The Train Wreckers Part VI

The conclusion of the articles concerning the 1877 case of The Train Wreckers in Pulaski County, Missouri. Most of the records of this case were lost in the fire that destroyed the courthouse in Waynesville in 1903. The beginning of the story can be found in "The Train Wreckers Part I." and continues in “The Train Wreckers Part II”, followed by “The Train Wreckers Part III“ and “The Train Wreckers Part IV“. The last newspaper article can be found in “The Train Wreckers Part V”. The following is quoted from Goodspeeds 1899 History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, Pulaski, Phelps, and Dent Counties, and was the first reference that I saw concerning the case. It should be noted that Goodspeeds thought the case was still noteworthy twenty-two years after the fact.

A case of great interest occurred in 1878; it was a case against some Richland men, Gibson, Long, Greenstreet, et al., who were accused of wrecking a passenger train near what is now Swedeborg, in which three men were killed; there were pistol-shots an other evidence to show that the wrecking might have been done for robbery, but there was not sufficient proof of complicity of these men to warrant anything less than acquittal. The public feeling at the time was very strong.