Freight Train Bandits Sentenced Within Days of Heist
Three men who held up a brakeman and passenger at gunpoint near Kennewick are quickly dispatched to state prison.
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.
In spite of the proverbial law's delay, the machinery of justice occasionally works speedily. The three men who last Thursday night robbed two men on a freight train near this city are now serving sentences in the penal institutions of the state. The three men, who gave their names as William Slavin, Mark McCoy, and Frank Joseph, pleaded guilty in superior court last Saturday and were sentenced by Judge Linn. Slavin was given from 5 to 10 years in the penitentiary at Walla Walla, and the latter two were sentenced to 3 to 5 years in the state reformatory at Monroe. The three men, all of whom carried guns, held up Robert O'Brien of Republic, Washington, and relieved him of $10.65. They also took money from Brakeman Smith. The robbery was reported by local operator S. A. Phelps to Special Agent O'Brien of Pasco, who arrested the men in a Pasco restaurant soon after the train pulled in. They were taken to Prosser on the next train by N.P. Policeman Tom Diball.
“In spite of the proverbial law's delay, the machinery of justice occasionally works speedily.”
In the early 20th century, the railway was the lifeblood of the region and a frequent theater for crime. While the specific threat of freight-train bandits has faded, the rapid pace of this 1916 justice stands in stark contrast to the often months-long wait for modern criminal trials.
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