Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1916-12-13
DETAILED REVIEW
OF THE JARB|OGE
STAGE ROBBERY
Jarbidge. Nevada, Dec. !

Jarbidge. Nevada, Dec. !, 1916.
For the past two days our little
town has been In a state OF great ex-
element and nervous tension, caused
by the extreme cold-bloodedness OF
the murder which accompanied the
hold-up OF the mail stage on last Tues
day evening. Dec. 5th. Not for many /
years has anything so attrocious been |
recorded In the criminal annals Of the !
hold-ups through the country
To deliberately crawl up behind an
innocent young man. driving an open
wagon in q snowstorm-blizzard. and
who was probably nearly stiff and
numb with the cold, and then without
warning or any chance for the help
less burdledup driver to protect him.
self or to surrender In order to save
his life. TO place big gun against the
back OF the defenseless head and snuff
out human life. and then cody drive
the team through the lower part OF
town and off into a thicket of willows
In the river bottom and leave the team
and corpse to be buried In the falllrS
snow; 1t was surely enough to iTf:iaue
the last spark OF manhood in tho men
and TO cause the women TO keep very
close to the house. Short shift would
J uiYe been m-hc of him had ne iIhu.
mat culprit ieen found that night.
! I'he 6round was gone Owl with flash
! i:Eh:s but the new fail OF snow made
. II very hard TO follow any trail.
Guards were put on the roads and
trails going cut or town, and they have
been well guarded ever since and no
man allowed 10 leave the camp.
! The body of the driver, whose name
was F. NJ. Searcy, was left on the seat
where he usually sat to drive, on the
right hand side next TO the brake, with
the body leaning over TO the left and
resting partly on the seat. in which
position he had remained for abcYs
five hours, during most of which time
1t had been showing and there was
nearly three inches OF snow on the
body. The wagon was worked out OF
the brush and driven up the postoffice.
Near the wagon buried In the snow
was found two or the second class mail
sacks, which had been opened and part
or the papers and small packages scat.
tered about the ground. There were
tracks barely visahle under the snow
! leading from the wagon off into the
brush. but they could not he followed
In the night, although some men kept
ai II most of the night. There was one
large track which seemed TO be accom-.
panied by dogs track, and In places
there seemed TO be smaller track.
The next morning early there were
many men on the trail and hunting for
evidence: II was found that the trail
after wandering around through the
brush and into several extra thick
punches. In one of which he evidently
cut open the first-class sack and re.
moved the registered letters and pack.
ages. There were tracks leading to
the river. where he had evidently gone
TO wash his hands, then he went back
into the brush again and afterwards
went up little further to where there
Is a trail leading into town across q
foot bridge. Later the first-class sack
was found near this trail, about one
hundred feet from the bridge. near the
Meyers cabin. and almost across the
river from the pOstOffice dog led the
searchers to this sack which was about
twenty feet from the trail In the edge
OF the brush. Most OF the bundles of
letters had not been molested, but tho
RoBerson letters had been looked over
and all those from the bank had been
opened and read. and several of them
had bloody finger prints on them. The
sack had been cut open and all the
packages of money were missing.
Crumley & Walker, who run the Sue.
cess Bar and Cafe. had two packages
OF bills containing $4,000 and one pack.
age of silver containing 5000. Mrs.
Walker was also expecting several
hundred dollars in change for the Cafe.
a few other parties who had been ey.
pecting small sums of money do not
know yet whether Il was in this mail
or not. II. Braunning. who was rc.
ported to have lost $1,000, II was later
learned that this was in Cashiers
checks, and therefore will not be q
loss.
Monday afternoon there were sever.
al big freight teams left Jarbidge and