DESPERATE FIGHT ON AN ELECTRIC

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10967, 5 June 1903, Page 6

DESPERATE FIGHT ON AN ELECTRIC

Robbecs Kill One and Wound Three Passengers. A most determined attempt to rob the passengers on an electric tramcar is repor4*d in a telegram dated Los Angeles 001., 23rd March as follows: — Three masked robbers attempted to hold up a car on the Los Angeles I'acific Electric line, running between Los Angeles and Santa- ZVTmiica, about a mile west of the city limits, last night. One passenger was killed and three wounded. It is believed that one of the robbers was badly wounded. "The hold-up occurred at the hqad of a , deep cut. The robbers had placed a steel rail, a large bench and a cement barrel on the track. The motor man saw the obstruction when the car was several hundred yards from it, and at once turned off the current and ran slowly to the place. The moment the car struck, three men, wearing masks over their faces, sprang from the Meeds alongside the track. One boarded the front of the car, and the other two the rear end. The first man commanded the passengers to put up their hands, and when one of them did not comply he fired a shot. A passenger named C. H. Henderson then opened fire on the robber. The robber turned his gun upon Henderson, but as he did so he was seen to bend over and try out as if in pain. Then straightning up, he began shooting at the passengers in the front seats. One of the bullets struck Ellis Pearson. Henderson continued nrinsr, and the robber was seen to fall. The two r&bbers who had entered the reaf door commanded the passengers to put up»their hands, and most of them did so. When Henderson began t6 shoot the ether two robbers began shooting right and left among the passengers.

"A passenger named Griswold, of lowa, was seated about the middle of the car, with his back toward the robbers. At the command, 'Hands up,' he tried to hide his watch, and one of the robbers, thinking hr was about to draw a gun, fired point blank at him. The bullet struck him in the back of the neck, and he fell over into the lap of his aged mother, who .was at his side. Dr Bowles, of Los Angeles, was near the front door, and, at the command of the robbers, he raised his hands. When he had them in the air, one of the bullets from a robber's revolver struck his left hand and shattered the bone. After emptying their revolvers, the robbers backed out of the door, sprang off the car, and disappeared. Tlie car ran rapidly to Sawtellc, the nearest point where medical aid could be secured. Griswold expired before the car had gone a mile. Officers were sent to the scene, but no trace of therobbers was found. The highwaymen secured nothing from the passengers."