TRAIN ROBBEY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1894, Page 4

TRAIN ROBBEY.

(Sun Francisco Paper). Train No 20, the Los Angeles express, which was attacked by robbers a dozen miles out of Southern California's largest city, juat before midnight on the night of December 23rd, was turned over to Conductor \V. J. Martin and the train crew for the division at Lathrop something over two hours late one day htely, reached Port Costa at 8.50 o'clock and made a quick rub. to the Oakland mole. The train left Loa Angeles in charge ot Engineer Stewart, "Hooky Bill " Stewart, as ho is known as by the trainsmeii, and Conductor bimpson. Near Koscoe, a little station this side of Bnrbank, the engineer was shot at from the tender and told to ptop the train. Ho stopped it. A lively fnsilado followed to intimidate any who might desire to interfere with the plans of the robbers. The engineer and firemen were made prisoners and the engineer was compelled to light the fuse of a bomb, placed against the door of the express car three separate times. The first two attempts failed. At the third he was told to stay by the fuße|iuitil it fizzled, and to run afterwards. He obeyed. The express car's door was broke open, and Express Messenger Potts was thrown from the cot where he was asleep. The express messenger held up his hands, and got out of the car. Just -what happened after that is a mystery, for Express Messenger Potts has been cautioned not to speak about it by officers of the Express Company. After the robbers left the express car they made the engineer, liremen, and express messenger walk ■up the track a quartor of a mile, fired off a fusilade and then let them walk back to the train. Prior to the bursting in of the door of the express car with the bomb, the robbers had terrorised every head which showed from a car window, by taking a shot to conveniently near, and a San Fernando constable, who attempted to reacon with them and assert his rights as an officer, wa3 driven back into his coach with some pretty strong language and a pistol shot. A shot was taken at the baggage man, and others were told to stay in and keep quiet. It was reported that the robbers did not get over $10 in booty, but the mystery of the affair, outside the identity of the robbers, is what they did to the safe, which the officials of Wells, Fargo, and Co. will not, for the present at least, explain. The train bore a few scars of battle. The door of the express car had a hole forced through it a couple or more feet in diameter. The top wao splintered and the heavy cast-iron support at the bottom broken into pieces. A blanket was hung over the aperture and took the place of the door for the trip made yesterday and last niglit. There was a bullet hole through the mail car and another in one of tho passenger coaches, while the boiler head of tho engine showed the impact of half a dozen bullets The theory seems to be held that the robbery was the work of Los AngeJes crooks, who rode out to Burbank, left the passenger coach at that station, boarded the blind baggage, climbed over a fruit car, reached the tender, and fired on the engineer from that point of vantage till they forced him to stop. A bonfire blazing on the track a short distance ahead, placed there by a confederate, gave them the cue when to begin the attack. After the train stopped they were joined by this confederate, according to the statement of a witness to the robbery. One of the laughable instances in connection with this robbery, related by a trainman, was the fright of aome of the passengers, who began to hold up their hands when the first shots were fired, though no no robber entered any of the passenger coaches. Others of the passengers began to improve the opportunity by stuiling watches, jewellery, and money down their sleeves or other parts of their garments supposedly more secure from a robber's search than their pockets. The most graphic description of the robbery was given by T. A. Hampson, the Pullman car conductor. Mr Hampson relates what lie saw and heard himself, and tho facts learned from conversing with trainmen and passengers. His account is as follows: ' Wo wero about eleven miles out of Los Angeles, a little way this^side of Burbank, when I felt the brakes put on by the engineer, and tho train stopped with three or four jumps. It mwst have stopped within thirty fcot of tho brakes being put on. Then the firing began. The robbers must have climbed over a fruit-car which was between tho baggage-car and tho tender. They got on tho lender and fired iuto tho cab. At iirat the engineer thought ho had run over a torpedo on the track, but after they had fired five or six shots, they hallooed to the engineer to stop. ' I heard about twenty shots in all. There was a constable or some sort of au officer from Ban Fernando on board the train. Ho got off and walked towards the lobboiH, saying : ' Gentlemen, gentlemen, what is the rnoauiii" of all this? 1 'One of tho robbers shouted: Got back there you ' The constable declared that he was au officer, aud tho robber shouted, " You get back now, will you,' and fired a shot. The constable hastened back to the coach. 'Ons shot was fired through the mail car and tho mail agents were warned to keep inside. Another shot struck one of the passenger coaches. * Two shots were fired on one side of the train and responded to by two more from the other imie. The two robbers, who took an active part in tho proceedings, after the (rain had been Btopped, kept tho engineer and the firemen with them. When they got ready to attack tho express car, they {placed a dynamite bomb against the door and told the engineer to light the fuse. Ho did ho and the two train men and the , robber ran back to await the explosion. The light went out and the bomb did not burat, i ' The robbers sent the engineer | back a second time to light the fuse. No better successattended thisefforfc. Then they said to Stewart, that is the engineer : ' You go back there and light that fuse and you stay there till it fizzles. When it fmles you run.' 'Stewart did as he was told, and ■when the fuse began to fizzle he ran back to where the robbers stood. • When the explosion took place it caused a panic among the passengers. The train was stopped about forty-five minutes. Then we were

delayed an additional horn* at the next station. 1 1 do not know how many men were engaged in the robbery. Some claim to have seen three men and others say there were only two. It ig thought that two of the men were passengers who got on the (rain at Los Angeles and were last seen in the passenger coach as we neared Burbank, got upon the baggage car, and then crawled over the fruit car, which was ahead, to the tender. If this iB correct, there must have been a third man, for when the train stopped, there was a little bon-iire on tho track ahaad— a signal, 1 suppose, to show the robbera on the train that they had reached the place to commit the robbery. There may have been other robbers about, Diit it was too dark to get at the situation clearly. • b'omebody in the forward coach had stuck hia head out the window jnst before the bomb bad exploded. A bullet struck the frame near his head, and ho did not need tho profane injunction which followed to keep his head in. ' 1 noticed to-day that there were bullet marks on the boiler head of the engine, so that the engineer must have narrowly escaped the bullets.'