The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1893-06-13
TRAIN ROBBER WILSON.
He Tells the Story of the "Hold
Up"

was taken.
Wilson is a gawky-looking country
boy, but without other aid than his
unparalleled nerve and two cheap re-
volvers, he held as direst prisoners
the engineer, fireman, baggageman
and messenger, and under subsection
the governor and treasurer of the
state, an armed railroad detective and
125 passengers. Wilson takes his ar
rest and the end of hisdream of wealth
with a GOODNESS or stolidity that does
not argue high mental development.
At least, it denotes astounding moral
obliquity. The humor that, despite
its criminal aspect, attaches to his
dime novel performance does notseem
to impress him. He playedhis game,
won the first trick and then was beaten.
He accepts the situation, and now
only thinks of making as easy terms
with the outraged state as possible.
Wilson's STORY.
Seated, in the Globe Democrat office,
Wilson told the story of his daring
''hold up" as follows:
"When reached Pacific l had not
long to wait, and when the train ar
rived l at once walked coolly towards
the front part of the train. During
all this time however, | kept as much
as l could in the dark. When the
conductor yelled all aboard, and is
the train was creeping slowly away
from where 1 stood l crept as / sup
posed unseen to the car which was
attached to the engine, and which
also proved to be the express car.
When got on the front platform l
found tramp there stealing ride,
and asked him if / e wanted to make
some money easy, and he said yes.
Then l told him that was going to
rob this train and wanted him to assist
me in carrying out my plans. The
tramp became excited and quickly re-
sponded no. and the only thing left
for me to do then, was to hold it he
myself, as 1 had planned to do in the
first place.
1.-The train was now going very
rapidly, and | at once placed my
handkerchief mask over my face, and
with the two revolvers, one in each
hand, climbed over the tender of the
engine. As / was climbing found
that my mask was not perfect one
and was shutting off my sight. said
to myself this will never do, as ] want
to have nv ewes Open,. 50 i
pulled the handkerchief down
as far as nv nose and
in this way crept over the coal
towards the engine cab. When go;
near the cab the door of the boiler was
open and the light that came from it
shown right in my face. l found the
fireman shoveling coal into the boiler,
and when he saw me l threw my
pistol down on him and told him to
be quiet. The fireman said nothing,
but looked his surprise. The engi
neer was not vet aware of my presence
and 1 was only waiting for the engine
to cone to the place where l had left
my valise before l would call upon
him to bring his engine to a halt.
How in the world l ever did it. but
1 misjudged the spot where TIE vali>c
was, and threw MY revolver upon the
engineer, and told him to stop lis Ell
CINE or / would blow his head o.. lie
complied with my request, and when
the engine was brought to standstill
ordered both engineer and fireman
out of the cab. They did as l request
ed, and when all three of us reached
the ground l marched them up to the
express car.
II then took the package of dyna-
mite out of my pocket and coolly un-
wrapped the paper and took one stick
of dynamite out. l did not wait for
the express messenger to say that he
would not open the door, but l called
out for him to open it, and l guess
before he had time to make any kind
of reply had applied the match to
the dynamite and 1t had got IN its
work. Before l could get the fuse to
burn l was compelled to strike
three matches, all Of them going out
on me. The fourth match, however,
did the work all right. As soon as
the explosion occurred l at once fired
four shots in the air, not for the pur-
pose of hitting any one, but merely to
Brighten the passengers and to make
it appear as if l was more than one
man.
Immediately following the explo-
sion one of the men in the car, which
afterwards proved to be the express
messenger. appeared at the door with
upraised hands and jumped down onto
the ground and at once moved up to
where l had stood the engineer and