BANDITS IN BATTLE

Evening Star, Issue 19019, 14 August 1925, Page 5

BANDITS IN BATTLE

ATTACK ON AM HOTEL CHICAGO, July :ki. Tod Court, a full-blooded (.Indian, was tiie loader of a gang which yesterday gave Chicago its greatest thrill lor many years. It was 2..T0 ]).in. —the busiest time of the afternoon—and the corridors of the Drake Hotel wore crowded witji noted people from all parrs of the world, when four bandits appeared. Court', who was very drunk, hut extremely capable with a gun, herded the girl clerks into the office bellind the cashier. As the last girl in the line passed inside she slammed the door in the bandit leader’s face. Court tried the knob, and then fired several pistol shots through it. Then he dashed to another door, colliding with Miss Vera Jirancker, the manager’s secretary. She hastily telephoned to Mr M'Murdie, the house detective. Court evidently knew the inside of the hotel, and realised that to escape by the front way would be difficult, so he boldly rushed for Mr M‘Hurdle's office. The detective, who had been amply warned, cautiously opened the door, and, with a pistol m each hand, opened lire on Court, who dropped dead. The firing was the signal for the oilier robbers to dash for the street. Sleeting policemen who had been attracted by the shooting, one bandit rushed downstairs into the scullery, where he wrestled with a policeman among (lie pots and pans until he was subdued. Two oilier robbers leaped aboard an automobile, and dozens of taxis, loaded will) policemen, started a long-range pistol pursuit. A bandit named Nelson was killed, and the fourth escaped into the crowd. The cashier at the hotel, Mr Fred Tfodke, has since died from wounds received when the bandit fired through the door.