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Inventory of the Railroad Law Enforcement Collection, 1870-1977
MS 26  
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Collection Details
 
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  • 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.