MEXICO CITY, Jan. 11 (AP).--Fully fifty persons were butchered by the bandits who attacked and wrecked the Guadalajara - Mexico City passenger train near Yurecuaro, in the State of Michoacan, on Saturday night.
    Penniless survivors, stripped of all their belongings, tell a tale of horror unequaled in Mexico's criminal annals for years.
    Only two American men and one woman were passengers. They were G. M. Wynkoop of Berryville, Va., representative of the Buick Motor Company, with his wife, and a mining man named Russell, from Pachuca. Both men were robbed of all their belongings, but were not harmed. They were on the Pullman of the train. The women passengers in the Pullman were not molested.
    C. H. Sharratt, manager of the Guadalajara branch of the Bank of Montreal, was not aboard the train, but his wife and 5 months old baby were passengers, on the way to Mexico City to visit relatives. They reached Guadalajara unharmed.
    Mr. and Mrs. Wynkoop walked all Saturday night and most of Sunday before they reached a station from which they were able to make a circuitous railway journey to Mexico City.

    Mr. Wynkoop, the first survivor to reach Mexico City today, gave The Associated Press a graphic account of the ghastly affair.
    "I saw nine soldier guards dead," he said. "I believe all the guards and most of the crew were killed. The number of murdered Mexican passengers I do not know, but some of my companions estimated them all the way from twenty to fifty.
    "About dark on Saturday I noticed twenty suspicious appearing men carrying rifles concealed under their cloaks, who boarded the train as passengers at a small station near Guadalajara. Presently they stationed themselves at the doors of each coach, and without warning opened fire upon the passengers in the second and third class coaches. They continued firing without mercy, killing many of the passengers and all the soldier guards.
    "I saw several dead Mexican women and children, in addition to men--how many I do not know; I could not see. It was a ruthless massacre and a most terrible sight. Even now I can hardly believe that such an awful thing happened.
    "I doubt if anybody will ever accurately know the number of dead and wounded. I saw wounded men die, and others killed instantly. I saw one aged woman in agony. I saw a little baby shot through the heart. I saw bodies so burned as to be almost indistinguishable from the charred timbers of the coaches. Altogether it was a perfect nightmare of incredibly wanton blood thirstiness.

    "The sole and only mercy, which I cannot explain, was shown to foreigners. Not a foreigner was killed. A number of Germans in the Pullman, together with passengers of other nationalities, escaped unhurt.
    "We are all busted, but think [sic] God we got away alive.
    "Although the bandits did not harm any foreigners in the Pullman, they took all valuables from the men, but did not rob the foreign women. After they had done their work of massacre and robbery, the bandits, who had with them an expert engineer, ran the train to Yurecuaro station, looted the town, wrecked the depot, destroyed telegraph wires, shot more Mexicans, disembarked all the foreigners and ran the train for a short distance. They then burned and wrecked every coach, stripping the express baggage car of all valuables. Many of the bodies of the murdered Mexicans were cremated.
    "The bandits next boarded the engine, after loading it with the loot,

and made their escape. Not a single shot was fired at them, for the soldier guards were killed on the first attack and the passengers were too fearful to attempt resistance.
    I heard the bandits shout, 'We are not bandits. We are revolutionists.'
    "I asked one of them: 'Whom are you rebelling against?' He answered, Calles! You watch developments. The revolution is not over.'
    "I was told that the bandits were all well known revolutionary figures of the Guadalajara region.
    "Most of the foreign passengers camped out all night in the wrecked town of Yurecuaro; some walked all Saturday night and most of them made their way to Guadalajara. My wife and myself, after considerable hardship, succeeded in reaching a point where we could board a train for Mexico City."

    From Guadalajara it is reported that an unknown number of bandits were engaged. They boarded the train as passengers. When near Yurecuaro station they locked the doors of all the coaches, slit the throats of the train guards or shot them as they slept and systematically knifed or shot most of the train crew.
    They then began robbing the passengers, murdering every one who resisted. The survivors in Guadalajara describe the scene within the coaches as ghastly, the imprisoned passengers frantically beseeching for mercy, many only to be butchered at the whim of the bandits, whether or not they attempted to escape.
    The Guadalajara survivors say that after looting the passengers the bandits set fire to the coaches, the floors of which were covered with dead and wounded. As the flames consumed the coaches the survivors could hear the cries of the wounded.
    The bandits then uncoupled the engine, rifled the express car and escaped in the locomotive, one of the gang evidently being an expert engine driver.
    They stopped at the Yurecuaro station, cut the telegraph wires, looted the town and resumed their flight in the locomotive. Near the station of Tinguinfin they tore up the track, derailed the locomotive and fled into the mountains in the direction of Los Reyes.
    Messages from Guadalajara say the engineer and the conductor are the only surviving members of the crew. The engineer was captured and forced at pistol point to assist in the bandits' escape. When they ditched the engine they attempted to kill the engineer, but he succeeded in getting away amid a fusillade of bullets.
    Meanwhile the heroism and resourcefulness of the conductor gave the country the first news of the tragedy. After narrowly escaping death, he tramped all night until he found an uncut telegraph wire and got a message through to military headquarters at Guadalajara.

    Through the bleak mountain fastnesses of the States of Michoacan, Jalisco and Guerrero, four thousand picked Federal troops are in pursuit of the bandits.
    The troops, operating under the direct orders of President Calles, will return in disgrace or else bring back the bandits--dead or alive. Few persons in Mexico City are so credulous as to believe that any of the bandits will ever be returned alive.
    It is said the outrage was committed because the bandits believed General Ferreira, Military Commandant of the State of Jalisco, was aboard the train. The bandits are said to have been acting under orders of former Colonel Manuel Nunez. They are reported to have obtained 300,000 pesos in booty.

Source:

Unknown, "Bandits Massacred 50 on Train; Burned Many Alive," The New York Times, New York, Tuesday, 12 January 1926, pp. 1, 4.