, 1919-12-04
Blames State for
Carlisle Escape
L. p. Spent $4,000 to Capture Bandit.
and this State Now Offers
Reward of $500.

state officials severely to task for the
escape md subsequent liberty of VIM.
l.. Carlisle, the train bandit. who re-
Gently escaped from the state prison at
Rawlins. Mr.. LETTERS. as quoted in the
Cheyenne Tribune. said:
I'VE spent $4,000 to put this bandit
in the p~enitentiary. and your officials
have nov offered only 5000 reward for
his capture.
Furthermore. an official of this
state has made to an official of the
Union Pacific railroad the statement
thai 90 per cent of the people of wyo-
ming are in sympathy with this train
robber. and want to see him get away.
Wyoming is getting some very costly
publicity out of this whole matter. and
the quicker her people realize it the
better it will be for the state. The
Union Pacific could run armored cars
through your state i'll order to max it
safe for passengers to pass through
your borders, but we do not want to do
that. We could make little garrisons
out of our various station houses. but
we prefer to believe that the majority
of the people of Wyoming want to take
the slur away from the name of the
state. and want to see this man dis
posed of.
Il am weary of faxed up newspaper
stories and want to heal IA definite re-
port on Carlisle and hat from the
coroners only.
out of the ~penitentiary whenever he
pleased to. and the secretary of state
in Wyoming has admitted that he
heard Carlisle brag to the board of
pardons that he could get out of the
penitentiary whenever he saw fit to.
and that he could get help from the
public.
I'VE now know that his boast was
correct. We know that when he es-
capped he went into al oil amp, laid
his gun oil the table, announced that
he was Carlisle and would rob train
No. 10, and that after he had eaten
with these Wyoming men, he was car
ried in an automobile driven by "a
brother of an officer in the state, to the
railroad tracks near the scene of the
robbery, put down there, and wished
goci luck.
'"There is nothing brave or spectac-
ular about this man. He goes into
coaches when women and children are
ready to 90 to bed and terrorizes them,
then jumps off with "A few dollars and
runs like a coyote.
"He makes good his escape because
he is given aid and sympathy of a
certain element in Wyoming. / be-
lieve that he is at this time shielded
by some foolish citizens Of yours. and
that the oon this state wake up
to the fact that Carlisle is nothing but
a s%neaking porch climber who is damag-
ing WyOming's reputation at the rate of
about $1,000 for every hour he is at
large, the better it will be for the state.
I'VE have called off our forty odd
men who have been on the trail of
Carlisle, and the matter of whether or
not the states reputation for being a
safe place to live and travel in now
, rests solely with the people and their
officials.
"A prominent attorney, who thinks
that he has properly gauged the SEN
timent of the people of this state said
to me the other day that if / would
issue a statement to the effect that
we did not wish any harm to Carlisle,
but only put back behind the bars,
it would gain popular support to the
effort to punish him for his latest out
break.
II replied to hat gentleman that I
would make no such statement be-
cause it did moi meet the situation as
I think it should be met.
II repeat that when we neal from
!, Carlisle again we want the report to
come from Il coroner
Commenting on the above, the Rock
River Review says:
General Manager LETTERS said that
a brother OF an officer of the law had
driven Carlisle to the scene of the rob-
berry in an automobile and wished him
luck.
Roy Peterson, brother of Marshal
Peterson. Of Rock River, is presumed
to be the party referred to above. He
denies the statement, as do the other
men at the rig where Carlisle worked
all day. They claim that Carlisle
was well armed, while the only weapon
they possessed was a claw hammer, or
a saw, and that Carlisle kept his eyes
on them all day, keeping his revolver
with him and putting his rifle out of