The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-29

the exact spot where the train would ee
stopped. He also arranged and planhei
iust where the robbers would jump off
the train and get away-ln other words
the line of retreat is arranged ahead OF
time and the ROBBERS know just what
TO do Immediately following the robbery.
They usually plan to stay in the woods
until they can come in the city without
attracting attention. The larger the city,
the better for the robbers. as they run
less chance of being caught.
Work of Professionals
Now the Ala ALBANIA Great Southern train
robbery Thursday night at Bibbvile bore
all the earmarks of the work of profess
sionals They knew just what to lo
and did it very well. They held down
the block signal by the use of piece
of light wire and knew that the red sig
nal would stop the train. They also
knew that while the train was on that
block, a red signal would also show a
mile back of the train and prevent any
other train from coming in where the
robbers were operating
As for the actual robbery the bandits
had little TO fear from the train crew.
The messengers on mail and express cars
as we'll as other members of train crews
nave only in few isolated cases ever
offered resistance to train robbers, and
passengers never. The psychology of it
is that employees on trains feel that they
90, NIL
they therefore usually obey the dictates
of train bandits with the utmost alaerity
Detectives state that when a train rob-
ber holds up a train he usually fires a
few shots promiscuously about the heads
of the train crews and this is very con-
ducive to making them behave The
bravest men in the country have been on
trains that have been held up according
TO detectives and lave offered no resis-
tance. simply for the fact that they felt
that it was none of their business-that
it was railroad trouble. and who wants
to help a railroad in trouble?
Open Door Quickly
TO show the fear mail clerks have Of
train robbers is shown by the statement
of the clerks in last weeks train rob-
berry. Clerk Poole stated that he with
several other clerks were in the mail
car preparing to have coffee when the
bandits knocked on the door of the car
Clerk Poole stated that he refused 10
open the door, thinking that it was
train hand wanting some coffee At this,
according to Clerk Poole, the robhers
int on and Clerk
Poole opened the car door very quickly
This incident, the detectives state,
shows that train men will not offer the
lea st resistance to train robbers. IT Is
shown by the statement of the detec-
tives that in mail cars are usually TWO
winchester rifles as well as shotguns and
that if the three mail clerks had 50 'ie-
sired they could just as we'll have used
these rifles from within the car, as to
omen the door There was no risk, as
they were within the car, and if they
had fred few shots the bandits would
have retreated and the government would
have been saved loss of approximately
SeOoo
After the train robbery the robbers
knew what to do. They started the en-
CINE with the mail and express attached
on its wild ride alone. They We're not
on it. They figured that the officers in
pursuit would be puzzled as to the exact
place where they left the train and in
the resultant search they would have an
easy time escaping. 1t is the opinion of
special agents that the train robbers
were in Birmingham by the time the
posse got on the scene of the robbery
and by this time they have divided the
spoils and scattered to the four winds. ii
Is not thought that the small reward
offered by the express and railroad COM
pany will initiate a very active search
for the bandits.
Telegraph Operators Error
In looking back over some of the Incl
dents of the Alabama Great Southern
train, the optical Illusion of the night
telegraph operator at Coaling fingers 10
the memory, as it was practically re-
sponsble for the loss of one human life.
1t happened this way:
Chief Bodeker had been told by Super
intendent Evans of the Queen and Cres-
cent that he could manage the posse the
way he thought best and Chief Bodeker
stated that he thought 1t was best to
look for the trail of the robbers right