Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1893 — AN INDIANA “HOLD UP.” [ARTICLE]

AN INDIANA “HOLD UP.”

A Lake Shpre Express Looted Near I£endallville. Boldest Robbery! on Record Dynamite and Winchesters Used—S2o.ooo Said to Have Been Secured. Lake Shore express train No. 14 was “held up” and robbed at Kesler siding, west of Kendallvillfi, Tuesday morning. Just before reaching the station there is a stretch of timber land, near which is a. switch. As the train reached the latter the engineer saw a red light ahead. His hand was at the lever in an instant, and as the train slowed up and the red light drew nearer, the engineer saw a group of men. In front of the red light the train came to a stop. A dozen men sprang into the cab and leveled rifles at the heads ol the engineer and fireman. The two railroad men stopped, stupefied, as the riflebarrels gleamed in the flickering light, and the robbers said, “Throw up your hands!” *

The fireman was peaceful enough, and lifted his arms at once. But the engineef was not so timid. He paid jiojieed to ths men nor to their arms', Jrul, with a cry oi warning, turned to the passenger coaches. A dozenrifles were quickly turned toward the plucky fellow, and a dozen shots startle# the passengers, who had been awakened by the stopping of the cars. The engineer received a bullet in the shouldeK and as the train came to a pause therapas a terrific explosion. The ifcbbers had put dynamite under and, as the stillness of the lonely prade was broken, the express car cracked and split and showed a huge gash in its side. The conductor and the brakemen hurried to the platforms only to be covered by Winchesters in the hands of men who said they would shoot to kill if a move was made. A guard was put at the end of each car and the express car was attacked. Tho messenger, behind his barricaded door, refused to obey the command of the robbers to open the express car. Shot after shot was fired at the car, but the robbersisoon saw they could gain no entrance by intimidation. The messenger, pouring shot after shot at the robbers through the opening, was soon disarmed, and, with a blow on the head, leveled on the floor senseless. Dynamite .was _ again used in opening the safe, and the thieves used their own time in taking everything they thought worth carrying away. The guards at the door of the passenger coaches were called off, a few parting shots were fired—perhaps in the air—to warn those on the train that pursuit meant death, and the band of robbers disappeared. As fast as legs could carry them messengers ran to Kendallville to spread the alarm. The sheriff of the county called on all the neighborhood for help, and soon a posse ol residents of Kendallville were speeding to the scene of the robbery. They scoured the vicinity, heal through the brush and traveled miles through the woods, but they could find nothing. Guessing that the i robbers had come from Chicago, the sheriff routed oul a telegraph operator and wired to the Chicago police the story of the robbery. The train was the New York express on the Lake Shore road, which reaches KondallviHe between 12:30 and 1 o’clock. Ths dynamite having wrecked only express car, the robbers contented themselves with looting this alono and made no effort to force an entrance to the second.

A tramp who w as stealing a ride on the express car of the train said there must have been twenty or twenty-five men in the gang. He says that as soon as the train came to a standstill the men ran along the cars to tho rear, and when the trainmen came out on tho platform to see what was tho matter they were confronted by Winchesters. None of the passengers wero robbed. Various and conflicting reports as to tho amount secured by the robbers are current at Chicago, some estimates piacing it as high as $300,030. Superintendent Crosby, of the United States Express Company, places the loss at not more then $20,030, and emphatically denies that the safe contained a shipment of $250,000 from a Chicago to a New York bank. Mr. Crosby also states that not more than six men were concerned in the robbery. President Newell, of the Lake Shore road, offered a reward of *I,OOO for the capture aud conviction of the robbers, Tuesday afternoon. Kendallvllle is in Noble county, about twenty miles west of Ft. Wayne. Ail accounts agree in pronouncing it the boldest train robbery on record. The most strenuous exertions will be made, to overhaul the robbers and it is not believed they can possibly escape.