Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-02-05
THE o'NEIL TRAGEDY.
Elmer Warren, the Murderer, Con
fesses His Guilt.


The Tama City suspect forthe muir,
DER Of Conductor O'Neil, is in custody
ut Toledo, to await the action OF the
grand jury. The Marshalltown Times
says: From Detective Riley the story
as told by Warren, and corroborated
by evidence IN possession Of the de.
tectives, was learned. Warren came
from Clinton to Tama City Wednes day
last, remaining there until evening. Az
6:25 freight pulled in from tae east,
and among other cars had one OF emf
grant goods, which was switched out
there to 90 over the Toledo II North.
western branch. While IL was on the
side track Warren broke into tho cur
and stole several articles OF wearing
apparel, among which were two pairs
OF home. made drawers. lie tied his
booty in bundle, aud boarded train
that left lama at 1880 got of ut LIE
Grand, broke into the depot, robbed
the till, also broke open u trunk in
tho baggage room, took some cloth
ing and tho shotgun with which he
killed O'Neil. jus as he finished his
work O'Neirs rain pulled up at the
depot and stopped to wait for another
train. Warren watched his .oppor-
tunity and climbed into tho box car
with the goods stolen from the depot.
1 he man Gardner, who was arrested
at Marshalltown by Policeman Waters
is supposed to have been IN the same
car stealing ride that Warren got
into. When lama was reached War.
reu got out Of the car, went to the
lunch counter and got lunch and
then got back 10 again before the
train started. The train stopped
there fifty minutes, so he would have
had ample timo to have done So
Before leaving Tama ONeil inspected
his tt ain. and saw two men In the car,
one OF whom the detectives think was
Hiram Gardner, who formerly lived
at Tama. and knew O'Neil. The con
ductor did not ,distdrb the two men,
and Gardner, If IL was him, KNOWN
O'Neirs reputation for bouncing
tramps off his train, became suspicious.
hat all WAS not right, and jumped OF,
leaving Warren in the oar. O'Nel
went back to the caboosc aud told De-
tective Piersol that there were two
tramps in a box car on his train and
he thought they were the men he was
looking for. He had some switching
to do at Long Point. aud they con-
cluded TO let them ride to that place
and go over and see il they were the
ones wanted. When the train came
to a stop at Long Point the conductor
and Piersol went forward TO the car
other one having jumped Off at lama.
O'Neil was ahead, Piersol following
close behind. Warrior thinking the
men were after him for burglarizing
the depot at LeGraud, cooked the gun
that he had stolen from there, and
when O'Neil attempted to jump into
The car, fired, the full charge striking
him in the forehead, literally blowing
his head off and scattering his brain
over the face and breast OF Piersol,
who was standing close by. Piersol
was dazed for a second, and could
hardly realize what had happened,
falling back about car length. War
rem jumped from the car, ut the same
time applying an opprobious epithet
to the detective, and told him TO git,
at the same time attempting to shoot
i'm, but tho gun would not go off
Piersol pulled his revolver and began
firing at Warren, breaking his revolt
YER after the second shot. Warren
dropped the gun and ran about three
Car lengths toward the engine, crossed
under the train, crawled through n
barb wire fence and went in q south.
erly direction until tho farm OF James
Crossmau was reached. There he
went into the barn and took sorrel
horse, and rode for some time round
and round in the field, having lost his
bearings, and could not tell where he
was. The Catholic fair was IN pro-
gress at lama City at the time. and
crowd Of men and boys at that time
returning home from it wore making
considerable noise. Warren, think
ing they were II Earty hunting him
with the intention of lynching him,
abandoned the horse and crawled
under haystack, remaing in hiding
until Friday night, without anything
to eat. Friday night he emerged from
His hiding place and went to lama
City. He went to tho roundhouse OF
the C.&N. w ut that place being allow
eddy the nightwatchman 10 sit by the
stove till morning. Saturday morn
ing he begged his breakfast from one
OF the wipers ut the roundhouse. after
which he started towards Chelsea and
was subsequently arrested When ar
rested he had on the drawers stolen
from the emigrant car, which were
identified by the man from whom they
were stolen. The pants and drawers
that Warren had on a. the time OF his
arrest were covered with the hairs of
the sorrel horse that he stole from
James Crossman and rode that night.
When the detec ives confronted Wa:.
rem with these facts he gave in and
confessed all. He WAS taken before
Squire Guernsey at lama, charged
with murder IN the first degree. He
waived examination and was commit
ted to jail.