BANDITS FOILED

Evening Star, Issue 23371, 14 September 1939, Page 2

BANDITS FOILED

MAIL-CLERK HERO OF TfetlH HOLD-UP

In a gun battle which would, havs done credit to" the best' efforts ■of a film thriller, train ’bandits were foiled in an attempt to rob a Chicago express as it hurtled over the prairies' of Illinois. . It was not until the tram arrived at its next scheduled stop that the passengers learnt of the drama which had been played out in the _ swaying mail car, where a masked bandit fought with the guards for possession of an army pay-box containing £II,OOO. Two bandits, wearing overalls, and with handkerchiefs over their faces, boarded the train as it pulled out or a station. One kept the engine driver at his job with a six-shooter at his back; the other held up two trainmen in the baggage van, where they were ordered to hand oyer the pay-box. Menaced by the bandit’s revolver, the trainmen still refused to say where the box was concealed, and as they argued the bandit failed to notice, a mail clerk, Earl Boothman, hidden behind the cubby-hole of the van’s post office. > s , , . Boothman took careful aim with his revolver, but, handicapped by the swaying van, ho could do no better than bring down the bandit with a; wound in his ’ leg. A desperate gun battle followed, in which both the trainmen were wounded. Then, when he had emptied his_ revolver, the gunman picked up an iron ,har and used that as a club, but, realising that he was outnumbered, he made a vain attempt to escape capture by leaping from the train. * His companion in the driver’s cab was more fortunate. Realising that the attack had failed, he backed his prisoner into a corner and then leapt* from the engine and gained the. highwav, which ran alongside the track, ■ There he was picked up by a confederate’s car, which_ had followed the train, and, leaving his colleague to his fate, he made good his escape.