The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-08-13
Special to the REooRD-Ux1or.

VIsALIA, Aug. Zone of Sheriff
Kay's posse returned this evening, hay-
ing left the camp at o'clock this morn
ing. The Niger Creek section was thor
oughly explored, but no trace of the
train robbers was found. A posse has
now gone to Mule Creek or Redwood
Canyon, where Evans ranch is. Sheriff
Hensley and posse are now at the latter
place. AS time passes, there is less pos
sibility of their capture. George Sontag
said that he would not take out habeas
corpus TO get out of Jail, and needed no
counsel until taken to Fresno. AT 1880
O'Clock this evening breathless man en-
tered the Sheriff's Office and said that
Evans had just passed along Garden
street. II has been thought that Evans
might come back some night to release
George Sontag.
CLEwS LEADING TO THE ARREST OF
SONTAG.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 12.-While Ex-
press Company officials intimate that
there is little news concerning the pur-
suit of Chris Evans and John Sontag,
they are becoming little commune
cative regarding the clews that led to the
arrest OF George Sontag, and the subse-
quent stirring events in which Oscar
Beaver lost his life. From conclusions
since reached, they evidently have little
doubt that Evans and one of the Sontags
beside operating on the coast took trips
Eastward to apply their patent brake"
4 little more than a month before the
Coils robbery train was held up near
kaSota, Mimi. The robbers got the drop
on the engineer and fireman at a stop
ping place and made them light cigars for
the purpose, 1t is Surmised, of exploding
Il Il,
found intact on the scene of operations.
The Pinkerton detectives sent from st.
Paul to trail the men found that the rob-
berry was conducted in a peculiar manner
The engineer and fireman were covered
with Shotguns and ordered to stop the
train. Then the knights Of the road made
their way TO the express car and forced
the engineer to open the door. Through
bIunder the door was opened the wrong
side of the car from the express mes
senger's quarters, allowing that official
to secret >, 200 in coin under a pile of meat
sacks.
The trail of the robbers led to Mankato.
where it was found that they had regis
tered under assumed names. 1t was next
discovered that they had left for Mime
apo4ls two days apart. At Minneapolis
they met and bought tickets for Port
land, Or, at which place the Pinkerton
trail terminated. 1t was, however, con-
cluded that the Kasota robbery had been
committed in the same way as the one at
Western Union junction short time be-
fore.
At Portland an American Express
Company official, bent on locating the
robbers, concluded that the trail led to
this city, where he, on his arrival. COM
municated with s-Fargo's detective,
and just about the time of the Coils
train robbery one of the robbers was
located in Visalia. There is now little
doubt entertained at headquarters that
Evans and Sontag were engaged in the
Kasota undertaking. John Sontag, the
lame companion of Chris. Evans in his
flight to the mountains, it is now be-
lieved, remained at home on account of
his lame leg when the Kasota trip was
undertaken.
An impression prevails in certain cir
cles that John Sontag has either made
some very damaging admissions while
answering pointed queries propounded
by the detectives, or furnished them with
full confession of the train robbers
operations, and that the disclosures are
being withheld for the present to allow
the detectives to locate and capture some
other participants.