People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1893 — BULLET FOR A BANDIT. [ARTICLE]

BULLET FOR A BANDIT.

Bontag, the Notorious Western Outlaw and One of the VaaaUa Train Robbers, Was Shot and Captured by a Posse W United States Deputy Marshals, One of Whom Is Also Wounded— Evans, Sontag’* Partner, Eludes Arrest. Visalia, CaL, June 18.—After a search extending over ten months and after six encounters with different legal posses the notorious train robbers John Sontag and Chris Evans, were finally met Sunday night by four deputy United States marshals and as a result of the encounter which followed Sontag was wounded, possibly fatally, and is now in custody, having been brought here at 10:30 Monday forenoon. »lis companion. Chris Evans, escaped after firing forty shots at his pursuers. Where he made his stand he left his hat and two empty guns, and the ground was found covered with blood, indicating that he, too, is wounded. The four officers who made attack upon the bandits were United States Marshal Gard and his deputy, Edward Rapelje, a deputy sheriff of Fresno county, Fred Jackson, an officer from Navada, and Thomas Burn, who was with Badger when the latter was shot by the robbers last month.

The officers had been in the mountains for weeks looking for the robbers, and Sunday afternoon encamped at a vacant house 18 miles northeast from this city. About twenty minutes before sunset Rapelje went to the Tear door of the house and saw two men coming down the hill and toward the place. On closer observation it was discovered that the men were no other than Evans and Sontag, the fugitive desperadoes. Evans was in the lead and carried a rifle and shotgun, and Sontag was armed with simple a rifle. Rapelje turned around to his comrades in the house and said: “Hello, here comes two men down hilli” They jumped up quickly and grabbed their guns and prepared to make fight As the officers went around the back corner Evans saw Rapelje and throwing his rifle to his shoulder took deliberate aim and fired.

Just then Jackson stepped around behind Rapelje and opened fire on the bandits. Sontag was seen to throw up both hands and fall backward. Then the firing became general. and Evans returned the shots with vengeance. Evans got behind an old rubbish pile and kept up a raking fusillade. Jackson went around the far end of the house to see if he could get a better place from which to shoot, and as he went around he was shot in the left leg. Forty shots were exchanged between the officers and the bandits, but the sun went down and darkness ended the battle.

Evans was seen to crawl on his stomach from behind the rubbish, and Rapelje again opened fire upon him. Evans then rose to his feet and ran toward the hills, followed by Rapelje, who continued firing; Evans did not return the fire and in a few minutes was out of sight. Rapelje returned to the house and procuring a wagon brought Jackson to this city soon after midnight. Marshal Gard and Bures remained at the scene until morning. Sontag lay behind a stack of hay all night, where he was found by Gard and Burns. Sontag says he spit blood all night. There is a glancing wound along his forehead and one on each side of his nose. It is claimed that he inflicted these wounds himself, though this is denied.

Evans’ tracks show that he-started toward Visalia, and his home will be watched day and night. Sontag talks freely and says the jig is up and he does not care for the future. It is possible that Sontag may recover from hiswounds, though attending physicians, will express no decided opinion. Officers are now searching the hills; in hope, of finding Evans, and thus completing at once the long chase. [The train robbery, which was the beginning of his criminal chapter, occurred at a station named Collis, near Fresno, Cal., August 3, 1892. An express car was blown up with dynamite and Express Messenger George D. Roberts seriously injured. Officers soon after arrested George Sentag at the house of Chris, Evans in this city. He was afterward- tried and sent to the penitentiary for life. When an attempt was made to arrest Evans- he and Jbhn Sontag opened Are on the officers, wounding George Witty. In the second encounter Oscar Beaver, an officer, was killed in front of ‘the Evans house. September 14 Andrew McGinniss and Victor C. Wilson were killed in the mountains by the bandits and: two other officers were wounded. May 26 S. J. Black, another officer, was wounded by the: bandits in the mountains. No previous criminal incident in the history of California has, occasioned greater public interest. Until the traia robbery occurred Evans had borne a good reputation. He is an educated man and a. native of Canada. He has a wife and children living in this city. The two Sontag brothers: liwwi in Minnesota,, coming to this state sevrenai years ago.]