Evening star., 1925-07-30
THREE DIE IN FIGHT
AS HOTEL |SLOOTED;
BANDITS INDICTED
Two Robbers and Clerk Slain
When HoId-Up Is Staged
in Thriller Style.
GUN BATTLE WAGED
IN CHICAGO STREETS
Masked Men, Drunk or Drugged,
Cause Panic Among Guests
aid Take $4,000.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
CHICAGO, July 30.-In movie
| thriller style, robber band. masked
and bristling with pistols and shot
guns, invaded the exclusive Drake
Hotel, in Chicagos Gold Coast, at tea
time yesterday. enacting scenes of
killing and sanguinary gun fighting
that extended subsequently for an
/ hour over North Side boulevards.
When the spectacular affray was
over. of five robbers, two were dead
! and one captured; hotel clerk had
been killed: two women had been In
jured: two robbers had escaped with
$4,000
Early today one of the escaped
holdup men was found and the one
previously arrested confessed fully.
|, The robbery was staged within
stones throw of the residential
mansions of Chicago's 400. while
hundreds of guests thronged the lob
bies and heavy traffic crowded ada
cent Michigan avenue. A dozen po-
licemen We're within call.
Employees Terrorized
For 10 minutes the robbers, one of
them a full.blooded Cherokee Indian
cowboy from Texas, terroriZed en-
ployes in the hotel offices, on the
mezzanine floor. and had crammed the
loot into a black satchel when their
retreat was cut off by James McMur
die. house detective.
Summoned by an excited guest the
detective confronted the robbers and
began firing with two pistols. While
guests ran for cover amid whizzing
bullets the robbers returned shot for
shot with the detective retreating
through an entrance.
Policemen, attracted by shots and
called by employees. fired on the band
as they left the hotel and the Indian,
TEX Corts. or Ted Court, wounded
by the detective. was killed.
In the first ourburst of shooting
one of the robbers guarding Frank
b. Rodkey. assistant cashier, who
stood helpless with hands upraised,
shot and killed him. Witnesses later
told the police the robber was Jack
Holmes of New York. and also a
former Brownsville. Tex. cowboy.
Holmes fed to the kitchen during
the battle with McMurdie. He ter
rorized employees there until he was
captured, after swapping his empty
pistol in the faces of two policemen.
Gun Fight i'm Street.
The third robber. Erie Nelson. a
former employe of the hotel, comman-
deered a taxicab and dashed through
the congested traffic through the ex-
elusive North Shore boulevards, ex-
changing shots with pursuing police
men and threatening Mrs. Maizie Lar
son. occupant Of the cab. After the
taxi driver deliberately wrecked the
cab. inturing Mrs. Larson, Nelson fed
on foot, and was killed by one of the
policemen when he took refuge in a
basement
OF the two robbers who escaped in
an automobile left running at the
hotel door. Jim Woods was seized
when he applied at a hospital early
today for treatment for a wounded
hand. He admitted connection with
the hoidup. and augmented the con-
fession of Holmes.
Holmes said the fifth man was Jack
Nugent. The police believe Nugent
was the stranger who brought Woods
to the hospital, and who left unnoticed
while the injury was being treated.
The dead Nelson was the leader of
the band, some of whom were intoxi-
Gated or under the influence Of drugs.
Holmes told the police. He said he
and his pal. Tex" the Indian, had
come here recently from Texas. had
met Nelson and Nugent in poolroom
and had agreed to assist in the hold
up, without knowing fully the extent
of the proposed undertaking. They
had come here to participate in
rodeo, he said
Women Questioned.
A number Of women questioned by
States attorneys during the night
were found to have little information
relating to the men. Mrs. Ruth Mel
son sad she had not known her hus-
bands business. Another, a waitress.
had note from TEX" saying he had
an important engagement to keep yes
terday afternoon.
Robert L. Grove, States attorney
said he would ask the grand jury,
which adjourned today, to sit long
enough to indict Holmes and Woods
for murder.
It's a hanging case, and I am
going to see that they are tried as
speedily as possible" he said
Woods admitted that his was an as
sumed name and said he had come to
Chicago two weeks ago. He corrobo-
rated Holmes story that Nelson was
the instigator of the robbery. During
the shooting and killing of Tex"
Woods said he and the man known as
Nugent fled in their car. previously
stolen, with the loot The car later
was wrecked, he said. and they sepa-
rated. He returned to his apartment,
changed clothes and attempted to
staneh his wound. A taxicab driver
had taken him to the hospital, he said.
A search of Woods clothes disclosed
a black mask. such as was used by
the robbers, and a card with the name
William j. Melenchuk. seaman. The
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