N&W in 1910--Mail robbery -- great names and movies -- PLUSDead Bodies on the N&W Main Line In MAC Dowell County, WV!!

[NW Mailing List]

Lloyd, I've heard the same story about how "dead man's cut" between North Fork and Keystone got its name.  I heard the body count would go after pay day at the mines when the poor miners would go in town get drunk and get robbed.  Kind of like the mugging gangs that preyed on tipsy sailors in port cities.

Sam

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: chat group 
  Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 10:26 PM
  Subject: RE: N&W in 1910--Mail robbery -- great names and movies -- PLUSDead Bodies on the N&W Main Line In MAC Dowell County, WV!!


       Sam & Gordon, You are so right about those below names, Gordon, and, Sam, about the "meeting" of the two famous movies you cited, Sam!! 
       Say, Gordon, my ex-wife's Grandfather, a for-real circuit-riding Methodist Minister in McDowell County around and about 1900-1910 told me that at least one dead body -- usually male, I am sure -- was found in the deep cut between Keystone and North Fork every Sunday or Monday morning after the body was tossed there to be run over by any train whatsoever.
       The poor man was probably the bad loser of a poker game -- and since there was probably nothing but a rutted wagon road between these two municipalities -- the railroad track was the logical place to dispose of such a body.  You ever come across any such incidents in Our "Bluefield Daily Telegraph."  Thanks again for ALL YOU DO FOR US!!!  BEST, Lloyd Lewis, Kenova, WV.
  To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org  Subject: Re: N&W in 1910--Mail robbery  Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:45:04
  From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

  Sounds like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" meet "O Brother, Where Art Thou"!  Sam Putney.
  From: NW Mailing List  To: 3N&W Mailing List  Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 4:21 PM Subject: N&W in 1910--Mail robbery
  Bluefield Daily Telegraph
  March 30, 1910
                                                                                         SUSPECTED OF ROBBERY OF MAIL CRANE
    ------
    Man Alleged to Have Been a Partner of Kentucky Joe is Under Arrest At Keystone
        The Keystone police have a man named Thurman Givens under arrest on suspicion of knowing something about the stealing of a mail sack from the mail crane at Eckman on the night of February 26th.  The man denies that he had anything to do with the robbery and rifling of the sack but admits that he was asleep in a coke oven nearby the night the robbery occurred.  When arrested he gave his name as Sam Spaulding, but since that time it has been found that he also goes under the name of Jack Perdue, although Givens is his correct name.  He is alleged to have been a partner of Kentucky Joe, who was arrested in the west end yards about a year ago and who was a notorious postoffice robber.  He also, it is said, was a pal of Fatty Dorn, who admitted robbing the postoffice at Tip Top.  Red Cunningham, who was also arrested at that time, has been seen in and around Keystone since the rifling of the mail sack, and on account of his former connections with the postoffice robberies it is believed that he had a hand in the matter.  Cunningham has also made several attempts to see Givens while he has been in jail.  Kentucky Joe, it will be remembered, was one of a gang which held out at Meg Lowe's at Tazewell, and Kentucky Joe was the only one of that bunch who got away.  He came to this city where he was picked up by Officer Howell and Special Officer A. M. Wade.  He is now serving time in the federal prison at Atlanta.  The mail sack which was robbed at Eckman was hanging on the crane where it was placed by the postmaster.  No. 16 was an hour and three-quarters late that night and while no one was around the sack was stolen, rifled and the letters and sack cut up and thrown in the Elkhorn creek.
    ------
    [The names of these people sound like characters from a Damon Runyon novel.]

    Gordon Hamilton


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