The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1910-09-06
BAND|TSLOSELOOT
Murderers Drop $500 in
Cash to Escape.
KILLED PAYMASTER AND GUARD
Police Following Footprints Find
Suitcase Filled With Money,
Guns, Caps, Masks-Clues
Point to Italians.
KILLED PAYMASTfR AND GUARD

Hudson. ~ Y. Sept. SIThe bandits
who murdered young Denton Fowler
assistant treasurer OF the Atlas Build
ing Material company, and his negro
driver, George Ragsdale. fed through
the woods In such haste that they
dropped the treasurer's suitcase con
tanning $4,000 in gold, silver and bills.
Police Chief James J. Lane and SUI
perintendent Jerry Leonard. OF the
Atlas brickyards stumbled upon the
cash bag while they were beating up
the thickets with a party OF armeu
men.
Lane and Leonard found not only
the money that Dent Fowler had been
hurrying with to the Atlas brickmak'
ers. but within a few steps Of where
Mr.. Fowler and the plucky negro had
been shot to death they came upon
the weapons the robbers had used In
the killing. a Winchester repeating
rene. a shotgun and two reviewers.
Searching on their hands and knees
through the wet bush. they found TWO
caps. such as Italian laborers com
monty wear in this part Of the coun'
try: two red bandanna handkerchiefs
which had been pierced with eyeholes
and used for masks; the scattered
fragments Of an envelope and the let
ter the envelope had contained. ana
the scrap strewn spot. tiny clearing
surrounded by almost impenetrable
thickets of thornbush where the rob
bers had made camp while they waited
for young Fowler's buggy.
Fowler and his negro driver were
shot dead and robbed by masked men
while on their way to pay of the men.
Guns, Caps and Masks Found.
The discovery OF the suitcase with
the pay envelopes unopened. untouch'
ed even: the rife. shotgun and reyol
vers. the caps and masks and the torn
envelope and letter and the clear sig
nlficance Of the trail that led to the
brick yard almost tell the story In
themselves of the incidents that pre-
ceded and followed the killing and the
looting OF the buggy.
They indicate that employees OF the
Atlas company. Italians. almost GER
tainly men who were entitled by their
work to a moiety of the cash young
Fowler was conveying. men who knew
every step the paymaster had taken.
ambushed him and then, unable to es-
cape with the heavy money case and
in danger of being caught by the
brickmakers, who we're pouring down
the road to the woods, dropped the
case and made, two OF them at least,
a long detour back to the brickyards.
These. the people think, had the au'
dacity to run in behind the disappear
ing brickmakers and join in the hunt.
The second trail, the footprints going
south, show that the party had split
in sudden alarm, and that three. per
haps four. had dashed through the
woods in an opposite direction.
or all the things that the frightened
robbers had discarded1the torn letter
and envelope most interested the po-
lice. The letter was addressed TO an
Italian living In Hudson. II was word
ed In Italian. But envelope and con-
tents had been torn across again and
again and flung In small fragments
over twenty yards Of ground. 1t was
a long and tedious job to piece these
papers together. but the reconstructed
envelope gave the name and address
Of a man. The several sheets OF the
letter was a tougher problem.