The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-04-11
CASE OF BLACK BART.
Noted Outlaw May be Released from
Prison.

victs undergoing life sentence, will,
it is confidently expected, says Mar
quette, Michigan letter, enable Ray
mond Holzhay, more widely known
as BLACK Bart" a life prisoner with
sensational criminal record, to OBJ
tain his release on parole from the
Marquette prison, where he has spent
nearly twenty-three years of his life
for murder. Holzhay, who has been
a model prisoner for many years, ex-
poets that under the new law his SEN
tence will be commuted to one of for
ty years and that he will be released
on parole shortly after the commuta-
ton of his sentence.
Holzhay's career was extremely
sensational and interesting from
chronological point of view. He
was born in Austria and came to the
United States when quite young. But
little is known of his early life,
scarcely more than that he was illit-
crate, of great physical strength aAd
courage, and had strongly developed
criminal tendencies. He was still in
his teens when he began to work in
Wisconsin "pineries." The life of a
lumbermen did not satisfy Holzhay's
adventurous nature He decided to
become bandit and began his Grim
inal career by holding up a stage
coach in the lumber district.
His success was encouraging and
Holzhay, single-handed, held up and
robbed coach after coach until the
mere mention of his name struck ter
ror to the hearts of travellers in the
lumber region. His boldness was as
tonishing. While lodging the officers
of the law who were pursuing him,
BLACK Bart walked boldly into lum-
Der camps asking for food and OBJ
tanning it, no man being willing to
take the risk of making an attempt
to seize the outlaw.
After a while, finding the robbing
of stage coaches too tame, Holzhay
took to holding up trains and for a
considerable period he terrorized the
whole of northern Michigan and Wis
consin, holding up railroad trains and
stage coaches, robbing the passen-
gers ard rifling the mail bags and
employing his time between the big
ger coups by roDbing banks, stores
and private houses. Large rewards
were offered for his capture by the
government, the State authorities
and the railroads, but nobody SEEM
ed to have courage enough to earn
the reward.
After having held up and robbed
Wisconsin Central train near Ca
dott, Holzhay went to the Gogebic
region where he held up stage
coach near Lake Gogebic. One of
the passengers was a Chicago bank
er, named A. E. Fleischbein, who car
ried a considerable amount of money.
The banker drew his gun, but before
he could make use of it, Holzhay shot
and killed him. Another passenger
also tried to resist, but Holzhay shot
him also and after having robbed
his victims he made his escape. The
authorities made a determined effort
to capture the daring bandit, but al
though bloodhounds were used to
follow his trail, no trace of him could
be found.
Five days later, however, Marshal
Glade and Justice Weiser saw Helz-
hay in one of the streets of the town
of Republic and arrested him. He
tried to make use of his gun, but was
knocked down and overpowered be-
fore he could do so. He was brought
to Marquette and was positively iden-
titled as the man who had killed
Fleischbein. Holzhay was tried, con-
victed and sentenced to Marquette
prison for life. During the first year
of his Imprisonment Hozhay gave a
great deal of trouble to the prison
authorities. He was moody and re-
bellious and not inclined to submit to
the prison rules and discipline. On
one occasion he obtained possession
of knife and held one of the guards
at bay in his cell when he came to
take the prisoner to work. Warden
Tompkins came to Investigate and
shot Holzhay through the hand in
which he held the knife. Not until
then did the prisoner submit.
Holzhay remained untractable and
| finally he was sent to the asylum for
the insane at Iona, where the doctors
decided to perform an operation on
the prisoner to remove piece of
bone which pressed upon his brain.
The operation was successful and af-
ter his return to prison Holzhay was