St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-11-28
Burglars Crack the Safe of
the First National Bank
at Liberty, Mo.
At Least $4,000 Of the Banks
Money Secured by the
CpackSmen.
The Bad Men Hurry Away,
Leaving Tools and Sticks
Of Dynamite.
Falsifieation Of Weights by
Several Buyers Of Grain
at Denver.

LIBERTY, Mo-, Nov. 27.-Four expert
cracksmen, with the use of dynamite
and the latest approved tools, succeeded
in cracking the big safe of the First
National bank of this city last night and
securing sum of money, which, though
it cannot be fixed definitely owing to
the reticence of the officials of the
bank, is variously estimated at from
$1,000 to $4,000 by those who are
in a position to know. The burglars
were scared away before they had COM
pleted their 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
fled without touching it off. The first
intimation of the robbery came at 1880
O'Clock this morning, when County
Treasurer Riley, who has an office 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 I'm,
and OH investigation he found that there
had been terrific explosion In the
bank, which had almost wrecked both
buildings. He at once gave the alarm,
and upon search it was learned that
burglars had been at work successfully
in the bank. They had entered the
bat T. hxyp 1f oh lato Jynu oh
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
charge of powder blew out the time
lock, which had been set to open Mon
day morning. Inside this was steel
door to the burglar-proof compartment.
The only money known to be outside of
this door was $500 deposited late Satur-
day afternoon by the Liberty Building
and Loan association. They used dyna-
mite to effect an entrance through this
second door. They must have used a
terrific charge, for the heavy steel door
was so completely
Blown to Pieces
that not even a good-sized piece of it has
been; found. This gave the burglars
access to all the money which the bank
had IN circulation Saturday, and,
the deposits of merchants on
that day being unusually heavy.
$4,000 is considered low estimate of
what they got. On the floor of the bank
there were left several sticks of dyna-
mite and number of tools, showing
that the men went off on hurry. 1t
was learned this afternoon that four
suspicious-looking characters had been
seen in town Saturday afternoon and
evening, who were total strangers. Two
were old men and two were apparently
about twenty. One of them bought a
large quantity of putty just
before dark. and this was used
with the dynamite to deaden the
sound. Leaving the bank, the burg
lars went to the house of b. S. Steele
and stole carriage and team of
horses, with which they made their eS-
cape. The sheriff and posse traced
them as far as the Milwaukee railroad
bridge over the Missouri river at Kan
sas City, where the horses were found
in an almost dying condition, having
been driven furiousiy. 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, but refuse to give
names. 1t is stated that they got across
the river by means of boat which con-
federates had in waiting.