Richwood, WV History

Three Bandits Hold Up Lumberjacks

 

From the Nicholas Republican

Richwood, West Virginia

Thursday, March 31, 1921

Page 1

Headline: Three Bandits Hold Up Lumberjacks

Subhead: Resisting Foreigner Loses Life At Hands Of Robbers

One man was shot to death and thirty men held up at the point of revolvers by three masked bandits Friday night the 25th inst. at Camp 56 on Cranberry River about 25 miles northeast of this city. Over $12,000 was secured by the robbers in cash besides checks amounting to six or eight thousand more were confiscated and carried away by the daring free-booters.

About midnight Friday night three masked men gained entrance to the camp and while the unsuspecting laborers were fast asleep secured the arms that were about the premises and which were usually kept in the lower rooms which were devoted to a lobby, kitchen and dining rooms, the men sleeping upstairs.

The robbers gained entrance to the sleeping apartment and lighting a lamp covered the sleeping element with their revolvers and demanded a general throw up of hands. Two men kept guard while the third man moved about thru the room making a search of the various inmates. The man who was making the search, however met with a repulse when he attempted to search a giant Russian on whom was a large sum of money, said to aggregate four or five thousand dollars. The Russian was getting the best of the encounter when one of the men who was standing guard ordered the searching party to use his gun and who immediately shot the Russian through the head a second shot tearing his arm but the ball being deflected passed thru his clothes inflicting a flesh wound in the chest. Death resulted instantly.

As soon as their evil ends were accomplished, the robbers fled into the mountains toward Marlinton. The bandits had taken care to cut the telephone wires leading from the camp and consequently it was some little time before an alarm could be given. As soon, however as word could reach this city, information was at once sent out to all points where the robbers would likely entrain, to be on the lookout for them. A dispatch was sent to Fairmont for a bloodhound to track the criminals and the hound arriving here Saturday evening, was at once taken to the scene of the robbery and murder and placed on the trail. So much time had elapsed however, that this method was a vain one, as the scent had almost been obliterated before the dog arrived, although the trail was followed for miles into the mountain fastnesses.

From the methods employed and other facts concerning the holdup, authorities here believe that the robbery was the work of professionals, as a canvass of the lumber works was made and all who were working for the various interests in this section were located, and some would have had time to have committed the crime and have returned undetected.

On Thursday night, three men registered at the New Northern Hotel here, giving their residence as Parkersburg, and asked to be lodged in the same room as they wanted to go out on the early log train Friday morning. The men were of foreign appearance. These same men answered the description as given by those who suffered in the depredation Friday night. Little attention was given to the incident until the report of the robbery, when the proprieter recalled the presence of this guests the night before, who were evidently the same persons who committed the heinous crime. The presumption is that a former member of the camp had conceived the project and had returned, bringing with him two professional blackhanders, who assisted him to carry out the project to a successful conclusion.

Word reached this city Tuesday afternoon that a foreigner had been arrested at Renick, on the Greenbrier division of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad on whom had been found $2500 in cash and some checks belonging to some of the victims of the robbery. Parties left here yesterday to investigate the matter and the hope is held out that the right party has been found, which, if true, will lead to the detention in time of the other parties concerned in the hold-up.

The body of the dead Russian was brought to this city Saturday by Undertaker A.B. McCutcheon and interment occurred Sunday in the Richwood Cemetery.

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Thanks to Paul Greathouse of Richwood for tracking down the grave marker for the Russian who was robbed and killed. He says the headstone is located at the west end of the cemetery roughly half way up. By this I am talking about the upper section above the flag pole. It is at the edge of the cemetery.