Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1885 — A DARING DEED. [ARTICLE]

A DARING DEED.

A Single Train Robber Gets Away with $3,000 on the New Albany Road. He Enters the Car and Clubs and Shoots the Messenger and Baggageman. Bloomington, Ind., and the surrounding country were last week thrown into a wild state of excitement over what is probably the most daring robbery ever committed in the State by any one person, the facts of which constitute a story of crime almost unequaled on the frontier of the far West, and revive memories of the daring deeds of the .James boys and their fellow-bandits. Shortly after midnight, near what is known as Smithville Hill, express train No. 3 on the Honon Boute, which left Louisville at 7 p. m. for Chicago, was robbed by one man, and two men were shot so badly that neither will recover. The train was running slower than usual aud just entering a small rock cut, when the bell in the engine wab sounded and the engineer stopped his train. Conductor Chambers, in charge, was in the ladies’ coach and passed through the smoker into the baggage-car. There a fearful scene met his eyes. Two men, the baggagemaster and express messenger, lay on the floor covered with blood. The safe of the American Express Company was open and everything was in confusion. The situation needed no explanation. A robbery had been committed, and the men, faithful at their posts, had been shot down like dogs. The train was at once run to Bloomington, where an alarm was given and the wounded* men cared for. George Davis, the express messenger, was unconscious, and speaking most pitifully the unconnected thoughts that rushed through his shattered brain. Peter Webber, the baggagemuster, though badly injured, was at all times rational. Both were taken to the Orchard House, a short distance from the depot, where beds were prepared and physicians summoned. An examination proved that Davis had been shot through the head, and that two other ugly wounds had been inflicted by a blunt instrument—one on the forehead and another on the left side of the head. The ball from a revolver had entered an inch and a half above the ear and in frpnt, going through the head. From the wound clots of brain were slowly oozing, while blood was flowing from the other injuries. Webber’s wounds were less serious. A bullet entered high up on the neck, just below the ear, and, lunging down, lodged on the other side. Though the injury is serious, it is thought he will recover. A wound on the head is not very serious, though it bled profusely. Webber’s story of the robbery, from which he barely escaped alive, is substantially as follows: “The No. 3 night express, bound for Chicago, started from Louisville on time, and when about eighty miles out, or just before we came to Harrodsburg, thero being nothing to do only at Bloomington until we got to Greencastle, Davis and I fixed up a little couch With coats and wraps upon which to lie down and rest. In doing so we placed our heads toward the south. In a short time somebody entered the south door from the smoking-car, and I, thinking it was the conductor, as he often passed through the car, raised my head to see, when a man rushed up and struck' me a terrible blow over the head with a heavy stick he carried in his hand. I fell to the floor unconscious from the shock, nnd from after indications suppose that Davis and the robber engaged in a scuffle, as Davis has three cuts on the head, but the villain succeeded in shooting him in the head and he fell to the floor. By this time I bad recovered myself sufficiently to get up, and was doing so when the man pointed a revolver at me, and commanded me not to say a word or I should share Davis’Jate. Then he said he would shoot me unless I gave him the key. I told him I did not have it, when he said to get it or he would kill me instantly. Davis had the key in his pocket, and I turned him over and took it from his pants. Then the thief commanded me to unlock the safe, threatening to shoot me all the time. When I had done so he took the key, put it in his pocket, and commanded me to stand still, and, with the revolver pointing at me, with his left hand took the money packages from the safe. As he took the last one out he said he was going to shoot me for fear I would tell. I begged him in the name of God to spare me, when with an oath the murderer pulled the trigger and I fell to the floor. I soon got on my feet again, when I pulled the bell-rope. The robber faced me, looking as pale as death. He did not say a word. As the train stopped he went out of the door, shut it behind him, and stepped off to the west. He was tall and slender, with a light mustache —that I think artificial. He seemed ' about 30 years old. I would recognize him at once.” * This is substantially the story of the only man who witnessed the robbery, Davis having been shot nnd being unconscious at the time. What may have occurred between Davis and the robber while Webber lay on the floor from the shock of the first blow, of course no one knows. Conductor Chambers, of the robbe.d train, says that the first intimation of the affair he had was when Webber, all bloody and bleeding, came stumbling into the smoking-car. When the train stopped he rushed forward to learn the cause, and there met Webber. He could give no' 1 connected account of the tragedy, and the conductor went forward into the j baggage-car, where Davis lay groan- | ing and,gasping. In the comer was the open safe, and by its side the club of the robber. Davis’ pistol he had taken with him in his flight. Webber told various stories of the affair, m one of which he claimed that he had shot the robber, but this did not appear to be the true version of the story. The place where the robbery occurred was in the midst of the woods, aud it then being midnight all thought of seeking for the bandit was abandoned, and the train drew on to Bloomington, where Davis was left in a dying condition. The officials of the road feel very badly over the murder of Davis, as he was one of the most popular aud efficient messengers in their employ. He has been wounded several times during his services. In the accident near Salem, Iffd., about two years ago, when a train went through the bridge, , Davis saved all the valuables by throwing 1 his safe into the river while the train was going through. He paid for his devotion to duty to the neglect of self by having a shoulder and two ribs broken.