The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-09-17
jim WILSON NEARLY FREE.
MIsSOURps CLONE TRAIN ROBBER"
SOON TO GET OUT or Jan.

|
Many Persons Prepared to Regard Him as n
| DistlnE uished Citizen and Worthy Rival
| OF Frank Jnmes-His Crime, Escape
| and Capture-Gov. stones Fright.
JEFFERSON CITY. Mo-. Sept 8-ln less than
| one month the Lone Train Robbcr will leave the
| State Ponitontiary here a free man Ho is only
| ~ years old, and will have served siIty-hvc
months In prison for OF the most unique crimes
| In a State whose recent history abounds in train
robberies His name is Jim Wilson. lie was
convicted OF robbins a Missouri Pacific express
ira inand sentenced to years States prison
| He did IL single handed and alone and almost
| within the shadow Of ST Lous He has boon
| model prisoner. and by the -throefourths rule"
has cut his term down from eighty 10 sixty
| Ave months by good behavior
When Wilson breathcs FREQ air again and Is
once moro invested with all tho rights and immuni
ties Of citizenship by Executive dcmnncy he will
DO ono Of the most distinguished citizens OF Mis-
| souri; taking rank oven with tho famous Col.
Frank James, who abandoned the exciting but
profitable industry OF train robbery several years
ago, after helping his brother Jesse 10 found that
industry in Missouri and is now doorkoeper at
Col Jim Buffers vaudeville theatre In ST LouR
Wilson is entitled to peculiar distinction for moro
than the vulgar reason that ho robbed a train.
Many q man has helped TO do that and never
sucoooded In getting his name in tho papers after
tho Judge pasBod sentonoe upon him. But young
Wilson'S performance was different In many
details from anything like IL that his fsmo win
occupy place In history all Its own In tho propa-
rations for tho feat no had neither confederate
nor oonfidant and In It's preparation no had
nsithcr aid nor opposition
Among tho passengers on tho crowded train
which Wilson robbed wcro tho Hon william Jod
Stone, then the Governor OF Missouri and now
L.,
myriad legged octopus aud tho Hon Lon Vost
Stophana at that time State Treasurer Of Mis-
eoud and now Governor Of tho Stato The hold-up
occurred near tho village OF Washington, about
thirty miles west Of ST Louia Tho time wan
e:40 o'clock at night Tho passengers, incud-
ing tho then Governor and tho then State Troas-
urer knew what was going on but mono OF them
stirred out Of his seat Whom tho train drow into
Washington So minutes late Gov. Stone sprang
from his car. rushed into tho telegraph oflco and
sent to Chief Of Pdaoo Harrigan at St Louis this
historic telegram
Missouri Pacific west bound express held up
I saw them. Have tho city patrolled- Believe
the robbers arc headed for St Louis
W. J. STONE. Governor
Gov. Stephens tthen Treasuror) also told
terror-struck crowd on the station platform at
Washington that he was certain he had seen Ave
masked men move off in the brush after the train
was allowed to start "and maybe there was lot
more" he added
Lynx-eycd and keen scented sleuths from St
Louis's police department tand troops OF country
counstables and deputy shcriGs were out in tho
woods near the scene OF tho hold-up botimes the
next morning They accepted the positive as
serlons OF the Governor and State Treasurer as
truth. and therefore were looking anxiously for
he trnr of At ct Rtra rnhk I,,, ~.
life OF them they could find the tracks Of only one
man These led of through little thicket across
cornfleld. Soon after entering the conneld the
Officers struck trail Of silver dollars, bright and
new and shimmcring in the soft light Of the carly
dawn. The silver coin was scattered a distance
Of three hundred yards in the corntlcld Follow
ing this trail the officers soon ran plump on to two
big bags OF silver lying uncovered in the open
field. One OF the bags had sprung leak" while
the robber was making off with the booty, and this
accounted for the scattered coin. But not until
several days afterward when Wilson had been
imprisoned and had confessed. could tho officers
account for the two bags Of silver coin, amounting
to nearly three thousand dallors being left with
obviously no attempt having been made to bury
or otherwise hide it, Wilson then gave them the
information that he had dropped the bags where
they were found, because they were too heavy for
INN TO carry in his desire TO make good speed TO
the small row boat he had tied on the bank Of the
river nearby in which he made his escape BE-
sides he explained to his captors he had secured
by his daring more money ID grcenbacks than he
needed for his purpose and he had no trouble in
either carrying or concealing this
After rowing down the river ten or twelve miles
toward ST Louis the Lone Train Robber deserted
his boat and struck out across the country to the
nearest station on the ST. Louis aud San Francisco
Railroad Here, without any disguise, he boarded
the nrst south bound passenger train met a num-
Der OF acquaintance on the train and chattcd
with them pleasantly upon the exciting topics OF
the day, the chief Of which was the express rob
berry OF the night before, until the train reached
Lebanon, tho homo OF the late Silver Dick" Bland
and also the home of Wilson 3 aged and destitute
parents AT this town the Lone Train Robbcr
got of the train and went TO his father house,
which is Just outside the corporate limits Of Leb-
anon, He kept his great secret TO himself not
even intimating TO his father that he had slowed
away in his clothes 80, 900 Al the close Of the
fourth day Wilson's decrepit parents were aston
ished when three detectives quietly invaded their
premises and bore down, with cooked reyolycrs, |
upon their son Sammy"
Wilson made no show OF resistance, and went |
peaceably with his captors back TO st Louis |
Before leaving home he told the detectives in |
the presence of his astonishcd father and mother.
the minutest details Of the robbery. He had COM
mited it, he said in order TO lift the mortgage on
bis fathers farm, which fell due one week from
tho day of the hold-up He had intended 10 hold
the money intact until the time was UP on the
mortgage. experimenting the possibility OF Just
such ill-luck as had bcfallen him, and If tho
crime had not been traced TO him he intended to
pay of the mortgage and with the surplus fee the
country. Tho county records bore him out as
10 the object for which he committed the robbery.
few days after he was taken TO Jail at ST. Louis
his aged parents were dispossessed, and they arc
renters to-day.
This train robbery was Wilson's first and only
crime. He was scarcely more than a bcardless
boy when he committed it. He had been a Sub"
telegraph operator on the Frisco railroad at var
ious small stations between St Louis and SPRING
field He had mastered the key at odd times
when he was not ploughing or doing other farm
work and had been engaged at this wage, earn
10 tprp ~