National Park After Dark - Robbery Gone Wrong: Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

On October 11th, 1923 deep in Tunnel 13 high in the Siskiyou mountains of Oregon, four men were killed in a train robbery gone wrong. The trio responsible had planned the crime and dreamed of stealing their way to a life of riches but made a series of fatal mistakes that would haunt them forever. What has gone down in Pacific Northwest history as “the last great American train robbery” is also recognized as the birth of modern American forensic criminology.For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesListen to Watch Her Cook on Apple and Spotify!For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to the week’s partners!Quince: Use our link to get free shipping and 365-day returns.Fay Nutrition: Listeners of [National Park After Dark] can qualify to see a registered dietitian for as little as $0 by visiting FayNutrition.com/NPAD.Blueland:  Use our link to get 15% off your first order.Soul:  For 30% off your order, head to GetSoul.com and use code NPAD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monday AI agents took over my work. And I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com. So they see the full picture, my work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff,

knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. In many old Western movies, robbing a train seems easy. Glorious, rewarding, brave even. For over a hundred years, captivated audiences have watched from their living rooms or local theaters as robbers on screen, climb onto the roofs of trains, run across their tops, their cowboy hats perfectly in place, eyes gleaming through the black and white film,

before dropping into the locomotive cabin, brandishing their guns, and getting away with bags of money. The robbers grinned smugly and tip their hats. They've just made millions. In these movies, the line between villain and hero becomes blurred. The Wild West of train robberies looks like a world where riches and revenge are just sitting around for those brave enough to come and take them. But there is one glaringly obvious thing that allows these stories to be so gleaming, so shiny and so simple. They are movies. Works of fiction.

The characters have been done. designed to be the perfect amount of charming and defiant. Their backstories explain to us so that we can empathize with their character and understand why they would commit a crime like this. In their world, we forgive them. We root for them. In movies, the crimes are penciled into the script and rehearsed. Every detail planned out and practiced. A satisfying ending to the story is perfectly engineered before the movie is ever shot. The danger and thrill is artificial. But real crime, crime is far more precarious. Real humans are much messier and real life is not rehearsed. The choices we make, be they right, wrong, or devastating, are permanent and they stay with us forever. Welcome to National

Park After Dark. Welcome everybody to another episode of National Park After Dark. I'm Cassie. And I'm Danielle. And I'm not trying to copy you from last week, but we're doing another train story. And it sounds like a train robbery story. In the Pacific Northwest. In the same story. Exactly. Sorry. Sorry to God.

Well, mine wasn't a robbery. I don't know. We do this kind of a lot, though. I feel like we get on the same theme sometimes. And we'll have like back-to-back episodes that aren't the same, but they're kind of related in some way. It's never on purpose. Same, same, but different. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah. Another train story. But before we get into that, we just got back from Joshua. So thank you everyone who came. It was so fun. Such a fun weekend. It was the first time we've ever done a camp out live show in a National Park, Joshua Tree National Park Association helped put all of this on. They really did the legwork for this to happen. They're a nonprofit organization that works in conjunction with Joshua Tree National Park to help fundraise and do a lot of really good things for the park service themselves. So we were really, really excited. to be able to be a part of that. And it was great to camp with so many people for the weekend. We had beautiful weather.

The show went well. Our merch sold out, Al, was flooded with a lot of. How was he doing today? He's back at work today. Wow. I had to take yesterday. So we got in like super late on. Yeah, our flight was delayed.

Yeah, our flight was delayed. By the time I actually stepped foot in my house. It was like almost 1 o'clock in the morning. Yeah, I didn't get home. home. I got to my mom's house around, I think, 1130-ish, but I didn't get home until yesterday, around 4 o'clock. So it took me. And we were supposed to record this last night, too. Yeah. Yeah. I was a crazy person scheduling that before. So we took some time. But anyways, yeah, no, the weekend was really fun. And it's so funny because we had a very special guest that I didn't know

I was in the presence of greatness until... Or fame. Or fame. Until I posted a picture with... So there was this dog that we saw across the campfire. Like that we didn't meet them beforehand. We had settled into our campsite. There's about 60 people or so.

And we're all gathered around watching Ranger Mark from Joshua Tree do a talk. And it was great. And I just like my eyes gaze across the campfire. And I see this dog in a stroller. this old man like, you know, casting correctly, yes, 15 years old. Yeah. I'm like, oh, my God, who is that? Went over just thinking it's like this really cute dog and like he has a great setup.

His mom is cool. And I posted a picture on my story of us three together, me, you and his name is Grandpa Larry. And I shit you not. I got like almost hundreds of people be like, Grandpa Larry, I love that dog. I'm like, how do you know who this person, this dog is? And yeah, I guess he's really famous. As he should be. He's so cute.

Deserving. So sweet. Yeah. He really took the pressure off because everyone loved him. Yeah. It was like everyone came to see us, but they stayed for Grandpa Larry. That's true. Okay.

All right. So, yeah, anyway, long story short, Joshua Tree was awesome. And we hope we can do something like that again in the future. And we'll work on it. But yeah, again, we got another train story in the Pacific Northwest. And I'm all for, we haven't done a robbery story in a while and I actually really like these stories. So I'm excited. All right. We'll see if you enjoy this one. Well, now I'm a little concerned just by how you said that, but okay. You're allowed to change your mind. But yeah, instead of your story was in Washington last week and mine is just to the south in Oregon. And specifically within the Cascade Sisku National Monument area at a little place called Tunnel 13, which is just.

south of Ashland, Oregon. And for full disclosure, the tunnel where our story is unfolding is literally just outside of this national monument. Like I did some map overlaying things. I felt like I was like hunting a national treasure or something. I'm like, okay, where is this in relation to this? And yeah, it's like less than two miles outside of the boundaries of this national monument. Throw it away. But don't want to hear it. It's so funny you say that because I'm like, I have to list the reason why I can tell the story. Okay, number one, it's outside. That is a really good argument. Number two, the tunnel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Okay. And number three, parts of this story will unfold within the National Monument land. Okay. Never mind. I take back what

I say. I'd like to hear this story now. So it's not my freebie, is what I'm trying to say. Don't make me make this my freebie because I have other plans for that. But okay. Okay. A moment for the monument because it is so beautiful. It spans more than 170,000 acres in southern Oregon and into northern California. It connects the Cascade, Klamath, and Sisku Mountain ranges, and it contains an array of forests, woodlands, grasslands, wet meadows, and interior desert. It was the first national monument to be established specifically with the goal of preserving the area's unique biodiversity back in the year 2000.

But it's the traditional home of indigenous groups like the. the Telgema, the Shasta, and the Klamath people. There are over 200 types of birds that circle the mountains jagged peaks, well bears, and mountain lions prowl in the forests below. And fun fact, there are actually more unique butterfly species here than almost any other place in the entire United States. Interesting. Yeah.

Are there monarch butterflies there? I'm going to say yes because it's a wild guess and it feels like the answer should be yes, but I don't know. I believe you. Okay, great. You shouldn't, I guess. But the PCT intersects the monument as well. And because of that, a lot of hikers find themselves within this national monument for part of their trek. And it winds through breathtaking wilderness. But high up in these very mountains on October 11, 1923, three brothers, Ray, Roy, and Hugh Diatremont made a series of choices that would haunt them forever. But as with every bad choice, a lifetime. of other choices and circumstances led up to that moment. So let's rewind a little bit before that October day so we can better understand it. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus,

L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow Burr, Slow Burr, Second chances. Chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. The boys were three of five siblings. Their parents, Paul and Belle de Autrimont, had five sons. Their eldest, Vern, twins, Ray and Roy, then Hugh, and finally their youngest, Lee. The family didn't have a lot of money, and a lot of the boy's childhood was spent moving from place to place in hopes of finding stability and work, chasing the next promising destination. Paul, the father, moved the family to Lakewood, New Mexico, but when they arrived after a very tumultuous journey, they found that the town they were told by promoters would be this lush, beautiful town, full of opportunities and resources, was in reality a pretty vacant desert town with not much money to be made. Nevertheless, the family tried to stick it out in Lakewood the best they could, all working hard to start up a farm.

However, they ran into challenges nearly right off the bat, including the neighbor's cattle, eating all of the best. their grass and crops as soon as it was popping up. And with the farm plan kind of out crumbling in front of them, they opened up a grocery store in town. But with Lakewood's failing economy, that too seemed to be doomed. Largely due to this seemingly never-ending struggle to make ends meet, the boy's childhood was unstable and challenging, and they watched on as a string of bad luck and failed dreams plagued their parents as they struggled to make ends meet and provide for their family. Ray, one of the twins, was particularly upset as he watched his family's hardworking efforts be met with disappointment over and over again. And as he grew up, he started getting increasingly

more and more angry about this. Not only about their circumstances, but at everyone, he felt that had wronged them and put them in this type of situation. Their father, Paul, left New Mexico with the idea that he would go find work elsewhere and send money back to the family since it wasn't working out in New Mexico and instead of schlepping the entire family somewhere else again, he was just going to go out, make money, and support them from afar. When the twins, Ray and Roy, were 16 years old, they took a page out of their dad's playbook and also left home, riding freight trains across the country, taking up jobs where they could find them. And when I was 16, I was working part-time at a local pizza shop to pay for gas money to probably, like, I don't know, spend it at Gloria jeans for

Rappuccinos that were just like way too much. Do you remember Gloria Jean? I do remember Gloria jeans. I didn't have one near me, but there was one, I think it was in Bedford, New Hampshire that I used to go to. And I loved it. It was like a treat when I would go by. Yeah, it was like my mall thing. Like I would go and get one of those giant. There was one at the mall. Yeah, that's the only one I knew of. Oh. I think it was in either Manchester or Nashville Mall must have been. Anyway. I remember it there. But yeah, Ray and Roy were. trying to provide for their family, not just getting expensive Frappuccinos for no reason. So they, too, they left home trying to find money to support their mom and their additional siblings. The twins made their way to Oregon and found that their father, Paul, was living with a new woman and, in fact, had never sent any money back for them or the rest of their family back in New Mexico.

How dare he, first of all, the audacity. And the boys were crushed. They felt abandoned and cast aside by their dad. And this also fueled Ray's anger about their circumstances. He was the one that was getting really upset with things as he grew older. Because they're only 16 at this point, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So their dad essentially has a new life, is supporting his life there, has abandoned them and now they're kind of on their own. Yeah. Needless to say, life had not been easy for the brothers. And Ray grew more and more bitter and resentful of the unfortunate hand that they were dealt. When he was 18, he joined the Radical International Labor Union called the Industrial Workers of the World. And the group's ideology centered on getting justice for low-paid members of the workforce who were wronged by the class system in America.

So what that group stood for, Ray really felt like community, found community in and really felt like, yeah, that's me. And I want to be a part of this. He felt inspired. He felt like He had finally somewhere to channel his anger at his family's fate. And he became a card carrying member of the Union, which was also known as the Woblies. But after a violent altercation in of all places, Centralia, Washington, where I lived so close to when Ian and I lived in Rainier, like, it's this tiny little dot on the map. Like, when I saw that, I was like, no shit. But anyway, and back in 1919, there was this altercation there between the Woblies and the American Lerner. Legion and it turned violent and several members of the American Legion ended up being killed.

So long story short, it eventually became illegal to be a member of the Woblies and Ray was eventually arrested for his involvement with a group during another incident in Vancouver. And he was sentenced to a year in jail for that and emerged from his imprisonment even more angry at life. As his brother Hugh later said about his brother in 1927, quote, Ray came out bittered against the world. His mind was saturated with hate. He just couldn't shake the feeling that his family was cheated of a good and comfortable life and was enraged that despite all of their most valiant efforts to work hard and make a fair, honest living, life was just unfair to them. As Noreen Salviot McGraw, who would

later serve as an attorney for the brothers, described, quote, he felt that the world owed them a living. Okay. I mean, I can kind of, he seems a lot angrier. And, And I can't relate to that as much, but I think the sentiment behind hard work should give you a good life. I think that's something that we can all relate to, you know, especially with the economy and stuff just right now, you think that if you're working full time, if you're working really hard, you deserve a good life. You deserve to have, you deserve to be able to pay for what you need. And I can definitely resonate with that. Yeah. So he was taking it very personally. Like, not only with the upset by it, he was enraged by it. Yeah. The anger I can't really

to, but the feeling of thinking that you should have a good life because you work hard. I think you can all kind of relate to. It's very fair. Yeah. Eventually, Ray reached a breaking point. He was willing to do whatever it took to get his family money. Why should he have to play fair when the world had been anything but fair to his family? This feels like the very much like the villain story. You know, how a villain is born. Yeah. This is his origin, like the backstory. Like, you know, when they do a movie and then, like five years later, they'll do a prequel to that movie. Yes.

This is the prequel. Like Cruella Deville, how they did that one. I've never seen it. Really? It's so good. The one with Emma Stone. Is that the one? Yes.

Okay. I loved it. I thought it was great. And it makes you love Cruelah Deville, too. Really? Okay. I feel like you would like it. I feel like I would, maybe I'll watch it this weekend.

You should. I feel like you would like that movie. All right. I'll add it to the list. Once that breaking point came, it was pretty clear in Ray's mind that there was a path out and that path was a life of crime. Of course. And at the time in the early 1910s and early 1920s, there was one particular crime that was

very prevalent and that was train robberies. I feel like I was a train robber in a past life. Do you? Yeah. Why did you say that? I don't know. I just feel like I gravitate to the life of freight trains going across the country. And but I feel like I would have been like, I don't know, it was a different life. So I feel like I

pretended I was violent, but I wasn't actually violent. And I went on the lamb and had a ton of money. Okay. Stored away. Well, maybe I can see, I can see the fakeness of it. Like you're like, you have a something in your holster that's a gun, but it's actually like a carved piece of soap. No. It's not loaded. I was thinking it was just not loaded. I'm really, really making me even less intimidating. I mean, it would be a good replica. I'm not saying it would be. The bar of soap would be a good replica.

Obvious. I don't know, whatever. Okay, well, Ray was not. I could do crime, Daniel. In a past life, not this one. Look at you. It's true. Thank you.

Okay. Where am I in this life? Where am I in this life? Okay. Yeah, so of all things, train robberies, that was definitely the crime of the time. But in particular, criminals were going after mail cars of trains because they were quite literally good as gold. They were known to carry valuables and were prime targets for would-be robbers as they often carried payrolls, large amounts of cash, gold, bonds, jewelry, etc. Like, the mail was everything.

And in the newspapers, the brothers read about various successful train robberies, article after articles spelling out the riches that were looted. For example, criminal Roy Gardner was frequently getting away with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth from trains. And then the brothers also read that another group of boys, not much unlike them, got away with a whopping $5 million. So this is in the headlines. It's something that they're like, this is doable.

We can do this. Other people are doing it. Now's the time. And with money like that, that's money they could not even fathom. But it wasn't just in the newspapers. In movies and books, the brothers saw characters who came from nothing and through a train robbery or bank heist managed to steal their own golden ticket to the good life. Stories like Jesse James, who tore through the mountains in towns of America with a cowboy hat atop his head and a gun in his hand, robbing banks and trains, taking his fate into his own hands and seeking revenge for how poorly his family was treated was of course very inspiring to the brothers because they saw themselves within him.

And the twins' eyes grew wider and wider with each and every story that they read. They didn't need to become career criminals. This wasn't something that they're like, okay, we need to just re-formulate our entire life. They just need their one shot. I just need one. We just need one big hit and we're good. I feel like I could do it once. A train robbery or a robbery of any kind.

Of any kind. Of any kind. Like a bank. I'm picturing a bank robbery in this day and age. There's no way. There's no way. With cameras on every, frigging, in everybody's hand, in every corner, in every building, there's no way. You know what? I would be, if I robbed a bank, I would be the person who slid, have you seen someone did this? And they slid a sticky note underneath. And it just said, I have a gun, give me your money. And then. Are you talking about one time they did this or like all that? Yeah, it was one time. I think they got caught. But.

Okay. Maybe I. Wait, then what? They said, I know. I think that they gave them the money. But they pressed their little alarm silently and then they got picked up after. But the sticky note worked, the person gave them money. Yeah, but then it didn't work in the long run, right? No. Yeah. I think you have to switch tactics. I really feel like it's just kind of impossible to rob a bank, at least in the U.S. or like there was someone who robbed a bank near us. Like in, I think in my town or something, they robbed it on a bicycle and they got away and no one ever caught them. Oh my God, actually, this is bringing up so much memories. When I was in high school, one of my teachers robbed a bank and got caught and went to jail.

What? Yeah. One of your high school teachers? Yes. It wasn't my teacher, but it was in my class. And it was the math teacher. It just goes to show teachers don't get paid enough. Yeah.

They worked full time and they had to rob a bank. Yeah, so, and they're in jail. No, they're out now. Oh, so was it worth? I don't think they kept the money and they're probably not a teacher anymore. They definitely didn't keep the money. They're like, you can keep it if you just do some time. Go to jail.

Okay. Yeah. I didn't know this was so near and dear to your heart, robbing banks. I just think it's interesting. Robbing, yeah. You just think it's what? I just think like this era, train robbery time era, I think. think it's really interesting. Yeah, well, you did the two-parter in Capitol Reef. Yeah, with the Sundance

Kid. Yeah. All about it. And I always, growing up, I always thought Bonnie and Clyde's story was not, like, I never romanticized it like other people did. I didn't think that their story was like this romantic frobbery story. I thought it was actually pretty horrific because they were killing people, but I just thought it was interesting. Yeah. I think I romanticized it. Did you? I think. Yeah. I never thought, like, I didn't think, like, oh, I want this life. It sounds so cool. I mean, they were killing very innocent people for no reason besides to Rob,

but even in circumstances where they didn't need to kill people they did, and I just didn't love that. Oh, no, you know who I'm thinking of? Who? Do you remember that? I'm thinking of John Dillinger. Yeah. What was that movie with a – oh, my – do you hear that? It's a train.

It's a train. It knows. Get out there. there. It's your time to shine. I hope I picked up on the mic. And if it did, we should keep it in. Okay, anyway, that's nothing new. This train goes by all the time, but it's just pertinent now. Yeah, no, I don't know. The movie with Johnny Depp about John Dillinger. Now I hear the train. Did you hear it? Yeah. Let's go rob it. Let's pause this. It's your closest. So let me know. I didn't live a path. I'll sit here and wait. It's not my lane.

Okay. Anyways, we are, so we're not off topic, but we're off topic. So anyway, the twins in particular are hearing all of these stories. They're infatuated. They're like, we just need this one hit. If we pull off this one robbery, we could be set for life and not have to worry about any of this ever again. Finally give our family the life they deserve, let our parents, or their mom, their dad, they're like, whatever, we hate that guy now. But at least Bell, their mom. They're just Bell, their mom. They were wanting to give a comfortable life to. So this high-stakes robbery gleamed with intrigue and hope and offered a complete departure from the thinkless slog of labor for the lumber companies and shipyards that they had been working at for years. So now they're in their early 20s and the twins decide to rope in their brother Hugh into their plan because up until now it was just the twins. And they're like, we need a third here.

So they target Hugh, their younger brother. He had just graduated from high school. He got good grades. He was the quarterback on the football team. And he was doing really good until he traveled to Oregon to work with the twins at a lumber company near Silverton. After Hugh got settled, Ray and Roy pitched them their grand idea. They were planning to stage a big heist and rob a train known to be carrying large amounts of money and possibly even some gold. And I can just imagine them painting this grand picture of like ease and luxury. no more hard labor. It was just one one crime away. Like Hugh, you know, he just goes to move in with his older brothers, just got out of high school and they're like, okay, you're settled. Now hear us out. Like this is a big kid. This is what we're going to do. Yeah. And Hugh wasn't on board immediately, but their pitch was hard to resist. Plus, he loved his brothers and his family and only wanted the best for them. So who was he to say? No, too. You know, especially as the way that the twins were just so enthusiastically packaging this idea. And it feels like they have no intention of harming anyone.

It's a one-time thing. They've worked hard their whole lives. This is just like, well, they don't have intentions of not harming anyone. Okay. It's kind of like we're going to get the money and whoever's in our way. By any means possible. Yes. Okay. I didn't realize that. No one is to be harmed at all. Okay. And people get harmed. So yeah. They were convincing, though. And maybe Who knows the way that they were really selling it to Hugh at the beginning. I'm sure that they kind of omitted that part. They were just like, this is what we need to do. And this is how we're going to rob this train.

It's going to be a one-time thing. And then our lives are going to be changed forever. Which is enticing. So he was on board. He was eventually on board. And now all three of them start really getting down into the nitty-gritty of planning and committing this heist. So guided by a combination of the reality of their world and the fantasy they saw in movies,

the Deochamont brothers planned out their crime. After scouting out tracks up and down the west coast, they eventually found the perfect target. Southern Pacific Railroad San Francisco Express train that started in Portland and headed south to California. The Sisku line was super popular at the time and known for its stunning mountain views. So going down the coast on this train was a grand adventure and travelers came from far and wide to see the west coast in this way through the windows of the Southern Pacific. As it wound its way through the mountain passes and valleys. But the Deodromont brothers didn't give a crap about any of that. They cared that train 13 or the gold special, as it was called, carried not only sightseeing

passengers, but mail, and they carefully planned to rob the train as it entered Tunnel 13 at the Sisku Summit. So this is train 13 in tunnel 13, just so there are two separate things, but maybe 13 was their thing, you know? Yeah, 13's their lucky number or not so lucky. Not so lucky, yeah. They chose this spot with great intention. Like I said, they had traveled far and wide looking for just the right location and train, and this was it. The tunnel was located high up in a remote part of the mountain. The half mile long dark tunnel would offer them even more obscurity. And most importantly, Ray had heard through the grapevine that there was often gold on board this train,

train 13, aka the gold special, which would pass right through the tunnel on its route. The brothers knew, after careful observation and study, that the train would crawl up the steep incline leading to the tunnel before slowing down just before entering Tunnel 13 to test its brakes, which was a necessary precaution prior to the sharp descent into Northern California on the other side of the tunnel. And it was in this moment that provided the perfect window of opportunity for them to climb aboard safely, because it slowed down, did a little test, and then went into the dark tunnel. After they climbed aboard safely, they would then command the engineer to pull the train forward and stop it fully inside the tunnel. Next, they'd enter the mail car and force the mail clerk to hand over cash, gold, and any other valuables held on board. And finally, the brothers would make their escape into the mountains, taking off with their newfound riches. Or at least, that was their plan. The trio found a cabin just above the tunnel and used it as a base camp for about a month as they continued to scheme and stockpile supplies like weapons, food, and.

and other basics, but also items they needed for their master plan. They stole dynamite and a detonator from a nearby construction site and planned to use said dynamite as plan B. They would blast open the door of the mail car if the clerk did not cooperate with their initial demands. They also planned for their grand escape. Initially, they purchased a car to use as a getaway vehicle, but just days before their planned robbery date, one of the brothers got into a head-on collision with a cow on the highway and it totaled their car. So the brother was fine. He was fine. But the car was unusable. So as a plan B, they scouted out an area, which was basically like this big hollowed out area of earth underneath a fallen tree that was laying over a ravine, which is about two to three

miles away from the tunnel. It would offer shelter and a hiding spot in case they needed a place to lay low for a while. They stocked it with food, blankets, bandages, backup ammunition, and even some blood stopping powder, like in case they were to get injured and needed to, you know, stop the bleeding. So they were prepping for some shit to go down, some violence to go down at least. They also did a lot of target practice and got to know the woods and terrain near the tunnel and spent days watching the passing trains and studying the various timetables of not only their target train, but others that would be coming along as well. They came to know that the San Francisco Express train would arrive at their pre-trial.

chosen location at 1235 p.m. They had done their research, weeks' worth of it, and then on the morning of October 11, 1923, it was go time. Ray positioned himself on the south side of this tunnel with dynamite, while Roy and Hugh, armed with pistols and a shotgun, hiked over the hill to the north entrance of the tunnel. There, they tucked themselves into the brush and waited for the train to arrive. Just before entering the tunnel, train 13 slowed down to conduct a break test, exactly as the brothers knew it would. When the train slowed down, Hugh and Roy emerged from the bushes and hurried towards the train. They waited until the steam engine and first three cars passed by before jumping on undetected. Hugh grabbed a ladder rung and managed to pull himself on board

quickly, but Roy was struggling. To help, Hugh stuck out one of his legs to help his brother climb aboard, and Roy grabbed onto his leg and managed to pull himself up. Once on board, Roy and Hugh sprung into action, holding a sawed-off shotgun and a Colt-Forty they commanded engineer Sidney Bates and fireman Marvin Seng to pull the train forward through the tunnel. Years later, Roy explained this exact moment, saying, quote, I told Hugh to give the engineer his orders and I would give the fireman his. The orders we gave were these. Stop your train with the engine cab just clear of the tunnel.

If you fail to do so, the fireman will take your place because you will be dead. And I gave the fireman his instructions. If the engineer fails to stop the train with the cab just clear of the tunnel, you are to take his place because he will be dead. And they agreed to it. The engineer acted like he thought it was a joke. He didn't act like he thought it was anything very serious. He could see we were young, just kids, but he carried out the instructions to the letter.

So essentially they get these men to do as they're told, and the train is stopped within the tunnel. And now it was time for the most critical part of their plan, entering the mail car. The postal clerk, Elvin Daughtry, had noticed that the train came to a stop. confused, he stuck his head out to see what was going on because, yeah, they tested the brakes, but they never did this exact. Like full stop. Right, exactly. And slowly into the tunnel, stopping in the tunnel, that was not the norm.

So he poked his head out to see what was it going on. And Ray, having entered the tunnel, fired his gun in Elvin's direction, narrowly missing him as the bullet ricocheted off the door and sided the train car. So he's coming in guns blazing. He didn't even ask yet. He didn't even say anything. Yeah, he just comes in shooting. Stunned, Elvin. Elvin quickly closed the mail car door and locked himself inside, refusing to comply with the demands of the intruders.

It was clear now that the brothers couldn't scare Elvin into cooperating, so it was time for Plan B. And that was the dynamite. The plan was to use one or two sticks of the dynamite, enough to blast open the door of the mail car, but not enough to destroy its entire contents. But this is where things took a reckless and devastating turn. In the dark tunnel, Roy used not one, not two sticks of dynamite, but all of it. stick that they had and they detonated it and the mail car exploded into flames. And with it, Alvin Daughtry, a trusted railway employee, father and husband burned inside the car. Oh my God. This just turned from a train robbery to horrific. And it just gets it's like that was like

the domino. I feel like that just. And is Roy the one who's super angry or was it Ray? Ray is the one that is like who came in guns blazing. Let me just make sure. It is kind of confusing, huh? Yeah, Roy and Ray. Ray is the one that has all this, like, built up angst. And him and Roy are twins, and they were kind of the masterminds. And then they brought people wrong. They're feeding off of each other.

A little bit, yeah, I would say so. And now they're panicking because things are going wrong. People are dead. You just killed someone. Yeah, like now they're kind of like their, oh, shit moment of things are falling apart. This isn't going how we wanted. And they're literally just, they just exploded their target. It everything is burning. There's nothing intact. There's nothing to steal because they just burned it all or exploded at all.

Okay, you killed someone and now you have nothing to steal. Shielding their eyes from the unexpected huge explosion, the brothers stood in the tunnel, stunned and watching as any gold, cash, or other tickets to a richer life burned in front of their eyes. At the same time, hearing the explosion, several railway employees began to make their way up to the front of the car, assuming that the train's boiler had exploded. Like they didn't know at this time that they were being robbed. Smoke and fumes from the explosion filled the tunnel, and because of this, most of the employees decided to turn back and regroup, but one, Charles Oren Coil, he went by Coil Johnson, continued forward in an effort to help the train's engineman.

When Roy saw Coil emerge from the dark haze of the tunnel, he threatened him and demanded that he uncoupled the mail car from the train so that they could get it out of the tunnel. Realizing the true nature of what the heck just happened, And thinking quickly, Coil Johnson explained to Roy that the mail car was way too damaged and that the train would need to pull forward while a lever was lifted in order to get it out of this tunnel. With no choice but to believe the brakeman, Roy essentially said, OK, yeah, then that's what we're going to do and demanded Coil go up to the front of the train

and tell the engineer, Sidney Bates, to pull the train forward. But when Coil, complying with Roy's demands, walked out of the south end of the tunnel, Ray and Hugh mistakenly assumed that he had just killed Roy because he was coming from the direction where Roy was and they immediately shot him. But Roy's alive. Yes, but they didn't know that because there's all this confused in their smoke. They have no idea what's going on. They're separated right now. Yeah, but why would you assume that he killed him?

I don't know. Why would you do any of this? I'm not sure. You tell me you did it in a past life, but I'm your thing. Mine were successful in a past life, so I can't relate. You used so. Yeah, I was a nice chain robber in a past life. So, yeah, they immediately shot him.

And just before he died, Coyle Johnson uttered the words, those fellows back there want you to pull the thing up. And that was like his last words. And then he died. Realizing what they had just done, the immense failure of their operation is starting to sink in. Everything was falling apart. Two men at this point were dead, and they had a grand total of zero dollars to show for it.

Some time had now passed since the initial explosion, and they knew their time was running out to flee the scene. Because there are still people around on this train. There's passengers on board on other cars. Like this wasn't just a male car. So they know that their time is almost up. Panicking, they decide there's no other option but to kill the remaining witnesses. What? Why? Roy shot firemen Seng in the head, and Hugh shot and killed engineer Sidney Bates before they fled into the mountains. So they now just killed four people. The only four people that they came in contact with. Yes, no money, nothing. The men killed 35-year-old Elvin Daughtry, 36-year-old Charles Orrin Coyle Johnson, 23-year-old Marvin Singh, and 51-year-old Sydney Bates were husbands, fathers, and friends. They were experts in their craft and trust.

members of the railway community. Their deaths caused deep loss and mourning most of all to their families, but also throughout the railway community and throughout the region. But their deaths triggered more than just deep sorrow. People were angry and they wanted revenge and most wanted whoever was responsible to not just get caught and justice to be served, but they wanted them to be sentenced to death as well. Like people were pissed. As the community was reeling, the brothers had successfully escaped to their hideout where they managed to stay hidden for almost two weeks, which was no small feet given the massive search operation underway. Plains circled overhead, the National Guard searched houses and barns down the Pacific Highway, and armed searchers led by bloodhounds combed the

woods and mountain slopes near the train tracks looking for the brothers. It would have been incredibly difficult also, just side note, this is October in the mountains of Oregon. Like this is not It's turning to winter. Yeah. It would have been incredibly difficult. to survive in the woods like this, unnoticed for as long as the Diatraman brothers did. And some think that it's miraculous that they lasted two weeks there, but some think it didn't happen at all. Because sprinkled throughout the Deuthramond's brothers' story are mini mysteries. Parts of this story just don't add up. And this is one of those moments. Forensic scientist Ed Espinoza, who was interviewed by Oregon Public Broadcasting for their documentary they made of this

called murder on the Southern Pacific is doubtful that the brothers could have survived out in the Oregon elements in late October for as long as they claim they did. His response to the brothers version of events as someone who lives in Southern Oregon himself says simply, that's not true. You would freeze to death. And like they did have supplies and stuff. Like they did have this like their holdout did have blankets and other things like that. It wasn't like they just fled and found a random log to sit under for two weeks. But still. So what? What? What? What's the alternative? What do people think they did instead? I'll tell you. He is also not the only one to say that I just wanted to like point him out because he was part of the documentary. A lot of people are suspicious that that's truly what happened. Most people think that there were other people involved. Multiple people reported seeing a suspicious car leaving the tracks on October 11th. As Ashland Police Chief George McNag remembers it, quote, there were four men, possibly five in this car. I particularly remember. I particularly remember. remember that three men in the back seat were slouched down. So he thinks and other people think because of this

and because of other things that there were other people involved in this. Like, but the brothers- Yeah, but the brothers were the only three like on the ground in the train tunnel. And then there was others involved beforehand and after with the planning and getaway. Gotcha. But regardless of where they were in the immediate aftermath, they had left incriminating clues at the crime scene and in the cabin that was eventually located. Because remember, they don't know that the brothers did at this time. They don't know how many people they're looking for. Who did it? They just know this happened. It happened. Yeah. So through their searching and stuff, they find all this evidence. And among the items left behind were overalls, a gun, and the detonator that they stole. The evidence was handed over to Edward Heinrich,

a pioneering forensic scientist who worked as a chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley, time. Heinrich didn't know it, but his work analyzing the evidence left behind by the Deutremont brothers would change the field of forensics forever. In the late 1920s, crime labs did not exist in the United States, and examining crime scene evidence through a scientific lens was not common practice yet, but Heinrich was one of the very first to do this kind of work, and he did it on this crime. He had built his own crime lab in his own basement and got to work analyzing and interpreting the evidence. The overalls proved to be the most critical in identifying the brothers. There were stains on the overalls that Heinrich examined thoroughly, and the substance

that he found in the stains on the overalls was slightly sticky, and he realized it wasn't blood he was looking at, or oil or any sort of other, like, stain, ink stain maybe. He realized it was pitch, a viscous substance produced by evergreen trees, particularly pines, furs, and spruces. and in this case, particularly from Douglas fir trees. Inside the pocket of the overalls, he found sawdust from Douglas firs, and he had a light bulb moment. Heinrich theorized that the suspect that at least owned these overalls worked as a lumberjack, which, as we know, turned out to be correct, because as you may remember,

all three brothers were working at a lumber company prior to this crime. So that's check, check, check. Also, in the pockets of these overalls, he found a crumpled up sales receipt. It was faded and difficult to read, but Heinrich used a technique involving iodine vapor and was able to make out that the receipt had been signed by Roy D'Atramon. So his name is literally on it. Yes. Rookie mistake. Such a rookie mistake.

And it was a receipt from when he was sending money back $50 to be exact, back to his family in New Mexico. So it's like, he's trying to provide for his family, but like don't leave your name in your pants and you're robbing a train. I keep forgetting, though, they're also kids. Aren't they 16? They're in their early 20s now. Oh, now they're in their early 20s. Okay. They're young. They're very young. But that's still really young, yeah. But if you're like coming up with this whole plan, they're studying everything, they're like getting the train scheduled. They're doing a lot of that. They did months of preparation. And then he forgot his name was literally. Then he leaves his pants behind with his name in the pocket. Yeah. Why did he leave his pants behind? Those were in the cabin. They're like little. like base camp cabin that was near guy. Oh, gotcha. He didn't like take off his pants. He was robbing a train and then just took his pants off. Everyone knows you can't rob a train wearing pants.

Yeah, that's ridiculous. Winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch.

Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Okay, so now Heinrich has a name. Additionally, Hair on the overalls linked Roy to the crime scene, and Heinrich was able to connect Ray to the crime through a serial number restoration done on the handgun that was left behind. Oh.

And using handwriting analysis on sales receipts, he determined that Hugh had also been at the cabin near the tracks. And of course his report on this is lengthy and involved and very detailed, but a portion of that report reads, quote, from a microscopic examination of the dust, hair, and fibers collected from the pockets, chemical analysis of the stains on the garment, and a study of the set of his garments induced by wear. I am of the opinion that the wearer and owner was a lumberjack employed in a fur or spruce logging camp. I computed him subject to revision with further data, which may be found, to be a white man not over five feet ten inches tall, probably shorter, weighing not over 165 pounds, probably less, age between 21 and 25, when in city clothes,

he is a careful dresser, neat in appearance, has medium light brown hair, complexion fair, has light brown eyes, well developed, and small hands and feet. I found the suspenders of the overalls were handled exclusively from the left side and also the pockets on the left side to be those most frequently used. The left suspender I found is also set three-fourths of an inch higher over the left shoulder than the right. And then he also found some nail clippings in the pockets of the overalls and deduced that whoever owned them was of fastidious habits, meaning that they were very likely attentive

and concerned about accuracy and detail. So he- That's a very detailed report, like profiling of a person. Right. And especially this was very new. at this time. So law enforcement was completely baffled at this level of accuracy and detail found within Heinrich's report, but they're like, all right. If you say so. I don't know. From the tiny details like the sada, scraps of paper and the wear and tear on the overalls, he was able to paint a vivid and detailed picture of the wanted criminals. At the time of the crime

in the early 1920s, forensic science was in its infancy in Europe and almost non-existent in the United States until now. Rick went on to be known as the Edison of crime detection and the Wizard of Berkeley. His techniques are still used in forensics today, and his work on this case helped establish forensic science as a legitimate discipline and led to the founding of America's first crime lab in Los Angeles that same year. Wow. Very impressive.

So this case is like the start of like a lot in the forensics world, which is really interesting. And one of the main reasons I wanted to cover it because I think it's really interesting. Even though Edward Heinrich managed to identify the Deauchamount brothers within days, they would remain missing for almost four years. Wow. Somehow, the brothers managed to escape from the woods unseen, and they made a run for it. They hiked their way south, barely surviving through stretches of extreme hunger and cold. Eventually, they decided to split up. Hugh enlisted in the army, and Ray and Roy, after bouncing around and living in a few different places, they both ended up in Ohio.

Wait, he's a wanted man that they're actively searching for and he joins the military. Yes. Under a different name, an alien. I guess things are easier back then. Wait, easier. It's scanned through everything. It's not me. It's, I don't know, I list his name later where he actually goes, he enlists under another name. But, yeah, hiding in plain sight type of thing.

I think maybe was his tactic. But the twins, they end up in Ohio. And in an attempt to disguise their identity, the three brothers, used a variety of fake names. Many of their aliases included the letter J or had the name James worked into them, maybe as a nod to Jesse James, the notorious outlaw that they clearly idolized. Their aliases included E. James, Johnny Johnson, and James C. Price. And these fake names would become known as the trail of Jays that law enforcement followed as they tried to track down the missing brothers throughout the years. The search for the brothers was the biggest manhunt of the time,

lasting years and more than $6 million in today's money. 2.5 million wanted posters translated in five different languages with the de Atramant's brothers' names and faces were plastered all over the world, not just throughout the country. And these weren't basic wanted posters either with like a basic police sketch or a handful of vague sentences because remember they know who they are and they did their research into them. So these were detailed.

they had six photos. So one poster had six photos of the brothers. Their full names and descriptions of each brother, some of their known aliases, handwriting specimens from each of the brothers, and a description of their crimes, which clearly was murder. Like, they didn't really outline, like, they went into a train car and blew up a mail car. They're like, they're wanted for murder. And there was rewards, large rewards, upwards of $14,000 for information and they're captured. The boys were constantly surrounded by people looking for them and talking about them, sometimes right to their faces. One time early on in the search, a man Ray was staying with, strapped on a gun, and went out to look for the elusive DeAtremont brothers every night. Well, the man he was looking for was literally right in his house.

It was his roommate. Yeah. That's embarrassing. Ray was like, yeah, go get him. Hope you find him. Yeah, good luck out there. I bet you'll get him tonight. Ray ultimately decided a name change alone wasn't going to cut it because it was clear that people weren't forgetting about this and it was everywhere. So he bleached his hair blonde and convinced a dentist to pull out one of his front teeth, claiming that it was painful and needed to be removed. At the time, Ray was living under the name Elmer Goodwin and Roy was going by Clarence Goodwin. Ray, or Elmer, met and married a young woman named Hazel in Ohio.

they got married and had a son. And this is another one of those moments that just doesn't fully add up to this story. Because with a massive search operation underway and the brothers' names and faces known throughout the country, you just got to wonder how Hazel did not see those wanted posters and recognize this person that she's grown to love. Her husband. Right. It's like, okay, yeah, your hair is bleached blonde and you are missing a tooth, but you're still that person. Like you still look like that.

Yeah. So that's just kind of like a. Hmm. Question mark surrounding that. Maybe she liked the outlaw life. Maybe she... Or maybe she was just blinded by love. Like you're not going to just assume that this person that you love and care about is a wanted criminal. Especially a murderer.

I think you would just ignore that maybe subconsciously. Like that can't be true. This is Elmer. It's like the beginning of ignoring red flags. Yeah. Finally, after almost four years of dodging the law, their reality caught up with them. In 1927, Hugh was stationed in the Philippines. with the army when his sergeant saw a wanted poster for the brothers and recognized Hugh or

James Price as the sergeant knew him to be. He contacted the authorities and Hugh was brought back to Oregon for his trial, which became quite the spectacle. It had been years, but no one had forgotten or forgiven the brothers and people were desperate to see Hugh's fate determined. 500 people clamored to be on this jury and reporters from all over flocked to Jacksonville, Oregon to cover the story. Hugh carried himself with confidence, bordering on maybe even some cockiness, sometimes cracking jokes, he was posing for photos, and he was often seen with his hat tipped at an angle and a cigarette in his mouth. I kind of like... He just thought he was the coolest. Yeah. There was a mix of sentiments towards this 23-year-old criminal that kind of echoes into today with criminals that we see

pass through the justice system and especially highlighted throughout the media. Some people had sympathy for him and found it hard to believe that he was to blame for such this heinous crime. Like they couldn't put the two and two together, like, who they were seeing cocky and like with a hat and being like, you know, full of swag versus like someone who killed four people in cold blood, while others were deeply enraged and wanted him dead and could very clearly see the connection. Part of the former group was a young ambitious reporter named Mary Kelly who was covering Hugh's trial. She was eager to prove herself as a reporter and developed a close relationship with Hugh and other members of the Diatriamont family.

She would eventually go on to advocate for Hugh for years and tried to tell his story to gain public sympathy and respect for him. Partway through his trial, one of the jurors got sick and died, so the trial had to be put on pause while they attempted to find a new date and start it all over. So as we know, these things can take a really long time. So as all that's going on, meanwhile, one day Roy was out for a walk when he saw a wanted poster for him. And clearly this is not.

common. He's used to seeing them all over the place. But this time something was different about this poster. Hugh was missing from it. So he rushed back to tell Ray about this troubling development and the twins assumed correctly that this meant Hugh had been found and apprehended. They knew that their time was once again running out and began discussing a possible escape in this time to Mexico. But they never had the chance. The authorities received a tip from a man who used to work with the twins that he suspected Elmer and Clarence Goodwin, because now they're still together. Yeah. And they're like they didn't separate and they're clearly probably twins.

They are twins and they're marketing themselves as brothers, Elmer and Clarence Goodwin. There's no living like, you know, it's just like you got it. Like they haven't veered too far from their actual identities. So this guy is like, okay, I'm starting to pick up that Elmer and Clarence are really probably Ray and Roy and not wanting to give the twins another chance to disappear again. The authority staged a trap. They posted flyers advertising higher-paying jobs in their area, which they thought might catch the twins' attention because, of course, they're all after money. Sneaky.

And sure enough, Roy showed up to respond to the ad, but when he got there, he was arrested. And his twin was not far behind. Officers showed up to Ray's house while he was asleep, and they told his wife, Hazel, that Clarence, aka Roy, had been injured while at the job and was in the hospital. So she woke up her husband and said that, you know, your brother just got injured. We need to go to the hospital. Like we need to go now. And as they are rushing out the door, they were suddenly surrounded by officers and Ray was arrested. Hazel, of course, was very confused and distraught at this scene.

She had fallen in love with a man named Elmer. They had a son. They had a home. And they had another baby on the way. So why now were officers arresting him? And the real question, why were they calling him? him Ray. Like, imagine.

Oh my God. This person you're married to is someone totally different. Yep. When she arrived at the jail to say goodbye to the man that she thought she knew through and through, they had a very gut-wrenching parting. She held up their son so he could see Ray, but the young boy that they had named Jackie Hugh started to cry when he realized that the bar separated him from his father. And Ray later described that moment saying, quote, I was choked up with emotion.

My soul sank to zero. Ray wrote a love note to her on the back of his mugshot. So cute. Romantic. And despite the snag in this relationship, I don't know how to describe it. It's a snag. Snag. I was waiting. I was like hovering over my computer like bump in the road. It's an obstacle. It's a snag. But despite this, their relationship would stay strong and they were together for another 25 years. So maybe she did kind of know. I don't know if she knew or if she was just like... So I love that when she found out it didn't matter.

It's like, well, that person, I don't know that person. I know Elmer and I know this version of you and I love this version of you. I don't know. I'm not trying to make excuses. I'm just trying to... Well, and she's pregnant. That makes things so much harder too. He's also going to jail.

Like, you could be like, all right. Bye. Well, you can because it's also the 20s and women were not set up for success then. Anyway, either way, it seems like. No matter what he was obviously deceptive, he lied a lot. But it seems like his love for Hazel and the family that he created with her was real. Okay. There's that.

On June 21st, 1927, he was found guilty of murder. He was terrified of being sentenced to death for the crime. But when the trial was over, he was spared the gallows and sentenced to life in prison instead. The twins were then offered a deal. If they pled guilty and confessed to their crimes, they too would be sent. sentenced to life instead of hung at the gallows. The twins readily agreed to this. And Hugh also agreed to confess as well, hoping it might help the twins case. So they're all trying to help each other out getting out of the death sentence. An assistant district attorney named Greg Nielsen

took down their confessions by hand, which took all night. He started transcribing at 8 p.m. and didn't finish until 6 a.m. the next day. So almost 12 hours worth of the story just spilling out of the brothers. The DeAtremont's cases are long closed, but some like Ed. Espinosa, the forensic scientist I mentioned earlier in the episode, find it really hard to believe that this story is as simple as one huge failed robbery. As he told Oregon Public Broadcasting, quote, if I had to postulate, these three brothers were set up to do this for some reason and something was taken. And what that is, we'll never know. All three brothers were sentenced to life at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Though they received the same sentence, their experiences

in prison were very different. Hugh worked hard to be a model prisoner. He handled all the printing for the prison and was the editor of The Shadows, which was the prison's magazine. He stayed friends with Mary Kelly, who was the reporter who was covering his story, and she and her family continued to advocate for his release from prison. In 1958, Mary's daughter, Noreen, who had just graduated from law school, worked to help Hugh get parole, and she was successful. In 1958, Hugh was released from prison after spending 31 years behind bars, and he began working as a printer in San Francisco. but his freedom didn't last. He died just two months later from stomach cancer in 1959 at the age of 63. Roy did not fare as well in prison. His mental health grew worse and worse and eventually he grew violent. He was moved to Oregon State Mental Hospital and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

And coincidentally, he had actually worked at that exact mental hospital when he was a young man. And now he found himself as a patient there. In 1950, he received a prefrontal lobotomy, which caused his cognizantial. to decline even further. Whoa. Yeah. Rough. Very rough.

He was eventually granted parole and was moved into a nursing home where he died that same year in 1983 at the age of 83. So he had a very rough go of it. While Ray was in prison, he spent a lot of time painting, reading, and learning languages. He was released on parole in 1961 and got a job as a custodian at the University of Oregon. After being interviewed for a documentary on the crime and his life, Ray said, quote, after all these years of trying to forget the crimes of the past, those of others as well

as those of myself, it seems unreal to me. I find it difficult to believe it was my doing. I'm a man of 73. The man who did this, according to the story, was 23, so they can't have been too much alike. He taught classes on painting in Spanish to senior citizens, spent most of his time painting, and tried to find ways to make the rest of his years meaningful by giving back to society in some way. Public sentiment towards race shifted, and in 1972, Governor Tom McCall commuted Ray's sentence, and he ended up dying in 1984 at the age of 84. The crime that the De Altramont brothers committed on October 11th in 1923 is often regarded with the name as, quote, the last great American train robbery.

But this name is obviously inaccurate. It wasn't great. They completely failed to steal anything and ended their lives of four innocent people who were just trying to do their job. What it was, to them at least, was a holdup. And that phrase feels a lot more fitting to the effect this crime had, not only on the brothers, but on the victims and their families and the railway community as a whole.

The brothers thought that this would be an event where their lives would finally begin, but really the rest of their lives would be held up by that fateful period of violence in the Siski Mountains. It also marked the beginning of the end for the era of train robberies, but also is considered to represent the birth of American criminal forensics, like we talked about. Heinrich's work on the case led to the establishment of the first forensic crime lab in L.A. in 1923, which was later that same year. And I didn't say it before, but it was actually founded by the director of the LAPD, and that person was a former student of Heinrichs.

So it's kind of a whole circle. Yeah, full circle moment. It was also by far the largest and most expensive criminal investigation in U.S. history at the time, and today remains one of Oregon's largest as well. The victims, Charles Oren Coil Johnson, is buried in Medford, Oregon's independent order of Odd Fellows Eastwood Cemetery. Marvin Benjamin Singh is buried in Dunsmear, California. Elvin Daughtry is buried in Reno, Nevada, and Sidney Bates is buried at Sunset View Masonic Cemetery in El Cerrito, California. The Deaucheron brothers are buried side by side by side at Bell Crest Memorial Park in Salem, Oregon, alongside their mother, bell. For years after the incident, the crime was retold in songs, films, in various publications, and has been cemented in Pacific Northwest history. Just the same, memorial wreaths have been placed at the tunnel in remembrance of the four victims, and that has been done for decades.

Over 50 years after that October morning in 1923, Ray revisited the scene of the crime and reflected back on that day with regret while being filmed for a documentary. Wondering aloud, quote, it makes you wonder what the hell we were thinking. In 2023, as part of the 100th anniversary of the tragedy, the U.S. Postal Service offered a special postmark cancellation stamp, which are those stamps that are used as marks on letters to indicate that a stamp had been used. You know, like the stamp over a stamp. Yeah. So they issued this special one in commemoration of this, specifically in Ashland at the Ashland Post Office. And its image was a train coming out of a tunnel. And it was created by a retired postal inspector named Dan Mahalco. and he was a self-proclaimed history buff who had always been enthralled with the Deutremont story. And he was part of the Postal Service and stuff.

So it was really cool. I looked up a picture of it and I'll post it. Very cool. And lastly, and most importantly, and this is a little different from all of our other episodes, don't even think of going here. Do not go to Tunnel 13. Okay. Why? Tell us.

Okay. So it's on private property, number one. And number two, it's still an active railroad line. So it's not open to the public. You're going to get hit by a train. Yeah. And as we said, don't fuck with trains. We've said that.

Yeah. We have said that. Multiple times now. So yeah, don't go there. It's not open to the public for general access or hiking. Even though there are several hiking trails around it, the PCT is really close by. Can you see it from afar? You can see it from afar.

Like, there's people that, you know, go in that area. But it's like. The tunnel itself is off limits. I just want to make it so clear. Like, we are not saying go there. But there are on YouTube. there are so many videos of people being like, if I was to go here, if I knew how to get here, this is how I'd get here. And they do it. And they're just like, if I was here, this is what I would do.

And it's like, you're very clearly there. And it has your name associated with, I don't know. In your picture. It's like, in a video of you there. Wear a ski mask or something and like, don't post it to your YouTube channel. But anyway, yeah, it's not a thing you should do. And it is cool. I just think of like that Ted Lasson meme. Do you know the one? When the girl, it's like there's, it's Ted Lassow and like another anchor woman at a news desk. And she's like, now obviously don't go and do that. And then Ted Lassow comes in and he's like, now you do whatever you like, live. Yes. Don't anything of the sort. But no, seriously, don't do it. Don't do it. But if you do, think of the Deauchamount brothers and the victims, more importantly, that lost their lives there.

So yeah, that's the story. That's it. Cool. I don't have like a nice little bow ending, but I thought that it was a really cool story. and one that everyone in Oregon, it's like everyone knows about it. And I didn't know it had that tied to forensic science. So that's cool too. Yeah, it's a really interesting story. And I think the most interesting part of this story is how badly it went. You know, it was a train robbery, but not really. They didn't even take anything. And I didn't even mention. So it was nicknamed like the gold special and the brothers. Was there no gold on the train? No, no gold. So it was just completely pointless. Well, if they didn't blow up and completely incinerate the mail car, I'm sure there was something value there. Like, you know, everything went through the mail then.

You know, there's money checks, there's money, there's jewels, there's bonds, there's all these things that they could have probably made do with, but they blew it up. Yeah. So ultimately, it ended up. They got nothing. They killed people for no reason. And not that there was a reason before in a robbery, but they literally came out with nothing. Yeah. And then the stress of living your life after that and being on the run, even under the radar. Or four years or whatever, I could never do it. How do you not flip up or be like, and then you're just surrounded by wanted posters with your all the time. Your roommate is looking for you. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's a weird. It seemed like a very hard life. And even though justice wasn't served for a while, it seems like they were never living great.

Yeah. I would say I agree with that for sure. They paid the price in other ways. I mean, a lobotomy is rough. Yeah, a lobotomy is pretty rough. But yeah, so that's the story of the Deontramount Brothers and Tunnel 13. And that's perfect because I got to go because my camera just died. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for sharing this story. We will see you all next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on page. Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark book club,

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