The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1910-12-08
BANK ROBBERS
ARE CAPTURED
FOUR MEMBERS OF ING TAKEN
AT geAN :
MILES is A GO > SLEUTH
BRooklNGS coUl E SHERIFF A
C
REGULAR SHER Sex HOLMES.

Sheriff Miles on Thursday captured
the four bank robbers who on Tues
day night of last week blew open the
safes OF he banks at White and Bush
nell. The capture was affected at
Egan after the sheriff had traced the
men for a distance Of over twenty
miles on foot.
The men submitted quietly to ar
rest and were brought to this city and
are now lodged in the county Jail.
only circumstantial, there IS no doubt
that they are the men who did the
job and the county authorities expect
to secure their conviction.
William Shanks, the oldest member
of the gang, is fifty-two years of age
and goes under the name of "Dyna-
mite Bill Geo. Lotus is thirty-three.
Frank Forbes thirty-two, and jim La
ton, the youngest member of the gang,
twenty-siX. 1t was first supposed that
there were five members in the party,
but it is now definitely known that
there were but four, so that the entire
sang - NOW III lue udliuS vi lut
county.
Considerable credit must be given
Sheriff Miles for the neat bit of sleuth
work which resulted in their capture.
On Wednesday, the day following the
attempted robberies, the men spent
the daylight hours hidden in a hay
stack south of Bushnell. When dark
ness came on they started south on
foot, walking along the road but keep
ing we'll out of sight of teams. About
seven o'clock in the evening a farmer
named Ryan, living east of Aurora,
SAY the four men and ~Suspecting that
they We're the parties wanted he tel
ephOned to the sheriff. Sheriff Miles
Vent to the place where they were
seen the following morning, and
tracked the men on foot-clear to within
a couple of miles of Egan and Fland-
reau, where the road DIVORCES, one
leading TO eacth of the towns. Here
it was impossible to tell in which d.
rectiOn the men had gone, SO the
sheriff went on to Flandreau and not
finding the men there he telephoned
to Egan and was informed by the mar
shall that four strangers were there,
and they proved TO be the men
wanted.
When the men were searched moth
ing was found on them, not even money,
which is presumed TO be the reason
they did not separate and get out Of
the country o They had been
hanging around the depot and stock
yards at Egan and a search of the
vicinity resulted in the finding of their
guns and tools in a pile of railroad
ties. In the lot were three big re-
volvers and a quantity of fuses and
nitroglycerine.
Sheriff Miles took the mems shoes
and going back over the trail he COM
pared them with the tracks along the
road. They corresponded exactly,
there being peculiar marks on the
shoes which made identification COM
plete. The gang had dropped a small
piece of fuse in the bank at White
and this corresponded exactly with
the balance of the fuse found at Egan.
Detective Brown of the Bankers
Protective association, arrived here
Friday and assisted the sheriff III
bringing the men over from Egan.
Brown knows two of the accused men,
Shanks and LOTUS, who he says are
old offenders. Shanks is known as an
old hand at the business, but had
never before, in the knowledge OF the
detective. been connected with bank
robberies. having confined his atten-
ton mostly to postoffices and stores.
He was the leader Of the gang and
was the man who blew the safes at
Bushnell and White while the other
three were on watch outside. Laton,
the youngest one of the gang, claimed
that he could produce an alabi showing
that he was in Sioux City at the time
OF the attempted robbeTies, but the
marks of his shoes compare with the
tracks of one Of the four men who
walked for twenty miles on Wednes-
day night.
OF course, they all denied any
knowledge of the attempted robberies,
but later Shanks informed the sheriff
that he might plead guilty.
The prisoners We're arraigned be-
fore Judge Trygstad Tuesday after
noon. Shanks and Laton waived ex-
animation and were bound over to the
January term of circuit court under
SO, 900 bonds each. They will, of
course, be unable to furnish bail and
will remain in the care of Sheriff
Miles until their trial. Forbes and
Lotus demanded a hearing and their
demands will be satisfied before Judge
Trygstad today. 1t is likely that they
will also be bound over to the jan
uary term of court.