Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-24
MURDERS ON TRAIN
Southerner Shoots Conductor
and Porter on Royal Blue.
SLAIN AFTER LONG BATTLE
Fights Police and Crowd at Will
mington for an Hour.
FIRE ENGINE AIDS THE POLICE
Using Car as a Fort, He Wounds
Eight Persons in Crowd Before
Being Shot Down.
SLAIN AFTER LONG BATTLE
FIRE ENGINE AIDS THE POLICE

| WILMINGTON, Del, March 24.-After
killing the conductor, o. E. Wellman of
| Philadelphia. and the porter, Sam Will
| iams, on the Baltimore and Ohio Royal
| Blue limited, leaving Washington at 3
pm, while that train was running a
| mile a minute north of Newark. DEL,
j. H. Bethea of Dillon, S. c., was by
| strategy locked in the vestibule between
the chair car and the smoker. and there.
short time later, he was shot to death.
There was an emergency stop at the
scene of the first shooting, then the train
was pulled on into Wilmington. with
Bethea at bay in the Observation-Disclosures
| vestibue. In this position the south
| erner stood siege for more than an
hour, using his pump gun" on the police
| and the crowd and lodging the return
fire by hiding behind the iron protectors
| in the middle of the yestibule.
! During this long fight between the lone
| man and the crowd Bethea shot John l..
| Wiley, Wilmington park guard, in the
| hand and groin, and shot Mathew Haley,
| barber, through the leg. He also
| wounded half a dozen other persons
slightly.
| Finally the police ordered out a fire
engine and tried to drown out Bethea,
| who kept on shooting at intervals. He
| had at least 100 cartridges for his auto
matte gun, and did not stop firing even
| when the hose was turned upon him.
| The police at last charged down the car
| close to the vestibule, and, having drop
! ped Bethea with bullet, rfddled, his
body with successive shots, ending the
| one-sided encounters
Thousands Saw Shooting.
| During the long struggle to subdue the
desperate southerner. while the train
stood at the Wilmington station, thou
sands of persons gathered. 1t is said
that there has been no such excitement
| in Wilmington since the White lynch
| ing.
/ While Bethea was fighting against awful
odds for his life. the face of the dead
porter. with a CHASTITY smile on the lips.
| looked out at the crowd from one of the
| windows of the chair car Czarina. in
which the shooting began. The body had
| tumbled in heap on one of the chair.
! leaving the face close to the window
pane.
Thirteen other passengers. including sew
eral women and two young girls, were
In the chair car when the conductor and
porter were killed. They were terribly
| frightened and ran for shelter into the
club car at the rear end of the train, the
women and girls screaming in terror.
One woman fell PROSTATE in a faint and
| another had Mysteries.
| Other women and girls scores of them,
| were in the crowd that jammed about the
train. stalled by the long fight at the
/ Wilmington depot. The movement of
trains past Wilmington was entirely
stopped from SIT pm. to 6:35 pm. and
| was only resumed when the dead body of
the man from South Carolina was car
ried from the train to the morgue.
| Bethea is said to have taken the Royal
Blue train at Baltimore. He had seat No.
4 81 in the chair car, and the passengers
conclusion that the shooting was the
freak of an insane man. On the con-
| trary, they say that Bethea was rather
drunk. but not otherwise mentally dis
| turbed. But most of the spectators at
Wilmington and many of the passengers
on the train were of the opinion that
| Bethea was maniac.
| Bullet in Porter's Heart.
| While the train was rushing by the
| small stations north of Newark, Bethea
| got up from his seat and went forward to
| the end OF the car. He was six feet
tall. lank and raw boned. dressed in the
| typical southern fashion, with a faded
blue suit, the coat long, a loosely tied
black Windsor at the throat. turned-down
| collar and wearing a soft felt hat. His
| face was sallow. He had a small mus
tache.
| At the door of the car he said some
thing to williams. the porter, and the
negro is said to have answered him rather
| CURLY. Quick as a fash Bethea had the
| big magazine gun out of his pocket and
| had pumped two bullets into Williams
body. One shot went through the porter's
heart.
In the wild scene that ensued Bethea
/ took no part. Men and women alike
rushed to the back of the car and through
| {Hs,1n int fho ClI,h Thn
southerner took this unconcernedly, with
grin on his face. standing with his back
| to the door. 1t was this conduct that led
so many to the belief that he was in
4 sane.
| Wellman the conductor. had been in the
employ of the Baltimore and Ohio twenty
| four years, running seventeen years on
| the very train he was on. He was re-
crowd poured back into the club car, the
women screaming and the men shouting.
Hes shot the porter" There's a crazy
man shooting the conductor faced the
stream and shouldered his way through
into the chair car, where the shooting had
| occurred.
Then comprehending the serious nature
Of the happening, Welfman drew his own
revolver and called upon Bethea. still at
1 the door. with the magazine gun in his
| hand, to surrender. At this moment the
Pullman porter. also a negro, Will Co.
| burn, came in from the smoker, for an in
| stant diVertinR the aII0nIlOn OF Bethea.
| This enabled Wellman to get up to the
man with the gun and to try to seize him.
| Conductor Is Shot Down.
Instantly Bethea wheeled and fired sew
| eral times. One of the bullets crashed
| through Wellmans chest, and perhaps
entered the heart. At any rate, death
quickly followed, although Wellman was
i able to take step or two. so that he fell
face forward in the doorway of the vesti-
bule. In his dying agony the man, ap-
parently had been trying to reach the
smoker, the next car ahead
| Coburn. the porter, struck at the MUIR
derous southerner. Bethea wheeled and
| fred some more shots, missing the ne
gro. These must have been the last
cartridges in the magazine. and he did
| not have time to reload, for while Bethea
still pulled the trigger the gun was silent.
| J Then Bethea tried to strike the negro,
and attempted to grapple with him, but
Coburn was quick, and managed to es-
cape the lunge.- He had the presence
| Of mind to pull the body OF Wellman
| forward into the smoker, and then to
| shut and lock the door.
| Meantime, a brakeman, from the rear
| Of the train, ran forward in the chair
car and locked the door from that car
! into the vestibule. This left the south
erner, still holding his magazine gum con-
| fined in the glass cage between the chair