Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-07-06
JAMBOREE ENDS
IN TRAGIC DEATH
Samuel Sampson, Clinton, Here
to Celebrate Fourth, Killed
On Railroad.
SUSPICION OF A SUICIDE
But CorOner's Jury Finds He Falls
Asleep While Under Influence
of Alcohol.

Samuel Sampson, a Clinton, Iowa,
carpenter, came to Rock Island to
celebrate the Fourth of July. His
money and watch gone. and his coat
and shoes pawned, he went into the
railroad yards at the foot of Sixteenth
street oday, lay down on the tracks
and was run over by a Burlington
switch train and killed.
Two See Tragedy.
Two lads who were playing in the
railroad yards at the foot of Sixteenth
street this morning at 10 O'Clock made
the grewsome discovery. The body was
lying across the rails with the head
practically cut from the body, there be-
ing nothing but mere band of flesh
remaining on theneck. The boys notl-
fed some railroad men who were work
ing in the vicinity, and they in turn
notified the police. The coroner was
summoned, and he ordered the body
taken to the Wheean undertaking
rooms.
The boys who made the find are
Carl Schweiss, 713 Twelfth avenue.
and Harold Peters, 2041 Seventeenth
street. The boys saw the man run
over, though there is some question as
to whether it was the first time or not
that the car had passed over him. I'VE
saw the man lying on the track with
his head over the rail. and we supposed
that he was asleep" said one of the
boys. There was a car loaded with
rails over him, and we saw that the
switch engine was just backing in to
take it away. We tried to get to the
engineer to tell him to stop, but we
could not reach him in time. The car
was moved and the hind truck ran over
the mans neck We saw that he was
dead, and we gave the alarm right
away"
Everything seemed to point to de-
liberate suicide. One of the victims
shoes was missing, and the other was
besmeared with manure as though he
had been riding in a stock car. The
body had not been dragged in the least,
and there was every indication that he
had laid himself on the track carefully
with the intention of allowing the
heavy car to cut his head Off
Blood Stains on Truck.
From the fact that there were stains
on but one truck of the car that the
boys saw run over the man, it is
thought that the man was alive when
the boys first saw him, and this is borne
out by the fact that the body was not
at all cold when first examined. There
were also blood stains on the track, but
only in one direction, towards the east, !
the direction in which the car was NOV
ing when the boys first saw the man.
Body is Identified.
The body was identified by Frank /
Goldman, also a resident of Clinton. /
He said that Sampson came to Rock /
Island July 4. He last saw him alive |
on Market square at o'clock this !
morning. Sampson borrowed 10 cents |
from him and they separated. Samp- |
son, Goldman said, wore a pair of new |
tan shoes when he left Clinton. These |
he had pawped here, his coat having |
been put up to raise money. Samp- |
son told Goldman that his watch had /
been stolen from him in this city.
Sampson was 80 years of age. He
has a wife in Clinton. The verdict |
of the coroner's jury was that Samp-
son was killed by being run over by /
a Burlington train while lying on the
tracks. asleep under the influence of
alcohol" Relatives in Clinton have
been notified.