Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1899-06-21
TEN MASKED ROBBERS
They Do a Bold Piece of Work at
Philadelphia.
BIND SIX MEN AND LOOT SAFE.

The Paramount Park Trans portation Com
pany Out the Sum of $4,000 as the
Result of Bold Raid-Other Men Be-
sides Those Who Actually Committed
the Robbery Took Part in the Affair by
Cutting Telegraph and Telephone Wires.
Philadelphia, June ia gang Of
masked robbers, probably ten in num-
Der, early in the morning raided the re-
ceiving office of the Paramount Park
Transportation company at Belmont in
Fairmount park, and after holding up
the receiver and five other employees of
the railway, blew open the safe, secur-
ing $4,000, the company's receipts for
two days. Frank Leaven, receiver;
Frank Watson and Henry b. White
house, conductors; James Cavanaugh,
fireman of the power house; Philip
Eaves, electrician, and William Cadmus,
laborer, were bound hand and foot with
wire. In addition to the men who
actually committed the robbery, others
operated miles away from the scene by
destroying telegraph and telephone
wires connecting with the Trolley COM
pany's main office.
Good Time to Make "a Haul.
The Fairmount Park Transportation
company operates various lines of troll
ley cars through the park for pleasure
riders. The traffic being unusually
heavy on Saturdays and Sundays, the
robbers evidently decided upon Monday
morning as being a good time to make
a big haul. The men above named
IN h,,,. Iay c
made their appearance. Each intruder
was armed with two revolvers and they
took the employees completely by sur
prise. 1t was the work of few mo-
ments for the robbers to pinion the
workmen, who were rolled over to one
side of the room, with their faces to the
wall. Ten minutes later the safe had
been cracked and the gang disappeared.
The entire city detective force is on the
case, but the cracksmen left no clew.
Story of Frank Leavan.
Frank Leavan, the night receiver, one
of the men gagged and bound by the
robbers, told this story of his expert
ence:
while was standing at the south
ern door of the Office next to the
stalled cars, / heard footsteps in the
rear. Turning, / saw two men with
masks on their faces. They had two
big revolvers apiece in their hands and
came directly up to me at the desk.
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 wall. The electric lights were
burning brightly all the while, and
when / got in the conductors room ]
saw Whitehouse was being held up in
the same way by other desperadoes,
also with masks on, and being bound
and gagged.
Burglars Worked Quietly.
when we were laid on the floor a man
was detailed to guard each Of us. In a
few minutes in came another victim,
whom, think, was Watson, a con-
ductor, and he went through the same
thing. Then two more came in and were
bound and by this time thought there
must be twelve or fifteen desperadoes
in the car barn, and they expected to
gather in the whole list of employees
and then crack the safe, which con-
tanned about $4,000. The burglars
worked quietly. They whispered when
ever they said anything to any of their
number. They turned our bodies away
from the safe so we could not see them,
and started to work on the safe. 1t
only took them ten minutes to blow the
safe. The works inside, however, got
tangled UP and they worked and hus-
tied to open the door wider for an hour
and a half. The explosion of dynamite
filed the rooms with smoke that nearly
choked us The tools they must have
gotten from the machine shop, as they
started to work at once when they had
us bound
Guards Threaten to Shoot.
''The guards frequently threatened to
shoot us if we made the least outcry
or motion. / think they must have had
a wagon to take away the cash, because
ii was largely made up of dimes nick
els, quarters, half dollars, which is very
heavy and not easy to get away with.
Shortly after the money was taken
the guards who were over us with
drawn pistols left, telling us to be quiet
or we would get shot After considera-
BILE tussling Philip Eaves, the electro
clan, got himself unloosened and he
then Embossed us. / tried to reach the
city hall by wire, but the wires of both
telephones had been cut, and / had to
run in the pitch dark cross country to
the Belmont pumping station, where l
gave the alarm and they telephoned in
from there shortly before 3 o'clock to
the city hall, and informed the de-
tectives."