Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-10-25
A BAT TIE WITH
DESPERATE men
sT. LOUIS DETECTIVES UNDER.
TAKE CAPTURE OF SUSPECTS.
A FURIOUS FIGHT FOLLOWS
Two Of the Officers Killed and One
Wounded-one Suspect Is Dead,
and Two Others Are in
the Hospital.


st. Louis, Oct 22.-Two city detec-
tives are dead and another is not ex-
pected to live, while one train robbeI
suspect is at the morgue and two 9th
ers are in the city haspital, one proba-
bly, fatally wounded and the other
badly beaten up, as the result of des-
perate battle Friday between five off,
GERS and three men whom they tried to
arrest.
The Victims.
The dead are: John ]. Shea, detec-
tive; Thomas Dwyer, detective; AL
Rose, suspect.
The wounded are: James McCluskey,
detective, shot through the stomach,
critical; G. G. Blair, suspect, shot four
times through the body; Harry H.
Vaughn. suspect, badly beaten about
the head by detectives when he sought
to aid his friends in the battle.
The fight occurred in the front room
of house on Pine street, and the men
whom the detectives sought to arrest
are suspected of being implicated in a
train robbery at Centralia, ILL.,, a few
weeks ago. The house had been I'M
der police surveillance for several
days, but Friday was the first time
that any of the suspects we're seen to
enter or leave. A fe ' minutes before
the fight occurred, lughn left the
house and started to walk down Pine
street. The detectives closed in on
him, and after he had gone some dis
lance from the house he was arrested.
Accompanied by their prisoner, the
detectives returned and entered the
house. Shea, McCluskey and Dwye1
were leading. Boyle and James were
behind with the prisoner.
The Battle.
Hardly had the detectives entered
the room In which Rose and Blair
were seated, when they were met with
q volley Of shots from heavy calibe1
revolver. Shea sank to the floor on
the first shot. and Dryer followed al
most instantly. BY that time the de-
tectives had drawn their revolvers and
there was a deafening exchange Of
shots for several seconds, each man
pulling the trigger Of his weapon az
rapidly as possible. During the ex.
element, Vaughn attempted to escape
from his captors and assist Rose and
Blair. Boyle and James, however,
dubbed their revolvers and beat their
prisoner over the head until he was
unconscious, and then they went to
the aid Of Shea, Dwyer and McCluskey,
the latter having in the meantime
sunk to the floor with critical wound
in the stomach. One Of the unwounded
detectives summoned an ambulance,
and the wounded officers and suspects
were taken to the city hospital.
Statement Of a Suspect.
As soon as word Of the shooting
reached Chief Of Detectives Desmond,
he Immediately pressed into service q
buggy which happened to be standing
in front Of headquarters and drove at
q gallop to the hospital. There. after
a brief consultation with his wounded
men, he confined himself to Blair, the
wounded suspect. Blair made the
statement that he, Rose and others
had been seated in the room when tho
door was opened and the detectives
entered. Blair, noting the fact that
Detective Shea had his revolver
drawn, pulled his own gun and emp
tied 1t into the faces Of the invaders.
He shot six times without pause.
There were no misires, and so close
were the suspects and detectives that
the powder from Blair's gun burnt
their clothes. Blair said he did all the
shooting which came from the sus-
poets, and that Rose did not have a
revolver. He said he wished he could
have killed more Of the officers.
Several hours after being taken to
the hospital Detective Thomas Dwyer
died. II was stated then by the ply
sicians that 1t was feared Detective
McCluskey and @. G. Blair could not
live Chief Desmond was greatly af-
fected by the death of Shea and the
wounding Of the others. He said the
affair was the most serious in the his
tory of the department.
harry n. vaughn told Ch1ef OF De.
tectives Desmond that he had come to
st. Louis from some place in Ohio, which
he refused to name, for the purpose Of
laying plans with Blair and Rose for
train robbery. The prisoner, 1t has been
ascertained from the police records, has
already served two terms in the Mis-
souri, penitentiary for connection with
train robberies.
The room in which the battle oc-
Cured was wreck. Bullet holes per-
forated walls, window stills and furni-
ture, and every article in the room was
overturned or broken. Sometime after
the shooting Lewis Heiss and Orma
Moore, two women, who, according to
the police, were associates Of the sus-
poets, and were in the house at the time
the battle began, were arrested in the
neighborhood.
A Wonderful Machine.
The official bulletin of the Italian
post Office department gave, In Its lat
est issue, interesting details Of the In
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