MURDEROUS OUTRAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 August 1939, Page 5

MURDEROUS OUTRAGE

DERAILMENT OE EXPRESS

IN NEVADA

■ HEAVY LIST OF DEAD & INJURED

CLEAR CASE OF SABOTAGE

TRACK BROKEN DELIBERATELY

By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright

SAN FRANCISCO. August 13. I ii | he disaster which overtook the crack streamlined express City of San Francisco, in the Nevada mountains, 21 persons were killed and 6!) injured. Fifteen other passengers are missing. Tools believed to have been used in

moving a rail were lomxl

near the scene of the derailment. including two crowbars

and a drift pin used "for splicing broken electric cables.

Officials said that the crowbars indicated that two oi' more person's were involved in the plot. The plotters were evidently familiar witli the railway mechanism since they did not break the electrical connection between the rails. If they had. block signals would automatically have operated. The scene of the wreck is an isolated section of the line, and it required hours for doctors, nurses and rescue trains to arrive. Farmers were the first there, and they had the gruesometask of removing many of the bodies. Nearly all the dead wore found in the dining and club carriages. The train, which connects San Francisco and Chicago, makes the trip in 39 hours, averaging GO m.p.h. It travels at a speed of 70 m.p.h. on some of the level sections, but usually at about 50 m.p.h. in the mountainous area where the wreck occurred. A coroner’s jury found that the tracks had been tampered with, causing the derailment. The railway superintendent said that the wreck was “clearly a case of sabotage with' murderous intent.” He said that an entire 30-foot length of rail had been moved four inches inward and the rail had again been spiked to the ties in a new position.

The power units of the million-dol-lar train of 17 cars had sufficient momentum to cross the broken track and a small bridge just ahead. The baggage car was derailed when it struck the same spot, and pulled the succeeding coaches with it when it plunged from the track. Some of the cars struck the steel framework of the bridge, demolishing it and falling 25 feet into the river.

The previous train had passed four hours before the wreck occurred.

EARLESS MAN

SOUGHT AS SABOTEUR

SEEN PEERING DOWN ON WRECK.

(Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) RENO (Nevada). August 14. A widespread hunt has begun for an earless man, who is believed to be the City of San Francisco express saboteur. He was seen peering down from the canyon walls after the crash. The object of the sabotage is believed to be loot from dead and injured. The identity of an Australian, seriously injured in the wreck, has been established as Mrs Violet Tomlins, of Melbourne.