Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-12-23
BANDITS ORGANIZE.
This is Belief of Railway Officials
Headquarters Mystery.

This is Belief of Railway officials
Headquarters Mystery.
That there is daring, desperate
band of train robbers, thoroughly or
ganized, with headquarters in Chicago
or some nearby town and whose bust.
ness is to systematically hold up
trains in Illinois and Iowa, the eX
press companies and railroad officials
are now thoroughly convinced Ev-
| cry indication points to such a band.
Within the past year there have been
| five train robberies, all within a hun
dred miles of Chicago and the man
ner in which these trains are robbed
| is good evidence that the same gang
| of men has been connected with all Of
| them.
! In each case practically the same
number of men have been seen. Their
method of stopping the train and Sc
| curing possession of the engine and
express cars is the same and in nearly
every instance their method of escape
has been as similar as possible when
the different localities are consider
! 3D.
In each case detective who has
! followed these hold-ups, states that
| team and wagon or some other con-
veyance had been stolen as means of
escape. In each case the robbers
have driven it as far as possible the
! first night ard then have abandoned
it for some other means of pursuing
their flight. In two of these cases
boats have been taken and these were
sunk when they were abandoned.
The similar modes of evading their
pursuers would be enough to convince
! the detectives that it was the same
| gang that had operated in all of the
cases but the method used is alike in
other respects. Five or six men have
been seen in each case. The train
has been tagged by red light in
each case and this has been followed
by the men crawling over the tender
and covering the trainmen with their
guns. In all five cases the robbers
have then marched their captives a
short distance away and then dyna-
mited the safe, secured the contents
and eluded pursuit al the manner stat
| ed above.
There is another striking similarity
in all of these hold-ups, however, and
that is that in each one there has
been tall, dark man who appeared
+
this same tall dark man that had
charge of the job few miles up the
Rock Island tracks near Davenport.
and who ordered the other men about
as if they were hirelings paid to do
| the work.
/ 1t is this tall, dark man, then, who
could solve the problem that the ex-
1 press companies and railroads are so
anxious to have solved and who will
be hunted for diligently until he is at
last run to earth.
/ Everything points to the fact that
this moving spirit of these daring
hold-ups is man determined, desper-
ate, and one who would stop at Meth
ing to gain his ends. His commands
to the men to shoot down anyone who
dared to show any indication of resist
ing shows the manner of man he is,
and how little he cares for human
life.
i That this man IS much needed in
dividual by the authorities every
one who has been on the trail of this
gang of robbers fully realizes and the
command has been to get this fellow
4 il all others escape. Shoot him at
4 sight if he can be stopped no other
way" is the command that has gone.
forth when the officials have been on
the trail of the bandits. and that they
must have the, tall, dark man is fact
which railroad men realize will be ne
cessary before their mails are safe
once more.
Where this gang is located is anoth-
er question that is puzzling the Off
Gals and that has sent dozens of pri-
vate detectives securing unknown
places that the public knows nothing
of.
Chicago seems to be the logical
place for such gang of men to have
their headquarters as in the labyrinth
of dives and disreputable places in the
big city there would be numerous hid
! ing places that the police and detec-
y tives know nothing Of.
> Others think, however, that Chica-
go is not their headquarters and that
they bide their time in some of the
! small towns along the Mississippi riy-
er.
: 1t is interesting to note what pains
they take to conceal their identity. In
the hold-up at Savanna where the
dead robber was found afterwards.
/, not scrap of a sign of anything could
: lbe found on his person that would in
: dictate who he was or where he came
l from. 1t is evident that this gang of
/ men does not mean to be caught if
t one of its members should fall into the
g clutches of the law and while the tall,
Il dark man is one of the most wanted.
it is evident that the others would
ell have to be run to earth before the
r band would be entirely wiped out.
! A Good Thing for Mother.