The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-03-30
VERY SMALL CLEW
LED TO THE CAPTURE OF TWO
TRAIN ROBBERS.
They Were Traced by an Old Hat
Which They Had Stolen From a
Car Years Before.

Which They Had Stolen From a
Car Years Before.
The two bandits who recently held
up and robbed a fast mail train
on the Missouri Pacific road, near
Eureka, Mo-, have been captured and
are now in Jail at st. Louis, each
held in default of $4,000 bail, and
it is probable that each will get a
prison sentence extending over the
rest of his natural life. Bill Lowe
and George Eberling are the two
men who participated in the hold-up,
and it is the story of their careless
ness in leaving an old SLOUGH hat
laying around that finally led to the
capture.
The train robbers, under cover of
revolvers, compelled the engineer and
firemen of the train to detach the
two mail cars and run them up the
track for a mile and then get out
of the engine cab and walk back
to the rest of the crew. Then
the robbers ran the train about five
miles further up the track, where
they colly looted the two cars. The
post office authorities detailed In
spector Perkins on the job, and, af-
ter looking over the ground and the
clews, he decided that an old, gray,
felt hat, left near the scene of the
robbery, was the best one to fol-
low.
In tracing the hats owner, he dis
covered that it had been stolen with
a lot of other loot from a freight
car robbed in St. Louis some months
before. The next move was to get
a line on the suspects at the time the
hat was stolen, and who might have
stolen it from the freight car. In
looking up these worthless the in
spector was impressed by the rather
dubious antecedents of one Jim
Lowe, who had been employed by
the Missouri, Kansas and Texas road
at the time of the robbery.
The inspector was still further i'm
pressed with the fact that Jim had
a brother Bill, who some II years
before had been connected with the
younger Jesse James in the
hold-up of a train. Inquiry re-
speeding Bill Lowe showed him as
being for the moment engaged in
the sale of mining stock, with an
office in the Granite building, in St.
Louis, and as ostensibly reformed
and conducting an honest and legiti-
mate business.
However, the inspector say a
sort of feeling crept into his mind
that as Bill had the nerve to hold
up a train II years before, he might
De tempted to try the old trick over
again. At any rate, the inspector
found that Bill was in st. Louis and
handy for the job about the time of
the robbery.
Furthermore Bill had been an en-
| CINE driver and in a pinch could have
done just a N of the robbers did
in running five miles up the track
with the mail cars at Eureka. And
then if in the latter job might he
not have worn the old hat found at
the scene of the holdup, and further
more might not his brother Jim have
| given it to him, after all? Then
the developments came quick and
surprising, indicating the inspectors
Inns of logic to have been we'll found
ed.
A quiet search of Jim loves
home resulted in the finding of the
goods stolen at the same time the
old gray hat was taken from the
freight car. Then Jim was asked 10
explain and upon being shown the
hat after awhile h~esitatingly admit
ted that it vas 'one that had been
given to him by a friend" about a
year ago. and which he later gave
to his brother Bill. Then, the in
spector says, all was plain sailing
in the matter of running down the
robbers. Il