The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-06-23

reporter, Amos Smith and Archie
Lee last night confe Ssed to deliber.
ately ditching the fast New York
Passenger train of the Seaboard rail
road for the purpose of robbing the
passengers. In their confession
they implicated Shan Henry, arrested
by Chief Eagan and half score of
officers Wednesday night, charged
with the murder. Henry denied
their story but broke down and asked
for a minister.
The wreck which they admit caus-
ing, occurred at 1890 o'clock on the
night of June 10, near Weems, east
of Birmingham. The engineer, fire:
man and road supervisor of 1ocomo-
tives were killed and 10 passengers
injured.
Among those who heard the con-
fession were Chief Martin Eagan,
Detectives Eubank and Crenshaw of
the city, NJ. Welch, chief of the Sea-
board special agens; Special Agents
J.. Neuffer and Joe Hill of the Sea-
board. J. Reese Murray of the de-
partment of justice of Washington
took down the testimony and acted as
notary. The arrest of the three
men and the subsequent confession
of two of them, in which both impli-
cate Shan Henry, completes one of
the most spectacular pieces of detec-
tive work in criminal records in JEFF
ferson county.
Showed No Concern About the
Deaths.
Archie Lee confessed to the detec-
tives Immediately after his arrest
last Wednesday night, and implicated
the other two men, Shan Henry and
Amos Smith. Detectives Eubank
and Crenshaw talked with Smith
Thursday night and he told them he
would be ready to tell the whole story
the following night. Accordingly,
all the men connected with the arrest
of the wreckers assembled in the Of
flee of Chief Eagan to hear what he
had to say. Smith sat down and in
a calm and deliberate way told what
he had to do with the whole thing, at
the same time telling who was with
him on the night of the wreck. At
ter Smith had made a clean breast of
the affair, Archie Lee came in and
corroborated all that had been said
by Smith. The men seemed to be
calm throughout the story and die
not appear to have the slightest
qualm about the harrowin, details
of the story. After both men had
signed confession they sat down and
told an Age-Herald reporter of what
they had planned to do. None of
he men under arrest can either read
u rite.
"Shan sHenry came to me-" said
Lee, "a few days before the wreck
~ / said that b. was goin.. to wreck
Ike fast Seabo;4rd train and get
bunch of money. I think he said that
we could get about $25O0 out offhe
thing if my self and Amos Smith
.".uld come in lad help hiri. On
're night of jane 10 Hanr;. Amos
or.ith and myse.f went about two
miles beyond Irondale in a wagon
and got ready 20 ditch thu flyer
Shan carried all the tools f''r taxing
up the track and I carried the Ian
tern. After we had gotten to the
place where Shan had de:ided to
wreck the train me and Amos tried
to tell him not to do it.
Began to Shiver When they Saw
the Train
"Shan wouldn't listen and COM
menced to tear up the rails. After he
had done so we all got up on the
hill that overlooks the place where
the wreck occurred and watched. In
a few minutes the train came along.
We saw the headlight as it came down
the track in the distance. Somebody
cussed and we all commenced to
shiver. Here comes the train at full
speed, when she hit the place where
the rail had been taken out, the en-