Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1886 — SMITTEN AT HIS POST. [ARTICLE]

SMITTEN AT HIS POST.

Murder of an Express Messenger by Masked TrainRobbers. The Assassins Capture Thirty Thousand Dollars in Money and Jewelry. [Chicago telegram.] A train-robbery which equals in its daring and exceeds in brutality most of the robberies common a few years ago on Southwestern roads was committed early yesterday morning between Joliet and Moms, on the Rock Island Road. None of the so-called Jesse James gangs ever went to work more coolly and deliberately to plunder, and, if necessary, to kill, than did the robbers who murdered Kellogg Nichols, messenger of the United States Express Company, and robbed his safe of $21,000 in money and several packages of jewelry, supposed to be worth at least $5,000. Kellogg Nichols, an old employe of the United States Express Company, was in charge of the express car of the night train from Chicago for Davenport and the West, and N. H. Watts, a man about 25 years old, was baggage master for the trip.

When the train arrived at Morris the conductor of the train, F. L. Wagner, jumped onto the depot platform, and at the same moment, \\ atts, the baggageman, jumped off, his face deathly pale, and with tremor in every motion. When asked what was the matter he could not for a moment explain, so great was his terror and excitement. The agent at Morris, on going to the express car. was- surprised to find the door of the car locked. Heretofore he had always found Nichols standing at the doin' ready to receive or deliver packages. After waiting a few minutes he knocked at the door, and, getting no response, opened it with his key and jumped in the ear. After calling out for Nichols and looking around the car he was struck with horror to see the express messenger lying covered with blood and battered to death in a corner of the car. A glance into the car next in the rear showed him that the safe in the adjoining compartment had been opened and most of its contents, in the shape of papers, packages, and envelopes, scattered near and around it. By this time Watts, the baggageman, had recovered enough composure to tell his story. He said: “I was sitting in the car; the chains were up on the door which went back to the train, but the door in the front part of the car was not locked, as the car ahead was the one in which was the messenger. He was checking up his runs. I sat on a trunk, and just after they had whistled for Minooka I heard a sort of scraping sound on the floor, but not much—just as though some one had rubbed his foot on the floor. Before I could turn around a big gun was poked over my shoulder, and a man said: ‘Y»;u open your mouth or move a muscle, and I’ll blow your brains out.’ I could only see the lower part of his face; it was covered with some cloth or paper. I sat looking toward the back part of the car toward the rear of the train, when I heard some one at the safe, which was behind me, and could hear the rustling and tearing of papers. This went on for a while, and the man who stood over me said to me, ‘lf you move or stir hand or foot before the train stops at Morris that man up there will blow the top of your head off.’ I rolled my eyes up, and there was a man’s hand stuck through the ventilator with a gun in it. In about five minutes, as it seemed to me, the train slowed up for Morris, and I looked up. The bund was gone, and I jumped out of the car. I heard no noise, nor any shooting. The first I heard was, as I said, the man speaking to me, and at the same time putting the gun over my shoulder. They must have gotten into Nichols’ car first, and got the key to the Safe before they came in to me.”

“Why didn’t you jump and get out of range?” was asked Watts. “The motion of the train would make his aim unsteady, anyway, even if he had fired.” “O, the outlook was too dangerous, and. besides, I did not suspect anything horrible would have been committed if I kept quiet.” As soon as Watts had told his story Conductor Wagner went forward to the engineer, C Woods, telling him that Nichols had been murdered. The engineer grabbed a wrench and together they v f ent into the car where Nichols lay. In a statement made at Davenport, Engineer Woods said: “The distance from my place in the cab to the spot where the dead messenger lay was about twenty feet. There was a door in the end of the car next the engine, but that end was piled full of goods, which would serve to deaden the sound of the shooting, if any occurred. There was a strong wind blowing from the west, and besides we were running pretty fast. From the looks of the car a desperate and bloody battle had been fought. Nichqls, the messenger, was dead, but his hanfls were not coin. He had evidently tried to reach the automatic valve on the south side of the car at the right hand of the door facing outward, and by this means stop the train. There was a chair at the farther end of the ciw. Nichols lay on his back, the head toward the engifie, his feet tapgled in the chair, and his face and body cut all to pieces. There was a bent piece of iron a foot long and seven-eighths of an inch thick. From appearances he had been beaten with this and cut with some sharp instrument like a hatchet. He was horribly mutilated. He might have been shot, but of this I am not sure.

“As to the night and speed of running,” the engineer continued, “it was snowing a little and the night was very dark. It is mostly. a prairie country from Joliet to Moms, but west of Morris there is a heavy belt of timber. From Minooka to Morris is down, so I could run fast, and I did so. I came into Morris at a high rate of speed, and when the train stopped it simply dropped. I do not believe any person could have lef* the train a block from the point of stoppin" with safety.” According to Engineer Woods computation the robbers did not have more than thirty-two minutes to do their work.

Helena, M. T., has a lady superintendent of schools who has Indian blood in her veins. She is h’ghly educated, and has a decided dramatic talent.