The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-07-12
From the Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette.
The Death Of O'COnnor.

On the 7tl inst, as we have already
noticed, william O'Connor was killed
IN the railroad below Lehigh Tan
merry. AS there has been an attempt
to magnify this accident into a Mollie
Mcguire murder by some of the special
correspondents we publish full ac-
count of the affair.
On the night of the 9th O'Connor
who lived at Lehigh Tannery, at
tended dance at White Haven. AT
the inquest held by w. +. Steeter,
Esq, the engineer of No. 40 down
freight testified that he saw O'Connor
just above the bridge at Bridgeport.
When below Hayes Creek the crew
found that the train was pulling very
hard, and in few minutes the en-
gineer stopped the train and said he
could pull it no further. One of the
brakeman thought a car was off the
track. An examination was made by
the conductor and the train hands,
and Samuel Wall, one of the brake
man, saw O'Connor jump off one of
the cars. 1t was then found that the
brakes on twelve cars had been put on
and Wall charged O'Connor with hav-
ing done it. O'Connor denied it and
at once became very abusive. Wall
stuck him in the face with the back of
his hand and was about to knock him
down when the engineer told him to
desist as O'COnnor was drunk. The
conductor of the train picked O'Con-
nor up and told him to go away from
the track or he would be killed.
When the conductor asked him where
he lived, O'Connor said East Mauch
Chunk. The former remarked that
that was strange as he lived in that
town and had not seen him. Pursuing
the subject further the conductor
asked O'Connor what his name was.
This he refused to tell. The night
watchman came up and the conductor
left O'Connor in his charge with or.
ders to put him in the watch house for
fear he would he run over. The train
then went on.
The watchman's testimony was that
he heard the train stop and as it was
something singular walked down and
saw the conductor. He then went up
the track and met a man, but he did
seem~to be drunk. He did not see
anybody else but did find pool of
blood near the railroad sill. He knew
nothing further.
The crew of the second section OF
No. so discovered the body, about
seven-eighths of a mile below the
point O'Connor was discovered on the
down freight, at 44 o'clock, or three
hours afterwards. He was lying on
the outside rail of the side track about
fifteen feet from the main track on his
back, and was quite dead. The chiet
wound was in the head. The entire
scalp was removed and was lying OF
the back part of the head. A bruist
was found on the right leg and a slight
cut on the left leg. The clothes were
much torn. The handkerchief watcl
and hat of the deceased was founC
nearly twenty feet away. Tht
opinion of DR.. Doyle was that O'Con
nor was killed by concussion of tho
brain. 1t is supposed that he was
struck by the early passenger train
| l.; I'll hnr Of OH NJ
Coroner's jury found that he came t'
his death by being struck by apassing
train.
We understand that the friends o
| O'Connor have fears that he wa.
foully dealt with, though there is NJ
evidence that such was the case. IL
any event he was not killed by Molli'
Maguires.