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Had Murdered Several Men And Directed Many Successful Hold-Ups – Escapes from Jail.

It was learned in this city yesterday that the train robber who killed himself on June 9 to avoid arrest near Rifle, Col., had been identified, by means of photographs as Harvey Logan, the leader of “The Hole in the Wall Gang,” whose life reads like a dime novel of the most sensational type.

Logan was born in Dodson, Mo., of respectable parents forty-two years ago. He began life as a cowboy, but soon joined the band of cattle thieves that operated in Wyoming. He killed his first man on Christmas Day, 1804. There was a fight in a little frontier saloon at Landusky, Mont., and Logan, who had taken offense at a remark made by one of his companions, shot him down in cold blood.

Escaping from the town and finding himself outlawed, he, with his brother Lonny Logan, and half a dozen outlaws organized the “Hole in the Wall” gang. Their retreat was said to be in the Bow Leg Mountains, in Wyoming, and after a train robbery they disappeared with their booty, and were not heard of again until another “hold-up” started the country with its daring. On June 28, 1897, Logan and his gang robbed the Dutte County Bank, at Belle Fourche, S.D. They were pursued by a posse of Sheriffs, and Logan, Tom O’Day, and Kid Longbaugh were captured in the mountains after an all-night fight. Placed in the Deadwood jail, Logan made several attempts to escape, and finally succeeded on the night of Oct. 31, 1897, after shooting down the guards. A month later he held up and robbed the Union Pacific express at Tipton, Wyo., and on June 2, 1899, successfully robbed a Union Pacific express train at Wilcox, Wyo. The express safe was blown open, emptied of its contents, and passengers were robbed of their money and valuables.

The posse of Sheriffs and citizens that followed the gang after that exploit struck their train in the mountain wilds, and overtook them near Casper, Wyo. A running fight followed, during which Sheriff Hazen of Converse County, Wyo., was shot and killed. Fresh ponies were obtained by the outlaws, and they escaped, with several wounded.

Logan and his brother Lonny returned to their home in Dodson a year later. They were recognized, and while resisting arrest Lonny was killed by the Sheriff. Again Harvey escape, but with several bullet holes in his left arm and shoulder.

Thousands of dollars in rewards were offered for him, dead or alive, but they were no check to his daring, for on Sept. 19, 1900, the entire county was startled by the hold-up of the officials and robbery of the First National Bank of Winnemucca, Nev., of $32,642 in gold.

Logan and his band had entered the town in the guise of a band of cowboys out for a lark. After a visit to the saloon they rode to the bank just at the noon hour. Before an alarm could be given the cashier and clerks were confronted with revolvers and threatened with death if they made a move or uttered a sound. The open safe was then rifled of its contents, and backing out of the bank with their booty, the band locked the door, jumped their horses, and were well out of town before the alarm was given.

They escaped and were not heard of again until the Great Northern Express train hold-up at Wagner, Mont., on July 3, 1901. This had also been carefully planed by Logan and his gang. The train was flagged near the town by a highwayman dressed as a switchman. When the engine came to a standstill, and the engineer and fireman stuck their heads out of the cab to see what the trouble was, half a dozen bandits suddenly spring from the cover of the sagebrush and covered them with rifles. As the train crew appeared they were covered, and with ease and dispatch the express car was forced open and the safe dynamited. More than $45,000 in unsigned National banknotes was stolen, besides several valuable packages. Large rewards were offered by the railroad and express company, but all trace of Logan was lost until the night of Dec. 12, 1901, when he got into an altercation with two citizens in a saloon in Knoxville, Tenn., where he had been hiding. The row attracted the attention of two near-by policemen. They attempted to arrest him, and in the fight he made to avoid arrest he shot both officers, injuring them so seriously that their lives for a time were despaired of. He then held up the proprietor, his employees, and others in the saloon, who tried to assist in his capture, and, backing out of a rear door, escaped by vaulting over a fence into a railroad cut thirty feet deep.

Logan was arrested two days later near Knoxville in an exhausted condition from cold and exposure. He had lost his pistol in his desperate jump to escape. Though a circular issued by the Pinkertons he was, after arrest, identified as Harvey Logan, driven from his Western strongholds by efforts made for his capture.

The authorities, local, county and United States, had all been warned of Logan’s desperate character, and to prevent his escape placed a night and day guard over him with a rifle. No utensil or clothing except what Logan wore were left in his cell. He was searched daily. Yet with all these precautions he managed to get a piece of ordinary broom wire, with which, while the guards back was turned, Logan lassoed him, took his rifle from him, and forced the guard to unlock the cell. He held up several keepers, prevented a general alarm, and escaped.

For almost a year the bandit remained under cover, and the authorities were just beginning to think that he had quit the country for good, when on June 7 last a train on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was held up at Parachute, Col., by three masked robbers,  who dynamited the express car and safe, but go not booty. The robbers escaped on horseback, pursued by a posse, who came on them June 9 in a gulch near Rifle. One of the outlaws was wounded. A companion asked if he was seriously wounded, and the bandit replied that he was “hard hit and going to cash in quick.” Drawing his revolver he killed himself. When the posse came up they found only a dead body. His companions had escaped.