Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1903 — CHICAGO BANDITS CAPTURED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHICAGO BANDITS CAPTURED.

Car Barn Fugitives Are Taken in Fierce Running Fight. Battle Rages for Hours Among Hills and Dunes of Northern Indiana. Outlaws, Surrounded in Dugout, ' Shoot Down Two Policemen and Once Escape. ; ' ■ , .-v T * “ ——r— T ■. v J Kilt Brakeman Sovia and Seize Train, but Are Intercepted by a Posse.

In the wood and on the sand hills of northern Indiana all day Friday iiaivty Van Dine, Peter Niedermeier and Emil

Rocski, the three youths wanted, for the. Chicago car barn murders and robbery and for half a dozen others of the most desperate and bloody deeds ever Recorded in the criminal annals of Chicago, fought their last fight. Surrounded a t break of day bj sev e n detective*.

who had trailed the boy murderers to their hiding place in-a dugout at Wilson, Ind., four miles from Miller’s Station, the crime-crazed youths blazed tlieif way to brief liberty in the fiercest battle Chicago detectives ever experienced, probably fqtslly wounding Detective Joseph Driscoll and seriously wounding Detective Matthew Zimmer. The red-letter day of their tragic career thus began, the bandits, leaving a trail of blood across the snow-covered dunes and hills of Lake County, proceeded to- East Tolleston, murdered John Sovia, a Pennsylvania railroad brakeman, seized a work train and fled to a cornfield, where they m&de their last stand* against a Trenzied posse of farmers, railroad laborers and special detectives. After a brief struggle here Niedermeier and Van Dine surrendered, while Roeski made his escape and dragged himself, wounded, bleeding and exhausted, through tlje woods to Aetna, lud., a mile and a half distant, where he wps found waiting for a train, and was captured by a bund of volunteer man hunters.

Cruel nnd desperate to the last the

fugitives mortally wounded Foliceman John F. Driscoll and twice wounded Deteetive -Matthew Zimmer of the pursuing posse, shot a brakeman in the arm as he was about to stop his train to pick up the wounded policeman; and killed another brakeman, who refused to > 6tart a train to nid

aeir flight. Battling against capture, id using their terrible magazine guns with deadly effect, the trio held many policemen at bay for ton^ouia. Thrilling Life Battle. Fiction seldom hns told of a more thrilling race between bandits and the pursuing hand of the law, and rarely has it related a story of more reckless regard of human life. Fleeing from Chicago only when their companion, Marx, had confessed and implicated them in bis heartless crimes, the men sought the wild and sparsely settled country of the Calumet district, where they weis detected through an example of their brie vndo. Entering a store to purchase a lot-of food supplies, they were identified by n school teacher who had seen their pictures in the newspapers. He had sufficient faith in his conviction to send word to police headquarters in Chicago Thursday night, and -the first detachment of the pursuing force was sent out. Arriving at Pine, Ind., these policemen sought the teacher, and, assured his identification was correct, they set out in the direction the bandits were reported to have taken. At 5 o’clock Friday morning they struck the trail, and the chase of death and blood began. Betrayed by a thin line of curling smoke ascending from a dugout which

was so carefully hidden that it might have been passed unnoticed, the outlaws were brought face to face with their Un-daunted-'by superior numbers, they rushed forth from their rfcde retreat and opened fire with the deadly gurtS, the possession of which marked them as be-

Ing implicated in several crimes in Chicago which had buttled the police. Almost on the first volley Driscoll and Zimmer fell. Then, while their comrades turned their attention for a moment from the foe to the wounded, the fugitives nhnndoned the (logout and made a dash for liberty. Taking n filial shot at the police ns they fled, the fire was returned, and two of the bandits were allot.

Last Desperate Effort. Tortured by wounds which handicapped their flight, Hie outlaws made a last desperate effort for freedom. Now hiding in sand pits, now seeking shelter under heaps of brush, darting among sand dunes and hunting protection of the trees, lisslnt a trail of blood in the snow which covered the barren fields of the lake region. the men succeeded for a abort time in Hading the law. lint human endurance bad reached its limit. Other means of flight mast be secured, and that quickly. Making for East Tolleston, where the men knqw a

number of trains were always in waiting while cars were loaded with sand, they determined to steal a locomotive. They approached one of the engines, and Brakemnn Sovea was standing near. They commanded him to take them to Liverpool, and on his refusal Niedershot him dead. They then board--ed the engine and, covering the fireman with their revolvers, compelled him to open the throttle and thus aid them in continuing their flight. Police with Rifles. In the meantime re-enforcements of police had beeh summoned from Chicago, and fifty men, nrmed with rifles, had been dispatched to the scene of the chgse. In addition to these the fanners and railroad men had armed themselves, and, forming an independent posse, had taken up the hunt. It was then the beginning of the end. Abandoning the engine at Liverpool, Van Dine, Niedermeier and Roeski limped into a cornfield, and there they made their final stand. The citizen posse was upon their hevls, and a well-directed shot had wounded Niedermeier. Another volley was fired among the cornstalks, and it brought a response in an appeal for mercy. Having taken the lives of innocent men, -the desperadoes at least reached the point where they weakened and pleaded to be allowed to lhi<•*Be merciful," cried Van Dine. "I have a mother I want to see before I die.” Commanded to throw away their weapons, the trio did so with alacrity, announcing that they depended on their captors’ spirit of fair piny to protect the captives from harm. Roeski, however, dragged himself away from his companions, and succeeded in reaching the railroad station at Aetna, Ind. There, weak from loss of blood, exhausted by liis long flight, and repentant, he threw away his arms*and lay to sleep. Thus was he taken prisoner and the noted man hunt ended. Captured by Rabbit Hunters. The captors wore not a company offarmers organized as man hunters; they were not detectives nor policemen in disguise; they were not men of uny kind or quality* resolved to face the deadly rifles and fearful magazine revolvers of the bifndits, risking their own lives for the sake of bringing to justice the men of many bloody crimes. They were a party of peaceful rabbit hunters, led by Charles Hamilton, the East Tolieston tillage blacksmith. But they were fully equal to the occasion. ’ v .

HARVEY VAN DINE.

EMIL ROESKI.

P. NEIDERMEIER