Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-04
HAVE NO CLEW
TO BANK ROBBERS
HOTEL GUESTS UNABLE TO
DESCRIBE MEN
Believed That Looters Of Newport
Bank Are the Same Ones Who
Robbed the Glendale
Postofflce

Despite the TACT that within two
hours after the robbery Of the Newport
state bank at Newport yesterday morn
ing the sheriff of Orange county and q
force of deputies were on the trail of
the fleeing robbers, no clue other than
the recovery of a horse and buggy,
stolen from Deputy Sheriff George Pea
body, was obtained yesterday. -
The horse and buggy which the rob-
bers had stolen i'm order to make an eff
fective escape was recovered at Ana
helm. where the horse had been tied
TO n tree and deserted.
That the robbers could work as easily
as they did in the presence of the
guests of the Newport hotel. who
watched the robbery without raising a
hand, places the desperadoes among the
ranks of experts at their trade.
Another feature OF the robbery which
leads the officers to believe that the
men were old hands at the game was
the soaping of the burglar-proof vault.
The nitroglycerlne used In blowing up
the safe was so handled that at the
second charge the doors were blown
from their hinges.
May Be Postal Robbers
The robbery of the Newport bank and
the robbery of the Glendale postoffice
are thought to have been carried off by
the Glendale office was amateurish.
The same plans were carried out at
both places.
At Glendale the men left Los Angeles
on late car and arrived in Glendale
during the early morning hours, after
the entire town had gone to bed. The
safe at the postoffice was small piece
of furniture and little more than scrap
iron, and the robbers beat it to pieces
with a sledge hammer and after secur-
ing all the money they made their es-
cape by stealing q horse and buggy,
which they later deserted in Los Ange-
les.
At Newport the same system met
with success. The robbers went to the
little beach city on a late car, but they
were seen by some of the tourists there
during the evening.
Soon after midnight they went to the
home of deputy Sheriff George Pea
body and stole his horse and buggy
and drove the animal to the bank and
hitched 1t within twenty feet from the
building.
Ten minutes later the residents of
Newport, and particularly the occu-
pants of the Newport hotel, were awak-
ened by an explosion. They ran to
front windows to see two well armed
men running toward the ocean. One
man was tall and well built, while the
other was tall and slender. Both men
wore mufflers which hid their faces
and made identification, even in the
bright moonlight, an impossibility.
Despite the fact that the hotel guests
were watching them, the robbers re-
turned to the bank. and the slender
man went inside. The first charge OF
nitfoglycerine had failed and the heavy
door still hung to it's hinges The peo-
pie ct the hotel could see the man in
side the building. He was hard al
worf. with his cup of "soap," puttyine
the cracks and putting in the nitro
glycerine.
The big man outside stood in the
shadow of the building with revolver
in each hand, but so frightened were
the occupants of the hotel that they
were afraid to move hand or foot and
stood quietly by and allowed the rob-
berry to go on while they watched from
the balcony.
For second time the robbers sour
ried away and muffled report an
nounced the explosion of the second
charge.
That one proved successful. and a
moment later the slender man emerged
from the building carrying sack with
$1,000 in currency in 1T.
Both men jumped into the stolen
buggy and drove away, and about
twenty minutes later one of the guests
of the hotel managed to screw up
enough courage to go to Deputy Sheriff
Peabody's house and tell him of the
robbery.
1t is thought, because of the clean
character of the work, that the rob-
berry was committed either by time
criminals or by eastern yeggmen, whose
methods stand out strongly in the
scheme of the Glendale and Newport
robberies.