The herald., 1894-11-01
DASTARDLY TRA|R-WRECKERS,
Two Men Held to Trial for
Murder.
One Of Them Makes a Confession o
Their Crime.
They Wrecked Trains for the Purpose
OF Robbery Regardless Of the
Heavy Loss Of Life
Entailsd.

By the Associated Press.
MERRILL, Wis, Dot. 3t.-Two men
charged with the murder Of man who
lost his life in . recent wreck on the 500
road had their preliminary hearing here
today and were held for trial. One of
the prisoners confessed and his story de-
tails the methods pursued by which the
Minneapolis Boston limited WAS wrecked
on the night Of October 9TH. In the
crash Fireman Charles Connel was in
stantly killed and Engineer James
Dutch seriously injured. The plan was
to cause . wreck that would kill every
person on the train and then rob the
safe of the express car, - it was sup.
posed the safe contained large sum Of
money. The man who confessed 10
Lsavitt Hazelton. 20 years old. who
claims to be q resident of Brainard,
Mimi. His companion. Frank Williamo.
stoutly maintains that he knows moth.
ing OF tho wrecking.
The officers traced these men from
Minneapolis to this city. On Septem-
Der 80th they broke into and stols an
oil can and an overooat ct the tool house
at Prentice. That night they sawed
bridge near that place, but owing to the
short time in which they bad to do the
work, it was incom plete and the train
passed ovss it. The following weeks
time WAS spent between Prentice and
Rhinelander whore they purchased some
groceries.
On October 9TH they sawed the piles
and atringers Of the high bridge near
Heafford junction, and the west-bound
passenger train went crashing down q
25-foot smbankment. The train was
running slowly 90 the wreck was not az
complete ~ the wreckers expected.
The baggage, smoking and day coaches
and two sleepers wore not broken and
none OF the passengers were hurt.
On October 11th Sheriff Paytzer re-
ceived Q telegram from the station agent
at Irma to look out for two suspicious
looking characters. That night the
sheriff. accompanied by others, station-
ed himself about mile from the city
near Lakeview. and about 10 O'Clock
two men appeared. They were taken
into custody and were found to be
heavily armed. The 1900" officials
case. The men we're sentenced for
pons. Last Wednesday they were
taken before Court Commissioner
Helms, charged with the murder of
fireman Charles Cottrell. They pleads
ed not guilty and their examination WAS
set for today. Last Friday Levill Ha-
zelton signified his Willingness to con-
fsss. His statement was taken before
E. D. Kluetz. notary public, in the
presence of Sheriff Puytzer, the district
attorney and others. Hazslton said:
about dark we set to work with the
purpose OF wrecking passenger train
60 that we could rob the express car.
We expected the wreck would be much
worse than ii WAS. We expected that
the cars would all be thrown from the
track, smashed up and the passengers
and train crew all killed. go that We
would nave no one to prevent US from
accomplishing our purpose. We thought
most OF the money we would get, and
not OF the loss of lie. We began work
east OF the center of the bridge, we cut
all the stringers across the bridge and
two sets OF them Gt the epds, and then
sawed the piles or posts upon which
they rested. We also cut brace. After
train passed over, we sawed the out
sidc post and the other bracs, took the
DoltB out OF the nsn'piates, puiled the
spikes next to the fsh-plstss and re-
moved the bolts from the fish plates at
one 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 at the east end
OF the bridge when the crash cams.
Then We walked westward to the point
where the wreck was. We heard some
one crying Are you hurtr
"The other man auewered, "A little
Then we heard some one crying out
again. We did not wait 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 Chicago, Milwaukee and ST. Paul
track, and went into nay barn. We
remained thsre three days and then
started for Merrill"