Robbers Again Work the Southern Pacific
source date: 1888
availability: public-domain

Robbers Again Work the Southern PacificOn Thursday night of last week the west- bound Southern and Pacific train was robbed in Grant County, near the line of Arizona. The robbers evidently meant to avoid the New Mex- ico law that provides capital punishment in such cases, and to go into Arizona to do the deed, like the men recently convicted of a similar offense. But according to Sheriff Laird, who visited the place, the train was this side of the line. The two men who perpetrated the last robbery are said to be known to the officers, though this claim is getting to be a chestnut. It may be that they were the same who committed the two robberies at Papago. There is a rumor that the men convicted at Tucson were not the guilty parties, and that the pique and zeal of the officers combined with the testimony of “toughs” who sought reward, immunity from punishment and official favor, enabled the officers to get the $20,000 offered by the com- pany for conviction. The couple who last set the officers at defiance boarded the forward platform of the mail car as it left Stein’s Pass station, crawled over the tender and ordered the engineer to go ahead for two miles. When the: train finally came to a halt one robber and the engineer uncoupled the express and mail car from the train and ran ahead some distance.

orm of the mail car as it left Stein’s Pass station, crawled over the tender and ordered the engineer to go ahead for two miles. When the: train finally came to a halt one robber and the engineer uncoupled the express and mail car from the train and ran ahead some distance. Coming to a second stop the party went to the express car, persuaded the messenger to come out and thus secured $1000, it is said. The messenger said that he could not afford to fight robbers for $75 per month. The mail was not disturbed.