Kansas City daily journal., 1896-12-25
THE KANSAS CITY JOURNAL FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25 1896

be the toughest in Jackson county. 1t Is
| robbers paradise and a ridge runs
through the whole, which is named the
| DEVILS Backbone. Over this wild section of
country, heavily armed officers tramped
and rode all day yesterday, looking in vain
for some clue to the perpetrators of the
| train robbery. The natives OF that section
knew little or nothing about the event OF
the night before until quite late in the
day. News travels slowly in Crackers S
Neck and train robbery has become so
common that an event such as occurred
Wednesday night only causes passing COM
ment When the people of that section
learned that a train had peen held UP on
the night before, they turned out not in
curiosity, but in hope Of finding some-
tEing valuable the robbers had let slip the
night before. The train thieves, however
had left nothing behind except a few en-
velopes, which might have contained thou
Sc nds of dollars on the night before, but
that was all.
After a thorough search. Crackers
Neck residents returned to their hilly
farms or assembled at the grocery store at
Glendale to speculate on the size of the
haul made. Marshal Keshlear visited the
spot where the engine was killed" looked
the ground over and then proceeded to
Glendale, where the section men were call
ed upon to take their handcar up the heavy
grade with the officials on board. The
party was propelled up the cut, where the
express car and baggage car stood on the
night before and the same inspection was
again gone through with. Here was found
a piece of the gun of the express messen-
ger, which the robbers threw high up on
the bank the night before. Many tracks
were about the place in the soft earth, and
a few bits of paper were strewn on the
ground, which suggested the TACT that the
booty was divided while the engine was on
its run down grade towards Glendale The
off thnroupb search and s.
certained that the robbers left nothing of
value behind. The return trip was then
made to Glendale and some OF the people
who live in the vicinity of Glendale were
questioned as to strange characters who
might have loitered about on the night be-
fore.
Nothing was learned that gave clue to
the identity of the robbers, and, after
scrambling over some or the big boulders
for which this section of the country is
famed, the officers left.
Robert Green, special detective for the
Alton road, accompanied the officers in
their search, but he, toe. is apparently in
the dark as to who the train robbers are.
Mr.. Green returned to Independence with
the officers yesterday evening.
Station Agent Walker, of Glendale, had
no information to give. He stated yester-
day that he believed that the band was on
the engine when it passed his station like
a meteor. He heard the train, as he sup
posed, coming, heard it rumble past, and
then the steam blowing off mile down
the track. He is of the opinion that the
engine was not abandoned further up the
track and allowed to run down the incline.
Mr.. Walker has been station agent for the
Alton number of years.
The land within the vicinity of the bridge
where the engine stood showed no horse
or wagon tracks. leaving the supposition
that the robbers walked to the spot where
the train was held up, and went into hid
ing near there, or cut across the country
through the underbrush, which is quite
thick at this point. The search will not
likely be renewed near Blue cut, for clues
at the ground were gone over thoroughly
yesterday by the officers.