The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-10-12
? )L|CE HAVE THRILLING
Time With ROBBERS
LOCAL POLICE ENGAGE IN A MID
NIGHT REVOLVER FIGHT
WITH DESPERAD0ES
Chief Block and PatrOlmen Unable to
TO Identify Men Suspected-A
Very Narrow Escape.


shortly after the midnight hour and
it is almost by what sem miracles
that death to local officers and a tele-
graph operator did not result from the
encounters with a gang of bold, bad
gunner.
The three desperadoes suspected of
having held up and robbed the Olym-
plan train of the Milwaukee road in
Washington last week escaped from
officers in this city about l o'clock last
Wednesday morning by keeping up an
incessant fire from their automatic re-
volvers.
Only the fortunate failure of cart
ridge to explode probably saved the
life of Patrolman Arthur Doerr and
Lucius Bruegger of the local police
force With an automatic revolver
leveled at their heads, when taken by
surprise, they would have been killed
by the train bandits. The shot failed
to explode, but the click of the trigger
warned Doerr and he dropped to the
ground in darkness Many shots
were exchanged in the fight that fol-
lowed
The Milwaukee police were warned
to be on the alert of the bandits and
two suspects were arrested there ear
ly Wednesday morning They were
found in a box car on an incoming
train. Chief Block and Fatroleman
Doerr went to Milwaukee later in the
1..sg nfy lint
unable to identify them.
The police in Milwaukee have every
reason to believe that the men who
tried to take the life of Doerr are the
same men who held up the train near
the Pacific coast
Since the Olympian was held up,
three men who tally with the descrip-
ton of the train robbers, have been
working their way east, robbing sta
tion agents and citizens along the way
III q manner which showed them to be
desperate and dangerous. Three sta
tions west of Madison were ransacked
just previous to the attempted cap
tuFe of the three gunmen in Water
tow n.
IN Portage early Tuesday night, a
citizen was held up and robbed, two
patrolmen attempting to effect the ar
rest of the armed bandits. Instead
the officers were backed up against a
barn and were disarmed of their wea-
pons and released by their captors un-
der threat of being murdered if they
gave any alarm before the robbers
could escape.
The police in Portage wired to this
city, requesting that all incoming
trains be searched Patrolman Doerr
received the assignment and went to
search train which had arrived He
found his quarry in the first car Not
knowing that the men were in the car
Doerr took his fiashlight and in the il
Elimination saw the three men.
What are you doing here?" he ask
ed.
Without saying a word, one of the
suspects drew an automatic revolver
and pointed it point blank at the Off
Ger. click of the trigger followed,
but there was no explosion of the
cartridge.
Doerr dropped to the ground to save
himself. The suspects jumped back
into the car, while Doerr began firing
at them until his revolver was empty.
The suspects, every time the officer
lets went whizzing over the officers
head, but none of them found their
mark.
Aid was summoned and running
fire of revolver play ensued The
night operator and a citizen followed
the suspect along the track, but the
suspect held them at bay by frequent
shots from his revolver and escaped
The other two men eluded their pur-
suers and escaped.
Doerr attributes the escape of the
train robbers to the fact that they
were better armed and provided with
several rounds of ammunition.
On the identification of one of the
policemen, Matt Murray, wounded
man arrested at Johnson Creek, was
held for trial at a hearing before JUS
tice of the Peace Rohr in this city last
Thursday. Murray was sent to the
county Jail at Jefferson and his trial
on charge of assault with intent to
kill set for Oct 15 Murray was. ar
rested Wednesday afternoon at John
son Creek. A bullet wound in his arm
led the police to suspect that he was
connected with the gun fight between
Patrolmen Doerr and Bruegger and
the men found in the boxcar, and who
with their other escapades, were sus-
pected of being connected with the
hold up of the Milwaukee road flyer
the Olympian, near Minneapolis Mon
day night
Murray was identified by Officer
Bruegger as one of the boxcar men
Murray's story is that he, harmless
tramp, was lying on top of a boxca1
and was in line of one of the fleeing
mems bullets. Two suspects arrested
by the Milwaukee police on Wednes.
day were released Thursday afternoon
as neither Doerr or Bruegger could
identify them. Murray's picture anG
description will be taken to Chicago
by railroad detectives on Friday in al