Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1909 — TELEGRAPH MAN HELD AS ROBBER [ARTICLE]

TELEGRAPH MAN HELD AS ROBBER

He Is Accused of Attempting to Loot a Bank In Ohio. EMPLOYE OF BIG FOUR ROAD Exemplary Youth Who Held Position For Two Years Is Put Under Arrest as He Leaves His Work to Go to His Supper—ldentified by Cashier Who Repulsed Bandits and by Stable* keeper Who Rented Rig to Despe* rados. Terre Haute, Ind., Nov. 23.—When Clyde Simpson, telegraph operator at the Duane yards of the Big Four road, was leaving work to go to supper he was arrested and an hour later this exemplary young man, who for two years bad held his position with the railroad, had confessed that he was one of two men who attempted to hold up the North Manchester, 0., National bank on Oct. 19. When the two men entered the bank another stranger was already there, and J. Warren Lease, the cashier, became suspicious. Without being observed he slipped a revolver from a drawer into his coat pocket. The third stranger stepped out and Simpson and his companion, each raising two revolvers, demanded the cash. Instead Lease began shooting. They returned the fire as they ran out the door, and, getting in a buggy, kept on shooting, as did Lease and others who had been attracted to the scene. The robbers were followed by a crowd, but outside the town they left the buggy, took to the woods and eventually escaped. No one was hit in the revolver battle, but Simpson showed a bullet hole in his tie, which was flowing in the wind as they drove from the bank. Detectives took up the case and the arrest resulted. When Simpson entered police headquarters he was identified by Cashier Lease, C. A. Ford, a hardware dealer who sold him twine, and Robert Pickens, a liveryman in a town near North Manchester, where the mep hired the horse and buggy.