Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1899 — HOLD UP FAST MAIL TRAIN. [ARTICLE]

HOLD UP FAST MAIL TRAIN.

Bobbers Blow Open Express Safe, Secure Money, and Escape. The Union Pacific transcontinental west-bound mail train was held up, dynamited and robbed at 1 o’clock Friday morning near Wilcox, a lonely station on. the Wyoming division. The hold-up was accomplished by the waving of a danger signal a short distance east of the Wilcox bridge. Engineer Jones resisted, when one of the robbers climbed on the engine and struck him on the head, injuring him severely. At the point of a revolver Jones was compelled to cut the engine loose from the train. The robbers then drove the messenger from the express car and wrecked the car with dynamite. The mail car was also badly damaged by the explosion. The bandits then blew up the Wilcox bridge, cutting off communication between the train and engine. Jones ran his engine to Medicine Bow, the nearest telegraph station, and gave the alarm. Superintendent Harris, who. was at Laramie, reached the scene early in the morning and by 9 o’clock a posse of twenty men was started in pursuit of the robbers. The amount of money secured by the robbers is unknown. The mai® was not touched, presumably on account of the fact that four armed mail clerks were in charge. Union Pacific officials offer a reward of SI,OOO a head for the robbers.