Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1899-08-25
AsT Las VEGAS NEW MEXICO FRIDAY EVENING AUGUST

start and refused to have his Shattered
arm amputated, although the physician
told him 1t Vas the only means Of saw
ing his life.
When told by the officer thst Nc
Ginness had been captured he became
very restless and ugly and begged the
officer for gun that he might kill him
self, and Tuesday night between mid
night and o'clock, when he thought
the officer was asleep. he removed the
bandsge from his arm, tied 1t around
his neck and placing his foot IN loop
at the end tried to commit suicide by
straneulalion The officer was watch
ing his movements and put stop to
the game.
In Ketchum's pocket was found
fountain pen He told the guard
after he was resuscitated. that he had
written history of the hold-ups the
gang had made and the volume would
comprise 300 pages. II was complied
previous to the last hold-up on the
Colorado & Southern.
The story has been told how Stevens,
after the train robberies OF September.
1897, and July TO- 1899, on August
l6, held up. single-handed, the south
bound train at 10 O'Clock OF
night, while two men whom he was
breaking In to the railroad robbing bus
iness abandoned him and left him to
accomplish the robbery alone.
All train crews now travelling through
New Mexico and northwest Texas 60
srmed. Conductor Harrington leaped,
with le-barreled shotgun off the
rear of the train, and seeing the solitary
figure with rifle pointed at the engine
crew, blaZed away.
The man, who is now identified as
"Black jack returned the fire, slightly
wounding the conductor In the arm.
Mail Clerk Bartlett was shot ia the jaw.
Next morning the sheriff's posse
found the bandit lying in a pool of
blood in the shelter of an embankment
near the railroad track. The conduct
or's charge had gone true. Besides a
broken arm, charge of buckshot had
entered his body and Le was SO weak
from loss of blood ne could not move.
He was taken to Trinidad and placed
in the hospital. 1t was at first thought
his arm would have to be amputated,
buthe nervily persisted that he would
die first and his chances of recovery
frightened from that hour.
OF the gang G. w. Franks, the COM
panion of McGinnis, who was captured
at Carlsbad. N. M, is the only one at
large. Sam Ketchum. the brother of
Tom, was killed during the pursuit In
July, when Sheriff Farr of Huerfano
county, Colo, was killed. McGinnis is
in custody as is also the original Black,
Jack.
Black Jack has been hunted for
years. The gang achieved its first no.
toriety in August, 1895, when they rob-
bed store and killed man near King.
man, Ariz. Since then railroad trains,
banks and stores have beer held up
and robbed in SCI s,tional manner.
The bank of Nogales, Ariz., was held
up, when the teller began shooting and
the robbers were foiled. They took to
the mountains and escaped. Nearly a
dozen men have been killed and some
thing like 100000 has been secured by
the gang. Three times the Colorado &
Southern has been held up and once the
Santa Fe California limited.
A reward of $4,000 is on the body,
dead or alive, of Tom Ketchum, the no.
torious Black Jack. Arizona and New
Mexico both offer rewards, in addition
to the sums put up by the Wells Fargo
Express company and the Colorado &
Southern.