Rube Burrow never talked with me about any particular robbery he was engaged in, except at Genoa, Ark. He did tell me he was in that robbery, and indirectly mentioned the Gordon and Ben Brook, Texas, robberies, giving me to understand he was in those robberies also.
I have heard Rube Burrow say that if he was out of trouble, or if he was where he could quit robbing trains, that he would stop it. He thinks a great deal of his children, and is anxious to have them educated, and spoke of coming back to Lamar County in the spring to see if they were at school.
When I started from Allen Burrow’s on the 15th of July I intended to go to Columbus, Miss., and from there to some point in Kentucky, and intended to quit train robbing. That is why I gave away my pistols.
We got in the Duck Hill robbery about $1,500 in greenbacks, and about $250 in silver. This we divided, each taking half. We did not rob the mail at Duck Hill. Burrow wanted to do it, but I would not agree to it. Burrow insisted on robbing the mail at Buckatunna, but Smith and I protested against it. Burrow said, “If we can get away with one, we can get away with the other; and if we are taken for one offense, we will be taken for the other,” and insisted on robbing the mail, and carried out his view.
My opinion about Rube Burrow is about as follows: I have often heard him say that if the detectives crowded him that he would kill them, or he would shoot his way out if they did not kill him. He said it would be a life and death fight. I have heard him say more than once that if he could get a large lot of money he would leave enough at home to take care of his children, and then, if he could, would go off where he would not be bothered, and lead a quiet life.
Am pretty well satisfied he will come back to Lamar County about September 1st, because he said he would do so.
At one time, while in the cattle business at Fort Worth, Texas, I had an encounter with a man who was a bully, and who was cutting up one day, and in an insulting manner ordered me out of his way. I stepped out of his way, but he kept annoying me, and I at last decided I did not want any more of his talk, and told him so. He then cursed me, and I cursed him also, and he drew a knife. I had a pistol, and walked up to him and struck him on the arm, knocking the knife out of his hand, and then knocked him down. Burrow witnessed the affair, and this was probably the reason he chose me to help him in his train robberies.
I was never in a train robbery with Burrow in Texas, and he never mentioned that he had engaged in train robbing in that State, except indirectly, as I have stated.
When we started on the Arkansas trip I had one Colt’s forty-five caliber pistol. Burrow had two forty-five caliber pistols. Had no rifle. These were the arms we used in the Duck Hill robbery, and, as far as I know, Rube Burrow now has these same pistols. They are not double, but single action pistols. Burrow got from Connecticut a Marlin rifle, thirty-eight caliber, in April, 1889. It holds fourteen or fifteen cartridges.
At Duck Hill we tied our pocket handkerchiefs, such as we used daily, around our faces, just before we boarded the engine. I do not remember the color of the handkerchiefs. At Buckatunna I tied my handkerchief on just before the train stopped. Burrow and Smith had theirs on when the train stopped, and I suppose put them on before they boarded the train at Buckatunna.