Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-27
BATTLE WITH BANC|TS
More Than a Hundred Shots
Are Exchanged.
POLICEMEN WOUNDED
FUGITIvFS ESCAPE FROM DUG
OUT WHEN LOCATED.
Flee Across Fields, Board Train and
Kill Brakeman-Wanted
for Murder.
POLICEMEN WOUNDED

| bandits fought on the snow-coVered
| prairie near Miller Station. Ind. today.
1t terminated in the escape. at least tenn
porarily of the fugitives. Two detectives
| were wounded and brakeman, who was
defending his train on which the bandits
| escaped, was killed
| The battle embraced almost every de-
tail of scenery and action of melo-
drama of the most stirring kind.
| The fugitives-Harvey Vandne, Peter
Neidemeier and supposedly Emil
Roecki--were located in a dugoGt, or
| hunters hut about two miles from Mil
Ter station.
| Fitted for Strong Defense.
| The bandits. who knew they were
| wanted for alleged completely in the car
| barn robbery and murders at Chicago last
| summer evidently selected the spot as
| fitted for a strong defense.
| The detectives, having tracked them
through the snow, were fired upon as
! they approached, and in battle follow
| ing two of them fell, one with a mortar
| wound. ..
| The police took shelter behind a railroad
| embankment and the firing becoming gen
| eral a train having been tagged 10 remove
| the wounded to Chicago, some of the de-
tectives withdrew to place the injured men
| aboard.
! Seized Upon by Bandits.
|
| fugitives, who from the dugout and
| succeeded in boarding a Pennsylvania
| freight train at East Tolleston, Ind.
| In forcing their passage as far as Liverpool.
| Ind, brakeman, 7. ]. Eavlo, was shot
| dead at Liverpool. The bandits Jumped
! from the train and ran toward the Michi-
| gan Central tracks, while the ofncials OF
| the PENNSYLVANIA. system sent special
| train in pursuit and organized wholesale
| hunt for The desperadoes throughout north
| ern Indiana
| Urgent teIegrams for help reached As
| sistant Chief of Police Schuettler today,
| and fifty men, under the assistant ohiefs
| command. left at once for Miller Station,
armed with Winchester rifles and revolvers-
! Fusillade of Shots.
| Reports from the place say that fnsfl-
lade of shots has been exchanged between
| the men in the dugout and the local police
Two of the latter are reported to have been
wounded seriously.
The battle is said to have been a furious
| one.
| With the telegram came requests for q
| physician and priest The officer sending
! the kilograms. Sheehan of Chicago, report
| ed that he had no reason to doubt that the
! men surrounded are the accomplices OF
Gustav Marx, the self-confessed bandit who
| has been under arrest in Chicago for sew
eral days.
The telegram saying that shooting had
| taken place between the officers guarding
| the dugout and the prisoners was received
| as Assistant Chief Schuettier had COM
pleted all arrangements to go to Miller
| Station at the head of party of detectives.
Fifty Men Asked For.
| He had received word previously that
! two men had been found in the dugout, and
| that they resembled the two fugitives.
| Sheehan promised to guard the place with
six officers
| Soon after came word that shooting had
| broken out between the imprisoned men
! and the guards. Two of the latter were
| shot, and, besides the physician and a
priest, fifty men were asked for.
To get the men to the station in time to
| catch special train Chief ONein had to
| impress into service wagon of the West
ern Union Telegraph Company.
Break-Neck Speed to Station.
The detectives piled into the wagon and
were driven at breakneck speed to the Illi-
nois Central station. There a special train
pulled out with the small army of police
men aboard. The train was scheduled to
go 10 South Chicago, where a special over
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was to
take up the run to Miller Station
The dug-out is in wild section of coun-
try. near the shore of Lake Michigan and
bordering the vast swamps that stretch to
the southwark.
The few residents near the scene are re-
ported to have, rallied TO the aid of the
into the dug-out, but the bandits kept under
cover. 1t is thought that one of the bandits
was injured.
Wounded Hurried to Chicago.
The two wounded policemen were taken to
Mller's station and arrangements made to
flag fast train to hurry the victims TO
Chicago.
Shortly after the departure of Assistant
Chief Schuettler and the fifty men under his
command. a report reached Chief of Police
O'Neill that the two bandits had been cap
tured, and were being brought into South
Chicago.
Attempts were promptly made to overtake
Assistant Chief Schuettler but the party
was then speeding toward the battle-ground
in the swamps.
The non-success in reaching the Sehuet-
tier party was fortunate for later inforrna-
ton indicated that the report of the cap
ture of the bandits was not well founded,
and that the men who were being brought
in were wounded policemen.
Trapped in Dugout.
The bandits were surrounded after having
been tracked across the sand dunes OF In
diana. along the lake shore. The place
where they were trapped was so-called
dugout or hunters rude hut
The trailing of the bandits was done by
detail of Chicago detectives. not local In
diana officers. first supposed. Watched
all night by the detectives. the bandits to-
Qay maze a DOlO u escape anu
shot two OF the would-be captors. one seri-
ously.
The report of the shooting reached Chief
O'Neill just he was preparing to send
out fourteen detectives under Assistant
Chief Schuettler. The detail was instantly
increased to fifty men and they were rush.
ed to special train.
"Shoot to KILL" the Order.
..Shoot to KILL" Chief ONeilI s.ernly or
dered the fifty men. and on the way to Mil
Ter station Assistant Chief Schuettler res
peated the order emphatically.
Work of Chicago Detectives
The men were trapped by Detective John
F. Sheehan at the head of ten other de-
tectives. They were sent to Indiana Sun