Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-05-14
BANDIT BESTS
SNAIL CLERKS:
TAKES $4,000
Slain Short Time Later in
Spectacular Fight With
Chicago Police.
RIDES IN PULLMAN CAR

CHICAGO, May 14.-Quitting the
peaceful, monotonous routine Of
postofice employees existence, Hor-
ace Walton, a postal clerk, early to-
day ended his brief career as train
robber with the bullet of a policeman
in his brain and the revolvers of fifty
more detectives splitting leaden slugs
all about him, after he had robbed
the mail coach of the Illinois Cen
trail railroads New Orleans linn
tied" Of $4,000 in gold and currency
and had mortally wounded a poIice-
man who arrested him while he was
escaping with the loot.
The robbery and its subsequent de-
yelOpments constituted one of the most
spectacular episodes in the history OF
Chicago crime and placed Walton at
the top of the list of criminals special
f! izing in train Tobberies
Boarding the limited at Gilman. H.,
as a gentleman traveller he quietly
went forward in the train to the mall
coach, boJnd the FIVE clerks working
| there at the point of a revolver ami
| escaped with $4,000 in gold and bank
notes as Ito train pulled into a CHI
! cago station.
BARRICADEs HIMSELF
IN HIS APARTMENT.
Half an hour later be fought re-
Solver battle with two policemen who
cious character. fatally wonnding one
of them and escaping to his apartment
nearby.
Traced there and surrounded By ffty
policemen, he threatened TO take plenty
of coppers along to hell with him
and then fought a revolver battle with
them for more than an hour. with hair
of bullets raining into the spars'nert
from all sides.
With his last two shots he resisted
arrest, firing them at Chief of Detectives
Mooney as the latter, after breaking
Gown the door plunged in and fired a
bullet into his head.
He was we'll dressed, and, to describe
him In the language of a Chicago woman
and her daughter, whom he engaged in
conversation for a few moments, mad s
every appearance of being 8 gentleman
traveller
But Just before the train pulled into
Kankakee. ILL.,. he left bis seat and went
forward through the train.
Forward in the mail coach Chief Clerk
Elmer Harris was preparing the mail
pouches to turn them over to the post
office authorities on the arrival OF the
! train at Chicago.
| His four assistants were helping him.
Suddenly the door TO the coach opened
and the bandit walked in SMILING
I Alert, the mail clerks arose from their.
work.
"rm the inspector said The stranger
reassuringly. and reached in his pocket
as though to produce credentials
Instead he whipped out blue steel re-
volver and pointed 1t at the clerks
GOES THROUGH POUCHES
IN LEISURELY MANNER.
Throw up your hands he COM
manded 'I'll croak the first guy who
makes a false move
Then the gentleman traveller forced
[ four Of the clerks to lie down beneath
a sorting table; the fifth he compelled
TO bind their hands behind their backs
while he nonchalantly stood by and sur
perintended the jobs.
Then he served the fifth clerk in like
fashion.
-Leisurely and with as much ease as
though it were an every day AFFAIR, the
bandit opened the registered pouches
with keys taken from the clerks calling
especially for the keys to the Decatur
pouch"
Discarding what edid not want from
the pouches the bandit selected packages
containing large sums in gold and cur-
rency. dumping these into grip owned
by one of the mail clerks
Then. as the train pulled into the
Sixty third street station at Chicago be
called ont a CHEEKY good night" to the
bound and helpless clerks, and leaped
from sthe coach, vanishing into the night.
Chief Clerk Harris managed to pun
the bell cord and stop the train, but II
was too late for effective pursuit.
Thirty minutes later Policemen Ron
erts while walking his beat. met Park