The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-02-13
BODIES OF
TWO RAILROAD
WORKERS FOUND,

UUNNlNU UUUU
Portuguese Section Boss and Mexican
Laborer Believed to Have
Been Killed
TRAIN CONDUCTOR MAKES
A GRUESOME DISCOVERY
Missing Mexican Laborer is Believed
to Have Been Committed Double
Murder
With bullet holes in their heads
and other evidences of foul play, the
dead bodies of John DeCosta, a Port
ugese section boss of the Las Vegas
and Tonopah railroad, and Angel
Moreno, a Mexican laborer, were
found about 6 O'Clock last evening
at Ralston, a railroad pumping sta
ton in Nye county, seventeen miles
southeast of Goldfield, by Conduct
or J.. J. Tooley upon the arrival there
of his incoming train. Victor Bar
ron. also a Mexican section hand,
who entered the employ or the rail-
road under DeCosta last December,
is missing. He is suspected of hav-
ing murdered the two men n is
being sought by Sheriff Charles
Slavin of Nye county and his depu-
ties, who arrived on the scene ear
ly this morning.
1t has been definitely established
that DeCosta and Moreno came to
their death between 2 o'clock yes
terday afternoon and the time of the
arrival of Conductor Tooley's train.
bound for Goldfield. Walter Evans,
manager of the Jupiter and other
properties in the Cuprite district,
made a visit to the Ralston pump
ing station the hour named for wat
ed and talked with DeCosta, who
advised him of a change in the time
table of the railroad. When the in
coming, due to arrive at Ralston at
ASP D.. m. reached there at 6 o'clock
the section boss and laborers failed
to greet the train crew, as was their
custom. Conductor Tooley imme-
diately began an investigation. He
found DeCosta's dead body in a chair
in his shack nearby, and that Of
Moreno on the ground about five
feet from the doorway of the struct-
ure.
A hurried examination showed
that a bullet of large caliber had
passed through DeCosta's head from
right to left near the temples. 1t
was apparent that he was in the
act of tying the laces of his shoes
when shot and that he~was instant
ly killed. One of the small panes
of glass of the window on the north
side of the shack was found to have
been broken out while n of those
in the window on the south side had
been pierced by a bullet.
1t is the suppOsition of the Off
GERS that DeCosta's slayer broke the
pane on the north side window and
shot him and that the bullet, after
passing through his head, ricoch-
eted and went through the south
side window of the house. After be-
ing shot, DeCOsta had apparently
fallen forward against the pipe of
a heating stove, bending it. Blood
was oozing from his shoes but it
was not determined up to the time
of the removal this morning of the
bodies to Tonopah by Sheriff Slavin
and Coroner Harry Dunseeath
whether DeCosta had been shot more
than once.
shot in the middle of the forehead
and in the left breast. 1t is the the
DRY of the officers that Moreno, who
lived in a cabin about twenty-five
feet distant from DeCosta's shack,
met his death in coming to the aid
of the latter and hat he put up a
fight with his slayer. 1t is the sup
position of the officers that Barron
killed the two men and fled to the
hills east of Ralston.
AS DeCosta had been in the en-
ploy of the railroad for more than
six years and was known to have
accumulated a large sum of money,
it was first thought that robbery
was the motive for the killing. The
officers, however, found no evidence
of his effects having been disturb
ed and it is now believed that De-
Costa must have recently discharged
Barron and that the latter shot him
in revenge. An inquest over the
remains of the two victims of the
mystifying desert tragedy is being
held in Tonopah this afternoon.
L. S. KELLY and wife of Ida