Imperial Valley press., 1919-05-29
6 E:R|FF'S
IN
CHASE
ON BANDIT
RObber Is Wounded in Arm
But Escapes Across the
Border After a Spectacu-
lar Chase.

Starting with the robbery of a
humble cOlOred man of the sum of
( Sc, fO0tpad today was the center
/ of a series of incidents which in the
aggregate form one of the most SEN
satiOnal chapters in the criminal his
tory of Imperial county.
/ The hOldup man, after firing shots
at a special watchman placed at the
! old racecOurse to guard the army
| airplanes parked there, was chased by
d posse of five deputies from the sher-
| ifs office.
Then for the next few hours fol-
lowed chase of the hounds after the
hare. in which shOtguns, revOlvers and
airplanes formed the chief factors.
Finally, at about 8 o'clock this MORN
ing. the daring rObber escaped across
/ the border into Mexico after holding
up HOltville stage.
ChronOlOgically, the various Incl
dents of the case were:
About 5 o'clock this morning Jim
| Williams was held up and relieved of
purse containing S6.
City and county officers were Civ
EN- descriptions of the wanted man.
At 6 o'clock came an excited call
to the sheriff's office from 'the oil
mills" in which the caller gave the
information that he "was being killed
by a man. and wanted help.
Deputy Sheriff MatlOck, who was
detailed to the case, took up the chase
| of the man and within an hour had
him cOrnered in field on the ranch
of Roland Reed. two and One-half miles
northeast of this city.
About o'clock Andrew AndreOla,
an Italian employed on the Reed place,
and the deputy sheriff, exchanged
shots with the fugitive, who had been
/ discovered hiding in an irrigation
ditch.
| The chase then continued with re-
Inducements i'm the shape of Chief
| Deputy Sheriffs Cummings, DevOre
and Griffith. They lost trace of their
man about 9 o'clock, although they
/ continued the search up until beyond
! the noon hour.
The bandit escaped by working his
way to the road, where he held up
/ the HOltville stage and forced Driver
! Van Humphreys" to transport him to
( CaleXicO, where he ran across the
border into Mexico for safety.
During the chase the fugitive is
thought to have been wounded by a
shot from one of the officers. The
driver and passengers aboard the
stage, who were unwilling cOmpan-
| lens of the man on the fat drive to
the border, state that his left arm,
near the wrist, was tied up in hand
kerchief. the linen of which was sOiled
with a prOfuse flow of blood.
TO aid in the search, Lieutenant f.
V. Quinn and Corporal Fred ID. Muir
ply, Of the army air service, who are
here on recruiting duty, took up the
! chase by airDlane, but were unsuccess-
full in locating the man. James
LOoney, the night Waterman at the
aerial landing place, was the first per-
son to find the bandit after the rob-
berry. LOOney exchanged shots with
him at about O'Clock this morn
ing.
About o'clock this morning, while
the sheriff's posse was beating the
bushes along irrigation bitches and
covering every foot of ground in the
; limited territory where the man had
been seen by ranchers and farm
workers, the Holtville stage was held
up at point about two miles west
of the Meloland store.
The bandit-presumed to be the
hsame man who was the object of the
search by the officers, showed a bus
inesslike gun up AGAINST the body of
H. Van Humphreys, the driver, and
ordered him ito drive like hell for the
border"
He jocularly warned the passengers
to remain quietly in their seats, say
ing he would not disturb them if they
caused no trouble, other than the in
convenience of taking them about 20
miles out of the way of their destina-
tion in FL Centre.
Carrying the Gun in his hand, al
ways ready for an emergency, the ban
dit rode in the back seat of the car
constantly urging the driver to make
more speed.
AS the stage reached the Southern
Pacific freight depot at CaleXico the
man ordered the driver to stop and
then, alighting, walked hurriedly to-
ward the international border line
Without waiting to see the man cross
into Mexico, Van Humphreys drove
to the CaleXico city hall to tell his
story to an officer.
Not until nearly half-hour hao
elapsed did Van Humphrey locate ar
officer and by that time it was toe
late to intercept the bandit. A com
4 A