The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-09


ing Their Way to This City, a Quar-.
tette oft DodsetOwn Dead Line
Is Run to Earth by the Scranton
Police..Are Now in Custody.
Four members of the dead line gang
Of Bellevue who, on the night previous,
| made a burglarious raid on Pittsto
stores, were run down in this city yes
| terday after series of exciting adVen
lures.
They are Frank Mangan, alias
| "Bunches;" John Miller, Michael Judge
and John Brown, alias Louis Brown.
| Morgan is twenty-five years of age AMI
lives on Fifth street. Miller is twenty
| five and came here recently from
Kingston. Judge is twenty-five anu
| lives on Third street. He is one
armed man and was janitor of a hall
| in Bellevue. Brown, the youngest oi
the gang, is nineteen and lived on Mer.
idian street, near the oxford breaker.
None of them could be truthfully sac
to be living anywhere in particular, as
they are iall virtual tramps, sleeping
about the Bellevue breaker and the old
Bellevue drift and feeding on what
they could steal from cellars of the
neighborhoOd.
or late men have been held up and
robbed almost every night i'm BelleVu.
and other districts of the southern part
of the city. Small stores and residences
were also frequently entered and these
with various other depredations, led the
police to conclude that the dead line
which terrorized that locality some
| four arrested yesterday We're among
those under suspicion Of being impli'
Gated in these affairs; in fact, warrants
have been out for some of them for
| several days. The fact that they were
either being watched or hunted ana
| that all of them have been arrested on
one charge or another on previous oc-
casions, made their capture yesterday
all the more easy.
OPERATIONS IN PITTSTON.
Just when they went to Pittston Is
not known. but 1t Is supposed from the
numerous robberies in Pittston proper
and West Pittston during the last week
or SO that they have been hanging
around there for that length of time, OF
| that they have been making frequent
trips there from their rendezvous at the
| Bellevue drift, stealing rides ON the
| Delaware, I.ackawanna and Western
coal trains which pass the mouth OF the
mine opening. Heretofore they con
fined themselves to lesser depredatiOns
| such as entering residences ana small
| stores, but it seems "Wednesday night
| they resolved upon a grand coup, Sc
| leCting the stores on Main street 1ol
| their operations.
They first attempted to enter Nathan
Lubsons jewelry store at 433 North
Main street but We're scared away
| after they had broken down the safety
gates leading to the front doors. They
next attacked and succeeded in enter
| ing the secondhand clothing store OF
Nj. Kowalsky, 493 North Main street
| where they secured clothing valued at
| $500. The candy store of Mrs. l.. O.
| Hildoner. on Susquehanna avenue, was
| looted, as was also the general store OF
j. Freed. on Main street, after which
they started for the junction, where
they stole whiskey and cigars from
John Ormsby's saloon and made an at
| tempt to do the same at the saloon OF
| Michael Kane.
Mr.. Kane heard someone below in
| the barroom and going down met a
| man halfway up the stairs. He
grabbed the intruder but the fellow
| broke away and made his escape Kane
| followed, but was arrested on the porch
| by two pistol shots. one of which
whiZZed close to his ear and crashed
| through a plate glass window in the
front of the saloon. He says that there
were three men outside and that they
carried two large bundles and a valise
| BATTLE AT TLACKAWANNA.
The next heard of the quartette is at
Lackawanna. where they had an en-
counter with the crew of railroad
train which overlook them at that
point. Before leaving Pittston the
railroad men had heard of the burg
laries and learned the description of the
burglars from Proprietor Kane. While
| doing some switching at Lackawanna
one of the brakemen, who is a Pitts
| ton special officer, espied one-armed
| man standing along the track and rec
| ognizing him by this, as one of the
four for whom they were keeping a
| lookout, grabbed him and proceeded to
march him back to the caboose.
Judge. for it was he. called out
| "Bunches," and Mangan and the other
| two came running out of a tool shanty
near by and rescued their pal. The
other trainmen We're hurrying to the
aid of the special officer. but they were
checked and forced to take refuge be-
| hind the cars by reason of a furious
| fusilade of bullets from the pistols of
three of the robbers.
| About $50 O'Clock a. m. word was
| telephoned to the central police station
that gang of tramps were in the
| neighborhoOd of the Bellevue mule
| barn. The patrol wagon was manned
and dispatched to the scene. but the Off
GERS returned with the report that the
| tramps could not be located. They had
no sooner gotten back than telephone
| message was received from Chief of
| Police Lotus, of Pittston. announcing
| the robberies and the fact that the
| thieves had started for Scranton and
| were presumably there by that time
The earlier report of the tramps being
seen at the Bellevue gave them clue
| on which to begin work. Chief RObling
dispatched mounted officer Dyer and
Patrolmen Day, Feeney, Duggan, Saul
| Schmitt and I. F. Jones to scour the
| region about the mine and watch the
| railroads entering the southern end of
| the city.
WERE THE SAME MEN.
1t developed that the tramps seen
about the mule barn and the quartette
of robbers were identical. The advent
| of the patrol wagon alarmed them and
| caused them to hide. They evidently
| saw the wagon from their place of con-
cealment and determined to hide their
booty and scatter. They selected the
Bellevue culm dump and while en-
| gagged in burying the plunder. brake
| man on a passing train, to whom all
| four were known, saw them. When
the police got down there on their sec
| ond trip he hunted them up and told
what he had seen. The four were
known to the most of the officers and
| as they could not have gotten far away
the hunt for them was begun with