The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-09-13
BOLD TRAIN ROBBERY.
A Lake Shore Train Held Up by
Twenty Masked Men.
SHATTERED GAR WITH DYNAMITE

Tho Engineer Made Desperate Resist
Wounded - The Robbers Secure Over
Nineteen Thousand Dollars and Escnps.
CHICAGO, Sept. 13.-Tweuty masked men
held up Lake Shore train 40 miles from
Chicago carly in the morning, and after
wounding the engineer blew open the safe
in the cXpress.par and stole its contents
The robbery Occurred at Kessler Ind, n
few miles beyond Kendallville A few rods
west of Kessler the engineer, J. Knapp,
discol cred a switch open and put on the
brakes to save the train from destruction
The train hardly came to standstill when
the twenty robbers, armed and masked,
made rush for the express car The en-
gineer seized a coal pick and made des-
perute resistance. One of the robbers was
struck down and fell off the engine. An
other came over the tender and leveling
his revolver by the dim light shot the en-
gineer in the chest, seriously wounding
him. The fireman saw a chance to make
his escape, and, jumping through the cab
window, ran
As the train came to stop there was a
terrible explosion. The robbers had put
dynamite under the train. The explosion
tore open one side of the express car. The
conductor and brakeman hurried to the
platforms only to be covered by rifles in
the hands of several men, who said they
would shoot to kill il move were made
The railroad men made no resistance.
guard was put at the end of each car and
the express car was attacked.
The messenger behind n barricaded door
refused to obey the command of the rob
bers to open the express car entrance.
Shot after shot was fired at the car, but
the robbers soon saw they could not secure
an entrance by intimidation.
The messenger fired many shots at the
robbers through the opening that the ex-
plosion had made, but the robbers, finally
getting into the car through this break,
soon disarmed him, and with a blow on
the head knocked him senseless.
Half dozen of the twenty men then
looted the express ear Dynamite WAS
again used In opening the safe, and the
thieves took everything they thought
worth carrying away.
The dynamite having wrecked only one
express car, the robbers contented them
selves with looting this alone, and made
no effort to force an entrance to the Sec
ond
After the robbery had been effected the
guards at the doors of the passenger
coaches were called off, a few parting
shots were fired, and the band of robbers
disappeared in the wooded stretch of land
that skirts the railroad.
AS soon as the robbers had disappeared,
messengers ran to Kendallville to spread
the alarm. The sheriff Of tho county,
aroused from bed. called on all near him
for help and soon posse of residents of
kendallville were fastening along the
highway to the scene of the robbery. They
secured the vicinity, beat through the bush
and travelled miles through the woods, but
they found no clews
The express company's officers arc per-
fectly well satisfied that the robbery was
committed by expert safe blowers, who
knew the use of dynamite and just how
to get at the vulnerable parts of the safe.
This, in their opinion, ought to make the
chase more certain to end in the capture
of the robbers and the recovery of the
money than would otherwise be the ca Sc
1t is officially announced by officers of
the express company that the amount
stolen is si0,4 400. Two gold bars valued at
$4,000 We're not taken by the robbers.
Three men, one of them negro, were
arrested three miles from <endallville on
suspicion of being concerned In the Lake
Shore robbery, but nothing of an incrim-
mating nature was found on their persons
Three residents Of kendallyille are under
surveillance.