STORIES FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 101, 27 April 1912, Page 17

STORIES FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

■ ■■■- » —■•■»» HEW YORK TAXI-CAB BANDITS. The capture of five of ten of th e band of New York motor highwaymen who robbed two bank messengers of £5000, almost killing one, has given the police and public through the confessions of two of the band a remarkable revelation of the working of such crimes. Incidentally It has brought about the discovery that 200 ex-convicts hold tasicab licenses in New York. Five men under a leader, Jess Albrozao, arranged the tarJcab robbery, the driver of the cab being a confederate and slowing down for the purpose of letting the others enter and stun the bank messengers. The scheme was carefully rehearsed and completely successful. But when the booty was being divided, three more daring brigands compelled them at the revolver's muzzle to give up £2000 of the £5000. Then a woman. to supply whom with, clothes Alhrozzo planned the crime, was tempted by a police matron to confess how she came to have a roll of notes.

LADY JOCKEY'S SUCCESS.

Miss Bleonora Sears, an, heiress known to tbe American Press as "America's bachelor maid." rode a racehorse to victory the other day at Corouado, California, beating Lady Reginald Herbert riding Hawkeye. Miss Sears aroused interest by appearing for the race .clad in brown pegtop breeches with tan leggings, a plaid cap. and a khaki blouse with white silk sleeves. She roce as well as any professional jockey, standing in her stirrups and leaning far forward as she passed the winning post.

PULLMAN CARS IN A RIVER.

The Twentieth Century Limited Express. which covers P65 miles between New York and Chicago in eighteen! "boars, was wrecked by a broken rail on the bank of the Hudson River, near Plooghkeepsie ("4 miles north of New York) on the morning of March 13. Four Pullman cars plunged down an embankment and through ice a foot thick into the river below, where they were partly submerged. The passengers, bruised and cut by broken glass, crawled out from the water, which was waist deep in the carriages, and reached the banks over planks extended to the smashed windows by rescuing navvies. Twenty-three passengers were injured. One. Miss McMktkens, subsequently snectrmbed; many others have broken arms and ribs. The train was running at fifty-five miles an honr at the time. The thick ice seems to yJave acted as a cushion, breaking the force of the fall.

IN FEAR OF THIEVES.

I ■ Art treasures belonging to Mr llerpont ! Morjran have begun to arrive at New York | from the South Kensington Museum. Lou* i don. As each lot is received it is taken to ! the Metropolitan Museum and stored in i cellars for the time being, as there is no ! room in the museum to exhibit the coli lection. i Arrivals up to date consist chiefly of , enamels, ivories, and silver. As may be supposed, the greatest precautious are being taken by the police and the mnseum authorities to guard the treasures during ! storage, especially in view of a rumour that a syndicate of international thieves is i likely to make a raid on them. An armed i pa-t-ol guards the cellars, and burglar alarms have been fitted' everywhere. Ft is the intention of the authorities to build a new wing to the museum for the sole purpose of exhibiting the Morgan col- . lection, bnt it will be a year before the , work is completed.

FIGHT WITH A MANIAC.

I News from Brewster, Mass., gives details I lof a terrible drama enacted there a week i • ago. the actors In which were two girls anil I : a maniac. The Misses Ruby and Amy I Ilartneld. who arc heiresses to many milI lions of dollars, were walking through their i father's estate at Brewster when they were ! frightened to "behold a man of great size, in ! wild, disordered attire, whose features and : general manner suggested to them at once . that he must be a lunatic. The girls" first | instinct was to run, arid they rushed away j with the man at their heels until they I ; reached and entered a bam. The barn j ■ was situated in a lonely corner of the] j estate, and when the man dashed In and I seized the sisters their cries were unheard. j ! They fought desperately with the maniac, ' who carried a stick of dynamite with him, 1 and endeavoured to drag the girls to a I small heating stove on 'Che floor of the barn j and ignite the explosive. The struggle conj tinned for nearly an boor, twit at length the two sisters man-aged to escape from the, I barn covered with blood and badly hurt. They had hardly got SO- or 40 yards away when there was a terrific explosion, -which threw them to the ground. The maniac had thrown .the dynamite Into-the stove and j perished in the explosion. The barn was blown to atoms, hot the two Miss Hartfields -were unhurt by the explosion. They were, however, badly hurt in their struggle. I

FIVE MURDERS IN COURT.

I A judge, passing sentence upon an illicit | distiller of whisky, was shot dead on the bench on March 14, in *he little -yiUage of IllllsvUle. the seat of .the Can-nil County Court, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia. The prosecutor fell dead an instant later with three bullets ithrough 'the heart. The sheriff was moving forward, revolver in hand, upon the group of mountaineers who ! had thus avenged the application of tbe law against their leader, when he dropped and lay dying. The next victim was the clerk of -the couct. A volley from 'the outlaws next swept •the jury •box, and the foreman, P.l-ankcn-burg, fell forward dying in his seat, while all the other jurymen tout two were wounded. Then the outlaws, placing the condemned prisoner in their midst, hacked slowly out of -the court-room, -holding all those within in check with their levelled revolvers.

On reaching -their horses, which were' ■tethered outsSie, Obey galloped for tbe mountains. The Virginians in the courthouse, nlflroirgri every officer of -the law was killed, immediately organised a posse and started in pursuit, Jed by one of the sheriff's deptfdea.

The real rulers of the region bare long been the A-Uens, a group of mountain families, whose livings come -from distilling "moonshine whisky" si the expense of the Starte revenue- .An attempt was made recently to stop this practice, and one of -the Aliens was arrested. lie was rescued by *>> other members of the ■band, bnt Floyd Allen, 'the leader, 'was in -turn captured and formally charged with aiding the prisoner •to escape. Floyd Allen was put on trial in the courtroom filled with his friend-, who made no secret of their determination that he should not go -to gaoL Nevertheless the Jury convicted him, and Judge I Thornton Hassle pronounced sentence. He ] tSrtd-tßcaiceJy •ottered the-aroxds "One year's*] [ •fi»*& - 3«toDJ" ? whooting -began. I