The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1901-1901, 1901-07-06
THE TRAIN ROBBERS.

The topic of great interest all over
the state is the hold up of the Great
Northern train the other day. In Hell
ena considerable knowledge was de-
veloped concerning the country and
some facts pertaining to other robber-
les.
This is the second hold-up of a
Great Northern train that has occur
red in that section. About five years
ago the train was stopped one mile
west of Malta, within plain view of
the town, and just after the train had
crossed the bridge over Milk river.
Nothing was got from the express car
at that time. The passengers were
searched and lot of valuables and
about 500 in money secured. Harry
Longabaugh, the man who is said to
be the leader in Wednesdays robbery,
was also concerned in that robbery,
but escaped from the country. Two of
the men who held the train up at that
time, Billy Madden and Harry Bas-
sett, were caught and tried for the
robbery, one of them getting six years
and the other eight. Longabaugh got
out into the bad lands, and as he was
one of the Curry gang he had no trou-
BILE in getting away.
When the Union Pacific was held
up two years ago in Wyoming, men
who knew more than they cared to
tell, and who live in the vicinity of the
bad lands, are certain that Longa-
baugh was concerned in it. When Kid
Curry came up to Malta a year ago
last winter Longabaugh was with him,
and they made no attempt at conceal
ment. One day the two men went
into a restaurant at Malta, and Longa-
baugh asked the woman who waited
on the mif she remembered them.
II am Harry Longabaugh," he said,
"the man who held up the Great Nor
thern passenger train, and I don't
care who knows it,"
Kid Curry and Longabaugh travelled
together. Curry came to Great Falls
and deposited some mutilated money
in the Cascade bank. When the
money was sent to the bank of its
issue in Seattle for redemption it was
found to be some of the money which
had been stolen in the Union Pacific
robbery. The secret service men of
the government attempted to close in
on Curry, but he escaped and was
killed by a detective near St. Louis
a few weeks later while his capture
was being attempted.
The Curry gang had many friends
in the vicinity of Malta and the Little
Rockies, as has Longabaugh, and the
capture of it's members was most diff
ficult. One man from that section
who was asked about the matter a
few weeks ago, when the subject of bad
men was under discussion, made the
significant remark: There are too
many lonesome coulee in that neigh
borhood for me to have anything to
say regarding the condition of things
there. I attend to my own business
and try to keep out of rife range"
His words express the matter exact
ly. That region has been a hold-out
for the most desperate criminals of
the country for years, and as a mat
ter of se1f-protection people allow
them to have their way, saying moth
ing until some such crime as the
present brings the state of things to
light.
Longabaugh is known as a desper-
ate man and has had many gun plays
in the past. Those who know him
best say he will never be taken alive
and that several better men are al
most certain to bite the dust should be
be overtaken.