The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-03

I'd very SlTGWGA guess ),.. ana sWOuAU
sacr11ce him without the slightest
compunction; and, finally, that there
was open to Evans one Of two courses
either to suffer arrest on charge
+ of bank robbery. with the prospect Of
20 years in prison, or save himself
/ and at the same time earn substan-
tiaI money reward, by making a clean
confession of his connection with the
crime. All this. delivered with an air
of completest certainty, was more than
! Evans could stand up against He
broke down completely, and told all
he knew
The story told by Evans is one of
1 the most remarkable in the history of
crime. He admitted the correctness of
/ Robert Pinkerton's inference that the
! Northampton bank had been robbed
/ by Scott and Dunlap and their associ-
ates, and in order to explain his own
! connection with this formidable gang he
I went back to its organization in 1872
/ The leader Of the gang was James
/ Dunlap, alias James Barton, Who be-
1 fore he became a bank rObber, had
/ been q brakeman on the Chicago. Alton
\ & St Louis railroad. His Unborn Grim
1nal instincts led him to frequent the
/ resorts of thieves in Chicago, and thus
/ he met Johnny" Lamb and a man
named Perry, who took a liking to him
and taught him all they knew about
/ breaking safes. Dunlap soon OutStrip-
ped his masters. developing a genius
] for robbery and for organization that
! speedily proved him the most formid-
/ able of all the bank robbers then opeT-
! aGng in the country, not even except
! ing Jimmy Hope, the notorious Man
| haitian bank rObber He had the long
/ Medicines and stubbOrnness of his
Scotch parents united with the daring
and ingenuity peculiar to America MS.
! In the fan of 1872 he organized the
most dangerous and best equipped
gang of bank robbers that the country
/ had ever known.
! Dunlap's right-hand man was Robert
8 c L
| y deck-hand on q Mississippi steam
boat and afterWard a hotel thief. Scott
was big, powerful man. with a deter
/ minatiOn equal to anything. Their as
/ sociates We're what one might expect
from these two Other members of the
! gang were Thomas Doty, William Con-
roy, Eddie Goody, John Perry, James
! Greer a professional burglar originally
from Canada, and the notorious John
/ Leary, alias RED" I4eary, of whom
| more will be said later on. In addition
to these, the gang contained several
members of less Importance, men who
acted merely as loOkouts, or as go-be-
| tweens or messengers.
The first large operation of Dunlap's
| band occurred in 1872. when they plum
dered the Falls City bank III Louisville,
KY, of about 100000. escaping with
/ their booty. This was satisfactory as
a beginning, but Dunlap and Scott
dreamed of achievements beside which
| this was insignificant. They began a
careful investiga ton through many
states to learn Of banks of weak struc-
ture containing large treasure. One of
| the gang finally found precisely what
/ they were in search of in the Second Ma
tional bank of Elmira, N. Y, which in
stitution. being government depository,
contained. as they learned on good auth
! GRITTY, 100000 in greenbacl1s and $6,O00,-
600 in bonds. r.
\ survey of the premises satisfied
| the gang that, massive though it APP
peared. with its. ponderous iron walls
and complicated locks, the vault of
this bank was by no means impOSsib BILE
was occupied by the YOungs Men S
Christians association, one of the as
sOciations rooms being directly over
the vault There was the floor be-
tween. and under that four feet of
solid masonry, some of the stones in it
weighing a ton. And under the ma
sorry was a layer sofs railroad iron,
resting on a plate of hardened steel
an inch and half thick All this.
however. so far from Encouraging the
conspiratOrs, gave thenI greater con
fidence in the sue eessa sc their plan,
Ionce under way, since the very security
of the vault3 by structure, from over
head attack lessened the strictness of
the surveillance. Indeed, the most
serious difficulty, in the estimation OF
4 the robbers, waste gain easy and un-
suspected admission to the quarters OF
the Young M en- 3 Christian association
on the second floor. The secretary. a
very prudent man, had put on the out
side door of the association rooms an
improved Yale lock. which was then
new upon the market and offered ull-
usual obstacles to the lock picker
Neither Dunlap, Scott, nor any of Their
associates had skill enough to oper
this lock without breaking it, which
would. of course. have been fatal to
their plan. For days. therefore. after
all the other details of the robbery had
been arranged. the whole scheme
seemed to be blocked by a trouble
some lock on an ordinary wooden
door
So serious a matter did this finally
become that Scott and Dunlap went
to the length of breaking into the sec
retary's house at night and searching
his pockets, in the hope of finding the
keys and getting an impression OF
them. But here, again, the secretary
had taken precautions that defeated
their purpose, for he had hidden the
keys under a carpet, where the robbers
I never thought of looking for them.
Disappointed in their search, they Went
away, making no attempt to carry of
anything, a bit Of forbearance which
caused the excellent secretary much
wonder the next morning, when he
found that nothing was missing, al
d though there were plain traces of in
truders.
The Yale lock still continuing an in
soluble difficulty, Perry finally made a
journey to New York, in the hope of
finding some device by which to open
! it. There, in the course of his search
and in a curious way, he made the
acquaintance of Evans, then a sales
man in the employ of a prominent safe
/ company.
Before entering the employ of the
safe manufacturers Evans had con-
Quoted an extensive mercantile bust
ness for himself IN large eastern city
where he was regarded as a man of
wealth and integrity. He had large
I dealings through the south, with ex-
tensive credits; but the outbreak OF
the war had forced him into bank
ruptcy. It was limited that there was
some cvershrewd practice connected
with his failure, and his subsequent
! sudden departure for Canada gave