The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-08
TWO BANDITS OF THE SOUTHWEST
The stun of Which Dime Novels Are

Dan Elkins and George Wilbur. who
went to Tombstone with Howard, had be-
come the boldest highway robbers ever
known in Arizona. Gambling and mining
were too slow for them as ways of max
ing money. When Howard became the
tough man of the mining town, and risk
ed his life daily merely because he wanted
TO be feared by the population, Elkins
and Wilbur told him he was a fool, be-
cause a man who risks his life ought to
get something worth having. They hint
ed that the contents of only one of the
strong boxes Of gold bullion that went
away every week or ten days from the
gold mines in Tombstone TO California
and I'll Paso, would make man indepen-
IDENTIFY rich. Howard, however, had his
personal grudge TO settle and his repu-
tation as a tough to sustain in Tombstone,
and the trio of young men from New Eng
land broke up Elkins and Wilbur went
from the mining town to Tucson, in the
spring of 1872 and engaged themselves as
workers about the livery stables, where
the teams that drew the coaches from the
mines across the alkaii deserts to Los
Angeles, in Southern California, rested.
As time went on they gave out that they
had by chance come upon rich-looking
ore over In the San Rita mountain canons,
some fifty miles southwest from Tucson,
and across the sandy waste. once every
week or two the two men rode away from
the lazy old Mexican town, apparently for
visit of a few days to their newly found
mining claim.
In the fall of 1879 highway robberies be-
gan to occur along the lines of the stages
from Tombstone to Yuma and Ell Paso.
They were always done by two men, who
wore white masks. They stopped the stage
to California three times near Florence,
and then robbed 250 miles away in another
direction. The driver was killed in two in
stances, and another time a miner FROM
Tombstone, who was slow in getting out
of the coach with his bags of gold dust,
was shot dead. One attack was in the
night, and the others at different times
in daylight. once one of the robbers took
passage on the stage at little Mexican
pueblo near Maricopa He was, of course
well disguised, and said he was on his
way to Los Angeles. At a certain spot
on the way he drew two pistols, and
stuck them in the faces of the passengers,
who were lollng back on the cushioned
seats inside the coach. Then in few
words in an undertone, so that the driver
outside could not hear, he commanded
each of the five passengers to keep silent,
and to put watch, money and gold into
his capacious overcoat pockets. One young
man he ordered to search each of the
out of the coach window, and to turn all
valuables into his big pockets. The plan
was so neatly carried out that the last
passenger inside the coach had been
searched when the bandits masked COM
| panion stepped out from behind a dense
! growth of manZanita and chaparral along
the desert road, and Winchester rifle in
| hand commanded the stage driver to stop.
AT that moment the robber jumped from
inside the coach and helped in the coer-
| cion of the driver by sending a few A cali
! Der bullets whiZzing dangerously near his
/ head. The money box, under the drivers
seat, was thrown off in a second the
| driver was ordered to whip up as fast as
| possible, and the stage went creaking
away over the deSolate desert on its way
| toward Fort Yuma, some 200 miles away.
| When the chest had been smashed ana
| the valuable contents appropriated, the
| robbers mounted their horses, and in
| few hours had disappeared among the
giant cacti and sage brush across ne
| trackless desert into the motmsains
where no white man had ever gone at that
time.
The United States marshal and a posse
of men went here there and everywhere
| in the territory searching for the bandits.
! The owners of the Billy mining company
at Tombstone offered a reward of 81, 600 for
! the capture of the robbers, and there were
! several other rewards of smaller sums
One day a stableman who was riding in
| the coach toward FL Paso, over the route
| where hold-up had occurred day or two
| previous, got out when he reached the
scene of the robbery, and on his hands and
knees crawled among the sage brush and
| cact, all the time examining the marks
that remained of the horses hoofs in the
! shifting sand He went back to Tucson
| in a few days, and kept on thinking. A
| week later United States Marshal Lawson
| and four deputies went to Tucson, and had
| a consultation with the stableman. He
| said he believed the marks were those
made by horse ridden by Elkins, because
no other horse in that region had such a
| curious side step when nervous and rest
| less. The government officers watched
Elkins and Wilbur, and were satisfied that
they were the h!ghwaymen. So one night
the marshal and his deputies made de-
| scent upon the abode hut that the robbers
used as a home on the outskirts of Tucson.
| EllIins or Wilbur must have seen the Off
GERS approaching in the moonlight, for no
sooner had the men cautiously dismounted
! and were stealthily advancing, pistols in
| hand, toward the only door of the house,
! than 1t flew open and the two robbers came
| out. Quicker than thought the marshal
was knocked down unconscious by blow
| on his head with the butt of a revolver and
three of his deputies were shot. Two of
them were killed instantly. A half-dozen
| shots went toward the robbers. In less
time than 1t takes to tell it, Elkins and
Wilbur had run to their corral at the back
Of the adobe, and, each having thrown a
bride across a horse, they were off and
away. When the excitement was over a
vain search was made for many miles out
across the sand for the course taken by
the men. A heavy windstorm came up the
next day, and 1t was absolutely impossible
TO trail the bandits on the shifting sands
The adobe was ransacked, and sufficient
evidence was found TO connect the two
men with the highway robberies.
There were no more hold-ups of the
stages from Tucson for some months. 1t
began to be generally thought that the
robbers had run away to Mexico, or had
been lost out on the desert. In the fol-
lowing March. however, there was an
other bold stage robbery in a new locality
along the lonely route between Benson
and Deming. The driver refused to stop
the four horses drawing the stage. and
tried to drive on. He was shot from his
high seat while a few bullets were sent
whistling through the stage to make the
passengers more obedient to the demands
Of the two hghwaymen. After the Gus