page_title: 1894 Rock Island railroad wreck
section_title: Investigation
hierarchical_section_title: 1894 Rock Island railroad wreck / Investigation
caption_attribution_description: English: George Washington Davis, who was initially convicted of committing the en:1894 Rock Island railroad wreck atrocity, but later paroled due to doubts as to his involvement.
context_page_description: The 1894 Rock Island railroad wreck occurred when a locomotive pulling two passenger cars was sabotaged on August 9, 1894, in Lincoln, Nebraska. The train was purposely derailed from a 40-foot trestle and eleven people died in the wreck. Today this trestle passes above the Jamaica North Trail at Wilderness Park in Lincoln.
  To date, the sabotage is one of the largest instances of mass murder in the state of Nebraska. The 1958 killing spree by Charles Starkweather resulted in eleven deaths, and the Westroads Mall shooting of 2007, which resulted in nine deaths, are other examples of mass murders by individuals. It is also the largest officially unsolved crime in Lincoln history.
context_section_description: Survivors of the crash began to tell police that, following the crash, they had seen an unknown man holding a lantern near the trestle. This, along with evidence found at the scene, suggested that the crash was not an accident but an act of sabotage.
  Police found that spikes had been pulled from the trestle, wrench marks were found on the rail, and gouges in the railroad ties showed that a crowbar had been used to pry them apart. In the grass by the trestle, a 40-pound crowbar was found. Within two days, police arrested George Washington Davis, an African-American man. Survivors claimed Davis had been the man with the lantern they had seen at the wreck.
  When police questioned Davis as to why he was at the scene of the wreck, he said that he had run four miles from a "colored club" in Lincoln to witness the wreck. However, Davis's description of the crash does not align with the timeline he presented. Most notably, when questioned about the sound of the crash, Davis claimed that it was "not too bad until the engine blew up." As the engine exploded immediately on impact, Davis's claim to have heard the train before its engine exploded does not fit the official account of the crash.
  Other members of the growing African-American community in Lincoln attested to his innocence.  This was a period of African Americans leaving the South for better jobs in growing industrial cities.
  The police had almost no evidence to suggest that Davis was the perpetrator, Davis never admitted guilt, and investigators could not offer any explanation of motive for his supposed crime. Davis was tried twice for the sabotage. During the first trial, first-degree murder could not be proven, and the jury could not reach a verdict. During the second trial, the jury was informed by the judge that should prosecutors fail to prove Davis' guilt of first-degree murder, the jury could convict the defendant of second-degree murder. In 1895, Davis was convicted of second-degree murder. Ten years later, Governor John Mickey paroled Davis, citing a lack of evidence or motive, and "grave doubts" as to Davis' involvement in the case.
caption: George Washington Davis
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