The Book brothers in due time, had a preliminary hearing and were committed to the County Jail in default of bail.
In the meantime Henry Book had confessed to having emptied the oil tank and George admitted the writing of the anonymous letters. About a week before their trial was to take place, there was a general jail delivery at Franklin, Pa., effected one very stormy night. There were fifteen or more prisoners who escaped. The Book brothers were among them. They boarded a north bound freight on the A. & G. W. R. R. which is now known as the "Erie." When at a point about twenty miles north of Franklin this freight train collided with another train. In the wreck Henry Book was killed instantly and George was so badly hurt that he died the following day. Thus ended the Ackert case.
I consumed in all not to exceed six days in connection with this case, unassisted except upon the night of the arrests, when I was accompanied by two of my officers, whose names were George W. Frye and Max Fulton.
CHARLIE DALTON, OUTLAW.
SPECTACULAR ARREST OF THIS MUCH-WANTED MAN ON A
CROWDED ST. LOUIS STREET CAR
The arrest, in St. Louis, on the evening of March 12, 1888, of the notorious Charlie Dalton, was accomplished in a rather unique, yet sensational manner. Dalton had been "scouting" for a couple of years, with a large reward offered by the state of Texas and the Missouri Pacific Railway hanging over his head. Almost every sheriff, police officer and detective in the country had his description and were looking for him. The charge was murder, and the crime was committed during the 1886 strike on the Gould properties. On the afternoon of April 3, 1886, a freight train pulled out of Fort Worth, Texas, for New Orleans, Louisiana. Besides the regular crew, the train carried a number of guards in charge of Jim Courtwright, a noted western officer, who had formerly been Chief of Police, Sheriff and Deputy United States Marshal at Fort Worth.
As the train neared the Fort Worth and New Orleans crossing, it was fired on by a gang of outlaws and cut-throats, headed by Dalton, who were in ambush behind a pile of ties on the Missouri Pacific right-of-way. Two of the guards were killed outright and several wounded. The crime created a great sensation throughout the entire country, because of its dastardliness.
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat of April 13, 1886, editorially referred to it as the "Fort Worth Massacre."