The herald., 1898-04-22


were gone some days, and returned,
!. think, about Thursday of last week. No
he never mentioned anything about rob-
bing a train at any time"
Deputy United States Marshal Pourade
has worked with tireless energy on the
ease. and as he is we'll liked in that vi
:, cinity, had big advantage in his favor.
He is satisfied in the guilt of Jones and
Bennington, but does not incline to the be-
lief that Casner or Chilson were directly
concerned in that robbery. The officer
has worked in perfect harmony with all
the county officials, and the result has
been shown in the speedy arrests. The
men were taken into custody on warrants
y issued ON complaints made before United
States Commissioner Cole at San Ber-
nardino, charging them with having rlned
-e the United States mails.
The Inquest
= An inquest was held at San Bernardno
: yesterday to determine the cause of the
/, death of Engineer Clifford Unfortunately
: the remains had been hurried through that
place to this city, and instead of the jury
being afforded an opportunity of closely
examining the body it was shipped to Los
> Angeles before they had finished viewing 1t
properly. AS result the verdict, while 1t
!, exonerates Express Messenger Mott, as
1t certainly should have done, is not wholly
satisfactory.
The following special dispatch was re-
ceived from San Bernardino last night re-
garding the coroner's inquest:
An inquest was held here this morning
to determine the cause of Engineer Gif-
ford's death. The jury was composed of
]. Mccall, A. T. Carson, r. T. Blow, j. A.
Livingston, Ed Budd, r. Milliken and p.
G. Castle. The first witness was Express
Messenger Mott, who detailed the scenes
and incidents of the hold-up as already
given in substance. He heard the noise
and opening the door started to jump out,
expecting an explosion, but was ordered
back in the car, the remark emphasized
with a bullet. He then got out on the op-
posite side and ran to the back end of TIE
train. After the robbers went off with the
mail car he and the others got their guns
and prepared to give the robbers warm
reception if they should come back for the
express. They came back and he fired,
killing Clifford and wounding the robber
Jones.
The next witness was C. +. Clark, who
corroborated the story told by the other.
He stated he was the car inspector at Bar
stow and was coming to San Bernardino
to see his family. Was friend of Gifford's
and rode in the cab. When ordered to
hold up their hands, Clark exclaimed;
"For Gods sake don't shoot, and if we
have anything you gentlemen want, take
it, 'That's all right" was the answer;
''you do as we want and you will not be
hurt The witness then gave substan-
TALLY the same story as the other, which
has been already published. When or
dered to uncouple the express car Clark
and Hicks, the fireman, did as told and
thought they had 1t all right, but on start
ing ahead the coupling held and in some
manner the mail car went off with the en-
gine, but how it was uncoupled Clark could
not say. After Jones was shot and rolled
down the bank, Mott saw him wriggling
as If to get away, and asked Clark if he
should shoot again; but Clark told him not
to shoot as the man could not get away.
Other Testimony
c. H. Hicks. the fireman, was next sworn,
and told the same story as the others. He
was the first to find the dead body of Gift
ford. He shook the body and felt for his
heart and found he was dead. Then he
went into the cab and began to get up
steam, while the others attended to the
train and the dead engineer. The steam
was very low, but he soon had enough to
go after the mail car and bring it back
They were then about to back up to Orc
Grande, when the conductor and an officer
came along and told him to pull down to
Victor.
H. F.. Thorne, the brakeman, was the
third witness, but he threw no new light
on the matter. Thorne and Hicks were
taken to the Jail to look at Bennington,
but though they thought his height was the
same as the other robber, his voice did not
resemble the robbers, nor his clothes in
any respect. After the testimony of Con-
ductor Platner, the jury brought in the
following verdict:
1--WE, the jury, find that Andrew Clifton
Clifford, native of Rochester, N Y, 45
years of age, and a resident of Los Ange-
les, came to his death on the goth of April
1898, near Orc Grande, from an unknown
cause; that, not having had an opportu-
nifty to thoroughly examine the remains,
we cannot determine whether death was
caused by a gunshot wound or by acci-
dent. From the testimony produced, we
cannot implicate A. c. Mott, and we ex-
onerate him from all blame, and commend
him for the faithful performance of his
duty"
Back With the Hounds
RIVERSIDE, April 21.-Sherff johnson
returned today from the scene of the late
train robbery. where he went, taking with
him his bloodhounds, for the purpose of
assisting in the search for the robbers
Owing to the prevalence of heavy wind
storm, which ragged all the night after the
robbery on the desert, it was not deemed
practicable to turn the bloodhounds loose
and the sagacious dogs were not tried
johnson states that the officers have a
good clue as to who the two uncaptured
robbers are, and they are confident that
their capture is only a matter of a few
days at the farthest. Johnson tells of the
capture of the second robber, whom he
says was taken without any trouble The
officers gave it out that they were headed
for the desert, and they boarded the spe-
cial train and made the start only to get
out of town u short distance when Sheriff
Holcomb and a couple of deputies dropped
off the train and returned to Orc Grande
where they went into hiding. Late in the
evening they were rewarded by seeing
clyde Bennington one of the robbers, come
into town, and he was promptly placed
under arrest.
DOINGS OF DAY