A BIG TRAIN ROBBERY. A CENTRAL PACIFIC CAR LOOTED. BOLD WORK OF TWO MASKED MEN.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 341, 9 February 1889, Page 3

A BIG TRAIN ROBBERY. A CENTRAL PACIFIC CAR LOOTED. BOLD WORK OF TWO MASKED MEN.

One oEtho boldest, best planned and most successful tiain robberies ever known in

this country occurred on the east bound overland train on the Central Pacific railroad -.Friday 'night, near Clipper Gap^'in Placer country, at the entrance to the long series of snowsheds that line the road for many miles. Two masked men climbed on the express car while the train stopped at Clipper Gap for water, and when the cars started let themselves downby rope - ladders to the side windows of the car, broke these in with axes, and covered the ' two messengers with revolver?. While one stood guard, the other helped himself to the coin packages, with which the safe was tilled, lie had no difficulty in getting at the money, as the messenger was checking up his books and the safe was open. He filed two grain bags with money packages, and in five minutes after the attack was made both men dropped out of the windows as quietly as they entered. No alarm was given to conductor or engineer until the train reached New England Mills, the next stopping place. Descriptions of the men are said to have been eecured, but the clues on which the detectives are working are evidently very meagre. The oflicials of Wells, Fargo and Co., as usual, refuse to give any estimate of their losses. One agent says what the robbers secured cannot exceed $800, but this is evidently absurd, as the men, who were evidently cool hands, left in plain sight a sack containing $10,000. The plain inference from this is uhat they got all the coin they thought they could pack, and therefore left behind the sack that must have been very tempting. Ihe amount that they secured is variously estimated from $15,000 to $60,000. Everything about the robbery shows that the two criminals were experienced railroad men, with an intimate knowledge of the movements of the trains on fchat division and of the routine of the express messengers. Bob Johnson, the express messenger, cays he was sitting at his desk checking up and his helper was sorting out packages for Grass Valley and Nevada, to be left at Colfax. Suddenly the glass transom over the two doors, one on each side of the car, were broken in simultaneously and two revolvers thrust through, covering both messengers. The robbers had probably gob on at Clipper Gap, where the engines took water, and had been standing on the ledge outside the doors holding by the handholds. Johnson was compelled to open the door and let one robber in, being ordered to keep one hand held up. Meanwhile the other robber reached inside and unlatched the door, letting himself in, and covered the messenges, while the other took all the coin packages out of the safe, putting them in a game-bag which he had slung across his shoulder. Between Clipper Gap and Applegate the grade is heavy, and it takes fifteen minutes to run two and a half miles. The robbers had no difficulty, herefore, in jumping off the train as soon as the robbery was completed. The entire transaction occupied loss than five minutes. One of the robbers asked the messenger for his lunch. The messengers thought the robbers were on the top of the car when they broke the windows and supposed they were still there when the two jumped off the car after the robbery. The messengers therefore made no attempt to stop the tiain or give the alarm. When the train stopped at New England Mills two tramps who were on the front end of the baggage car ran forward and told Engineers Charles Trott and Don Hackett that the express car had been rpbbed. They had seen the robbers thru&o pistols through the window, and thought the messengers were shot. Conductor Gus Burnett was notified, and he and the engineers knocked at the door of the exprc&s car. The messengers were so badly scaied that they would not open the doors for some minutes. Broken glass covered the floor of the car and the safe was empty. Both robbers were young men and only paitially disguised. Accurate descriptions were given by the messengers and telegraphed from Colfax. The two tramps were detained as witnesses. As one robber was leaving 1 the car some packages lay on the floor in his way and he kicked them out of the car. One messenger stated that he pulled the bell-cord, but the engineers deny this. Besides the train could have been stopped had the messenger pulled the automatic plug inside the express car, thus setting the air brakes. Johnson is an old express messenger, and bis father is said to be an attorney in Sacramento. Both robbers had red axes, such as are used on ti-ains, and were aimed with revolvers. They evidently knew that the train ran between those stations at only ten or twelve miles per hour, and knew everything about the press car and the habits of the messengers. One robber entered at the forward door on one side, and the other entered the lear door on the other side. The messengers refused to state the amount stolen, but said the robbers had gob enough to keep them through the winter. Train men say the robbery was the neatest and best job of the kind on icc'ord. The detectives believe the robbers were old railway men.