The Little River news., 1921-09-10
SUSPECT TEXARKANIANS
Four Young Men Sought fin COnnec.
 tiOn With K. c. s. Robbery.

Texarkana, Tex, Sept. 7-Arrests are expected in connection with the hold-up of Kansas City Southern north bound train Mo- early last night at point seven miles south of this city. Officers say they have informa- tion which they consider sufficient to warrant arrest in the event they can locate quartet of well known young men.
 The four masked bandits are SUD- posed to have boarded the train at Bloombdrg, Tex, and when the train approached the bridge across Sulphur river, seven miles south of this city, they covered the engine crew with pis- tols, forced the disconnection of the mail car, and compelled the engineer to pull this car to a point within two miles of the heart of the city, where the bandits left the train and escaped in waiting automobile.
 The officers learned this morning that late yesterday afternoon, four young men, two of them well known in police circles, visited a local ga- rage in a high-powered automobile,
 had all tanks filled, as though in pre- paration for a long drive, and drove
 out of the city in the direction of the
 scene of the hold-up. It is said the
 quartet were dressed exactly as the
 train robbers were described, in blue cveralls and jumpers.
 The car in which they drove out of the city was later seen here with another person, not included in the four seen in the car earlier in. the day, driving it, the officers say.
 The use of a gas bomb with which to force the mail clerk to open the mail car leads to the belief that one of the robbers was an ex-service man and had been in the chemical section of the army. Officers are today seek ing information as to the service rec ord of young man who was in that branch of the service during the World war It is intimated he was one of the four men who patronized the garage yesterday afternoon.
 Clerk Tells of Hold-Lp.
 Mail Clerk John Cheatham, in charge of the mail car, this morning told local postal officials his version Of the hold-up. He said that he 'and Anthony Johns, negro aSistant mail clerk, were discussing hfld-ups and explaining what they would do in such an event, when the train sur denly came to halt. Johns said robbery was being perpetrated, and both men armed themselves and hid under piles of mail sacks, each guard ling door of the car, They remalned silent when the robbers knocked on the door and demanded that it be- opened, and even when Engineer Woodson, at the point of revolver, was forced to plead that the clerks open the door.
 "In few minutes there was a sound as if a bullet had been fired through the glass transom of the car door," said Cheatham, then some thing struck the pile of mall pouches 1 under which I was hiding. It was not long after that until stfling fumes as of formaldehyde, filled the car. Johns and I talked the matter over when we were almost suffocated and | decided to open the doors to get some air. 1 was then taken to the cab of the engine and Johns forced to re- main in the mail car. One of the rob- bers threatened to kill me for not opening the door sooner"
 Johns, the negro assistant, said | one of the robbers told him that they | were looking for box of money mailed out of Shreveport every Mon- day night, that they knew it had | been mailed Tuesday night this week, on account of Monday being Labor Day. and that they would kill him if l they did not find the money. They then ripped open every registered mail pouch in the car and dumped their contents into a small bag they brought with them.
 Both men were suffering from the effects of the gas bomb when they ar rived in the city, and for four hourl it was not possible to remain in the
 mail car on account of the fume, even after fresh air had been pumrd into the car for that length of tine.
 Neither mail clerk would ell
 whether there were valuables in the
 pouches.