Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1892 — TRAIN WRECKERS [ARTICLE]

TRAIN WRECKERS

Endeavored to Secure a Million Dollars Booty. rhty F«Ued to tho Cnrronoy—fo«r Killed and Thirty-Five iujurod in the Wreck. A million dollars in- enrrcncy tvss tho prize for which tlio Kansas train robbers strove Wednesday. An appalling loss of human life was the price they were willing to nay for it. Passenger train No. 8. on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road, east-bound, was wrecked Wednesday morning threo miles west of Osago City, by train robbers, who hoped by that means to plunder tho express car of a million of dollars which was holng transported lrorn the City of Mexico to Boston. A wrecked train, four men killed and thlrty-fivs men, women and children Injured are the only results of the attempted robbery, for the robbers secured not a penuy of tho treasure to possess which thoy imperiled so many lives. Tho wreck siiid-atUimpted robbery had boon carefully and deliberately planned. To avoid the responsibility of leaving a clow behind them the robbers stole the tools with which thoy did their dreadful work Inl--of purchasing them. They stolo a crowbar, wrench aud sledge-hammerfrom the tool house at Barclay, three miles west of the scene of tho wreck, and removed a fish-plate which joined two rails together, which would necessarily derull tho train. The robbers had evidently selected with rare the spot at which to wreck the train. They selected tho top of a grade ap which the train would be obliged to Ascend, thus lessoning the chance* of so badly wrecking the train as to bury beneath ’.he debris the treasure they were seeking. Their precautions were ttnavalllug and tho very thing they sought to evade thwarted their efforts. IVl«cn the train passed over the weakened track the entire train was wrecked with tho exception of the rear car, and most of the car* were plied one on lop of tire other above tbe express car, bury mg it aud its treasure so Jeep as to require several horns digging to reach It, Tbe engine, when It ptssod over the loosened rail, left the track, swayed to and fro for a second and then Vopuled over will a dreadful crash The angl »eer and fl renlftll n< a warairr of ilioir dreadful fate and no chance for their lives. Tho _ . _ » __ .

eqoallr nnnrspared, and they wero MHed in lb* car. Thor* were sorae SM passenger* on the train, bat not one Was killed. How they escaped aeems miraculous. Tbe cars were piled one on ike other and composed a mass of Umber and twisted iron ia which it seemed Impossible for any bnman being to bare escaped death. When tbe work of ifescue was completed, however, ail tho victims were found to bo alivo. Several were badly Sojnred, and a fsw may die. Tbe *I,CO),000 belonged to the Mexican Central railway coropanr. and was being forwarded lo tbe company’s headquarters atßoston It was rescued from the wreck ami tnntid avfir tn tho WhHt.Vovwn pant to be forwardod to its destination. The-Santa Fe Lais offered fI,OOO reward for the train wreckers, and several posses ’ aro searching tlifc'country in the vicinity of tho_wieck. Advicos from Osage City and Barclay state that intense excitement and indignation prevail among the people there, who declare that tho wrockers shall be lynebed wlien caught. Even before tho 1 Santa Fe officials had offered the reward of JI.OOO for tbe capture of the robbers* several posses composed of men frotn Bar. clay and Osage City had started In all directions to roc down the wreckers. Later detectives in the employ of the railway and expresscompanies joined the search. Tho horrible nature of the Crime has ex*, cited tho people tc a fr«n«y, and the wreckers, if caught, wii; doubtless bo hanged. -