The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-15
TRAIN ROBBER NEMESIS
MEN WHO ATTACKED THE KATY
DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON.
Picturesque Cherokee Bill aud His
Unique RetOrt to the Sheriff When
Standing on the GaIIows.


New York Journal
The Missouri Kansas & Texas Railroad
is not such an awfully long road or rich
road. but it stands at the head of the rail-
road systems of America in one particular
at least There have been more hold-ups to
the mile along the line of the NJ. K & T.
than OF any other line in the country. In
the general offices of the company they
have an elaborate photograph on which
are represented the stark lineaments of the
desperad0es who have held up the trains of
the line. The NJ. K. &, T, The Katy" as
the railroad folk call it, likes 10 think itself
the Nemesis Of train robbers. There is be-
lief in the office that it is q hoodoo on high
waymen, and they adduce the testimony of
TINS photograph to prove their theory Ev-
cry man in the picture and there are about
score of them, has at one time or another
halted train this road, and every one
of them has died usually with bullet or
load of buckshot through him very soon
after
sometimes it was a Dalton, who crawled
over the tender and poked shotgun into
the engineers face; sometimes it was a
| Cook, who forced fireman to set off dyna-
mite and blow in the side of an express car;
sometimes it was a Wyatt who tore up
rail and faced the shaken train crew with
| a Winchester; sometimes it was a Powers
that poured bullets along the side of the
train and kept passengers and guards in
doors until the gang had their fill of the
stored treasures. All of these and a whole
lot more tough people have been in on deals
where the Katy was the sufferer, and all
OF these grace the picture that is shown so
proudly at the general offices of the COM
pany.
Perhaps the toughest man in the picture
was Cherokee Bill, who was also the
youngest of the bunch Bill was ONLY TWEEN
ty-one when rope ended his career of over
SIX years of the most interesting devitry
that even the hard country about No Mans
Land ever saw Cherokee Bill was some
negro, some Creek Indian and some mean
white man, and if there was any evil quail
ity IN the three races that didn't get into
ms blood the fact was never discovered
down Texas way.
He was fifteen when he cut loose from
Sunday school and joined the Cook gang
He celebrated his entree into that society
by blowing the lights out of a big Texan
who tried to give him the worst of it in the
division of some plumber. This established
ms character among the gang, and after it
Cherokee Bill was considered an eminent
member Of the party. 1t wasn't long before
Cherokee Bill became jealous of the fame
of Bill Cook the leader of the crowd He
didn't feel that he was given proper credit
Tor dare-deVlltry, so he shook the outfit and
set up in business for himself. He had a
! charmingly original way of Waiting into a
town alone during the noon hour, when he
! was most likely to find only one man in the
bank, and of holding up the bank single
| handed. On one occasion, when he found a
| portly, respectable, old bank president in
charge, he amused himself by making this
officer carry the wealth of the bank to the
outskirts of the town, where his horse was
waiting for him.
He also tried his hand at postoffice rob-
berry, and many a jaded postmaster had his
interest in life restored by the vision of
! Cherokee Bill at the delivery window be-
-! hind a Colts 45. When business slack
| in this line he turned to train robbery, and
| by strict attention to this he made himself
a great name in the business. Already The
| Katy had hOodoo name among the hold
/ ups but Cherokee Bill was no more afraid
of hoodoos than he was of anything else,
SO he tackled an M, X. & I. train and got
away with it.
He didn't have much time to brag how
| ever, as very soon after while he was rob-
bling the postoftce at Lenapah, he killed an
| innocent bystander named Ernest Melton,
and before he could get away the sheriff got
him and locked him up for murder Before
the law could decently hang him he had
murdered one of his guards but his attempt
to break jail failed. In due time he mounted
scanold, and as he stood on the trap,
with his hands strapped to his sides, the
sheriff politely asked him if he had any
thing to say.
no he answered. II didn't come here
to talk; I'm here to die. said Cherokee Bill.
He died promptly accordingly.
Some of the other eminent characters who
figure on the railroads photograph are Bill
Dalton, Bob Dalton, Bill Doohn and Bill
Cook, Cherokee Bills rival; with them is
Skeeter Baldwin, as he was usually with
them in life. Most of these men were
wiped off the express messengers slate dur
ing the discussion with Winchesters and
Kan. This Cofeyville raid was the very
next job the Daltons tackled after a sue
cessful hold-up of The Katy"
The hoodOo worked rather more slowly in
the case of Buck Watman, Bill Reider
Foster Crawford and Chicken Elmer Lewis
These were also members of the Cook gang
a
and again, looting a postottice, killing an Oc-
casional sheriff as they went Among their
katy train, they stood up the postQfiice
at Oakdale, O. T., and ten days later robbed
the bank at Wichita Fails, Tex incidentally
they killed the cashier, which annoyed the
people Whereabouts so much that they did
not bother the authorities, but organized
posse which succeeded in draping a tele-
graph pole with Crawford and Lewis, whose
pictures accordingly figure in the work of
art that decorates the office of the general
agent of the NJ, X. a. 7.
The others fell in due time, some through
traps on scaffolds and others as incidents
to various depredations. Charlie Pierce, Cap
WILLIS and Zip Wyatt hit the turf face
downward before they had time to even
blow in the proceeds of their robbery OF
the hoodOo train Bill Doolln, one OF the
most striking figures in the photograph gal
lery, stopped a charge of buckshot after
CoffeyvilIe that made his breast look like
porous plaster.
There is one womans portrait among the
group-a pretty girl in a COW boy hat who
had herself taken with a SiX-shooter in her
hand This is Jennie Metcalf, Queen of the
Rustlers" as she used to call herself. She
is dead now, but she could hardly be classed
as victim of THE Katy hoodoo, because
she lived to enjoy her share in half dozen
robberies of that road. She was the girl
who took of the bandits whenever
they were too much shot up to keep up with
the gang She had a clientele of her own
among the ranchers of the locality and
for her sake they hid away the wounded
Cooks and Daltons whenever she asked
them to. She came in for something when-
ever a successful haul was made When
ever jewelry among the loot gathered
from train or express office they bestowed
it upon her.
The hoodoo of Tine Katy may not be in
fallible, but its record is d proud one, and
the shot, hanged or otherwise dead bad
men who figure in the big picture in the
railroad office is proud testimonial of its
efficacy.