Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-10-28
BURGLARS IN IOWA.
Rob n Bank of $4,000 and shoot One
of Their Companions.


Webster City, Ia. Oct. 25.-The
State bank, of harrisburg, was robbed
Sunday morning at three o'clock by
three masked men. One of the robbers
is lying at the Hotel McNee in that town
with two bullet wounds in his body, one
in his chest and one in the abdomen.
The other two men escaped. Posses
are in pursuit and agents have been
notified within radius of so miles, but
nothing has been heard of them. For
two days the robbers were in this city,
and Saturday night they took hand
car, which was standing by the section
house, and made The trip to Blairs-
burg, which is nine miles east of here.
The men gained entrance TO the bank
through the front door Of the building,
battering 1t in with sledge hammers,
which they had taken from this city.
While two were at work in the bank
the third was stationed outside. A
hole was drilled through the top of
the outside safe, and to make their work
sure they inserted dynamite enough
to blow open dozen safes. The great
was wrecked and the entire building
was damaged. The plate-glass windows
were shattered. The noise of the ex-
plosion brought half the people of
harrisburg from their beds.
james Coners, an employee of the
harrisburg creamery, was the firstciti-
zen to arrive. When he saw the havoc
that had been wrought he uttered a
yell and retreated to the hotel across
the street. 1t was this cry that fright
ened the burglars. They had returned
to the building through which they
had access from n back window and
had prepared another charge Of dyna-
mite for the time locks on the interior
of the big safe. This they did not
explode.
They hastily left the bank through
the rear window, and as they were
passing the northwest corner of the
building the third man, who gives his
name as Edward Gillicon, rushed
around the northeast corner. Twice
the fleeing burglars shot at him. each
shot taking effect. A volley was fired
by the bandits at the crowd which had
rapidly gathered, but owing to the
darkness their other shots did no harm
The two men escaped, taking with them
cash and valuable papers amounting
to about $4,000. No one in the crowd
was armed and immediate pursuit was
not made. Gillicon was carried to the
hotel, where physicians probed his
wounds. He is young man about 20
years OF age, fair complexion, and his
hands give no evidence of toll. He was
fairly well dressed. Efforts were made
to have him tell the names of his assoc
ciates, but he declared he did not know
them.
Theories are advanced as to why the
robbers shot Gillicon. One is that they
mistook him for citizen and the other
is that, as 1t was impossible for him to
escape, they thought to kill him to pre-
vent any testimony he might offer
against them. Gillicon says he never
met the men until two days ago in Web
ster City, when they were drinking to-
gether and they gradually approached
the subject of robbing the harrisburg
bank. He fell In with them and showed
a willingness to assist. They explained
that they had looked over the field and
every detail of the building and 1t would
be an easy job.
To brighten Gillicon into n full confess
sion threats were made of lynching, but
they proved of no avail, He stoutly
maintained he did not know even the
robbers names. Sheriff Sinclair drove
to harrisburg before daylight Sunday
morning and has been on the scene all
day. When he searched Gillicon's cloth
ing he found number of skeleton keys
and other tools used by robbers. He
had number of gold watches, chains,
etc.. in his outside coat pocket.