The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-01
SHOT DEAD BY A MADMAN.
A Wabash, st. louis & Pacific Passen-
GER Train in Control of a Lunatic.
One Police officer Killed and Another Nor
tally Wounded in an Effort to Secure
and Disarm the Crazy Man.

CHICAGO May 3l.-Passenger train No. g. on
the Wabash, st. Louis & Pacific railroad, arrived
here to-day, an hour and half late in charge OF
a mailman Out of the twelve or fifteen men,
officers and citizens. who finally secured him.
one officer is dead, shot through the body, anoth-
er probably fatally wounded, several citizens in
jured, and the lunatic himself lies in the county
hospital mortally wounded, with three bullets in
him. Shortly before noon to-day the station
policeman at the Wabash, st. Louis & Pacific
depot on Polk street, received thefolowing dis
patch:
"CHENoA, Ill., May 81.
II have an insane man on my train who has
possession of one car. The police at Kansas
City, Jacksonville and Peoria were all afraid to
take him. Please send ten or twelve policemen
out on No. l to take him when we arrive in
Chicago. They had better come in citizens
clothes. They will have to look sharp, some
one will get hurt. PUTNAM,
Conductor No. g."
Noe, which left Kansas City last night, was
due here at $50 p M. There was difficulty in
starting out No. /, as directed in the dispatch
and it was decided to meet the train at the
depot. Officers Casey, Ryan, Murphy, Rowan,
Walsh, Streaming. Dohney, Barrett and
Keenan, in uniform and Smith, Terry, Amsteir,
O'Brien and Lauehlin, in citizens clothes, under
the command of Lieutenant Tough, made up the
squad, which arrived at the depot ten minutes
before the train was due The train having
been delayed, as was subsequently learned, by
Intellectual efforts to capture the lunatc, the po
lice were forced to wait more than an hour After
considerable anxious speculation as to the con-
nf hoo Il %ko
finally anything but treasured by dispatch
from suburban station warning them that the
maniac was we'll armed and would resist des-
paratey A little later No. 6 appeared in sight,
and the police, separating so as to form two
squads, awaited the trains arrival either side
of the track AS the train approached the
whistle sounded number of warning notes in
quick succession. People hanging half way out
the car windows were seen gesticulating
wildly to the crowd. Before the train had
come to a standstill, dozen passengers jumped
TO the ground and fed looking back with
blanched faces. Officer Barrett was the first to
observe the unatic. Barrett was standing near
the rear end of the smoking car The mailman,
with leveled revolver, gared at him from the
front platform of the chair-chair, the length of
one car distant Barrett turned half round. and
stopped instantly but too late. A ball from the
lunatics revolver struck him in the side, and in
FIVE minutes he was dead. One look at the ma
MAC was enough to satisfy one that
while his ammunition lasted he would
not be taken alive Seeing this
the officers, after removing their wounded com
the smoking car, where the mailman had taken
refuge. After minute or two, he plunged out
to the platform, fired couple of shots into
the crowd eaped from the train and dashed
down Fourth avenue. Officer Laughlin started
in hot pursuit, and at him the lunatic fired the
last shot in his weapon but without effect. The
maniac then stopped and awaited Laughlin's
coming, with cleaning eyes and froth-
ing mouth. They clinched the of
fell, the mailman meanwhile beating
Laughlin numerically on the head with his re-
volver. The officer was in citizen clothes and
was set upon and terribly pounded by an excited
colored man, who mistook the officer for the
prisoner. The rest of the squad arrived shortly,
the mapiac was secured, and taken first to a cell
and then to the hospital to have mis- wounds
dressed. When he realized that further resist
auce was useless the prisoner grew calm, and
said quite nationally, that his name was Louis
Reaune, that he was thirty three years old, and
was en- route to his home In Detroit from Denver.
The trainmen of No. 6 tell a thrilling story Of
the trip from Kansas City. When the man
boarded the train at that place he remarked
that people were after him to lynch him. and
that if left alone he would modest no one. At
Ell Paso ILL.,, he became violent, and, with re-
volver in hand, ordered the traInnen to cease
making some changes in the makeup of the
train. The passengers all left the chair-car,
which the mailman made his headquarters, and
were locked into the Others No one dared ap-
proach the lunatic, and after he had exchanged
several shots with the city marshal, he ordered
the train to proceed, and from there to Chicago
his will was the only law obeyed.
Since his wounds have been dressed Reaume
has become somewhat more communicative. He
says he is French Canadian by birth, and
fresco painter by trade. and has q wife and three
children in Detroit. He wore white SOM
brero and as he ran down Fourth
avenue was thought by the residents to be
cowboy spree. AS the train on which he
arrived was passing slowly through the outskirts
of the city, a man by the name of Spruck
jumped aboard the platform wfere the maniac
stood. Reaume Immediately blazed away with
his revolver, ball just grazing Spruck's neck,
taking button off his coat When the train
reached the depot the maniac loaded as fast as
his weapon was empted, and, altogether, more
than fifteen shots were fired. Spruck ran away.
A Kansas City dispatch says: "The maniac
passenger who created a sensation at the Wabash
depot in Chicago, to-day, attracted some atten-
ton here yesterday on account OF his evident hal
lucination. He came over the Union Pacific
Yesterday from Denver, giving his name as
Louis heaume, and said he going to Detroit.
He stated to the trainmen that he had been
driven out of Denver on account Of some crime
of which he was innocent, and that he was
being pursued, and. at his request, he
permitted to ride in the baggage car.
as being a safer place. He was
armed with revolver, and upon his arriving
here the police who had been notified by tele-
graph, at first proposed to arrest him, but the
man gave no evidence of insanity they decided
to permit him to continue his journey, which he
did last night"
NAPOLEON AT BoRODINo.