Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1903-10-31
TOWN WAS
EXCITED
MoRAvIA THOUGHT ITS REIGN OF
TERROR AT AN END BUT MET
DISAPPOINTMENT.
SUSPECTS ARE ARRESTED

Five Men Thought to be Queen City
Bank Robbers Are Detained But FL
nalIy Released Robbery of Com
pany Store At Hilton Last Night.
Moravia, Oct 90.-(SpeciaD Mora
via is just recovering from sensation
that would have been laughable had |
not SO much money been concerned. |
Five men suspected of being the rob-
bers of the bank at Queen City. Mo-,
We're arrested Tuesday evening and af-
ter every attepmt haG been made TO
connect them with the crime they were
released the next evening. Early
Thursday morning word came
from the town of Hilton, toward
which place the five suspects had gone
when let out of Jail here, saying that
the store belonging to the mining COM
pany at that place had been robbed
in the night. Moravia blood hounds
We're put on the trail and about noon
they located them; and it was learned
that the Hilton robbers We're not, as
everyone had expected, the five sus-
pected characters, but only a few col
ored miners living at Foster.
A Reign of Terror.
Since the series of robberies of priv
ate houses in Moravia began about a
month ago the town has been in
state of fear. Several Ourglaries have
been perpetrated, the last one being at
the nome of the town marshal. Fred
Buckinaster, where the thieves secur-
! ed over 500 together with Buckmas-
tiers gold watch and chain.
Look for Bank Robbers.
Tais robbery came right on the
heels OF the burglary of the bank at
4 Que en- City, to which place the blood
/ hounds specially secured TO track the
/ Mo .avia robbers had been sent on the
/ day of the Buckmaster robbery. Queen
/ City is only short distance from Mo-
rayia and the belief grew here that
1 thu, bank robbers We're the same men
4 WHO had burglarzed the residences in
i this town.
Newcomers Suspected.
Since that time every strange man
who entered Moravia was closely scru
tiaized and everyone was on the
watch for the bank robbers. Tues
4 day afternoon five tough looking char
cters We're seen at the Moravia de
: pot and all were armed. The news
Quickly spread all over the town an(
), strange to say, no one seemed tt
want TO make trip to the depo
: throughout the day Finally, howev
CT, Marshal Buckmaster and his dep
lity, James Halden, polished up thei
leyolvers and accompanied by w.
Chambers they sailed forth to the de
pot watched from a safe distance b.
nearly all the population of the town.
Arrest is Easy.
The five men were at the station
: when the officers arrived and the.
! submitted to arrest without any trou
bles when they faced the formidabl
guns of the attacking party. The,
were taken to Jail and searched
Though their weapons could not b
i found, they having evidently hide
. them before the arrival of the officer
they had concealed beneath thei
: clothes a quantity of cartridges, som
i candles and a bottle of fluid whic
t was at once pronounced to be nitro
Q glycerine. This was sufficient t
!; warrant the officers to hold their pri
: oners and notify the Missouri official
and the detectives who were on th
= trail of the Queen City robbers Ye
g terday these men, accompanied b
e officials of the wrecked bank arrive
: at Moravia and though they quizze
the prisoners they could get nothin
: on which to hang an excuse for hol
h ing them longer.
Had Signals.
a The suspects protested not
a know each other but it was noticed /
!, n the officers that when they were beir
d taken to jail, they signalled to eac
Ii other, evidently using code whic
n had been pre-arranged and though
e is reasonably sure that they we
e connected with the Queen City TO
= berry there was no way to prove
and they were released.
The Hilton Robbery.
Early yesterday, Marshal But
n master was awakened from his slur
bers and notified that the compar
q. store at Hilton had been robbed durir
,s tie night. Immediately the officer L
q membered that the hve suspects, {
of rectly after their release, had starte
n. out of Moravia in the direction of H
IN ton. The Moravia blood hounds.
IT charge of their trainer, c. D. Ande
in son, of this city. were sent at once
he Hilton and there put on the track
~ the robbers of the store.
a Surprise at Foster.
Ig- The scent was fresh and the ANNA
in lost little time in reaching Foste
ly where, instead of tracing the five ST
poets who had been in Moravia. as ;
the officers behind them thought tn
would do, they went direct to the hor
of negro miner in Foster, who, wi
at his companions, was arrested on t
charge of committing the Hilton re
berry. Indications are that the bla
in men are the guilty parties and the 81
ed posed Queen City bank robbers 6
1o still at large.
t. Meanwhile the Moravia officers q
wondering what they would have do
he with the reward offered for the ba
he robbers if the men had been held TIL
dc firmly believe that their prisoners q
ne ne the men wanted.
r. The attorneys for Dan Murphy