The details of the robbery make story
of unexampled outlawrv on the part of the
bandits. and of brave resistance on the
part of the custodians of the express COM
pany's property. The robbers were at work
the best part of an hour attempting to in
timidate the express messengers into
submission. aud during all that time
the messengers were riskIpg their
lives in the defense of the ompany's prop
erty. The robbery was q unique one in
the history of Indian Territory outlawry.
In the first place. the robbers got every
thing in sight Again, during u battle be-
tween the messengers and the bandits, in
which fully two hundred shots were fired,
not O man was wounded. Then. again, the
robbers were of gentlemanly appearance
and department in their relations with the
trainmen, who were not pressed into their
service. and with the passen gers. several of
whom conversed with the robbers lead er.
Finally. tho robbery was doubtless COM
mitted by members Of the notorious Dal-
ton gang, for whom large rewards are still
standing, and who were even then being
tracked by n detective and his posse who
were then behind 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 reservation In the In
dian strip. Just as it was pulling out. O
few minutes later. two men. with black
masks covering their faces. jumped sud-
denly into the engines cab from the tender.
and, covering the engineer and firemen
with their revolvers, commanded them to
run the train down to the stockyards and
to stop at given signal. Carl Mack. the
engineer, and Frank Rogers. the fireman.
obeyed the command. To have resisted
would have meant death.
When the train stopped the two robbers
were Joined by five masked companions.
Their leader forced the engineer and fire.
man to walk hack to the express car. and
commanded the fireman to break open the
door with his coal pick. f. G. Whitlesy,
the messenger, and j. A. Reihl. tho Iuard.
anticipating what was gong on when the
train came to a stand-stlll, had blown out
the lights in the car and refused to allow
any one to enter. The bandits opened fire
on the men from ell sides. but the two men
within responded promptly. aiming all
shot into the car from all quarters. even
gettinp under it and shooting through the
floor. Their firing, however. was eli to no
effect, for the messengers bravely stood
their ground. In the meantime one of the
robbers had chopped hole IN the door of
the car large enough to admit q mans
body. and the fireman was told to crawl
through it into the car. This placed him
literally between two fires, and engineer
fhnY haat fr 10
companion. explained the situation to the
messengers within and told them to cease
firing.
When the robbers at last entered the ex-
their guns. aud with sledqe- hammer and
chisei, roke opon both the way and
through safe and robbed them of every
thing o. value. They also took $50 and a
gold watch from the guard of the express
car. Messenger Whitlesy bad hidden his
money and watch and the robbers got moth
ing from him.
The robbers are described by several of
the passengers who talked with them as
being we'll dressed and of gentlemauly ap-
true of the leader. who apOlogized to the
engineer for o rough remark made by one
of his crowd. and promised HIM that il:
should not occur again The leacer, IN
conversation with a PASSENGER. asked for
some smoking tobacco. The passenger
reached into his coat-tail pocket for il,
when the robber told him il it was in his
hIp pocket he had better not attempt to
get 1t.
The amount secured by the robbers is
unknown, as the express company has
made no statement. After the robbery the
men mounted their horses and rode off TO
the southwest. The Daltons are charged
with the crime and. judging from the de-
scription given of the robbers by those
who are acquainted with tie Daltons, it
was undoubtedly the notorious gang. A
detective and posse had been on the latter s
track for some time. Only day or 90 ago
one of the gang bought eighteen boxes of
cartridges at Oklahoma City and after
wards escaped the vigilance of his pur-
suers. A strong posse was organized here
late last night and went up t0 the scene of
the robbery on freight train. 1t is
thought that the robbers can be easily
tracked on account Of the wet ground
Messenger W.itlesy Is authority for the
statement that ,ess than g.. 900 was secured
Notwithstanding this statement later iu-
formation from n reliable source goes to
show that the amount of money secured is
not known, but it is likely. it is said, 10
have been many thousands. The money
- = A. l. l.