The record-union., 1893-10-02
EVANS AND THE OONTAGS.
Train Robberies and Crimes in Which
They Participated.
Convict George sontag Makes Clean
Breast of 1t, and Tells
the Entire Story.

While there has never been any doubt
in the minds of most people that Chris
Evans and George and John Sontag were
the men who robbed the Southern Pacific
trains at Ceres, Pixley, Goshen and Coils,
in the San Joaquin Valley, also a couple
of trains in Minnesota, the confession OF
George Sontag, made to Worden Aull of
the Folsom Prison, on Friday, is not
without interest, as it fully corroborates
all the charges that have been laid
against these three men.
The confession was made in the pres
ence of detective Hume of Wells, Fargo
d Co., and Division Superintendent
Wright of the railroad company. The
natural supposition is that Sontag has
consented to appear as a witness in the
trial of Evans, which will soon take
place at Fresno.
JOHN SoNTAG's FIRST CRIMES.
Sontag said: "It was in the spring,
about the middle of May, 1891, that was
living in Mankato, MINI. l was i'll busi-
ness there running paint shop. My
brother came home on visit. had not
seen him for about dozen or more years.
After he had been in MankatO short
while he told me he was a train rObber.
He said he had robbed a couple of trains
in California. OF course, / cannot give
the exact conversation we had at the
time, but we talked the matter over, and
l was considerably taken in at the time.
/ was not expecting anything like this.
had been little crooked, more or less,
but had never got SO far advanced.
He finally told me that he wanted to
go back to California in June and rob q
train at Ceres, up near Modesto. He left
Mankato some time in June. l could not
state the exact day. He came out to Cali
fornia apd met Chris Evans at Modesto.
In the meantime Chris Evans had sent
his wife away from Modesto, think to
Vfsalia, so that she would not be at home
and would not find out that my brother
was in the State. They went down and
ROBBED THE CERES TRAIN,
Or rather attempted to rob it. While
they were robbing the train, as near as
know from what my brother and Chris
Evans told me, they threw several dyna-
mite bombs into the car. In fact, they
exhausted their store of dynamite by
throwing it into the car. During the rob-
berry it seems that some one, who turned
out to be Len Harris Of the Southern Pa
cific, was shooting at them, ana Chris
Evans stepped out and made the remark,
That man is nuisance He watched
Len Harris next shot, and the moment
Harris fired he returned the fire with a
load of buckshot and wounded him, as
far as I know.
''They went back to Modesto, and the
next night hitched up team of iron
greys and Chris Evans rode in the buggy
to Stockton or Lathrop with John. Chris
Evans left my brother there and walked
back TO Modesto. My brother took the
team and
DROVE INTO SACRAMENTO,
Driving about eighty miles, 1 think. This
drive was made at night. My brother
took the train and started for Minnesota.
He came back to Mankato and told me Of
the failure he had made in not getting into
the car. l was pretty well acquainted
through the country back there, and he
asked me whether l knew of good train
to rob. I thought the matter over, and
said: Yes; if you want to rob a train it
would be a pretty good place to rob one
near Chicago I was thinking that Chris
Evans was coming back East to rob this
train with him, but as things came around
l was asked to join him in the Job. I
finally consented to take hand in it and
go to Chicago and pick out train to rob.
So my brother took my mother and 1
took my family (wife and one boy and
went to Chicago on visit"
THE MINNESOTA RoBBERIES.
Sontag then related in detail all about
the robbery of the train at Western Union
junction, Minn., by his brother John and
himself and their escape to Racine, Wis,
without detection. They got 1880, but
ii they had been little cooler they might
have got 100000
This" he said, twas the first Job 1 had
undertaken, and / didn't have any too
much confidence in myself, anyway.
That robbery wasin November, 1891, dur
ing the first part of the month"
He then came TO California and called
on Chris Evans, and his brother John
soon came on also. The next spring
George returned to Mankato, MINI. A
few months afterward Chris Evans Joined
him there John being laid up at Visalia
with broken Leg and together they held
up another train at a place called st.
Peters, but the messenger had secreted
the money SO well that they got nothing.
Finding that they were suspected and
shadowed in Minneapolis, they separated
and slipped off to California under as
sumed names, arriving at Visalia in July
Of that year 1892 few days apart.
THE COILS HoLD-UP.
"We made arrangements to go up to
the mountains to SampsOn's Flat.n re-
sumed Sontag. "Chris Evans had q
claim up there, quartz mine, and we
concluded that we would rob a train to
get some money to start the mine going.
They commenced to talk matters over
and made up their minds to rob the Coils
night train. We went up into the noun
tains to SIMPSONS Flat and stayed there
about week. / and my brother went
to Visalia, and on the morning of the I'd,
believe, we left in buggy with bay
team. We drove to Fresno and got in
there about o'clock. We stayed there
that night and the next day Chris Evans
dropped in. The night of the Sd Chris
Evans walked out of Fresno. Nv brother
went and hitched up this team and met
him on I street, down below the Hughes
Hotel.
I'VE drove out of Fresno to where the
main road runs by the schoolhouse and
across the railroad track We missed
Chris Evans and turned back and met
him. Then the three of us got into the
buggy and started out. We drove out for
q mile or more toward Coils and me and
Evans got up and put on our uniforms.
We came in on the opposite side of the
track from the depot and laid down. The
moon was up and it was rather light
The moment the train pulled in we
jumped up and, of course, made right
for it."
Then followed the details of that affair.
which have long been familiar to the
public.
THE ESCAPE TO vIsALIA.
Said Sontsg: 1--WE got into the buggy
and started for Fresno, and drove in a
roundabout way. We did not take the
street leading into Fresno direct. [ got
out in the outskirts of Fresno and went
over to the depot. had been there few
moments when the train pulled in. 1
had bought my ticket the afternoon of
the day before, and got on and went to
Visalia. John and Evans drove to VII
salia and got there along in the morning
between 7 and s. The put the team in
Evans barn and came into the house and