The herald., 1898-04-22
THE TRAIN ROBBERS CAPTURED


suspicion of having instigated the younger
men to attempt the robbery. All of the
outfit, with the exception Of Chilson, re
side in or near Orc Grande. Chilson live.
| at Victor.
All Of the prisoners maintain remarkable
composure and protest their innocence Of
any completely in the crime. The nerve OF
Jones, especially, is remarkable, for in the
face Of death he stoutly declares that hi
had nothing to do with the robbery ant
was merely passing the train when the
hold-up occurred. Bennington refuses tt
discuss the matter at all except to deny his
guilt and claim to be able to prove an alioi
The other men certainly do not act as II
they had any apprehension of the outcome
Chilson were advised of the hofd-up ani
participated to some extent in aiding the
officers, Casner being a deputy sheriff.
There is still considerable behind the af-
fair and the officers are not satisfied yet
with the results. None of the rified mail
matter has been discovered. not even. the
smallest bits of envelopes, and this causes
the authorities to incline to the belief that
more than two men had hand in the
actual hold-up. Nothing has as yet been
ledTHcu VI Juc ullSSlIlS IOUUcTS, DuI IL lIllS
belief Of the officers proves to be correct
some of the stolen money and other incrim-
mating articles will perhaps be found on
them. Whether there were more bandits
is at present matter of conjecture, how
ever.
How it Happened
The train was stopped about two and a
half miles this side of Orc Grande station.
the two robbers that are known to have
participated in the affair crawling from
the blind baggage of the mail car over the
tender and commanding Engineer Clifford
to bring the train to q standstill. In the
engine were Fireman C. Fl. Hicks and Car
Inspector c. f. Clark, who was going from
Barstow to visit his family in San Ber-
nardino. Clark offered to give the rob-
bers all that he and the others had, but
begged them not to shoot The bandits re-
piled that he would not be harmed, as they
were not after them, if they did as they
were told. Acting under their orders,
Clark and Hicks got off and were ordered
to go back and uncouple the express car
from the rest of the train. The mail car
was next to the tender and the express
car next to that In some way the ex-
press car could not be uncoupled, and
when Engineer Clifford and the robbers
pulled down the track only the mail car
was behind the engine They ran the car
down to a siding some distance from the
rest Of the train and rif1ed the registered
mail pouches, securing thirty-five pack
ages Then they discovered that they had
missed the express car, which they natur-
ally wanted, so they made the engineer run
back to the train, after flrst having left
the mail car on side track
Scene of the Holdup
In the meantime the fireman and Clark
had gone back along the train, and had
been taken into the express car by Mes
senger Mott. The messenger armed them
and left them to watch one side of the
train while he took the other. They went
back to the rear platform and waited.
Some one jumped into the car but they
did not shoot, because none were certain
whether or not it had been a trainman or
a robber. The man got out Of the car
soon after This occurred after the rob-
bers had returned to the train from the
mail car. The scene of the hold-up was
in wild place in the mountains, one side
Of the track looking down high embank-