The Washington weekly post., 1899-06-20
CRACKSMEN'S BIG HAUL
They Bind and Gag Six Men
and Rob Safe of $4,000.
MASKED AND ARMED WITH PISTOLS
Ten c. Twelve Strong, They Descend on
Once of Trolley Company in Secluded
Part Of Fsirmount Park at / O'Clock in
the Morning and Carry Out weII.lzid
Plans - Telephone Wires Were Cut -
Three Suspects Under Arrest.

1hree suspects tnder Arfese-
Philadelphia. June l9-Shortly before !
O'Clock this morning, when the safe of
the Fairmount Park Transportation Com
pany. located in the receiving office at
Belmont, was filled with the receipts OF
two days, amounting in exact figures TO
S3,99055. a gang OF masked eracksmen,
numbering about ten or twelve. swooped
down upon the place and stole the money,
after holding I'D the receiver and FIVE otE-
er men, binding them hard and fast with
picture cord. The mouths of the captured
men were gagged with rags.
The audacious attack has never been
paralleled i'm Philadelphia, and rarely
throughout the country. With the skill
and strategy of a military expert, the
scheme was planned and successfully ex-
ecuted, and the track OF the perpetrators
was covered up with infinite care.
Not only were members Of the gang at
the immediate scene CT the robbery, but
ii is fact that piekets We're operating
miles away, destroying telegraph and tele-
phone wires at the terminus of the park
trolley, so az 10 insure the defeat of any
communication which the trolley employees
would be likely 10 send to the detective
bureau
Three Men Under Arrest.
As soon as word of the robbery reached
the Central Station, Capt. Miller detailed
half OF his staff of sleuths to work on
the case. Frank Devan, one of the men
who was held up, gave The detectives a
full description of the sensational held-up
and described the robbers as well as he
could. He said that the men all wore
regulation masks and were roughly
dressed
The detectives are positive that the rob-
bers had made a careful study of the
ground before they went to work last
night. They chose Monday morning be-
cause the big receipts from Sunday traffic
were in the safe.
AS d result of the vigilance of the
police. three men were arrested later in
the day in the park en- suspicion of being
connected in some way with the robbery.
AT a hearing before Magistrate South the
men gave their names and addresses as
Peter Duffert and Charles Smith, Cf New
ark, y. j., and Albert Leeds. of Twenti-
eth street and Ridge avenue. Duffert
and Smith said they were trdmping from
Reading to Baltimore Their appearance.
however, was too prosperous for vag-
rants, in the Magistrates opinion, and ne
held them in $500 bail each for a further
hearing. They were sent to Moyamensing
Prison.
Conductor Not Suspicious.
The men who were bound, gagged, and
laid along the sides of the wall ike
beeves. expecting every moment to be
skct, are: Frank Leydn, night receiver;
Frank Watson, night conductor; Henry
B. WhitehOuse, night conductor: James
Cavanaugh. fireman of the power house;
William CadmUs, laborer. ana Philip
EaVes. electrician.
These victims were all employed by the
trolley company
The first appearance of the masked
men at the place was seen by Albert
kOhlhause, d conductor Of the line. Kohl
hause says he went over to the spring,
$50 feet north of the car barn, al I2:l5 this
morning TO get bucket of water. This
spring Is in d Clump of trees. and from il
can be seen the window of the receivers s
office. He saw two men, one a big, tall,
stout man and another smaller fellow,
and above them on a bluff crowd of
men. He did not think anything serious
was going to happen, SO he carried the
bucket 10 the barn and went home.
Frank LeYan, the night receiver, one of
the men gagged and bound by the rob-
bers, told this story of his experience:
while l was standing at the southern
door of the office next to the stalled ears
l heard footsteps in the rear Turning.
l saw two men with masks on their faces.
They had two big TevOlv1rS apiece in their
hands, and came directly up 10 me at the
desk. / saw at once that II was up with
me. They told me not to move nor cry
out, or they would kill me. One fellow.
who was of enormous size, stuck one Of
his pistols against my ear. They took
me into the conductors room and tied
my hands and feet with wire picture cord
and laid me on the floor, with my face
TO the well. The electric lights were burn
ing brightly all the While, and when /
got in the conductors room I saw White
house was being held up in the same way
by other despeTadOes, also with masks on,
and being bound and gagged.
Talked in " hispers.
when we were laid on the floor a man
was detailed t. guard each of US. In a
few minutes in came another victim
whom / think was Watson, conductor.
and he went through the same thing.
Then some more of the men came in and
were bound, and by this time l thought
there must be twelve or fifteen despera-
does at work in the car barn, and that
they expected 10 gather in the whole list
of employees and then crack the safe. The
burglars worked very quietly. They
whenever they caid ANYTHING
10 any of their number. They turned our
bodies away from the safe so we could
not see them, and started 10 work on the
safe
They must have been accomplished
crdcksmen, for IL only took them Ten
minutes To blow the safe The works m
side, however, got tangled up, and they
worked and hustled u open the doo~d
plOsiOn OF dynamite hlled the rooms with
a vast lot OF smoke and nearly choked Us
The tools they must have gotten from the
ma chine shop, as they started 10 work at
once when they had US bound.
Wires Had Been Cur.
oortly after the money was taken.
the guards who were over US with drawn
pistols left, telling US 10 be quiet or we
would be shot After considerable tussi-
ing, Philip Eaves. the electrician. who
was one Of those bound, got himself loose
and he then loosed us | tried to reach
City Hall by wire, but the wires on both
telephones had been cut, and / had 10 run
IN the pitch dark cross country 10 the
Belmont pumping station, where / gave
he alarm, and they telephoned I'm from
there shortly before 3 o'clock 10 ttA civ
Hall and Informed the deIeCtiVes'
The car barn or the trolley company. in
which lhe receivers officr j. Iocated
stands in a deep ravine leading from Rel
mont Mansion, a pleasure resort. 10 the
Schuyikill River. The building j. sur-
by heavy timber land and jts
ISOLATION rendered IL pert city alapfrd for
he work VI the robbers.
Charles A. Porter. President OF the Fair
mount Park Transportation Compsuv
,aid this afternoon that the clerks hsi
made an examination Of the books ami
'ound that the amount OF money stolen
was S.300.dj This was the cash In the
,0nductors' canvas bags. which had seen
handed ia as each car came into the ha IN
There - every reason 10 believe thar
some former employees OF the transporra-
ion company were implicated in the rob-
,erv," said Mr Porter I'VE have been
compelled 10 hire men Of whom We knew
iItle. The familiarity NJ tlC robbers with /
he methods pursued By the company
shows that they were not ignorant out
.iders II is my opinion that expert