Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1893-08-03
BIG ROBBERY.
The Pacific Express Company
Robbed at Wichita,
MYSTERY SURROUNDS The CRIME.
The Driver and Messenger Obey Call to
Collect Goods and Are Confronted
BY HiGhwaymen = Much
Money Taken.

WICHITA, Kan, July 31.-A Pacifi,
express wagon was held up on a stree
here about $3.50 o'clock Saturday nigh
and robbed.
A short time before the robbery .
telephone message TO the express ofiic,
called for n wagon TO be sent to the
wichita creamery TO collect some good,
for the Rock Island eastbound train
which leaves here at 10 o'clock.
when the wagon reached the cream.
cry two colored men were In waiting
and, jumping in, told the driver 10 20
TO the rear Of the building, where they
had some butter and eggs TO ship. As
soon as the wagon entered the alley a
third negro appeared, and the driver
ana messenger found themselves Gov
cred by three revolvers
The messenger was ordered to open
the safe and could do nothing but com
ply IL took but a moment for the dar-
ing robbers to empty the contents of
the box into sacks they had with them
and then ordering tho expressman TO
turn and drive off they disappeared
with their booty in the darkness.
MYSTERY DEvELoPa
WICHITA, Kan, July 31.-Such devel-
opments as there have been in the mat
ter Of the robbery OF the Pacific Ex-
press Co.'S wagon have served only to
mystify and arouse suspicious Inquiry
az the telephone exchange half an hour
after the robbery developed the fact
that no one there had overheard the
message calling for the wagon, sup
posed to have been sent from the
wichita creamery, and the local agent
OF the express company says the mes
sage was received In the office by d. w.
Jones, the driver of the wagon which
was held up
Neither Jones nor George Henshaw,
the messenger who accompanied him
and carried the key TO the strong box,
can say positively whether the high
waymen were negroes or white men
with their face blaoked. One saws they
talked like negroes the other that their
voices were more like those Of whites.
Both the messenger and the driver are
new employees and they pleaded this
excuse for breaking the company's
rules In answering calls on their own
responsibility, instead Of depending on
the drivers order book, as provided by
tho regulations.
Another mystifying circumstance Is
the fact that the money was to have
gone out on the Missouri Pacific train
which leaves here about half an hour
earlier than the Rock Island, but for
some reason there was change in the
programme.
The pouch taken from the safe and
which contained the money was found
by a police officer, looted Of its con-
tents, within 100 feet OF the scene of
the robbery soon after the alarm was
given, which, by the way, was not for
half an hour after the occurrence, the
occupants of the wagon going all the
way to the Office before mentioning
their loss. The authorities are work.
ing on two or three alleged clews with
little hope of getting anything out of
them. The Waterman at the stoclxyards
reports seeing three men running north
about an hour after the robbery. and
the sheriff's officers are out in that d.
rection, while the city police are looking
fora half-breed Indian named Smokey /
Tom who came up from the Sac |
and Fox country lately, and who has
not been seen since Saturday night the
theory being that he may be an asso-
ciate OF one OF the gangs Of desperadoes
operating in the territory sent on here
to get the lay Of the land and prepare
the way for the real perpetrators of the
daring holdup. The full amount stolen
was $1,000, of which $500 was con-
signed 10 Kansas City bank.