Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-08-20
jim HARRISON
BEFORE BOARD
WELL KNOWN BURLINGTON
SPECIAL AGENT TELLS GRIM
MAILS CAREER.
TRY TO WRECK TRAIN
Fivecoat and Jackman Spending Life
Sentences for Dastardly Attempt
to Ditch No. Near
Murray
TRY TO WRECK TRAIN

iail agent for the Burlington railroad,
before the board of pardons sitting at
Des Moines recently tells of the ter
rible criminal career of the two young
men, Fred Fivecoat and Frank Jack
man, who attempted to wrecking and
robbery of Burlington No. 2, the mid
night passenger train, near Murray,
on Dec. %, 1897.
The attempted wrecking of this
train created considerable interest, at
the time, as it occurred during Christ
mas week and traffic was very heavy.
There was also heavy express busl-
ness, which was though to be of some
inducement TO the daring criminals
who planned this crime. A great
local interest attached to it also from
the fact that among those in charge
of the train were two Ottumwa men,
the late Sydney Brown, who later lost
his life in the wreck of No. at Thay-
er some seven years ago, and his lire
man, M. ]. Canny, now an engineer on
the Ottumwa division. The board OF
pardons was considering the granting
of pardon to Fivecoat and Jackman
as one of the pair was said to be IN
very poor health from consumption.
Mr.. Harrson's / testimony.
Largely upon the evidence submitted
by Mr.. Harrison the board of pardons
refused to parole the two prisoners.
! The complete testimony of Mr.. Har-
rison is as follows:
"On December %, 1897, the two de-
| PENDANTS tried to wreck train No. 2,
| two and one-half miles west of Murray,
Iowa, where there was very steep
grade, and there were two double Gull
verts at that point. They pulled the
spikes out of the inside rail of the
curve, except one in about the center
of the rail The head of the spike
! broke off on the outside of the rail.
That held the rail in it's place. Their
intention was to take the spices off
and take the rail out, but they got
| hold of the wrong wrench and failed
to do so. If they had got hold of the
| rs pound wrench at this point they
would have taken the spices off. At
this point it was laid with Is pound
steel, but through a mistake they got
hold of IS pound steel wrench which
failed to fit the nuts on this Is pound
steel rail When they found they had
the wrong wrench, they took 6. claw
bar, with which they drew the spikes
and put the claw part down in be-
tween the two joints and laid the bar
right on top of the rail with sharp
point to the west No. 2 came along at
about fifty miles an hour and struck
/ this bar, the pony trucks ran on top
of the bar, being a sharp curve at this
place, and broke an inch and one-half
from the point of the bar, which threw
| the bar out from between the rail- and
/ one of the pony trucks fell between
/ the rail and the other outside of the
rail One of the trucks tore the spices
| loose on one side of the rail and bolts,
and the other smashed the heads OF
the spikes loose on the other side. Sid
! Brown was the engineer. He ran about
a quarter Of mile before he stopped
Had he put on the air right quick they
would have spread the rail and prob.
ably turned the train down the EN-.
bankment which was about SO feet on
this stone culvert Being a rs pound
rail, it held the train. Had it been a
/ &C pound rail the whole train would
have gone over the embankment on
the stone culvert. or had the bar
stayed on the rail and the drive wheel
run upon the bar, it would have
thrown the whole train off. There
were 365 passengers on this train, No
2, on the night Of Dec. %. 1897.
Wholesale Robbery Planned.
"These two defendants stood behind
a large elm tree watching for this
train to come over, and they each had
two revolvers of 3S caliber and one
hundred rounds of cartridges each. AL
they did not kill by the wreck of tbs
train, they intended to shoot down and
kill, and rob the passengers of thei1
watches, jewelry and money. The!
planned to take two girls, one by the
name of MCGUIRE, who was Jackman's
girl and the other, Miss Annie Farrell
who was Fivecoai's girl. They sale
they wer going to take them to thu
mountains and have good time. This
they stated in their confession to me
Sheriff Luckinbill and Deputy Sheriff
Campbell, and if I am not mistaken
to Warden Jones of the Fort Madison
penitentiary. They made this comics
sion as we were going from Fort Mad
ison up to the penitentiary. The rea
son they give that they did not maxi
tie confession at Osceola was tina
they were afraid they would be hun!
by mob. We did not get these tw
defendants under arrest until Feb. Il
1898 The two defendants were indict
ed by the grand jury for trying t
wreck train No. and each one took
separate trial. Fivecoat was tried o.
March 5. 1898. and he was found gui
ty, and on the same day Frank Jacl
man pleaded guilty and the two de
PENDANTS were sentenced to Fort Mao
: ison for life by Judge Towner. The
said to the Judge they did not kill an!
one. The Judge said to them that
was not their fault. Their intentio
was good, that there was a hfghe
power that saved the train and PEI
5 pie"
l Planned Second Train Wreckina.
1.-THE track was torn up so badly an
: the engine was off the track so that
took the men over an hour to put tn
Y engine on the track again. 1t took tn
E two section gangs probably thre
2 hours to fix the track so that a trai
E could pass over it. On the evening c
e Feb. IA 1898 one Carl Smith came t
iOttumWa and told myself. Majo