The Saint Paul globe., 1904-04-25
-FOUR TRAMPS KILLED
BY FREIGHT TRAIN
Men Were Drunk and Probably
Went to Sleep Upon the
Track.
Special to The Globe.

special TO The GLOBE.
WINONA, Mimi, April 24.-Four
men were killed on the Chicago &
North Western road one mile west of
town about $3.50 o'clock this morning.
Engineer Philip Riley, in charge of
the first of two locomotives backing
into Winona, heard his fireman yell
ing:
There's something under the ten
der-something dragging"
Riley signaled quick stop, jumped
down from his cab and assisted in an
examination Of the tender. Underneath
the tender, hanging from the running
gear, could be seen, by the light of
the lanterns, the lacerated body of a
man. 1t was drawn forth; the head
was missing.
AS they went back to find the head
over the track they had traVersed,
the trainmen were told by Riley that
he had not noticed his engine strike
anything.
Half a mile up the track the head
was found. 1t was in nOwise injured
above the neck. 1t had fallen some
how SO that it was standing nearly
upright on the end of tie, and was
still wearing a black felt hat pulled
down tightly over the dark hair. The
face was that of a rather handsome
young man.
Find Three More Bodies.
The trainmen were about to return
to their engines when one of them
stumbled over several bodies. These
dead men lay in a bloody pile, half
on and half off the track. When they
were separated three bodies were made
out. One was cut in two at the waist.
Another had lost a leg, severed at the
thigh This limb, which has not been
recovered, was probably carried away
by the train and rolled into a ditch.
The third body showed many .lacera-
tiOns, but was comparatively intact.
The dead men looked like tramps,
as they afterward proved to be. Near
them, on the right of way, fire Of
brush was smOldering. Before the fire
lay two pint bottles, each containing
some alcohol, and the undealt portion
of pack of cards. The remainder of
the cards, probably the hands in a
poker game, We're scattered about the
bodies. The trainmen, who gathered
these cards UP noted, as a premoni-
ton of bad luck, that they did not
contain so much as a single pair"
The police, reaching the scene of
the accident about 4: 80, Were at first
inclined to believe that crime had
been committed. They surmised that
the four men killed had been playing
cards for money with some companions,
who had stunned or kill the four or,
possibly, given them "knockout drops
in the alcohol, and had then placed the
| men, dead or alive. across the rails.
Cards DispeI Theory of Crime.
But a count of the bloody cards re-
vealed exactly twenty; that is, four
hands; the rest Of the deck had not
been dealt And while q search was
being made for other evidence John
Moore, laborer, who had heard of
the accident arrived with the infor-
| nation that when he last saw the men,
half an hour before they were killed
they had been drinking heavily. They
We're then walking up the track Aside
| from himself, he said, they had no
! companions; neither did they possess
| any more money, he thought than the
48 cents found in their pockets. He
suggested that, after he left the men
and returned to town, they began play
| ing cards at the edge of the track, be-
came droWsy, and fell asleep where
| they were sitting.
Moore identified the tramp merely
mutilated as George Hendricks, who
was employed by the steamboat Beaver
few months ago on the Ohio river:
the man cut in two as William Radi-
| gan; the man whose leg was missing
as Oscar w. Larson, and the fourth
| tramp whose head was severed, as
| William Mack. All were young men,
| Moore knew little about them except
that they were harmless ''hobos.''
Suspicious Characters Released.
After hearing this statement the DO
lice released two tough" looking
| strangers who had been arrested near
| the North Western station Moore will
remain here to attend the inquest
which will be held tomorrow morning
Despite the present opinion of the
police, the accident is considered mys-
| terious. Some persons believe it was
a quadruple murder. They say:
''Why should four men, all sober
enough to walk, get SO drunk In half
an hour as to go to sleep upon a rail-
road track?"
FA0FN RRA 0-RRRw