Why Train Wrecking is in The California Justifiable Homicide Statute

Macon?, Ga. (1896)

2/29/1896: Two men “removed the spikes from [a] rail” causing derailment of a train.  One man claimed he did this “under the direction of Tom Shaw, who held him covered with a shotgun.”  Their actions murdered three people, and injured “15 seriously and some permanently injured in the wreck.”  The wives of both men were on the train, and injured.  Authorities alleged “that the men entered into the plot to get rid of their wives and at the same time to collect damages from the railroad company.”  One of the murderers had just collected $500 from the railroad for injuries to his wife.

Category: public

Suicide: no

Cause: greed

Weapon: train accident[1]

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[1] “Plot to Kill Their Wives,” [Maysville, Ky.] Evening Bulletin, Mar. 26, 1896, 1.

Of all the cold-blooded reasons to kill someone.