Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1918 — LATE ESTIMATE SHOWS 85 DEAD [ARTICLE]

LATE ESTIMATE SHOWS 85 DEAD

Hammond, June 24. —With three investigations of the wreck of the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus train in progress, interest tonight centered in testimony to be given tomorrow at ‘ the coroner’s inquest by Alonzo Sargent, engineer of the Michigan Central equipment train which crashed into the circus cars, killed eighty-five persons, according to the official estimate. Federal, state and county officials, is was expected, would base their further investigation on the testimony of Sargent, released today on bond from the Kalamazoo, Michigan, jail. He was arrested there following his disappearance immediately after the wreck. The inquest opened today with the testimony of Attorney C. J. McFadden, representing the Michigan Central, who declared that the accident was unavoidable and that it was caused when Engineer Sargent became ill, fell asleep at his post and failed to see the danger signals. No additional bodies were identified today. * Beloit, Wis , June 24.—Hagen-beck-Wallace circus officials tonight made public a list of its dead and missing in the Gary wreck which totals seventy-eight. Of that number sixty-one were laborers, in show parlance referred to as “razor backs.”