Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1883 — HERNDON CONDEMNED. [ARTICLE]

HERNDON CONDEMNED.

The Little Bock and Fort Smith Train Bobbery of Last March. One of the Men Who Killed Conductor Caln Found Guilty of Murder. A Clarksville (Ark.) dispatch says the jury in the ewe of Jim Herndon, one of the Little Rock and Fort Smith railway train robbers who murdered Conductor John Cain, returned a verdict of murder in the first degree after being out thirty minutes. The crime for which Herndon has been convicted was committed March 8 last, Herndon, with his fellow miscreants, being soon after jailed in Ozark, Ark. March 21 the Johnson brothers confessed their complicity in the attack on the train. It was the understanding that the train was to be captured and the passengers robbed. Their intention was not to kill any one except in self-defense. The shooting of Conductor Cain was done under excitement, and was entirely unnecessary. A man named McDonald was at the head of the gang. Herndon fired the shot that killed Conductor Cain. He then went to McDonald to stop the shooting, but McDonald shot at him. supposing he was a passenger. Jim returned the fire, shooting his leader in the face One of the Johnson brothers, known as the “Governor,” served in the United States army during the war of the Rebellion, and is now drawing a Government pension.