|
Springville, May 30.—Springville has
experienced the sensations of a bank robbery, a
hard, but successful chase after the robbers, the
surrounding of them in a patch of thick brush, the
killing of one and the capture of the other. And to
use ht expression of the live robber after he had
been jailed, the old town is not as sleepy as it
looks to be.
The robbery occurred at 10;05 a.m.
Saturday. Two men walked into the Springville bank
and presented a check as follows:
Springville, Utah May 28, 1898
On sight pay to the order of T.S.
Cerswell the sum of $200. C.H. Charter.
By T.C. Burton.
They asked the bookkeeper, Mr.
Packard, the only person there was in the bank at
the time, if Mr. Carter had left any money there to
pay the check with. He replied that he had not. Then
turning to his books Mr. Packard was startled with,
“Look here young man” in a commanding tone, and
looking up found himself covered by two revolvers.
The robber who was afterward killed
kept Packard covered while the other robber went
behind the railing and began gathering up all the
money he could find. While thus engaged he dropped a
stack of twenties, and while picking them up Packard
lowered his hand and touched an alarm button. The
robber on guard noticed the movement and exclaimed:
“G—d—you! put that hand up and keep it there!”
The alarm is connected with Mr.
Reynolds’s store. On several previous occasions the
alarm had been accidentally sounded and this was
thought to have been the case again. So Mr. Reynolds
stepped up to the telephone, and rung up the bank to
ask if anything was wrong. Receiving no reply he
realized this was no false alarm. He grabbed two
Winchesters and rushed for the street, but the
robbers were turning a street corner a block away.
Messengers were started on bicycles, on horseback
and on foot to raise the alarm, and in an incredibly
short time a large posse was in pursuit.
The robbers after securing all the
money in sight, $3020, jumped in a buggy they had
near the bank and started on a dead run for Hobble
Creek canyon. Near the outskirts of the city they
met Mr. Snelson riding a fine horse. They took his
horse from him and threw him $16. One of the robbers
mounted the horse and the other continued by buggy.
By this time Mr. Reynolds in his delivery wagon was
within 150 yards of them, and fired two shots which
were not noticed by the robbers. Soon afterward the
robbers, seeing they were being overtaken left their
buggy and took to the brush at the mouth of the
canyon. In 20 minutes 100 horsemen were on the
ground and had the robbers completely surrounded so
that escape was impossible.
A consultation was held and Joseph W.
Allen proposed they close in on the robbers. This
was adopted. In a few minutes one of the robbers was
found covered with leaves. He surrendered on demand
and was handcuffed. He was unarmed, having lost his
revolvers in the brush. The other man was seen by
Mr. Allen who said to him: “Now don’t you move or
I’ll get you.” “I’ll get you while you’re getting
me,” the robber replied and fired, striking Allen in
the left leg. Allen returned the fire killing his
man instantly. It was five minutes before any of the
posse came up, when the robber was found dead.
Allen was tenderly cared for and sent to a Salt Lake
hospital where his leg was amputated. The thigh bone
was shattered.
Most of the money was recovered on the robbers or
found buried near their hiding place.
The live robber was landed in the county jail at
Provo, where he has been positively identified as
C.L. Maxwell, a member of the Robbers Roost band,
for whom a reward was recently offered by Governor
Wells. He refuses to give the name of the dead
robber, but says he was a married man with a family.
It was a Robbers Roost raid, and from a remark
dropped by the captured robber, it is believed men
were waiting with horses at a point further up the
canyon, but the robbers were too hard pressed to
reach them. The pursuit was too swift. |
