The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-08-04
BIG ROBBERY.
The Pacific Express Company
Robbed at Wichita.
MYSTERY SURROUNDS The CRIME.
The Driver and Messenger Obey a Call to
Collect Goods and Are Confronted
by Highwaymen Much
Money Taken.

WICHITA, Kan, July 31.-A Pacific
express wagon was held up on street
here about 9:30 o'clock Saturday night
and robbed.
A short time before the robbery a
telephone message to the express office
called for wagon to be sent to the
Wichita creamery to collect some goods
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 to go
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
and messenger found themselves COW
cred by three revolvers
The messenger was ordered to open
the safe and could do nothing but COM
ply. 1t took but moment for the dar-
ing robbers to empty the contents of
the box into sacks they had with them
and then ordering the expressman to
turn and drive off they disappeared
with their booty in the darkness.
A MYSTERY DEVELOPS.
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
at 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 ID. 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
waymcn We're negroes or white men
with their face blacked. One says they
talked like negroes the other that their
voices were more like those of whites.
Both the messenro- 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
.hc drivers order BOOK, as provided by
he regulations.
Another mystifving circumstance is
.he fact that the money was to have
zone out on the Missouri Pacific train
which leaves here about half an hou4
Isl. I,rtt
some reason there was 4 change in the
programme.
The pouch taken from the safe and
which contained the money was found
" police officer. looted of its con-
lents. within 100 feet of the scene of
ihe robbery soon after the alarm was
yiven. which. by the way. was not for
1alf an hour after the occurrence, the
occupants of the wagon going all the
Hav to the Office before mentioning
heir loss. The authorities are work
ng on two or three alleged clews with
title hope of getting anything out of
hem. The watchman ut the stockyards
'eports seeing three men running north
,bout an hour after the robbery, and
;he sheriff'S officers are out in that di-
,ection. while the city police are looking
;ora 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-
,iate 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 3, .G0G. OF which $500 was con-
signed to Il Kansas City bank.