American Sherlock
Page 32
“Not all fingerprint evidence is equally good”: National Research Council, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States, 8–9, 86.
“She turned over on her left side”: This and all other quotes from Arbuckle’s testimony from Chandler Sprague, “Arbuckle Tells Jury of Finding Girl Writhing in Agony on Bathroom Floor,” El Paso Times (TX), November 29, 1921.
“It was the matter of fingerprints purely in the final analysis”: “Arbuckle Woman Juror Charges Intimidations,” Oakland Tribune, December 5, 1921.
“The ability of the defense to create”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, December 3, 1921, box 1, John Boynton Kaiser Papers.
“Parents seem to think they must watch their sons”: Ibid.
“The case of Arbuckle and its present status”: Ibid.
Goals of Prohibition: William E. Nelson, “Criminality and Sexual Morality in New York, 1920–1980,” Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 5, no. 2 (May 2013): 269.
often young women were cruelly chastised in court: Estelle B. Freedman, Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), 147–48, 160, 191.
“Our nation depends for its existence”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, December 3, 1921, box 1, John Boynton Kaiser Papers.
doomed king Belshazzar in Babylon: “Belshazzar’s Party,” Daniel 5:1–31 (Common English Bible).
“Like Daniel in the days of Babylon”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, December 3, 1921, box 1, John Boynton Kaiser Papers.
Christmas in 1921 was glorious for many Americans: Angela Meiquan Wang, “A Christmas Wish List in the 1920s,” BuzzFeed, November 28, 2012.
Christmas dinner menu: Good Housekeeping’s Book of Menus, Recipes and Household Discoveries (New York: Good Housekeeping, 1922), 49–50.
Salvation Army history: “History of the Salvation Army,” The Salvation Army, https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/history-of-the-salvation-army.
“When Santa Claus came to me instead”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, December 20, 1921, box 1, John Boynton Kaiser Papers.
“If I hurry Marion too much”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, September 15, 1921, box 1, John Boynton Kaiser Papers.
“It has been my privilege and pleasure”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, May 10, 1921, box 1, John Boynton Kaiser Papers.
“I am not positive that I am doing yet”: “Edward Oscar Heinrich,” California Monthly (Berkeley, CA: Cal Alumni Association, February 1926), 344.
“The right hand of the man clutching the hand”: “Fingerprint Sharp in Arbuckle Case,” Reno Gazette-Journal, January 23, 1922.
“Is it not a fact that you introduced yourself”: “Former Suitor of Miss Rappe Aids Arbuckle,” Oakland Tribune, November 26, 1921.
“in order not to be disturbed”: “Fingerprint Sharp in Arbuckle Case.”
“Permit me to say that this remittance”: Letter from Heinrich to E. O. Tisch, April 21, 1921, box 30, folder 26, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“Please don’t feel backward about getting wood”: Letter from Heinrich to his mother, October 22, 1921, box 29, folder 40–41, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“Don’t be worried about anybody you”: Ibid.
“Can a spirit humbled by adversity be pompous”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, October 9, 1922, box 1, John Boynton Kaiser Papers.
“In childhood and youth”: Ibid.
“Mr. Arbuckle came within an ace of being convicted”: Letter from Heinrich to Charles Hardless Jr., Esq., July 6, 1922, box 27, folder 18, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“One ballot, no talk”: “Arbuckle Hopes to Do a Comeback,” Boston Globe, April 13, 1922.
“If the public doesn’t want me, then I’ll take my medicine”: Ibid.
“I never had a cake or even a reminder”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, April 21, 1921, box 1, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“I move more deliberately, I require more sleep”: Ibid.
“Did I tell you that Theodore could sing the song”: Letter from Heinrich to his mother, November 25, 1921, box 29, folder 40–41, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“If the entire episode results”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, December 3, 1921, box 1, John Boynton Kaiser Papers.
Minta Durfee, divorced him: “Wife of Fatty Arbuckle Gets Divorce in Paris,” Chicago Tribune, January 27, 1925.
married his mistress: “Arbuckle Hit as Sheik of Beach Party,” Daily News (NY), August 6, 1928.
Los Angeles mansion: “Arbuckle Has $100,00 Home,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 12, 1921.
“It was a dismal experience to watch him”: Buster Keaton, My Wonderful World of Slapstick (New South Wales, Australia: Allen & Unwin, June 1967).
Heinrich inspired Arbuckle: Yallop, The Day the Laughter Stopped, 278.
CHAPTER 7
“We will play it on one card”: This quote and much of the recollection of Roy DeAutremont comes from Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont on the Train Robbery in Siskiyou Tunnel, Ashland Library, “Oregon Cabinet,” Call # ORE CAB 364.1552 TRI, 18.
The recollections of Hugh and Ray: “Confession of Hugh DeAutremont,” June 23, 1927, Oregon State Archives DeAutremont Collection, Eugene, OR; “Confession of Ray DeAutremont,” June 23, 1927, Oregon State Archives DeAutremont Collection, Eugene, OR.
Description of Siskiyou County: Pepper Trail and Edgard Espinoza, “Tunnel 13: How Forensic Science Helped Solve America’s Last Great Train Robbery,” Jefferson Public Radio, December 31, 2013.
Location of summit: “Four Hold up Men Blow up Mail Car and Make Escape,” Statesman Journal (Salem, OR), October 12, 1923.
steepest railway in the country: Murder on the Southern Pacific, Oregon Historical Society, https://www.opb.org/artsandlife/series/historical-photo/oregon-historical-photo-chinese-rail-workers.
The Road of a Thousand Wonders: Southern Pacific Company, The Road of a Thousand Wonders: The Coast Line–Shasta Route of the Southern Pacific Company from Los Angeles Through San Francisco, to Portland, a Journey of Over One Thousand Three Hundred Miles (San Francisco: Southern Pacific Co., 1908).
Gold Special: “D’Autremonts’ 1923 Escapade Marks Its 75th Anniversary,” Santa Maria Times (CA), October 12, 1998.
Number of cars: Scott Mangold, Tragedy at Southern Oregon Tunnel 13: DeAutremonts Hold Up the Southern Pacific (Charleston: The History Press, 2013), 25; Alan Hynd, “The Case of the Murders in Tunnel 13,” Time, May 12, 1930.
A “blasting machine,” a small wooden red box: Details about the DuPont detonator from Heinrich notes on a radio program, carton 28, folder 34, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
Blasting machine: “What Is this Mining Device?,” Cave Creek Museum fact sheet.
DuPont box stolen: Nancy Pope, “DeAutremont Brothers Train Robbery,” Pushing the Envelope, October 11, 2012, https://postalmuseum.si.edu/node/2052.
“Roy carried a 45-caliber Colt”: The photo of the .45-caliber gun from Heinrich’s file on train robbery, carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
Brothers’ history with guns: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 3.
“What do you think about it, little lad?”: Ibid., 19.
$500,000 worth of gold: Pope, “DeAutremont Brothers Train Robbery.”
In the annals of great American Western films: Description of Great Train Robbery comes from the short film directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1903, along with its IMDb entry.
The role of movies in real robberies: “Murder on the Southern Pacific,” Oregon Experience, season 9, episode 904, Oregon Public Broadcasting, May 3, 2015.
DeAutremonts loved Westerns: Audio interview with Ray DeAutremont by Gary Williams, tape FT-12658, 1973, Ed Kahn Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Marines guar
ding U.S. Mail: George Corney, “Crime and Postal History: Bring in the Marines!,” Marine Corps Association & Foundation, 1993, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000439/.
Vice President Calvin Coolidge took office: “Calvin Coolidge Biography,” Biography.com, April 2, 2014, last updated April 17, 2019.
After Harding’s death: “Warren G. Harding,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, July 3, 2019.
quickly grew by 7 percent: “The Business of America: The Economy in the 1920s,” Roaring Twenties Reference Library, Encyclopedia.com, 2006.
“Hugh, you see what is in front of you”: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 19.
Background on the brothers’ early lives: Ibid., various pages.
“Their marriage life got to be worse and worse”: Ibid., 4.
History of the Wobblies: “Murder on the Southern Pacific.”
criminal syndicalism: “Criminal Syndicalism Laws,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, July 20, 1998.
“I did not know him, he was so changed”: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 8.
Ray’s plan in prison: “Confession of Ray DeAutremont,” DeAutremont Collection, 1.
“We knew it would mean we couldn’t help mother”: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 18.
But they were also slim and short: Details about height and weights from the Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, June 24, 1927, carton 5, Southern Pacific Company Train Robbery Records, 1892–1940, BANC CA-372, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
more than sixty spent .45-caliber shells: Letter from a special agent with Southern Pacific Company to C. E. Terrill, the sheriff of Jackson County, November 10, 1923, Southern Oregon Historical Society Collection.
Shooting practice: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 17.
spent weeks traversing the countryside: “Confession of Ray DeAutremont,” DeAutremont Collection,
Federal agent and Hugh: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 18.
“I hit the platform with my knee”: Ibid.
“Boys, I don’t give a damn”: Ibid., 19.
“It was pretty near always on time”: Ibid.
“Hugh, go out”: Ibid.
Confusion over pistols: In Ray’s testimony, he says Roy used his .45-caliber to shoot the fireman, but Roy’s testimony confirms that he dropped it where deputies found a .45-caliber.
“The worst I was scared on the whole job”: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 19.
mail clerk Elvyn Dougherty: “D’Autremonts’ 1923 Escapade Marks Its 75th Anniversary.”
There was a tremendous explosion: Details about the placement of the dynamite have varied in different secondary books about this case, but Heinrich confirmed that the TNT was laid at the mouth of the tunnel in his notes on a radio program, carton 28, folder 34, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
overturning a coal-burning stove: Notes on a radio program, carton 28, folder 34, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers; and “Four Hold Up Men Blow Up Mail Car and Make Escape.”
“I killed the mail clerk”: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 20.
glass shattered around the passengers: “Four Hold Up Men Blow up Mail Car and Make Escape.”
“I told him that his life was in greater danger”: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 20.
“That other fellow said”: “Confession of Ray DeAutremont,” DeAutremont Collection, 2.
“I shot him with his hands in the air”: Trial Transcript of Roy DeAutremont, 20.
only Sid Bates, the engineer, was left alive: Mangold, Tragedy at Southern Oregon Tunnel 13, 13.
Oscar Heinrich lingered over the collection of evidence: Work journal, October 16, 1923, folder labeled “Siskiyou train robbery,” carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers, 1.
baggage clerk saw just two men: “Train Bandits Kill Four Men in California,” Baltimore Sun, October 12, 1923.
“Nothing doing”: “Bandit Suspect in California,” Medford Mail Tribune (OR), October 16, 1923.
the murder of Anna Wilkens: “Wilkens Is Arrested, Charged with Murder,” Madera Mercury (CA), July 15, 1922.
Hollywood director and actor William Desmond Taylor: Christopher Hudspeth, Ryan Bergara, and Shane Madej, “The Murder of William Desmond Taylor Is One of the Most Peculiar Unsolved Mysteries,” BuzzFeed, March 2, 2018.
“The more learned the chemist”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, October 9, 1922, box 12, folder 27, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
Information on the search: “4 Trainmen Slain in Holdup, Posses Search Mountains,” St. Louis Star and Times, October 11, 1923; “Mail Bandit Gang Faces Lynching,” Santa Ana Register (CA), October 12, 1923; “Mail Car Dynamited by Bandits in Daring Raid; Loot Unknown,” Indianapolis Star, October 12, 1923; “Bloodhounds and Posses Trailing Bandits Who Robbed Train and Murdered Crew,” Roseburg News-Review, (OR), October 12, 1923.
“Bloodhounds today failed to pick up the scent of the desperadoes”: “S.P. Offers $2500 for Bandits,” Woodland Daily Democrat (CA), October 13, 1923.
already talk of lynching: “Big Manhunt in Mountains of Western States,” Mansfield News (OH), October 12, 1923.
“It was the boldest train robbery since”: Ibid.
Police briefly arrested a twenty-two-year-old ex-convict: “Man Arrested in Train Holdup,” Des Moines Register, October 14, 1923.
They held two drug addicts: “Bandit Suspect in California.”
Three hunters admitted: “Prisoners Questioned by Officers,” La Grande Observer (OR), October 18, 1923.
Deputies interview mechanic: Block, The Wizard of Berkeley, 14–15.
Agents had searched the overalls: Notes on a radio program, carton 28, folder 34, “Siskiyou train robbery,” Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers, 1.
“He held up the overalls to a wooden door”: Details about the overalls tacked on a door from photographs found in carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers. Another discrepancy in secondary sources has been that the legs of the overalls had been tucked inside the boots, which Heinrich dispelled in his notes on a radio program, carton 28, folder 34, “Siskiyou train robbery,” Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers, 9.
Heinrich’s logging shoes: Ibid., 8–9.
“The overalls were quite new”: Ibid., 9.
“Suspenders on left fastened and unfastened habitually”: Note found in carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, undated, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“Every individual, particularly a man, accumulates dust”: Letter from Heinrich to Professor F. W. Martin, March 15, 1924, carton 85, folder 189, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
Components of grease: “Grease—Its Components and Characteristics,” Exxon Mobil Corporation, 2009.
the same type of naturally occurring, sticky resin: “Calking,” Traditional Maritime Skills, Maritime Heritage Skills Cluster Project, http://www.boat-building.org/learn-skills/index.php/en/wood/caulking-calking.
“No larger than the size of half a pea”: Notes on a radio program, carton 28, folder 34, “Siskiyou train robbery,” Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers, 10.
“The pockets carried tiny chips”: Letter from Heinrich to Professor F. W. Martin, March 15, 1924, carton 85, folder 189, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
Oscar used a small electric suction: Hynd, “The Case of the Murders in Tunnel 13.”
“A man who carries a fingernail file”: Ibid.
“Pencil pocket at the left side of the bib”: Heinrich’s affidavit, carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, “Siskiyou train robbery,” Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“I aim to return evidence as intact”: Block, The Wizard of Berkeley, 20.
“about the size of a cigarette paper”: Notes on a radio program, carton 28, folder 34, “Siskiyou train robbery,” Edward Oscar Heinri
ch Papers, 11.
Next Oscar examined the Colt .45-caliber: Details from the gun come from scraps of paper found in carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
firearms manufacturers had inscribed a second set: Jay Robert Nash, Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present (New York: M. Evans and Company, 1973), 151.
“The wearer and owner was a lumberjack”: Part of a twenty-six-page sworn affidavit for Dan O’Connell, carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“Not so fast, professor”: Hynd, “The Case of the Murders in Tunnel 13.”
“Hence the owner”: Notes on a radio program, carton 28, folder 34, “Siskiyou train robbery,” Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers, 8–9.
that didn’t necessarily mean that the man was left-handed: From the lore of this case comes a common belief that Heinrich stated that the owner of the overalls was left-handed, but I can find no proof in his own comprehensive files that he came to that conclusion.
Validity of hair analysis: National Research Council, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States, 121.
“Putting these things together”: Letter from Heinrich to Professor F. W. Martin, March 15, 1924, carton 85, folder 189, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“The Black Kit Bag. By E. O. Heinrich” was neatly printed: The Black Kit Bag comes from a manuscript found in carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, November 2, 1923, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“I am interested in working out those defects”: Letter from Heinrich to his mother, May 8, 1924, box 29, folder 40–41, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“Your special interest in babies, weeds, legal aid societies”: Letter from Kaiser to Heinrich, September 23, 1918, box 12, folder 27, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“I have two, and possibly three novels”: Letter from Heinrich to Kaiser, October 9, 1922, box 12, folder 27, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.
“I am not wishing to write to win fame or fortune”: Ibid.
Carfare on Thursday had cost him twelve cents: Details about Heinrich’s ledgers from come from scraps of paper in carton 70, folder 15, oversize box 1, folder 3–4, November 2, 1923, Edward Oscar Heinrich Papers.