Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-11-10
BANDITS CREW
AND ROB MAIL CAR

PAXTON, ILL.,, Nov. 8.-Hundreds
of men in posses were searching
early today for ten bandits who last
night held up the New Orleans lin
tied on the Illinois Central railroad
two miles south of here, wounded
four train employees, stole two
pouches of registered mail and es-
capped after setting fire to the mail
car.
E. A. Germer, chief postal inspec-
tor at noon announced that the loot
obtained by robbers who held up an
Illinois Central train near Paxton,
ILL.,, last night, fought forty-five
minute battle with the train crew
and passengers, wounding five men
car, would total approximately four
hundred dollars.
They got two pouches of register
ed mail and overlooked two others"
Mr.. Germer said. One of those over
looked is said to have contained
100000.
In the two they took" Mr.. Ger.
mer added, there was nothing but
the ordinary run of registered let
ters-no bank shipments or other
packages of especial value. 1t will
take week to see each individual
sender and check up the exact loss
| but l estimate it at about $400."
In the midst of the holdup, when
! the mail clerks were forced to throw
| pouches from the car, one of them
| threw out a sack of newspapers.
Where do you get that stuff?'
one of the bandits declared "You
know what pouch we want; throw it
out here"
The pouch, believed to contain the
fortune, was thrown out, carried q
| short distance from the train by the
bandits, and for some reason, was
dropped and later recovered by the
train crew.
No trace Of the robbers had been
! found early today, the only aid in
! the search being a statement by
members of the train crew that
/ they headed west in two automo.
biles. Squads of Chicago police
| guarded all roads entering that city
and the alarm was telephoned to all
Central Illinois towns. The passen-
gers were not moleSted, although
one, K. H. Knowlton, Of Freeport,
ILL.,, got three bullet holes in his coat
when he and three companions went
up to the mail car and fired on the
bandits as the latter were fighting
the engine crew and two mail clerks,
barricaded in the mail car. Arthur
Moon, a Pullman porter, was shot
in the chest and groin as he stood
in the vestibule of a smoker. Fire
man Harry Bangs was wounded in
the shoulder. Thomas BakeB, a
mail clerk, was shot in the hand and
shoulder, and Ben Bobinette, anoth-
er clerk, was dubbed over the head
with a revolver.
Two of the robbers boarded the
train at some point between Chicago
and Paxton and covered the en-
CINE crew with their guns as the
train was passing through here, ac-
cording to the report of Division Su-
perintendent j. w. Hevron.
They ordered the train to proceed
to a small bridge over a stream two
miles farther south, where the train
was stopped.
Ordering the crew to break the
train the engineer and fireman
were forced to pull the mail and bag
gage cars farther up the tracks,
leaving the other nine coaches on
the other side of the stream to pre-
vent Interference by the passengers.
Eight other men appeared from auto
mobiles and began the assault on
the mail car.
On a threat of shooting the en-
gineer and fireman if the mail car
was not opened, the robbers forced
the mail clerks to open the door but
when the engineer and fireman had
clambered inside, the door was
slammed shut.
Several charges Of dynamite and
firing from revolvers and shotguns
finally forced the door in and a
hand-to- hand battle ensued which
ended only when the robbers had
thrown two bombs into the car and
a fire brand which smoked out the
four men inside. When the clerks
came out with the sacks containing
registered mail to save themselves
from being. burned the bandits
jumped into their machines and left.
The train crew hooked up the
train again without the mail car
and proceeded to Champaign, where
the injured were sent to q hospital