WHEN ASKED ABOUT HEYWOOD,
he said that ninety-nine out of a hundred would have opened the safe. “At least,” he added, “I know I would.”
Asked why Heywood was shot, he said, “he supposed the man who shot him, whoever he might be, thought Heywood was going to shoot him. The fact that the man was on the counter and turned round, as the papers say, and shot him, is sufficient proof of this. Heywood went to his desk and the man thought chat he was about to take a pistol out of the desk.” “That was an unfortunate affair,” he continued, “and the man who did it, no doubt regretted it immediately.”
BOB YOUNGER,
the youngest brother, is not disposed to talk cant, but answers questions frankly and promptly when directed to his own affairs, but he [pg 60] will not answer a word about any other member of the gang. When asked if he did not think Heywood a brave fellow, he remarked that he thought he acted from fear throughout. He was too much frightened to open the safe, or he could not do it. He (Bob) was was of the opinion that Heywood could not open the safe, and he did not wish to go any further with that job. When asked
WHY HEYWOOD WAS SHOT,
he said it was not on account of revenge, but simply in self-defense, “for what object could there be in such a cold-blooded crime, when the party must be the sufferers. It was a very unfortunate affair for us,” he said.
Bob did not hesitate to answer any question proposed to him which concerned himself. He volunteered the statement that he was one of the three who entered the bank, and it was he who tried to keep Manning from firing up the street. Being asked if he was not considered a good shot, he said he had always considered himseif a good marksman, but he thought that he would now have to forego all claim to being a crack-shot, after considering the unusually bad shooting he made in the bush when captured.
To the boy who put the Mankato men upon the track, Cole extended his hand, and said: