The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-04
MURDER THEORY
GIVEN CREOENCE
Dying Man Is Found Lying on
Quilt Beside Railroad
Tracks.

a man was found beside the Rio Grande
railroad track about one mile this side
of Roy yesterday morning He is thought
| to be fatally injured.
According to the story told by the train
crew who brought the man to Ogden
| he was first discovered by a southbound
| Rio Grande train lying beside the track
about mile this side of Roy. He wal
! lying on blanket as though having been
placed there after being hurt. The crew
of that train notified the crew of No. j.
switch. and the train stopped and took
the man on board and brought him to
Ogden. He was bleeding from the ears
and nose and was unconscious at the
| time. although he appeared to realize
what was going on around him when he
was taEen from the train at the depot.
as he appeared to be trying to tell the
! Officers something. Asked Lis name, he
whispered something almost uniHtelligibla
but one of the depot officers asked:
What? SAM" and the wounded map
nodded his head. His last name. how
ever, is said TO be Hartwell.
The first thought was that he had been
struck by train or had fallen from a
pearance of tho blanket under him has
given rise to a much more serious theory.
DIR. Gordon was asked whether or not,
in his opinion. It would have been pos
Sible. from the nature of the wound, for
the man to have placed the quilt on the
ground before he became unconscious, and
the replied most -emphatically No, AMI
IL
was helpless from the time he was hurt.
The wound is a huge lump on the back
on the head near the base of the skull.
as though inflicted by black jack r
some other weapon of a blunt nature. as
the scalp is not cut.
The result of an operation performed
upon the man at the hospital last night by
Drs- Gordon and Robinson appears TO
confirm the murder theory and has caused
a sensation little short of that of the
Clark murder due to the belief that he
was put out of the way because he knew
too much regarding the killing of OFFICER
Clark.
The physicians removed a portion of the
skull which revealed two very serious
fractures running to the base of the
brain. The brain cavity was clogged with
clotted blood which was removed. The
not more than two inches in diameter,
Judging from the size of the confusion.
The blow must have been a terrific one
and landed at the base of the skull just
back of the ear. producing V-shaped
fracture. The man is in a very critical
condition and the doctors are of the opin-
ion that he cannot live. He has been I'M
able so far to tell anything about the af-
fair although on two occasions he ap-
peared to be conscious of what was going
on about him and tried apparently to tell
his name. He gave name of Samuel
Hardweu as near could be made out,
and then relapsed into Inconsistencies
A passenger on a Rio Grande train from
Salt Lake last evening called at The Her
aid office and confirmed the story told
by the trainmen that the man was lying
on a quilt some distance from the track.
as though having been placed there after
being struck down. He stated that the
presence of the quilt was remarked upon
by the passengers at the time as being
strange.