Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Collection Description
Descriptive Summary
Title: Railroad Law Enforcement Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1870-1977
Collection number: MS 26
Extent: 5 boxes and 1 flat document box
Repository:
California State Railroad Museum Library
Sacramento, California 95814
Shelf location: Big Four Building or off-site storage. Please contact
the Library in advance of your visit.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Provenance
Gift of Warren E. Miller, 1987
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Senior
Curator. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the
physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Railroad Law Enforcement Collection, MS 26, California State Railroad Museum Library, Sacramento,
California.
Collection Description
The Railroad Law Enforcement Collection deals with a number of aspects of crimes associated with rail travel. It begins with
the first train robbery in the United States in 1870 and includes material up to 1977. The bulk of the material covers the
period between 1870 and 1943. The Western United States is the main focus of the collection, although a number of the crimes
covered occurred in Canada.
The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, clippings, trial transcripts, police reports, sworn statements, wanted
circulars, photographs, police "mug shots," scrapbooks and printed material.
The most significant cases contained in the collection are the "Lower 13" murder on Southern Pacific's train No. 15 in 1943,
the derailment of the City of San Francisco in 1939 and the robbery of Southern Pacific's train No. 10 at Goodyear, California.
Prominent individuals mentioned in the collection include Bill Miner, the DeAutremont brothers, Chris Evans and John Sontag,
Jean LaBanta, and James Hogue.