Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-11-08
DOOMED ALL TO DEATH.
Confession of Man Arrested for
Wrecking a 500 PasSen-
ger Train.

1
| Merrill, Wis. Oct 81. = Wholesale
murder and express robbery was the mo-
tive that inspired the recent train wreck
ing on the 500 road. Two men charged
with the murder of the man who lost his
| life by their work We're given Il prelimin-
ary hearing here today. and were held to
| trial One of the prisoners has con-
| feSsed. and his story details the methods
pursued to derai the through Minneapo-
| lis Boston limited near Heafford Junction
on the night of October Z. In the crash
Fireman Charles Cottrll was instantly
killed and Engineer James Dutch serious
y injured. The plan was to cause Il
wreck that would kin every person on the
train and then rob the safe i'll the ex-
press car, as it was supposed the safe
| contained large sum of money. The
man who confessed is Levitt Hazelton,
about 20 years old. who claims to be a
panion is Frank Williams, a short thick
set man, who claims to have relatives
and friends at Appleton. Wis. Williams
stoutly maintains that he knows nothing
of the wrecking.
| Tracing the Wreckers.
The officers traced these men from
Minneapolis to this city. On September
80 they broke into and stole an oil coat
and an overcoat at the tool house at
Prentice That night they sawed Il
bridge near that place. but owing to the
short time in which they had to do the
work it was not complete and the train
passed over safely The following week $
time was spent between Prentice anG
Ri nelander. On October they We're
seen in Rhinelander and there purchased
some groceries. On October they
sawed the piles and stringers of the high
bridge near Heafford Junction and the
west-bound passenger train went crash
| ing down a twenty-five foot embank-
ment. The train was running slow so
the wreck was not as complete as the
wreckers expected. The baggage car.
smoking and day coaches and two sleepers
were not broken and none of the passen-
gers were hurt On October II Sheriff
PatZer received a telegram from the sta
ton agent at Irma to look out for two
suspicious looking characters. That
night the sheriff accompanied by others
stationed himself about mile from the
city near Lake View, and about 10
o'clock two men appeared. They were
taken in custody and were found to be
heavily armed. The 500 officials were
notified and detectives put on their case.
| The men were sentenced for thirty days
! for CARRYING concealed weapons. Last
| Wednesday they were taken before Court
Commissioner Helms charged with the
murder of Fireman Charles Cottrill.
They pleaded not guilty and their exam
nation set for today.
HazeIton Makes a Confession.
Last Friday Levitt Hazelton signified
his willingness TO confess. His statement
was taken before Ed I\leutZ. notary pub
! lie in the presence OF Sheriff PatZer,
I District Attorney Anderson and f. X.
Hotz Hazelton says: about dark we
sat to work with the purpose of wreckinG
| Il passenger train so that we could rob the
express car We expected the wreck
would be much worse than it was. We
| expected that the cars would be all
thrown from the track. smashed up. and
the passengers and train crew all killed.
so that we would have no one to prevent
us from accomplishing our purpose. we
thought mostly of the money we would
get and not of the loss of life. We began
work west of the center of the bridge.
! We cut all the stringers across the bridge
| and two sets of them at the ends. ana
then sawed the piles or posts upon which
they rested. We also cut Il brace. After
a train passed over we sawed the outside
post aud the other brace. took the bolts
out of the fish plates. pulled the spikes
next to the fish plates and removed the
bolts from the fish plates at each end of
| the rail.
| Cries OF Dying Men.
| eve waited at the east end OF the
| bridge until the west-bound passenger
| train came and broke through the bridge.
| We were on the south side of the track
at the east end of the bridge when the
| crash came Then we walked westward
to the point where the wreck was: We
| heard someone crying. Are YOU hurt:
| The other man answered. a little. Them
we heard someone crying out again. We
did not want to hear more. A man was
coming toward us and that scared me
out. We walked away and went down
! pretty near to the next town on the en-
| cago, Milwaukee & st. Paul track and
| went into Il hay barn. We remained there
| three DAYS and then started for Merritt.
| The Prisoners in Court.
Williams and iaZalton were brought
before Court Commissioner A. A. Helms
this morning and the examination OF wit
| nesses with regard to the Wrecklng OF the
| train was commenced The prisoners
were without counsel and none could be
obtained for them Supt. ID. Willard,
| Conductor r. NJ Lewis of the wrecked
train. Roadmaster John Collins. Section
| Foreman Nels O. Mark and John I'll. LIN
! ~elkrout of the 500 railroad testified rs
to the wreck. the killing OF Fireman
! Charles Cottrill. the cause or the wreck
| and the manner in which the bridge was
sawed. The latter testimony corroborated
the confession of Hazeton. Nothing ma
! terial was developed.