Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1908-04-11
KILLED MESSENGER
BANDIT Then ROBS EXPRESS
CAR ON SANTA FE.
Mystery AS to How Robbers Got Into
Express car-st. 900 Reward offered
by WeIIs-Farqo co.-Pounded Vic
TINS Head Into Pulp and Then Took
His Keys to Complete Job

Newton, Kan, March 80. A
Bailey, an express messenger of the
Welfs-Fargo company, was killed by an
unknown person on Santa Fe train
No. lis, between Florence and New.
ton, early this morning. The murder
was very brutal. with robbery as the
OBJECT. Both safes, the local and the
through safe, were ransacked and at
lease $1,000 in money and some jewelry
taken The amo mt the robbers Sc
cured is not known. The dead BODY
OF Messenger Bailey was found at q
o'clock this morning when the train
reached Newton. 1t was stretched on
the floor of the car, the head beaten to
pulp and lying in, a pool of blood.
The back of the skull was crushed and
the end of the car where it was lying
was spattered with blood. The blood
spatters reached to the ceiling. There
was no evidence of any struggle, the
indications pointing to the commission
OF the murder while the messenger
was asleep before he could offer re-
sistance. Bailey was seen alive at
Strong City. At Peabody some one
opened the car door just enough to
throw out package of way bills, and
then closed it quickly.
The custom of the messenger has
been to go to sleep soon after leaving
Florence, and it is possible that he
did this last night. After being struck
while sleeping and rendered uncon-
scious, his body rolled to the floor, and
the robber, after beating him on the
head, covered 1t with the dead mans
coat. One blow was struck at the
mans face with some sharp instru-
ment apparently a Ratchet, which
broke the jaw bone. From the dead
mans pockets the keys were removed
and the safes ransacked Then the
keys were put back into Bailey's over
coat. the coat folded and put in his
CROP where 1t was found later.
Two theories are held by the off
GERS. One is that the robbers entered
the car unobserved at Emporia, Strong
City or some other point along the
line and concealed themselves until
favorable opportunity to commit the
robbery occurred. and the other is
that Bailey admitted somebody he
knew and considered friend.
When the train slowed down at the
Missouri Pacific crossing, in the east
part of Newton, two men were seen
by the engineer to jump from the train
and run south The south door of the
express car was found open when the
train reached the Newton depot 1t is
believed these men were the robbers,
and that they made detour around
the business part of town to the west
yards of the Santa Fe, where they
may have boarded Santa Fe train No.
II, which left the depot 20 minutes
after No lis arrived. Three suspects
were taken off the blind baggage of
the train when it reached Wichita, and
held for investigation. The officers
were notified as soon as the murder
and robbery were discovered, and with
in an hour posses were securing the
country. A reward of $1,000 has been
offered by the Wells-Fargo Express
company for the apprehension of the
guilty parties. Up to this evening no
trace of the robbers had been found
The murdered man was about 80
years old. and was only recently mar
ried. His home was in Kansas City,
Mo.