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Special to the
MERCURY.
VISALIA, August 23. [sic] --Tuesday
last Chris Evans and John Sontag hired a livery team in this city to go to the
mountains.
Yesterday at noon they returned with
the shoes off the horses.
After the Collis
train robbery Detectives Thacker and Mickey and Sheriff Cunningham traced the
robbers to this city. Before noon to-day Detective Will Smith ask Deputy
Sheriff Witty to accompany him to Evan's house in the northern part of town,
were he stated he wanted to interview a man.
They went to the house and found George Sontag and took him to jail. They
afterward went again to Evans' house and secured a trunk supposed to contain
coin. The following is Smith's statement of the occurrence at Evans'
house:
"Mr. Witty and myself went down to Chris
Evans' house and asked George Conant, alias "Sontag," to step up to the
Sheriff's office, as we heard he was on the train that was robbed and we wanted
to question him.
"John Sontag was in the house
at the time. We brought him [George] to the Sheriff's office where he made a
statement and was afterward arrested and charged with robbing the train. Mr.
Witty and I then returned to Evans' place. While we were hitching our horses.
We asked a little girl in the house were Sontag was, and she said he was not in
the house.
"Just then Chris Evans entered the
house from the back door. The house consisted of a sitting-room, with a
bed-room on the left side. In place of a door to the bed-room there was a
portiere. There was another bed-room next to the sitting-room. Evans was in the
latter bed-room. He said that Sontag had gone up town. I told him that Sontag
had just entered the house.
"I stepped into the
house and pulled aside the portieres and there stood Sontag with a
double-barreled shot-gun. I stepped to one side and attempted to unbutton my
coat to reach my six-shooter, when I saw that Chris Evans had another shot-gun
down.
"Witty and I then ran out through the
front door. He ran through the gateway and I went over the fence. I turned to
the left of the road and Witty to the right. We left the team, as we did not
have time to unhitch it. Evans pursued Witty and Sontag pursued me.
"I looked over my shoulder just as Evans fired at
Witty. I stopped and fired two shots at Evans, when Sontag stopped and fired at
me. As he pulled the trigger I crouched and the charge went over me, but he
fired again, his shot striking me in the back and hands. The charge was double
B shot.
"As Evans and Sontag continued their
pursuit they threw out their empty shells and reloaded their guns. They then
took our wagon and drove off, but as one of the horses is stiff I think they
will be captured soon. I found in Chris Evans' house the material from which
the masks were made, and I also found that the team which the robbers used two
night ago was hired here by John Sontag.
"After
Evans fired at Witty the latter fell and Evans stepped over him with his gun to
fire again when Witty asked him not to shoot again as he was already
killed."
Half an hour after Smith and Witty had
their encounter with the robbers, a hundred men were in pursuit, but up to the
present moment the robbers have escaped. Witty was shot under the right
shoulder blade, the bullet coming out under the left arm. His back and one side
of his face were well sprinkled with shot from the shot-gun. The cavity of the
chest was not penetrated. The opinion is general that if Smith had waited the
arrival of Sheriff Cunningham and Detective Thacker the men would have been
arrested.
Evans is well acquainted with the
mountains east of here, and the chances are that upon reaching the timber he
will escape. Evans has a wife and seven children here, and Sontag has been
attentive to Evan's oldest daughter. Sontag has been a railroad engineer.
The two men a year ago kept a livery stable at
Modesto, which was destroyed by fire. Sontag has been under surveillance of the
officers for some time. |
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