BANDITS ON TRAIN.

Shannon News, 14 August 1923, Page 6

BANDITS ON TRAIN.

SIX PASSENGERS SHOT. NEW YORK, August 1. All the picturesque dasli and thrilling sensations of a stage coach robbery of the ’seventies, marked the hold-up of an electric train between Scranton and Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, when five bandits fled with the pay-roll, and 85,000 dollars (about £17,000) in money. The train was passing through wooded country, when, at a given signal, the five bandits rose in different parts of the coach and covered the passengers with revolvers. They commenced to make a .systematic search through the passengeis' pockets for weapons. Edward Murphy, a passenger, resisted the bandits, and was promptly shot dead. Five other passengers who attempted to join Murphy against the bandits were wounded. While the scuffle was going on in the carriage, the motorman put on speed, a*i:id the train flew along at a terrific rate toward the next station. As he readied top speed, the motor-’ man lsgpt turning his head anxiously around, watching the progress of the battle inside the carriage. For a while it seemed as if the thieves might be cheated after all. They soon accounted for the opposition inside, however, and one of the bandits, turning his revolver on the motorman, sent a bullet through his chest, causing him to fall to the floor. As the motorman fell, he released his hold of the switch, and the “Dead Man's Hand” —a contrivance which causes a train to come to a standstill when unattended came into operation, and the car was automatically brought to a standstill. The bandits escaped from the train in ah automobile with the money.