San Francisco Call 11 April 1905 ? California Digital Newspaper Collection
DEATH ENDS CAREER OF GATES BOYS
Two of Copley Train Robbers Are Cornered by a Sheriff's Posse in a New Mexico Town and Killed
DETECTIVE THACKER IDENTIFIES BODIES
Long Pursuit of Murderers of 3fessenger W. J. O'Neil Closes in a Tragic Manner on the Southern Frontier
George and Vernon Gates, the Copley train robbers, whom the Southern Pacific and Wells-Fargo detectives have been eagerly looking for eevr since the commission of the robbery on March 31 of last year, have paid the penalty of their many offenses and now He burled in unmarked graves on the outskirts of Lordsburg, N. M. This Information was received yesterday by John F. Seymour, chief of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s secret agents, from Detective J. N. Thacker, who is now in Lordsburg, whither he started a week ago last Saturday on receipt of Information that the Gates brothers were in that locality. Thacker had hardly arrived In New Mexico when two men, who have since been identified as the Gates brothers, were shot by a Sheriff's posse.
According to the message received by Captain Seymour two men held up a saloon in Lordsburg on March 15 and with their loot hurried off to the mountains. Sheriff McGrath of Lordsburg immediately organized a posse and started In pursuit. After a hot chase the posse overtook the robbers at the town of Separ and when the two men showed resistance they were killed. The youthful appearance of the dead men caused the authorities of Lordsburg to institute an investigation with a view of discovering their identity, which, it is said was finally effected through photographs of the Gates brothers then in the possession of one of the Southern Pacific representatives of the Pinkerton Detective Agency of Chicago. THACKER IDENTIFIES BODIES.
Learning that Detective Thacker was scouting along the southern border In search of George and Vernon Gates, the authorities of Lordsburg communicated with him, and arriving at Lordsburg the San Franciscan promptly completed the work of identification. Thacker's message to Captain Seymour reads as follows: LORDSBURG }T. Mex.. April 10. — Captain Seymour Special W. F. — Just returned from Parral. Mexico. I find that George. Gates and Vernon Gates held up a saloon In Lordsburg, N. Mex.. on the 15th of March and were followed to &epar, N. Mex., by McGrath and posse and were killed while resisting arrest. They recovered the eix-shooters ajid all the money that was taken from the saloon. Bodies were brought back here to Lordsburg and buried. There Is no question as to the identity of the men, so you can notify the father, who Hve3 In Alameda, Cal., and I will send In photographs as soon ac I can get them. I am thowughly satisfied because I have seen some of the proofs George has gunshot wounds as described In circular. J. N. THACKER. Captain Seymour said last night that he was fully satisfied that the men killed at Separ were George and Vernon Gates. Several weeks ago the express company was advised that the Gates boys had been seen in New Mexico, apparently making for the border, and Detective Thacker, who was familiar with all the incidents of the Copley robbery, immediately started south with the idea of heading the robbers off and capturing them. It was Thacker's plan of intercepting the men before they could reach Mexico that accounts for the detective's -presence In Parral, from which jlace he was summoned to Lordsburg.
DARING AFFAIR RECALLED.
The Copley robbery was a daring affair that cost Express Messenger W. J. O'Neil his life and brought nothing to the robbers in the way of booty. On the night of March 31, 1904, the southbound Oregon express was held up at Copley, Shasta County, by three men. When they called upon Messenger O'Neil to open the door of his car he refused. The robbers then forced a brakeman to ran on the door and when O'Neil opened it a little way and showed himself he was shot dead. Then the robbers entered the car and. placing a package of dynamite on top of the express safe, retreated a distance and touched the explosive off. Unfortunately for their plan, however, the main part of the safe, in which was stored much coin, was not destroyed by the explosion. Consequently the robbers got nothing for their daring but murderous work. Realizing that their time was precious the robbers cut off from the train the first locomotive, and boarding it ordered the engineer to convey them to a point near Keswlck, where they alighted and disappeared in the darkness of the night. The next seen of the robbers was four days later, while they were making their way northward, and the fact that they had formerly lived in Amador County and were acquainted with mining caused the detectives to believe that the men were heading for the extreme northern part of the State.
THIRD MAN STIJLL MISSING.
Their identity waa not discovered by the detectives until a month later, when Patrick Crowley, then chief of the secret agents' bureau of the Southern Pacific, learned, through intercepted letters addressed to a woman in Shasta County, that George Gates was the leader of the trio of robbers. Later it was learned that his brother was with him on the night of the holdup and that the third man waa James Arnet, who had also been engaged in mining in Northern California, and like the Gates boys, had been suspected of many crimes, but had eluded arrest and conviction through the failure of his victims to properly identify him.
Rewards were offered for the arrest of the trio and their photographs were scattered broadcast, but from the night of April 5, 1904, up to several weeks ago, when the express authorities received a tip that the Gates boys were in New Mexico, heading for old Mexico, nothing definite had been heard of the robbers.
George Gates was 26 years of age and his brother Vernon 22. They were the -sons of a well-to-do mining man G. G. Gates, living with his daughter in Alameda, but at present visiting his old home in Amador County. The father endeavored in every way to induce his wayward sons to reform, but he had no influence over George and the latter influenced Vernon The whereabouts of Arnet is unknown to the detectives, who believe that he separated from the Gates boys in this Slate and is now somewhere in th<» Northwest.
