The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-10
,TWOARE KILLEDIN
 FLORIDA BATTLE
fCoutinued From Page One)

rLVAlDA OA | LA Continued From Page 0ne) phoned into Salerno for 8 doctor, reporting an accidental shooting, and has not been seen since. Augmented by 30 hastily sworn-in deputies, Sheriff Baker advanced to
 take the outlaws camp by storm at noon. It was found deserted save by the wounded woman and Mrs. I Westley Mobley, who were keeping watch beside the dead body of Joe Ashley. Five bullets had pierced Ashley's body. one severing the jugular vein. Beside Ashley were two loaded guns. He had sprung from his bed to attack, dying as he slipped on one shoe. Tonight three posses of officers and citizens. numbering about 40 men, are searching for John Ashley, Hanford Mobley and Albert Miller. Bloodhounds were unable to follow trails because of warm rain that has been falling all day long.
 Miller Reported Killed.
 At z o'clock tonight Sheriff Baker said at Stuart, where his men were refreshing, that he had every reason to believe he was close on the trail of Miller and John Ashley. At Stuart the sheriff said John Ashley this aft ernoon called to an acquaintance passing along the Dixie highway, asking him to go to Stuart and pur- chase for him some guns and am intuition. Ashley declared, the ac- quaintance reported, that he had left Albert Miller in the woods dead. The career of Joe Ashley began in 1912. He was accused of having slain Osceola Tiger. an Indian, supposedly for nf Cl-inS IIiS fhraa tri Ic here were closely watched by Indian agents. Two of these resulted in mistrials, and it was near the close of the third trial that Ashley broke away from the sheriff and made good his escape. He later declared that he feared the influence of government agents and gave this as the cause of his break for freedom.
 Ashley went to South America, where he stayed for more than a year. He returned to this county, and in 1914 robbed the Bank of Stuart, Fla, of $30,000. In this robbery Ash ley was wounded and suffered the loss of his right eye. He was tried here and convicted and sentenced to serve 20 years in the penitentiary. He escaped in 1920. only to be re- captured and returned. He escaped again last year and since has been in hiding about his old home.
 He appeared in public several times. On last Christmas he was sup posed to have held up and robbed a man on the Dixie highway, and on last Monday night officers sad he participated in the robbery of a small l railroad station.
 It was ferreting out this robbery that led officers into the oatlaws' stronghold.
 Wesley Mobley is a kinsman of the Ashleys and is said to be a leader of the band. Mobley is wanted for the robbery of the Bank of Stuart about one years ago. He and a com- panion were arrested for this and while confined in jail at Fort Lauder dale Mobley made his escape.
 Robbed Three Whisk9 ' H 2 Hou,..
 Prior to the Stuart robbery, Mob ley led his band in a raid on West End, in the Bahamas, where he robbed three liquor houses of $S,OOO.
 He was after $250, ,000. which the day
 before had been transferred to the | bank at Nassau.
 | Numerous raids have been made by
 the gang upon the liquor smuggling
 trade operating between the Bahamas
 and Miami. The gang openly played
 the parts Of pirates among the liquor
 boats.
 Albert Miller is said to be another Welf-knoWn member of the band. | Deputy Baker had been working to
 round up the gang since Thanksgiv-
 Ing Day.
 Officers said that the camp was
 located in a place that could be
 reached cnly by walking through muS
 and water and saw grass as high as
 mans head.
 Everglades, Dismal SVyamus.
 The forces that routed the outlaw
 band in its lair this morning pene- trated country seldom entered by
 the white man. The Everglades as a
 name covers countless acres of land
 and the good part of it is now un-
 dergoing reclamation. But the jungle
 part or It covers seemingly infinite
 eXpanse of wilderness, d panorama Of
 saw grass that grows higher than E
 man, jotted here and there with a
 forest patch. The whole of if covers
 muck land and a swamp land. Its floor is uneven and treacherous. in
 some places hardened to the weight or man and in others merely a
 bush covering for a water hole,
 Throughout there is woven an in- ] tracate mass of underbrush. Save 1 for the Seminole Indian who knows ! its workings, and a few white men
 who share in the knowledge holds an
 abundance of peril. Beaten trails. in
 its density are scarce and the only
 part that has touched civilization
 has anything in the way of a road. Occasionally 1t yileds a story of ad
 venture but more frequently it pro- duces a victim. The skeleton of some wayfarer who lost his bearings is i found and most likely his Identity is never learned. In recent years there have been cases of aviators falling into this mired desolation and comin 2 out after days with experience that aged them.
 Good Retreat For Outlaws.
 l. Today's scene of battle affords a sharp contrast to the country a few miles away. It is described as be- ing 40 miles north of this city bDt because of the peHinsula's contour. is deep in the wilderness. Not so far to the east the Atlantic spends ifs emerald splash on miles of sandy stretches and thousands oS winter visitors frolic in the semi-tror,ical eli . mate. It is against the communities that have grown up under these fay- ored conditions that the desneradoes came out of the Everglades fastness.
 Then they went to sea as high Jackers and pirates. But regardless of the nature of their crime they have always found ready retreat in the wild land that swallow them and erase any traces they might have