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ST.LOUIS HOSPITAL RAIDED,GUNMEN FREE TWO PRISONERS
St.Louis,Missouri Two armed men entered the St.Louis County Hospital today. They freed two prisoners who were patients there. One of the prisoners,William Olin Perkins,of Newburg,Missouri had to be carried downstairs because he has a broken right leg. He was being held for authorities of Texas County,Missouri for bank robbery. A month ago,the man accused of being his confederate in two bank robberies was delivered from the Houston Missouri jail by a lone gunman. The other prisoner freed today at the hospital was Paul Mills of Overland. He was recuperating from bullet wounds in his chest and left arm which he received July 25, when he fled from a deputy sheriff who arrested him on a charge of automobile theft.
Charles R. Simpson 1947-1972
Holden,Missouri
Dressed in army fatigues and armed with an M1 carbine,he went on a shooting spree in Harrisonville,Mo.
He shot and killed two policemen who were walking in front of a bank, then went into the bank and wounded two people and dashed over to a cleaning shop and killed a man inside. He then went by the sheriff's office and fired a couple of rounds through the window wounding the sheriff. He ended his day in the town square by putting the barrel in his mouth and blowing his brains out.
Aaron Walter Burgett 1929-1958
St.Louis
In 1952 he robbed a post office in Banner,Missouri of $15.26.
The FBI credited him and his gang with 25 stickups and he is given 26 years at Alcatraz.
He and another inmate make an escape attempt. The other inmate is soon captured but it takes 13 days to find Burgett's body floating in the bay.
The murder was committed in Illinois but Illinois didn't want any part in executing a woman so they turned everything over to Missouri who didn't mind executing a woman.
KILL BANDIT IN MISSOURI
Member of "The-Hole-In-The-Wall" band of train robbers shot by detectives.
Kansas City,Mo Feb 28-- "Lonie" Logan, a Wyoming desperado known also as "Lou" Curry,one of the six men who robbed a Union Pacific train of $30,000 near Rock Creek,Wyoming last June,was surrounded and killed near Dodson,Missouri,six miles south of here this morning. The killing was done by a posse of six Kansas City detectives. Logan was visiting his aunt,Mrs.Robert Lee,near the scene of the shooting. The officers surrounded the house and called on Logan to surrender. Instead, he drew a revolver but was given no time to use it. Every man in the posse opened fire immediately. Logan wavered for a moment,as if hit,but ran on for 150 yards before he fell. Logan was 28 years old. The robbery which led to the killing of Logan also brought death to Harvey Logan,his brother,and Rob Lee,their cousin, who was killed at "The-Hole-In-The-Wall" about a month ago by detective Tom Horn. There was a $3,000 reward for Logan,dead or alive. Cripple Creek,Colorado,Feb 28-Bob Curry alias Bob Lee, alleged to be one of the men who robbed the Union Pacific at Wilcox,Wyoming in June 1899 was arrested here tonight by a sheriff's posse. The arrest was the result of information received today from Dodson,Missouri, where Lewis Curry, another of the robbers was killed by officials this morning.
La Plata,Missouri March 23, 1946
The La Plata state bank was robbed of an estimated $5,000 to $7,000 today by a man who escaped with the loot in the bank president's car. The bandit followed Clay Surbeck,the president,into the bank, covered Surbeck and Paul Wilcus,teller, with a gun,ordering Wilcus to fill a paper sack with money. The robber then ordered Surbeck to "come on, you're going with me," forced him to drive away in Surbeck's car. He released the bank president outside of town.
BUSCH HEIRESS TARGET OF PLOT BY BANDIT GANG
St.Louis,Mo Jan 29--A daring plot by a gang of a dozen machine gun armed and masked bandits to rob wealthy and socially prominent guests at a pre-wedding luncheon for Miss Lily Busch Magnus, great-granddaughter of the late Adolphus Busch,multimillionaire brewery founder, was frustrated today. Kidnapping,too,may have been planned,officers believe. A Hunt Club president was beaten into unconsciousness and bound in his own home and two other men were trussed up before the robbers became frightened and fled. The plot began unfolding at 6 o'clock this morning when two of the gang appeared at the home of George S Tiffany,president of the Bridle Spur Hunt Club,at Chesterfield,Missouri,where the party was to be held for Miss Magnus and DB Precoe,huntsman for the club,whose engagement had been announced recently. One of the bandits pounded on the front door of the Tiffany home. Mr.Tiffany raised an upstairs window and inquired what was wanted. He was told that the bandit's car had broken down and that they were in need of some assistance. Clad only in his pajamas, Tiffany went down and opened the door. Both intruders leaped at him. One struck him in the eye and knocked him down. The other tore a strip from his pajamas and gagged him,then,menaced by pistols, Tiffany was forced to open a wall safe. When the robbers failed to find anything of value in it they beat and kicked him until he was unconscious and bound him with picture wire. After Tiffany had been overpowered,two other bandits entered the house and a number of their confederates with machine guns in two automobiles invaded Tiffany's tour car garage,where they seized and bound a family employe on duty there. Then the four bandits in the house began laying their plans for seizing the wealthy guests as they arrived later for the luncheon set for 2 o'clock and robbing and binding them. After Tiffany regained consciousness one of the gangsters remarked to him that the intruders proposed to remain about five hours. Had the plot been carried out as planned,it is estimated that the bandits would have obtained many thousands of dollars in jewelry and money. About 9 o'clock,an employe of the Hunt Club arrived at the house on an errand. He too was trussed up. He remarked that he was expected back at the club within an hour. This statement caused uneasiness among the bandits. They held a consultation and,apparently fearing a search might be made for the employe,decided to retreat, The robbers made a hasty search of the house,seized 5 shotguns and a rifle,ran out to the garage and fled in the two cars with their confederates. Credence to the theory that the gang may have planned to kidnap Miss Magnus was lent by the fact that her cousin, Adolphus Busch Orthwein,13, son of Mr. and Mrs. Percy J. Orthwein was kidnapped from the grounds of the Orthwein home in Huntleigh Village Jan 1 1931. The boy was later released.
Articles about Jesse James from the Chicago Tribune
BANDITS ROB EXPRESS TRAIN ESCAPE BY BOAT
The Illinois Central fast train,New Orleans to Chicago,due to arrive in the city at 11:30 am yesterday,encountered robbers at 1 o'clock in the morning at Mayfield Creek,KY., 10 miles south of Cairo. Six masked men flagged the train,overpowered the engineer and fireman,captured the locomotive and then escaped. Detectives representing the railroad and the American Express Company have gone from Chicago to participate in the search for the bandits,already undertaken by officials and bloodhounds in that region. The train,which carried heavy passenger traffic,left New Orleans on Tuesday morning. It was in charge of Engineer Tisdale and Conductor Kinkle. Fireman J.J Fryisch was in the cab. Mayfield Creek is two miles below Wickliffe,Ky., and the bridge which spans the stream is admirably suited,with the densely wooded surroundings,to the work of the holdup men.
TRAIN SIGNALED TO STOP
Engineer Tisdale,being signaled,brought the train to a stop just south of the bridge. The robbers gave attention to the engine,and three of them at once boarded it,all wearing masks. After a sharp struggle they overpowered the engineer and fireman,the latter being badly beaten. The three others,also masked,attacked the express car,commanding Express Messenger J.F Hickox to open the doors. He started to turn down the lights and escape but found the car surrounded. The robbers opened fire on him and applied dynamite to the car door,blowing it off. Four bullets went through his hat. One of the gang sprang into the car and the safe was blown open and looted.
ROBBERS FLEE WITH THE ENGINE
The robbers quickly placed their heavy booty in a sack,climbed on the engine,which they uncoupled from the train and ran a couple of miles up the track to Fort Jefferson,near the Ohio river,and likewise within sight of the Missouri shore. Then they left the engine and made their way to the Mississippi,where they entered a skiff and escaped into Missouri. Before entering the skiff they evidently made a division of the spoils and by accident left a sack containing $700 lying beside the tracks. Another package of money was found later on the Missouri shore. The engineer and conductor followed their runaway engine and ran it back to the train,which they soon had under way again northward toward Cairo. All the time the passengers on the long train were sleeping,unaware of the stirring incidents outside. A posse was formed later in and about Cairo and started after the robbers. It consisted of the sheriff of Ballard County,Ky., Chief Patrick Mahoney of Cairo and others with two bloodhounds. Cairo dispatches last night stated that the posse has not yet been heard from since it left. Later in the day a special train with bloodhounds and a second armed posse left Division Headquarters at Jackson,Tenn.,for the scene,and it is understood Missouri officials are likewise hot on the robber's trail.
SAY IT WAS THE MISSOURI STYLE
Chicago officials of the Express Company and the railroad blame the crime on Missouri bandits. The robbers are now on Missouri soil, most likely in the vast swamp lands. Officials of the American Express Company say the loss is probably less than $5,000,as an earlier train carries most of the money. The Express Company and the Illinois Central are cooperating in the work of running down fugitives. J.W Adams,special express agent here,went south on the first train. Six detectives were sent out by the railroad and others will follow if the robbers are not speedily apprehended. Rewards will probably be offered in a few days for their arrest. This was done after a robbery at the same place five years ago,when $1,000 was stolen. J.T Hanrahan,second vice president of the Illinois Central,says no one who ever took part in a robbery on that road escaped justice. Neither the express car nor railroad officials believe the gang that held up the North Western train last fall had anything to do with the Kentucky robbery. The train did not reach Chicago until after 2 o'clock pm, two and a half hours late. Crews were changed at Cairo.
TRAIN ROBBER IS TAKEN
Ruse captures one,another fights his way clear.
Early morning battle in St.Louis between officers and John N Nelson,leader of the bandits who held up the Illinois Central passenger train in Kentucky,George P Murray of Chicago being wounded,two men in custody make full confessions.
St.Louis,Mo. July 13-- Two of the three men who on July 11 robbed the Illinois Central passenger train at Wickliffe,Ky., are in custody,Michael Doyle at Cairo,Ill., and Charles Wheeler Barnes at St.Louis. The third of the robbers, John N Nelson,said to be the leader,made his escape in St.Louis this morning,after wounding Special Agent George Murray of Chicago,Chief of the Illinois Central Detective Bureau. More than 50 shots were fired. Murray is in a hospital here in St.Louis and is expected to live. This afternoon Barnes made a full confession. He said that he,together with John Nelson and a man named Dyer(Doyle or Conley),committed the robbery. Dyer,he said,came from San Francisco four months ago and the plot was all arranged in St.Louis. Barnes said he went to the scene of the robbery on an Illinois Central train and was joined there by Nelson and Dyer. When the train which they had decided to rob approached,they flagged it. Barnes covered the fireman with a revolver while Nelson and Dyer went through the express cars.
WIVES ALSO ARRESTED
It developed this afternoon that Nelson and Barnes are cousins. Their wives,who are handsome women and well dressed are being detained by police. Barnes is 25 years old,smooth shaven and boyish looking. He was dressed in faultless fashion. Nelson,said to be the ringleader of the band,is well known in the west end of St.Louis. He escaped from his boarding house at 3058 Finney Avenue while the place was surrounded by detectives by jumping from a second story window and a desperate hand to hand fight with a detective,then running nearly a mile during a gun battle with police. Michael Doyle,Dyer or Conley who was brought from San Francisco to St.Louis to take part in the robbery is now under arrest in Cairo made a confession that led to the arrest of Barnes. An elaborate trap was laid for Nelson but the hasty act of a St.Louis detective in firing at Nelson as he looked out of his bedroom window aided the man to escape. In making his escape,Nelson, who has the reputation of being able to shoot a coin in mid air,shot and wounded Murray.
RUSE OF THE OFFICERS
The officers sent a note to Barnes purporting to come from Nelson informing him that Mrs.Nelson had become suddenly Ill and asking him to come at once. They sent a similar note to Nelson. A messenger boy was employed to deliver the decoy messages and at 2:30 this morning a party of officers left the Four Courts Building to make the arrests. Barnes was easily taken from his house. The officers then went in search of Nelson and surrounded his house. Nelson went downstairs to take the message but evidently saw a form in the shadow of a tree across the street,took alarm and ran back to the second floor.
ROBBER JUMPS FROM WINDOW
Nelson looked out the window and saw Assistant Chief of Detectives Smith,pistol in hand,behind the opposite fence. Smith fired and Nelson sprang back into the room. Smith and the other officers in the rear thought Nelson would then attempt to get out the front door so they ran to the front of the house. That was the opportunity Nelson wanted. With a revolver in each hand,he jumped from the second floor window into a bush,which broke his fall. Special Officer Murray,who was in waiting,saw Nelson coming and shifted his pistol to his left hand so he could seize him with his right. As he reached for Nelson, Nelson fired his gun and Murray fell to the ground with a shoulder wound. The other officers began the chase firing their guns as they ran,at one point Nelson staggered as if he were hit but turned and returned fire. He then darted down a passageway emptying another revolver at the officers who stopped to take cover and vanished.
2 BANDITS HOLD UP TRAIN TAKE ONLY MAIL BAGS
St.Louis,Mo--Two men held up the Missouri Pacific passenger train no.5,from St.Louis to Little Rock on the outskirts of this city shortly after 8:30 tonight and escaped with four pouches believed to have contained registered mail. The bandits boarded the train at 8:30 when a stop was made at Tower Grove,3 miles from Union Station and took seats in the smoker,next to the mail car. After the train left Tower Grove they entered the mail car with drawn revolvers and forced the clerks to line up against the wall. As the train neared the outskirts of this city one of the bandits pulled the signal cord,stopping the train. The mail sacks were thrown out and the bandits jumped after them and disappeared. The robbery was reported when the next substation was reached and the police were sent to the scene in automobiles. The loss sustained in the robbery will not be known until the mail clerks have had an opportunity to check up.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE Feb 17, 1955
BANDITS CLEAN OUT BANK IN MISSOURI
Southwest City,Mo Feb 16--Four bandits held up the Cornerstone Bank here today escaping with $45,000 to $50,000. Three bandits,all unmasked,entered the bank shortly after 11 am with drawn pistols and forced five employees and three customers to lie down on the floor. One employee was forced to open the vault after all the cash in the teller's cages was scooped into a burlap sack. Dr.G.W Blankenship,bank president,said, "they cleaned us out." Southwest City is in the extreme southwest corner of Missouri.
Jim Collins (21)
Barbara Sandoval (28)
Both of Springfield,Missouri.
In 1964 they robbed a bank in Picher,Oklahoma by using dynamite sticks to scare the employees.
STEVE RYAN 68, EGAN'S RATS MOBSTER DIES
St.Louis may 3--Steve Ryan,68, a member of the notorious Egan's Rats gang of the late 1920s died today after suffering a heart attack. He had lived quietly for years in the St.Louis suburb of Calverton Park. Ryan was convicted along with other members of the Egan's Rats of two large mail truck robberies in 1924 and 1923. He received a 25 year federal prison term for a $54,000 mail robbery at Staunton,Illinois, and a 15 year prison term for a $240,000 mail robbery in downtown St.Louis. He was released from prison in 1941. Police arrested him several times in the next few years as a suspect in various crimes but Ryan was never convicted again. Police said today that Ryan had been a partner in a pinball machine company for several years.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE August 12, 1928
GANGSTER FOUND STRANGLED TO DEATH WITH SASH CORD
St.Louis,Mo Aug 11---The body of Salvatore Feraci,25, with body bound and a sashweight cord tied tightly around the neck,was found neat the Ramona dog race track early today. He was said to have been a member of the gang led by Charles Fresina and was named by a rival gangster as one of the several Fresina men guilty of fatally shooting Angelo Corella last June.
ROB BANK,FIGHT POSSE,KIDNAP AN OFFICER,VANISH
Joplin,Mo. Nov 26--Five bandits who held up the bank of Asbury at Asbury,Mo.,fifteen miles northwest of here,this afternoon and escaped with approximately $1,500 after a fight with citizens,played hide and seek with three pursuers in a chase that extended into Kansas and later kidnapped a Joplin motorcycle policeman following an exchange of shots. The bandits entered the bank,locked three employes in the vault and scooped up the money. Warned of the robbery by an alarm which sounded in a garage and a drug store when Cashier S.W White stepped on a button,Charles Kerr,merchant and president of the bank,and Pete Ytell,a garage proprietor, went into action firing on the bandits from across the street. The bandit car got under way and sped out of town toward Pittsburg,Kansas. Kerr,Ytell and R.G Coleman hopped in a motor car and started in pursuit. The bandits started to dodge around to shake off their pursuers,halting every mile or so to exchange shots with the trio behind them until they disappeared. Two hours later,four men standing beside a stalled motor car near Crestline,Kansas,engaged Clarence Allison,local motorcycle patrolman,in a gunfight as he came upon them. His ammunition gone,Allison was overpowered,carried away in a car taken from a passing motorist and thrown out 15 miles southwest of here.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE May 29, 1918
BANDIT SLAIN,BODY IN RIVER,WIFE ARRESTED
The body of Ted Clark,the third bandit sought in connection with the robbery of the Tri-City Bank of Madison,Illinois on May 16, when $16,040 was stolen was recovered last night from the Missouri river at Fort Bellfontaine,Missouri,30 miles northwest of St.Louis. Alexander Mackeown and Gustave Zeigler,held in connection with the bank robbery,are now in Madison jail. Clark was murdered. His throat was cut and his feet and hands were tied with wire and stones fastened to them.
ROW OVER THE SPOILS
Soon after the robbery the detectives working on the mystery learned that one of the members of the gang,presumably Clark,had been dissatisfied with his share of the loot,$2,700, and demanded more which was refused. He then went to St.Louis and organized a squad of four desperate characters with the purpose of following his erstwhile comrades and forcing them to disgorge. There was trouble when the two gangs met and Clark could not afterward be located. The finding of his body appears to corroborate the theory of the detectives. The Pinkertons worked with the local police and other agencies in solving the mystery.
WIFE SEIZED AS THIEF
Coincident with the finding of Clark's body,Mrs.May Clark of 1265 Leland Ave.,Chicago,who was taken into custody recently with the robbers at Cincinnati and later liberated,was arrested last night in a St.Louis hotel after the police had entered her room and found four trunks filled with silk dresses and lingerie,believed to have been stolen from Chicago department stores.
Will Dimmitt
Butler,Missouri
Train Robber
He was arrested in Kansas City Feb 22 1898 for robbing the Pittsburg-Gulf train.
Albert Mansker 1857-1894
Willow Springs,Missouri
Train Robber
He was part of a gang that was involved it the Olyphant train robbery in Arkansas that killed a member of the train crew in November 1893. He and two others were hanged in 1894.
Charles Augustus Morgan alias Morganfield
Neelyville,Missouri
Train Robber
He and Charles Searcy were responsible for the Aquia train robbery of October 12, 1894 in Virginia. He was sentenced to 18 years.
Jonathon Chatham Roberts 1831-?
Lafayette County,Missouri
Train Robber
He was one of 10 men involved in the Great Verdi Train Robbery in Nevada on November 5,1870 that stole $41,600 in gold coins.
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