The Desert Manhunt of the Richland Safe-Crackers
After a daring nitroglycerin heist at the Richland post office, a trail of discarded gear and footprints in the sagebrush leads sheriff’s deputies to three suspects.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Following a chase of four miles through the sagebrush and cactus near the Grosscup ranch on the Yakima River, Sheriff Duffy and Deputy McClellan ran down three men suspected of cracking the safe in the Richland post office. The robbers had gained entry by breaking a glass panel in the rear door and using nitroglycerin to blow the safe, littering the room with debris and tearing stamps to bits. The men, identified as John Larson, Edward Connolly, and William Anderson, were captured near the O-W. R. & N. railroad tracks. Despite their claims of innocence, officers recovered discarded items along their path, including a bottle of nitroglycerin, a flashlight, two revolvers, and $21.80 in battered silver coins. The suspects, all total strangers to the region, were held in the city and Pasco jails to face federal charges.
“It was a rather curious fact, altho the men were roughly dressed each wore kid gloves.”
Post office robberies are rare in modern Richland, but the landscape of this story—the vast, open sagebrush country near the Yakima River—is still recognizable. Today, what was a rugged, desolate pursuit across the scrublands is now heavily developed, yet the sense of the Tri-Cities as a gateway for travelers and transients persists.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.