The northbound Santa Fe passenger train No. 42 left Phoenix at 6:10 p.m. on March 7, 1924, heading toward Prescott. Little did they know that this train was bound for disaster.
The train passed Congress Junction and was in a remote area south of Date Creek. It was 8:55 p.m. “Without warning, the engine suddenly jarred and twisted and then turned on its side” and plummeted 16 feet into a ditch, “carrying the tender and a baggage car with it,” the Prescott Evening Courier explained. The engine crew had no time to jump; “and before aid could reach them, they were pinned in the cab.” The steam escaping from the boilers severely scalded the engineer, James Tarney, and the fireman, Charles Taylor.
Fortunately, none of the passengers were injured, and several of them were first to help the pitiable men. “Tarney was lying in a pool of scalding water…still conscious [and in] great pain,” the Arizona Republican noted. The two were extricated from the wreck.
A nurse from the veterans’ hospital in Phoenix, Mrs. Vera Richmond, happened to be a passenger on the train and began to aid the men the best she could. “Unable to get any oil on the train to treat the burns of the scalded men, she sent a passenger to the baggage coach and told him to bring a can of cream,” the Courier related. She tore up a bed sheet, soaked it with the cream and applied it to the suffering men’s burns. The brakeman also suffered injury, and Richmond aided him too. She also was able to talk a morphine addict into giving up what he had of the drug so she could give it to the suffering men. “She administered to the injured train crew for four hours before medical aid was brought from Wickenburg.
There was little they could do on site, however, and the injured were taken to a Phoenix hospital since it was the closest, but they arrived a full six hours after the disaster.
Tarney died a few hours later on the operating table. Charles Taylor was in critical condition, but improving. He was suffering from “injuries to his back, hip, and internal organs,” the Republican reported. Both he and the brakeman recovered. Tarney left a wife, Kate, and two grown children who lived out of state.
Later, Nurse Richmond was rewarded by the Santa Fe “for her heroic work in administering to the injured in the Santa Fe train wreck,” the Courier reported. She was awarded a voucher for $25 (worth nearly $500 today). She told the newspaper that she appreciated the accompanying letter even more than the voucher.
Fortuitously, another passenger on the train was Sheriff Mahoney, who was heading back to Mohave County. He “initiated an investigation to be cooperated in by Maricopa County officers without delay.” Although the wreck occurred in Yavapai County, Phoenix was closer, and the culprits could have easily headed south. “The sheriff’s office indicated that an intensive investigation would be launched immediately to ascertain the identity of those involved in the wrecking of the train, pending more complete information,” the Republican wrote.
As crews cleared the debris, they found that the spikes had been removed from a rail along a curve, and the bolts were removed from one joint, causing the engine to kick out and tumble into the ditch 16 feet below. Additionally, the tools thought to be used by the vandals were discovered in the right-of-way. They were stamped as the property of the Santa Fe. They were carefully wrapped and sent to Phoenix to look for fingerprints.
After Tarney’s death, the Santa Fe quickly posted a $5000 reward (worth $98,000 today) for the capture of the vandals. Placards announcing the reward were posted in many of the shop windows in Prescott.
A horde of law officers became involved, including Sheriff Ruffner of Yavapai County, Sheriff Mahoney of Mohave County, Special Santa Fe Agent Smithson, and deputies from Yavapai, Maricopa, and Mohave counties. Bloodhounds were utilized in an effort to trail the culprits.
“A posse of [Native American trackers] and deputy sheriffs…began an organized manhunt for the vandals…in a remote section 72 miles north of [Prescott]," the Courier detailed. "Deputies from both Yavapai and Maricopa counties [were] members of the posse.” Over a dozen men were rounded up, but the majority of them were released “after careful questioning convinced the officers of their innocence.”
Two pairs of suspects were kept in custody, however: two Native American youths named Acrina Johnny and Pete Lopez, and a pair of Mexicans named Jesus Corral and Refugio Lopez. The Mexicans were taken at the Prescott depot after they boarded a train at Hillside, only a few miles away from the wreck site. The Native youths were met on the road from Prescott to Congress Junction by officers traveling by car. The four men were retained in custody while the investigation continued, but were not yet charged.
The Native youths stated they were riding a freight train northbound but were kicked off at Wickenburg and started walking. However, the Native American trackers “found footprints of two persons leading around the wreck and from the right-of-way,” the Republican disclosed. So Deputy Imus took the shoes from the two prisoners and took them back to the scene. “Officers found that the shoes tallied exactly with the prints in the desert sands. Acrina Johnny’s shoes…were particularly worn and marked in such a manner that identification was easily made.”
This caused the youths to change their story, now claiming that they were riding in the baggage car that went into the ditch and they “fled from the scene after the wreck, for fear that suspicion might attach to them,” the Republican revealed. However, law enforcement believed that anyone riding in that wrecked car “would have met certain death when the cars were derailed.” Both of the youths stated they received their education at Indian Schools. The paper noted they were well educated and spoke excellent English.
A Coroner’s jury was convened. “Fourteen railroad spikes, three eight-inch bolts and four steel nuts were introduced as evidence,” the Republican reported. Twelve of the spikes were removed from the inside of the rail and two from the outside joint, “from which the bolts have been removed. The loosened rail…had thereafter been swung toward the center of the track just far enough to let the engine drivers and car wheels on the right side of the train onto the ties.” The ruling was that Tarney’s death was due to unknown vandals.
It was believed that the fingerprint evidence would solve the case, but unfortunately, no prints were found on any of the recovered tools, and not long after, the four men were released. Law enforcement was out of leads. Exactly who was previously questioned and released is lost to history, but the fact that the alleged tools were property of the railroad makes one wonder if it was an inside job of revenge. We'll never know.
The following February, Mrs. Kate Tarney sued the Santa Fe for $50,000 for the death of her husband. “To illustrate points at issue in the case, a small railroad track was constructed in front of the jury box,” the Republican related. Other exhibits included pieces of the broken rail and pry bars found at the wreck.
The trial proceeded quickly. The Santa Fe contended that vandals caused the wreck, just as the Coroner’s jury ruled. The deceased’s wife believed that the cause was a poorly installed rail; after all, no alleged vandal was ever found.
The jury awarded the widow $11,000 (worth over $210,000 today).
Also of Interest: 1909: Passenger Train Boiler Explodes
The story and aftermath of a boiler explosion on a 6-car passenger train soon after leaving the Iron Springs Depot on August 17, 1909.
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SOURCES:
Arizona Daily Star 3/11/1924, Pg. 2, Col. 2.
Arizona Republican, 3/8/1924, Pg. 1, Col. 8.
Arizona Republican, 3/9/1924, Pg. 1 Cols. 4-5 & Pg. 2, Col. 3.
Arizona Republican, 3/10/1924, Pg. 1, Col. 1.
Arizona Republican, 3/14/1924, Pg. 7.
Arizona Republican, 3/15/1924, Pg. 1, Col. 3.
Arizona Republican, 6/10/1924, Pg. 5, Cols. 2-3.
Arizona Republican, 2/19/1924, Pg. 7, Cols. 1-2.
Arizona Republican, 2/22/1925, Sec. 2, Pg. 5, Col. 7.
Prescott Evening Courier, 3/8/1924, Pg. 1, Cols. 1&5.
Prescott Evening Courier, 3/10/1924, Pg. 1, Col. 5 & Pg. 6, Col. 5.
Prescott Evening Courier, 3/13/1924, Pg. 1, Col. 2.
Prescott Evening Courier, 6/10/1924, Pg. 1, Cols. 6-7.
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