Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Soo-Spokane fast passenger train, en route from Portland to Spokane, was held up by masked gunmen in Portland. A number of passengers were relieved of their gold watches and cash before the bandits escaped into a residential district.

Four or five highwaymen boarded the train at the East Portland station and then crept out onto the cab of the engine, where they pulled their guns on the engineer and fireman. They forced them to stop the train.

Then they took the engineer at gunpoint back into the passenger cars, where they held up the passengers. They went from one passenger to the other, stealing watches, cash, jewelry and even three suitcases.

Meanwhile, however, the fireman had managed to jump out a window and scramble up a hillside. The bandits shot at him but missed. The fireman flagged down an auto and summoned police.

But the bandits fled before police arrived. One man, Joe Barron, was discovered shot and in critical condition. There was some confusion over whether he was one of the bandits or a tramp who had been riding atop a Pullman car and had been shot by one of the bandits. He was said to be near death at a Portland hospital.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1953: The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.