BANDITS FOILED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21448, 12 September 1939, Page 9

BANDITS FOILED

MAIL-CLERK HERO OF TRAIN HOLD-UP In a gun-battle which would have done credit to the best efforts of a film thriller, train bandits were foiled in an attempt to rob a Chicago express as it hurtled over the prairies of Illinois. It was not until the train arrived at its next scheduled stop that the passengers learnt of the drama which had been played out in the swaying mail-car, where a masked bandit fought with the guards for possession of an Army pay-box containing £ll,OOO. Faces Masked Two bandits, wearing overalls, and with handkerchiefs over their faces, boarded the train as it pulled out of a station. One kept the engine-driver at his job with a six-shooter at his back; the other held up two trainmen in the baggage van, where they were ordered to hand over the paybox. Menaced by the bandit's revolver, the trainmen still refused to say where the box was concealed, and as they argued the bandit failed to notice a mall-clerk, Earl Boothman, hidden behind the cubby-hole of the van’s post office. Boothman took careful aim with his revolver, but, handicapped by the swaying van, he could do no better than bring down the bandit with a wound in his leg. A desperate gun battle followed, In which both the trainmen were wounded. Then, when he had emptied his revolver, the gunman picked up an Iron bar and used that as a club, but realising that he was outnumbered, he made a vain attempt to escape capture by leaping from the train. His companion in the driver’s cab was more fortunate. Realising that the attack had failed, he backed his prisoner into a corner, and then leapt from the engine and gained the highway, which ran alongside the track. There he was picked up by a confederate's car, which had followed the train, and, leaving his colleague to his fate, he made good his escape.