Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-11-01
COOLLY DIABOLIC.
The Efforts Of Two Fiends to
Wreck Train.
CONFESSION OF LEVITT HAzELToN.

He Tells How He and Another Fixed Q
Trestle So 1t Would Plunge q Train Into
an Abyss, Expecting the Plunge to Kill
All on Board-Alleged Confession in the
Sacramento Strike Overwhelmingly Style
of Mob Law.
MILWAUKEE, Nov. IA special to The
Wisconsin from Merrill, Wis, says:
Wholesale murder and express robbery
was the motive that inspired the recent
train wrecking on the $500 road. Two
men charged with the murder of the man
who lost his life by their work have been
given preliminary hearing here and held
to trial. One of the prisoners has con-
fessed, and his story details the methods
pursued to derail the through Minneapo-
lis-Boston limited near Heafford juno
tion on the night of Oct. 2. In
the crash Fireman Charles Cottrill was
Instantly killed and Engineer James
Dutch seriously injured. The plan was to
cause wreck that would kill every per-
son on the train and then rob the safe in
the express car As it was supposed the
safe contained large sum of money.
Two of Their Foul Crimes.
The man who confessed is Levitt Hazel
ton, about 90 years old. He claims to be
| resident of Brainard, MINI. His COM
panion is Frank Williams. short, thick
set man who claims to have relatives and
friends ut Appleton, Wis. Williams
stoutly maintains that he knows nothing
OF the wrccSing. The officers traced these
men from Minneapolis to this city. On
hnv ~,
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 weeks time was
spent between Prentice and Rhinelander.
On Oct. they sawed the piles and string
| ers of the high bridge near Heafford June
tion, and the westbound passenger train
! went crashing down twenty foot en-
bankment. Thc train was running slow,
50 the wreck was not as complete as the
wreckers expected. The baggage, smok-
ing and day coaches and two sleepers We're
not wrecked and none of the passengers
| were hurt.
Cared Nothing for Human Life.
| Oct IL the two were captured and found
| TO be armed. They were sent to Jail for
thirty days for carrying concealed
| weapons, and the detectives notified The
result was charge of murder for the
! death of Cottrill. They pleaded not
| guilty., and it was not until Friday last
! that HaZelton expressed a willingness to
| confess. His words were taken down by a
! notary and acknowledged under oath. He
| said in part: About dark we set to work
! with the purpose OF wrecking n passenger
train, so that we could rob the express
c-ssr> We expected the wreck would he
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 ac-
complishing our purpose. We thought
mostly Of the money we would get and
| not of the loss of life We began work
west OF the centre of the bridge We cut
| all the stringers across the bridge and two
| sets of them at the ends, and then sawed
the piles or posts upon which they rested.
We also cut brace.
Made Sure Thing Next Time.
After a train passed over we sawed the
outside post and 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. We 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 nj
| the east end of the bridge when the crash
came. Then we walked westward to the
point where the wreck was We heard
some one crying, Are you hurt?' TIL,
other man answered, "A little Ther
we heard some one crying out again We
did not want to hear more. man wa:
coming toward us and that scared me
We walked away