Volume 16 , Issue 45

December 31 1914, Thursday

New Year Eve's 1914, The Guthrie Daily Leader, dated 31 December 1914, Thursday was reporting on "Hold-Up Netted $10,000.00." But the good news was bandits, however, overlooked $16,000 when the train was looted. This front page news article was via San Antonio, Texas, December 31, 1914.

Bandits who robbed passengers in the two rear sleepers of the westbound Sunset Express, on the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio railway, Wednesday night, secured $7,840 in money and jewelry valued at $3,000, according to the passengers' reports. The bandits escaped as the train neared Spofford.

Jose Martinez, a wealthy Mexican from Durango, who, with his wife and daughter, occupied the drawing room in the San Antonio sleeper, was overlooked by the bandits who missed between $14,000 and $16,000 he carried in money, besides jewelry of great value. So elated was Martinez when he discovered he had escaped the robbery that he distributed from $25 to $150 to each of the victims who had lost their all. The robbers passed through the San Antonio sleeper, robbing fourteen of the nineteen passengers, overlooking two men in upper berths and the Mexican family in the drawing room.

They had partly finished search of the second pullman when it was believed they became frightened as the train was approaching Spofford and they pulled the bell cord and jumped from the train as it slowed up. Thea actual cash taken from passengers amounted to $7,840, and the jewelry was estimated at $3,000.

Three men were engaged in the hold-up, one remaining on the rear platform.
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