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28. Parachute
- University of North Texas Press
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286 CHAPTER 28 Parachute T he first week of June 1904 found three men, ob viously not used to hard labor, working on sections 8 and 9 between Parachute and DeBeque, Colorado, for the Den ver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.1 Hired under the names J . H. Ross, Charles Stubbs, and John Emmerling, they worked just a fe w days in order to become familiar with the area and the train schedules. On Saturda y, June 4, they went to New Castle to pick up their dischar ge checks from agent Folger of the Rio Grande Rail way. Upon learning they would have to wait until Tuesday to receive their pay, they worked at the restaurant of Stephen Groves for their meals. About 11 o’clock on Tuesday morning, June 7, J. H. Ross, in reality Kid Curry, signed a voucher in good hand acknowledging payment of $1.75. It is rather ironic that Curry used an alias very similar to the man (James Ross) who filed assault charges against him almost ten years earlier in Montana. The other two men, who were George Kilpatrick and Dan Sheffield, were each paid $2.05. Sometime that same morning, the three traveled to nearby Glenwood Springs to transact some business with the Globe Express Compan y. Giving his name as J. H. Ross, Curry asked agent Otto Barton to express a valise to Pueblo, Colorado. The agent became suspicious, owing to the fact that the v alise was of very good quality and the sender appeared rather seedy. He also noticed two rough-looking men, one being tall and the other of medium height, waiting outside for their associate. After receiving their pay in New Castle, it was reported that the trio then hopped a w estbound freight train to retur n to their old campsite near Parachute, a small fr uit shipping station. In the after noon a rider was seen a fe w miles from there leading tw o horses. This later led to Parachute 287 speculation that there may have been a fourth member of the gang, even though only three had been seen during and after the robbery. This time Curry’s plans did not include setting up horse relays as was usual with Wild Bunch robberies. Curry had expected to get the horses from their “hangout” east of Grand Junction, but could not get them for some reason.2 Uncharacteristically, Curry decided to do without any relay of fresh horses. It has been speculated that the head injuries Cur ry received from the Knoxville patrolmen, and his long confinement in jail, affected the planning of and his perfor mance at his last train robber y. He may have just believed his time w as up. Attributing the words to George Kilpatrick, Frank Lamb states, “that on the last trip he [Cur ry] did not have any of the old-time good spirit and carefree disposition that had characterized him in all of his for mer associations with the Wild Bunch. Everything he did was more or less mechanical and habitual and his plans w ere inde finite and indecisive. He tried to keep up the old traditions, but it was plainly apparent that there was very little of the old spirit left.”3 It was about 9:30 p.m. when westbound train No. 5, the San Francisco express on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, left Glenwood Springs. Shortly before 11:00 p.m. it slo wed up at P arachute, where it was not scheduled to stop, to let of f a passenger. At the same time another passenger boarded the train to ride the “b lind baggage.” Fireman John Anderson spotted the man as he climbed o ver the tender, and ordered him to get down. The new passenger pulled a revolver and in turn ordered Anderson back to the engine cab. Engineer Ed Allison was soon looking down the “glistening gun barrel,” and he stated afterwards that it “looked as big as a small cannon. ”4 Some writers assume the man behind the gun was Kid Curry; however it could have been George Kilpatrick since the fireman described him as a “big masked fellow.”5 The tall bandit ordered the engineer to r un the train “lik e hell” until he spotted a small campfire beside the track on Streit Flats, about midw ay between Parachute and the Una siding. As the train began to slow down, he was...