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Pinkerton
detectives have identified the robber who killed himself after
assisting a holdup of Rio Grande Train No. 5 near Parachute, Colo.,
on June 8th, as Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry. On June 7th
the west bound passenger train on the Denver and Rio Grande railroad
was held up at Parachute. The robbers, three in number, blew the
safe in the express car, rifled it and then detached the express car
from the train and escaped.
Posses were
organized at once and gave chase. The robbers were well mounted but
their horses had run down, and they abandoned them June 9th.
On the same day they stole three horses from a ranchman near Rifle,
Colo. A posse of young farmers were organized and followed the three
men, coming up with them between Rifle and New Castle on the
afternoon of June 9th.
The robbers
showed fight and shot at the posse, nearly wounding one of the young
men. Their fire was returned and one of the robbers fell from his
horse, seeing which one of his companions shouted to him, “Tom are
you hurt?” The wounded robber answered, “Yes, I am all in, and I
will end it right here!” saying which he drew a revolver and shot
himself through the head.
Logan was a
member of the famous “Wild Bunch” band of outlaws. They robbed
the Butte County Bank, Belle Fourche, S.D., in 1897, in June
(unintelligible) they held up a Union Pacific train at Wilcox, Wyo.;
in August, 1900, they robbed another Union Pacific train at Tipton,
Wyo, and in the following month they robbed the First National Bank
of Winnemucca, Nev., of $32,610, in July, 1901, they held up the
Great Northern Express at Wagoner, Mont., and secured about $35,000.
The Pinkertons were put on the trail of the gang in 1897 and since
that time eleven of the fourteen members have either been killed or
arrested and sent to prison.
A short time
before the Rio Grande robbery the Union Pacific having gotten wind
of the fact that the outlaw, Logan, and his pals were again at large
and were likely to resume business in their old haunts, put on an
armored train running west from Laramie, Wyo., in order to be
prepared to meet their wily foes. This train was supplied with
fighting equipment, and carried a crew of known gun fighters, each
an expert in his line and a terror to the train robbers of the West.
In
some way, Logan and his gang became informed of the move of the
Union Pacific to forestall operations by them along the road, and on
this account it is supposed that thy moved their base southward into
Colorado, to a country that was also familiar to them though their
operations at a previous period as cattle rustlers. |
