The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-12-10

Two DduulJS dDOuC IL oO u ClOCh
last night held up No. 4, Great
Northern passenger eastbound one
and one-half miles out Of Hillyard,
and got away with six through
registered mail sacks sent out
from Seattle, without firing a shot.
The sheriff's force and the entire
plain clothes force of the city are
at work on the case today, with
the aid of the detectives of the
Great Northern and Northern Pa
cific, but to this hour have not
obtained the vestige of a clew.
The men boarded the engine at
the icehouse near the tracks in
Hillyard. Engineer H. d. Halter
had the injector going at the time,
and it was useless to speak to the,
men or ask them who they were,
for they could not have heard him
on account of the noise the injec-
tor was making. Halter thought
they were couple Of switchmen.
He reached down to turn off the
injector and then looked into the
barrel of big revolver, which one
of the men carried.
Never mind that, just keep it
going" said the bandit who had
the gun. The fireman on the oppo-
site side of the engine cab also
looked into the barrel Of revolt
yer. The train was run about
mile and half, then stopped, one
of the bandits himself seizing the
throttle to emphasize his COM
mand.
Fireman Charles A. Perrin was
then ordered down from the en-
CINE and told to uncouple the mail
and express cars. Perrin uncoupled
only the mail and "dead-head"
baggage car. The express car is
said to have contained quite a
large sum of money and other val
uables.
The engine and cars were run
by the bandits for mile or more
and stopped. w. r. J. Reynolds,
mail clerk, who had kept the door
closed during the sudden stopping
and starting, fearing something
was wrong, heard knock on the
door.
"Open up or we'll blow her up!"
he heard, and complied at once.
While the larger of the two rob-
bers held gun pointed at his
head, Reynolds was asked to toss
over the registered matter. An old
paper sack was thrown over the
Spokane registered matter. and
this was not touched. Reynolds
threw over the through sacks out
of Seattle, six in number, and
these were cut open by the small
err of the bandits. The mail clerk
was compelled to hold a gunny-
sack open while the small bandit
tossed the registered letters into
1t. The bandits then took to their
heels, carrying the gunnysack full
of the registered matter.
In the meantime, while the rob-
bers took about 20 minutes rifling
the mail car, the engineer and fire.
man had hurriedly informed Con-
ductor Willerton of the state of
affairs. Willerton raced back to
Hillyard with the information.
A nj f,ct ~ 10 nd
carrying Sheriff Doak, Deputies
Doak and Harry Draper. and John
DeWolf of the Great Northern. all
armed with rifles, then started for
the scene. Another party of Dep.
uties Mac Pugh, Long and Sweet
took an automobile and set out.
In the new snow the tracks OF
the two bandits were easily follow
ed back to Spokane. Evidently
they lost their way for a short
time, for they went in circle and
landed ON North Division street
when they had started In the direc-
/, ton of the northeastern part of
town. At Division street all trace
Of them was lost.
An important and unnoticed wit
ness to the holdup proceeding was
Edward Keegan. laborer who
had been beating his way on the
blind baggage. He shivered in his
cramped position the entire time.
Az soon as the robbers left he
started for town. He was chased
to Hillyard by the posse but got
there first, boarded a streetcar and
hastened to police headquarters
with the story.
The posse found gunnysack
near the scene Of the holdup con-
taining IA sticks OF dynamite. fused