Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1895 — HOW GRANT WHEELER DIED. [ARTICLE]

HOW GRANT WHEELER DIED.

A Notorious Bandit Choso Suicide Rather Than Captivity. With officers of the law hard upon his trail Grant Wheeler, the train robber, avoided capture recently by sending a revolver bullet through his brain. Wheeler was a desperate character and the wildest of the ruffians with whom he associated. The robbery in which he figured and for which he was hunted to his death occurred on Thursday, January 81, when the West bound overland mail was stopped near Wilcox, Arizona Territory. Two masked men, one of whom was Wheeler, forced the brakeman to divide the train, afterward taking charge of the section to which the express car was coupled. The messenger in charge made his escape and gave the alarm to the authorities at Wilcox. The safe was blown open with dynamite and the contents, aggregating a large sum, carried off in a sack. A rigid investigation followed, and the crime was fastened with considerable certainty upon Wheeler and a cowboy named Joe George. Suspicion also lighted, though not quite so directly, upon two other men, named Trainor and Davis. The most promising clew obtainable put Special Officer Breckinridge, of the Southern Pacific Railway, Deputy Sheriff Joe Smith and L. C. Williams hard on the track of Wheeler. They surprised him just as he was cooking breakfast in a ditch near the little town of Mancos, in southern Colorado. Williams walked within a few feet of the train robber and ordered him to throw up his hands. He refused and started to run. Williams pulled the trigger of his Winchester, but the weapon missed fire. Wheeler turned at bay in a small ravine, whence he sent a revolver bullet whistling past Williams’ head. The latter, with his companions, advanced upon Wheeler, who Immediately killed himself. Wheeler was 27 years old and of medium stature, but athletic in build. His confederates in the train robbery are still at large, though there is an even chance of their capture. After they looted the train they separated, each, it is supposed, taking different routes to avoid capture. When Wheeler’s person was searched after death but 30 cents was found in his pockets. A peculiar incident connected with the robbery was the fact that the bandits, when laying their explosives on the safe, piled over them eighteen sacks, each containing one thousand Mexican dollars. The terrific explosion scattered the coin in all directions.