Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1895 — ENGINEER SHOT TO DEATH [ARTICLE]

ENGINEER SHOT TO DEATH

Deed x>f Three Men Who Hoarded ««* Alton Express Train. The St. Louis and Chicago express on the Alton road was held np by robbers half a mile north of Carlinville, 111., at about midnight Wednesday. Three men boarded the locomotive and ordered the engineer, Frank Holmes, of Bloomington, to throw up his hands. He refused and was shot and instantly killed. Three shots were fired. All three robbers were caught and placed in jail. The one who shot Holmes was captured by a mail clerk as he was getting off the cab. No one else was hurt. It is not known whether robbery was the motive for the crime or not. The belief is current that the engineer was murdered by revengeful tramps. T-n- the morning when going ■ south, at Carliiiville, ho compelled sonfvagrarits to leave the train. A few moments later he discovered some tramps burning cars on the “Y” and succeeded in driving them away. He was a resolute man and despite the threats of the hobos that they would get even with him he dispersed them. These facts, coupled with That x>f the murder taking- place in the same vicinity, strengthened the theory that he was murdered by some of the tramps. Holmes was aged about 42. He was a son of-Judge-Hotecs, who was one of the pioneer lawyers of Bloomington, and was connected with the Alton road for a quarter of a century.