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Oregon’s Great Train Holdup Bandits Murder 4 Didn’t Get a Dime, Last Great Train
Oregons Great Train Holdup Bandits Murder 4 - Didnt Get a Dime, Last Great Train Holdup in the West(Documentary) by Bert and Margie Webber
Soft Cover
86 pages
Copyright 1988
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction7
The Last Great Train Holdup in the West10
Under Cover32
Roy and Ray36
Hugh38
Hugh Stands Trial43
A Wife and Babies58
Years of Confinement and the End59
We Leftovers62
Appendixes:
A The Experience of George DeMoss70
B Route to Tunnel No. 13 72
C Siskiyou Gradients and Altitudes76
D Summary of WANTED Posters Printed77
E Memorials 78
Bibliography 83
About the Authors 84
Illustration Credits 85
Index86
INTRODUCTION:
Shortly after the De Autremont brothers were sent to spend the remainder of their lives in the Oregon State Penitentiary in 1927, a leather-bound gold-stamped "souvenier" picture album was released by the U.S. Post Office. Its title: Story of the Holdup of Southern Pacific Train No. 13, October 23, 1923--Capture and Conviction of the De Autremont Brothers.
Copies of this album were eagerly sought-by railroaders and others who had known the victims. Many public libraries as well as museums and railroad historians desired copies but exactly to whom the distribution was made will probably never be known, especially now over 60 years later. Nevertheless, hundreds of people who wanted copies did not receive any. Rare book dealers shrug their shoulders when asked about this unique item. One of the original albums was made available to us in 1973 through the cooperation of then chief postal inspector William J. Cotter, United States Postal Service, Washington, D.C. This was coordinated by Nolan R. Brown, Postal Inspector in Charge, Seattle, Washington, and Steve J. Schneringer, Postal Inspector at Medford, Oregon. Gentlemen: Everyone reading this book thanks you. Ye Galleon Press published a small 50th Anniversary edition of selected material from the album in 1973. It quickly sold out. In 1974 we added some new data for an expanded edition. That 32-page booklet was very popular and remained on sale through mid-1988. Final copies were removed from sale to make room for this new much larger book on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of this infamous holdup and murders.
In order to make this book as meaningful as possible, we have now added more material, much of which has come our way since the 1974 edition. One will note we have retained the main title, Oregon's Great Train Holdup, but expanded on this for fuller identification in cooperation with the Library of Congress.
We might say a few words about "robbery" and "holdup."
To have a robbery, as many term this event to have been, one must engage in "the felonious taking of the property of another...against his will...." (Random House Dictionary of the English Language.)
A definition of holdup is not as clearly stated with the implication that a 'robbery" and a "holdup" might be one and the same act. The same source gives us for "holdup," "A stop or delay in the process of something ...a forcible stopping [a holdup)" and robbing a person or place. "Holdup" does not appear in The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology but "rob" does: "to deprive by force; plunder, pillage." For our purpose here we consider this event in history as a "holdup" because nothing was taken.
We have been fortunate in reaching a number of retired trainmen who remembered the victims including one who was at the scene of the holdup as part of the first team to investigate the report of trouble at Siskiyou.
Mr. E. M. Hale, Southern Pacific Transportation Company, Dunsmuir, California, filled in names and locations of long since discontinued sidings in the area of the blowing up of the mail car. And we appreciated the assistance given before his retirement of Robert A. Sederholm, of the public relations department of SP in San Francisco.
To Richard J. Portal, in 1973 head of reference department, Jackson County Library System, and to his assistants, and to the present staff of reference librarians headed by Anne Billeter, we tip our hats for invaluable bibliographic service.
Some of the items in this book may be seen in the permanent exhibit in the museum of the Southern Oregon Historical Society in Jacksonville, Oregon. This is a public museum occupying the former Court House where the trial was held.
Many thanks to James Long and his editors, for use of material from Jim's article, "Sensational Train Robber Finally Off Parole," in Oregon Journal, November 17, 1972.
We are indebted to the management of the Medford Mail Tribune for access to the 1923 issues of the paper and for permission to use some clips from that paper here.
We are also pleased to have had the assistance of our sons Dale B. and Lauren T. Webber. They went on field trips, especially to Tunnel 13 and who worked in the photo lab with picture processing.
The photographs in this book were selected from the original album unless otherwise credited.
Some years ago we had a letter from Chester Silliman who in 1923 was a teenaged National Guardsman called, among others, to stand guard at Tunnel 13 the night of the trouble there. We met with him in the fall of 1988 when he told of his recollections. Chet is now in his eighties.
Appreciating the fact that many of today's younger readers don't know what an"Oh-3 Springfield" rifle is, or a government issue Colt .45 automatic, we sought examples of these weapons in order to present current photographs. Medford gunsmith Bob Kennedy provided the rifle with sling. We asked the Oregon National Guard about a Colt .45 automatic and Supply Sergeant Johnny Meyer, "A" Company, 186th Infantry, produced one from his armory. These are the-models mentioned in this book. We thank these men for their interest and help.
Not only is Karen Bolz Cramer an expert typist, she is an executive secretary and is our friend. She makes time for our typing needs and is an integral part of our team. In addition to thanking her, she also gets hugged!
While we have searched for accurate data for this book, there is wide variation in newspaper stories of the period and time fades memories of some of those who were on hand many decades ago. We trust this book will find favor with the dwindling numbers of railroaders who were working out of the Ashland and Dunsmuir yards in the early 1920s and will prove useful as a documentary of what happened, to the present generation of readers,in what has been termed "The Last Great Train Holdup of the West."
All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
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