The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-14

The dead:
 Lee Dent, alias Ebert Thomas. Negro chauffeur in uniform, name un- known.
 The injured:
 Clarence Tucker, negro, shot in leg. Captured:
 Eugene Jackson, negro
 A freight train approaching Birming- ham was robbed about O cock yester day morning. The negroes boarded the train at Leeds and when it approached Weems they threw off a great quantity or shoes amounting to about 5000. Get ting off the train they hid them in the woods near Weems. The conductor of tho freight train, however, had sen some goods thrown ] from the train, and reported the matter | to the authorities in Birmingham. The officers put on the case were Deputies Will Kemp and Lee White and D. k. Kennybrook J. E. Omer and C. s. Bart lett all special agents of the Southern. They went to the scene early yesterday | morning, located the goods and lay in 1 wait all day for the men to return for
 their booty.
 l About five o'clock yesterday afternoon the four negroes showed up in a big Cadillac automobile. The officers from | their hiding place watched the men be- gin to load the car. When the job was
 about half finished they showed them
 selves and ordered the neogroes to sur render. Instead of doing so, the ne-
 groes got behind the automobile and be- | gan to shoot. The shooting then be- l came general, and when the smoke clear 1 ed away. two of the robbers were dead,
 a third wounded and the fourth was in
 custody.
 Weems, the scene of the fight. is about
 ten miles east of Birmingham, on the | Southern.
 Officers believe that from yesterday g
 capture will result important develop
 ments
 Fully s25.oo0 worth of stuff has been stolen from trains in the Weems vicinity during the past two months said D. A Kennybrook, special agent of the
 Southern last night. There IS un- doubtedly a big fence in Birmingham who disposes of these goods and we now think there is a good chance to locate him" Tt is a well organized gang of six ! or eight persons and the robbing has l been done very systematically. The robberies usually occur on what we call train B. which is a train which carries high class merchandise from the east. Frequently in the yards we will find several cars broken open and perhaps goods will be missing from but one of l them showing that the men pick the character of merchandise they want They invariably take only shoes and to- bacco.
 "Out there in the woods today we found numerous prints in the mud where boxes had been handled. The same Cad lilac automobile which brought the four men out there today has frequently beer seen in the vicinity by people living out there, and only Sunday night 1t was lseen loaded with goods
 '.Whenever goods are stolen the iden tification marks are all cut off so there is no possible way to trace the robbers except to catch them in the act as was
 the case today.
 "The uninjured negro captured today only a few months ago finished serving
 a four-year sentence for robbing car
 at Avondaie We recovered about $30I
 worth of shoes today, and will check UT on the car tomorrow to see what else
 is missing"
 The bodies of the dead negroes were
 brought to Birmingham last night and line coroner will set the time for mak- ing his investigation.
 Ebert Thomas, alias Lee Dent. one o
 the negroes killed, is wanted in Chatta nooga on a charge of murder and re-