Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1894-1895, 1895-01-18
ROB AN IOWA TRAIN.
DARING ACT OF TWO BANDITS
NEAR OTTUMWA.
Bind the Clerks and Take All of Value
in Sight, Probably More than
stockholders Thought to Be Lo-
cal DesperadOes.
Rob the Express Car.

ROD the Express Car.
Probably the most daring train robbery
ever committed in Iowa was perpetrated
early Saturday evening, almost under
the very eyes of the Ottumwa authori-
ties. 1t was one of the most consummate
in holiness and successful in execution
in the annals of train robbery. No. 4
mail express train on the Chicago, Bur-
lngton and Quincy Road was the train
selected, and the Adams Express Conf
pany is the loser of good sum of money,
the exact amount of which cannot be
definitely ascertained 1t is thought,
however, TO be more than $4,000.
No. is the Burlington through train
from Denver to Chicago. Its express
business is largely local, but many times
it carries large sums of money. If this
train was rich in big amounts no one
knew it, but the daring highwaymen evil
IDENTIFY suspected so, and almost in broad
daylight relieved the messenger of all
the packages in the safe that looked like
money.
Chillicothe. the place where the rob-
bers boarded the train, is little village
eight miles west of Ottumwa. When the
train arrived there two men jumped on
the front platform of the express car,
and were the same men, it is believed,
whom the agent says he saw at that place
early in the afternoon. The train leaves
Chillicothe at $50, and arrives at OF
tumwa just twenty minutes later. por
ton of this time being consumed by stop
ping at the Milwaukee junction. The rob-
bers evidently knew the custom of the
train. as the contamination of their plan
evidences.
When the train left Chilicothe Messen-
ger John $. Page was sitting near the
safe, and his assistant was chatting care
lessly with Baggageman Ed Wright. Sud
denly the front door of the express car,
which is usually locked, was thrown open
and two masked men. each with two re-
volvers, called on the men to throw up
their hands. While one man covered the
trainmen the other quickly bound and
gagged them and threw them in one cor
ner. Then they coolly ri1ed the safe.
placed the contents i'll a big sack and
waited ten minutes for the train TO whis-
tie for the stop at the junction.
Jump Off with the Booty.
While waiting Postal Clerk John Um-
phreys came in from the mail car and
was treated like the rest of his fellows.
When the train slackened its speed at
the junction the robbers jumped off with
their booty, crossing the Des Moines
River on the ice to the island. which has
been the rendezvous of highwaymcn and
tough characters from time immemorial.
The mail clerk released the express mes
senger from his thongs, and when the
train pulled into the station at Ottumwa
he had Embossed all his comrades, and the
word Was given quickly to the sheriff and
police.
Sheriff Stodgbil, Chief of Police Van
derveer and one posse started out on an
engine for Chillicothe. Detective Jim
Harrison, who shot the bandit ut Batavia
two weeks ago, headed another posse to
trail the robbers if possible to their hiding
place. The robbers wore no hats, but
hoods with masks seemingly attached.
Both had brown overcoats and one wore
gray jeans trousers, while the other had
encased his'legs in Overalls.
1t is the belief of the railroad men that
they belong to n gang of moonshiners,
counterfeiters and desperadOes generally
who inhabit some of the abandoned mines
in the eastern edge of Monroe County,
and that they were met on the other side
of the river by their pals who had horses
in waiting and they easily escaped.