The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-11
TRAIN ROBBERS


swarmed about the engine. forcing the
engineer and fireman at the point of
revoIvers back into the smoking car.
The door. of the smoking and day
coaches were locked and several of
the robbers ran up and down the
aisles shooting into the floor and thru
the roof. stray bullets from their
guns striking Fireman r. E. Carter in
the ankle End C. T. Witcher. the train
auditor. in the thigh. Both Carter
and Witcher live in Parsons, Kan.
Fired Into Coach Windows.
other of the bandits boarded the
mail and express cars. uncoupled
with their own men at the engine
throttle ran out to the main line and
backed north. AS they passed the
standing coaches they fired into the
windows and it was then that Mrs
L. D. williams of Achille, Okla. was
wounded. She was shot in the shout
der. mile north of the siding the
mail and express cars were stopped
and the robbers proceeded to rifle
them, throwing the express safe from
the car and breaking it open, They
are said to have taken a quantity of
registered mail.
Escaped in Automobiles.
The sum of money taken from the
mail bags could rot be estimated. Ac-
cording to the, express messenger and
mail clerk. who also were forced into
the smoking car with the engine crew,
there was not large amount of mon
ey in either car. When the two cars
had been stripped of valuables the
bandits fled in motor cars which had
either been left nearby or brought up
by confederates. Members of the train
crew started for this city and found
the engine and two cars deserted.
They ran back to the coaches, cou lied
nm he and nr0Pp6dPd with the
wounded to the nearest hospital at
Parsons. Kan.
Railroad Men in Gang.
The bandits are described as young
men, altho all were masked Their
familiarity with the train schedule AMI
their handling of the engine and de-
tached cars was the feature that Il
tracted the particular attention of rail-
way men as it was taken to indicate
at least some of them had had railway
experience. One of~the masked men
was reported to have warned a COM
panion, Don't shoot that man-tnats
Jake Darkes." Darkes was a brake
man on the train.
Other fragments of conversation
overheard indicated thoro knowledge
of train operations on the division, it
was asserted. Koch is a blind sid
ing" with no buildings or residences
near and the spot was well chosen for
the holdup.
On Lookout in Kansas City.
Kansas City. July 11.-Local police
today were asked to watch for the
men who last night robbed south
bound Missouri, Kansas & Texas pas
senger train No. 81, near Paola, Kan.
fifty miles south of here, and escaped
northward in motor cars.
The information here was that the
Paola authorities were confident the
men had been surrounded by a posse
along the Marais des Cygne river. but
that they were notifying police in cit
les to the northward as a precau-
tionary measure in the event their as
sumption was incorrect. Nothing had
been learned here as to the amount
of plumber obtained by the robbers.
Conductors Narrow Escape.
R. E. Cowan. Pullman conductor IN
the train. narrowly escaped death at
the hands of the robbers. according
to his story this morning. As the cob
berry was in progress, Cowan reached