El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-12-10
A Wells Fargo Express Mes
senger Kills a Robber.
HOLD UP ATSTEIN'S PASS.
An Attempt Was Made to Hold Up the
Southern Pacific Last Night, But
the Robbers We're Scared off With
Bullets Supposed to be the
''Black Jack" Gang.

Last night at 9:35 (El Paso time) tn,
Sou; hern Pacific train No. 20, we
| bound, was held up between Stein Pas
between the train robbers and two
guards that We on the train and on,
of the robbers was killed and the bal
ance of the gang were forced to give
up the effort
Late last night there were rumors OF
| he streets of hold up, but reports
were very meagre and unreliable
This morning, however, efforts were
made to get STEMS Pass by wire, but
it developed t. at all the wires had
been cut, and it was O'Clock before
one wire could be put in working order
and that was kept hot by the rsilroa1
people making inquiries about the rob-
berry, even Mr.. M. B. Davis, the gen.
eral agent of the Wills Fargo Express
company, was ur able to get any par
ticulars until late.
All that could be learned about the
hold up until the arrival of No. 19
men rode into STEMS Pass
before the arrival of No. 20
and ordered the agent to stop No.
20 and let them board the train.
He complied with their demands and
they boarded No. 20, but before they
left the station they said they intended
to hold up the Sunset Limited which
WAS following close behind No. 20.
The next the a gent heard was a tele-
gram going over the wire from San
Simon, which said an attempt had been
made to hold up the train, but that one
of the robbers had teen killed and his
body was in the express car, but that
no one else was hurt and the other
robbers had ran away when their COM
panion wAs killed.
Train No. 20 left Ell Paso yesterday
at 1886 for the west in charge
of Conductor Russell, with c.
j. Adair as express meseen-
ger. 1t carried a large amount of Mex
lean silver in boxes, destined for Chi
ma. Either at Deming or Lordsburg
two guar DIS boarded the train and were
on there when the robbery occurred
and they were probably prepared for
just such an emergency, as it has be en-
known, even in Ell Paso, for some time
that an attempt would be made to hold
up train at some place along the Inc.
They may even have heard that at
tempt would be made last night to hold
up the train. AT any rate when the
robbers boarded the train at STEMS
of them and the body of one of the out
laws accompani d the train to Tucson.
This afternoon it was learned
through private telegram that the
name of the dead robber was J SIS Will
liams, whose right name is supposed to
be George Musgrave. of New Mexico.
jess Williams has for long time been
with the Black Jack gang and at one
time it was thought that he was him
self Black Jack.
The trainmau on this af.
ternoOn's Southern Pacific from the
west gave an account of the robbery,
the same as that which is given in tue
special, but says that the way the rob-
ber was killed was as follows: 'sFour
Of the bandits boarded the engine to
get the dynamite to blow the safe with
and while they were procuring the
dynamite another robber stood on the
ground and kept shooting up and down
TIE train. A guard named Cummings
in the express car attracted the atten-
tiOn OF the man shooting and he con-
tinued sticking hts head out of the ex-
press car door and everv time he did
40 the robber would shoot at him. Cum
mings kept count on the shots fir ed d
when the rObber emptied his Wioches-
ter and reached for cartridges with
which 20 reload Cummings fred at him
and killed him dead in his tracks. This
"a tied the rest of the robbers and they
ending the fight"
ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
Passengers on the Southern Pacific
train from the west this afternoon
stated that the train reached STEMS
Pass on time at 1886 p. m, Pacific time,
and was stopped by the red board
being run out, signifying there were
So there were, but not of
the kind expected. FIVE bandits ap-
peared on the platform. They covered
the eneiueme n, after boa riding the
train, and ran Conductor Russell back
to the station where be was left
behind. Then Engineer Tom North
was compelled to pu.l out for two
miles and stop. Station Ag, Mt S.. John
b ad been held up at the station SO hs
wires 20 as to prevent commune alton,
as they thought, east and west. But
az it happened the western wires were
le # unsevered, and through these Tue
son was quickly communicated with, as
so3n as the train had left the past
statinr. TIE result was that posses
from Bowie end Lordsburg were on the
trail within two ht urs after the were
ing had been wired from Steiu's
Pass.
The bandits halted the train two
miles out. They were all h aavily arm
ed. ana had piled their dynamite and
tools ON the front platform Their
horses wer, tethere d where the ira n
was halted. Eugin er North wss
taken off his engine and an effort YVES
made to uncouple the express and bag
gage cars. But somehow or ether, the
engineer didn't eem to know how, AMI
the bandits knew less than he did S,
it was resolved to blow up the Whole
bu. mess anyhow. AS the bandits APP
preached the express car doors, they
were suddenly thrown open without
waiting for violence to be
offered, and the two EXPIRE s
messengers. Adair and Cummings, ,wer.
on hand ready for business. The hand-
s were free to enter, and as one of
them drew nearer as il to enter, Gum