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4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL JANUARY 11, 2017 O PINION Offbeat Oregon THE LAST "GREAT" TRAIN ROBBERY PT. II BY FINN J.D.JOHN For the Sentinel University of California Professor Edward O. Heinrich had helped the Southern Pacifi c out with a few minor robbery investigations before. Now, in late autumn of 1923, SP had a big one on its hands. Four of its employees had been murdered, at least two of them in cold blood, in a train robbery gone bad at the mouth of Tunnel 13. Posses had formed and were busily combing the countryside, bolstered by Oregon National Guard soldiers and law-enforcement offi cers from all around. On clear days, aviators fl ew airplanes low over the mountains in grid patterns looking for signs of the robbers, possibly the fi rst time in history that a manhunt was conducted from the air. After a week or two of this, authorities had assembled an impressive collection of physical evi- dence. But they had not even glimpsed the fugitives, and they’d made no progress even in fi guring out who the murderers were. But that would change after they brought the 42-year-old Professor Heinrich into the case. The railroad and the police laid out all the evidence, like a client briefi ng Sherlock Holmes: Left behind at the scene, and scattered at various campsites found in the manhunt, had been a discarded .45 automatic with the serial numbers fi led off; a pair of Pay Day brand bib overalls; a scorched jacket; and an assortment of other stuff — a plunger-type detonator, some blasting caps, a union suit, camp garbage, and so forth. From the bib overalls, Heinrich learned much. The pockets on the left showed more wear than on the right, and there was pitch on the right, as would be the case if a left-handed lumberjack was lean- ing against a tree to swing his ax. From some neatly trimmed fi ngernail clippings found in the pocket, he gathered that when in city clothes, the wearer was a meticulous dresser with small hands. And from some hairs found here and there, he learned that his man had brown hair and eyebrows. But the real big score was wadded up in the bottom of the narrow pencil pocket of the overalls, which no one else had probed. It was a receipt for registered mail. And it led him directly to a name: Roy DeAutremont. With that in hand, Heinrich was able to secure a sample of Roy’s handwriting — and that’s when the DeAutremont Brothers’ doom was truly sealed. Because Heinrich was able to restore the serial number on the automatic and trace it back to its initial purchaser, who had signed his name “William Elliot” — in Roy’s handwriting. From there, it was as good as all over. Had they merely robbed a train, the brothers could probably have managed to disappear somewhere; but they had murdered four men — two of them in cold blood — and the entire country was outraged by their crime. The manhunt now went nationwide and even international. “WANTED” posters were printed and distributed everywhere, prominently displaying the DeAutremonts’ faces; more than 2.25 million of them would be printed and distributed over the following several years while they were on the lam. There was nowhere the brothers could go where their faces would not be recognized. Roy and Ray fl ed to Detroit and tried to change their hair color and personal appearance as best they could. Hugh joined the Army and was deployed to the Philippines. But all around them, pictures of themselves were staring out from those ubiquitous posters on the walls of post offi ces and police stations. Eventually, one of Hugh’s fellow soldiers was reassigned to Alcatraz and saw one of those posters, and the jig was up. The brothers were all arrested and extradited to Jackson County, where they were sentenced to life in prison. Hugh was paroled in 1958, but diagnosed with stomach cancer a few months later; he died the following year. Roy was diagnosed with schitzophrenia in 1949, and the prescribed cure — lobotomy — left him unable to care for himself. He died in a nursing home in Salem in 1983. Ray was paroled in 1961 and moved to Eugene, where he worked for some years as a janitor in the Erb Memorial Union at the University of Oregon. He died in Eugene in 1984. Now, most accounts of the DeAutremont robbery, over the years, have been drawn almost entirely from police statements and newspaper articles. But several years ago, Edgard Espinoza and Pepper Trail, two forensic scientists from the National Fish and Wildlife forensic lab in Ashland, decided to dig a little deeper into the records. They found some very interesting details. For one thing, they found that the timeline of the robbery placed the robbers at the scene, with everyone dead and the mail car torn open and burning, for a whole hour. What would they have been doing during that time? Could they have found something in there after all? Or was this merely a fl aw in the record-keeping? (Remember, the train, still behind them in the tunnel, was full of passengers, and on the face of it it seems unlikely that the brothers would risk such a delay.) The more inriguing discovery, though, is a description of a small, dark-featured man who, three hours after the robbery, knocked at the door of a remote camping cabin in the woods nearby. He asked the man who was staying in the cabin if he could retrieve some property he’d stashed in the loft — wal- nuts, he said, left there to dry and forgotten when he’d camped there several months before. The man had retrieved an oblong object wrapped tightly in a mackinaw coat, which did not look like walnuts, and left. The mackinaw, or one like it, was found a few months after that in a nearby creek bed within a few hundred feet of Highway 99, near a spot where a pick and shovel had been stashed. It had knife cuts in it, as if whoever was wearing it had been stabbed in the back with a sharp knife. And there was no sign of the oblong object. So: did the DeAutremont brothers have an accomplice? Did they actually recover something from the hold-up? (Southern Pacifi c always refused to disclose what was in the mail car that day, if any- thing.) Was there a double-cross, and a fi fth murder done, and a secret kept by all three brothers and taken with them to their graves? Or is there some other explanation — perhaps the mackinaw and shovel were evidence of some other crime, or maybe there’s a completely innocent explanation? It’s almost certain that we’ll never really know. (Sources: Trail, Pepper & al. “Tunnel 13: How Forensic Science Helped Solve America’s Last Great Train Robbery,” Jefferson Public Radio, http://ijpr.org; Joers, Lawrence E.C. “The Siskiyou Train Rob- bery,” Great Moments in Oregon History. Portland: New Oregon Publishers, 1987; http://tunnel13. com) Finn J.D. John teaches at Oregon State University and writes about odd tidbits of Oregon history. For details, see http://fi nnjohn.com. To contact him or suggest a topic: fi nn2@offbeatoregon.com or 541-357-2222. The word on calcium: BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD. For the Sentinel Women need to be cautious and knowledgeable regarding high-dose calcium supplements as the safety and effi cacy of cal- cium supplements in prevent- ing bone loss is now suspect. In addition, according to some studies, high dose calcium sup- plements may damage the car- diovascular system. Learning the pros and cons of calcium supplementation is important, however, the wisest choice for all women is to make sure their diet contains adequate calcium. A steady stream of research has questioned the safety of high-dose calcium supplements ADMINISTRATION: JOHN BARTLETT, Regional Publisher.............................. GARY MANLY, General Manager................942-3325 Ext. 207 • publisher@cgsentinel.com AARON AMES, Sales Repersentative...............942-3325 Ext. 216 • aames@cgsentinel.com TAMMY SAYRE, Sales Repersentative......... 942-3325 Ext. 213 • tsayre@cgsentinel.com for the cardiovascular system, in addition to questioning their value for preventing osteoporo- sis. This has huge public health implications, as 52 percent of American women take calcium supplements.1 The most recent study took data from the Multi-Eth- nic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). At the start of the study, participants answered questions on their diet, medi- cations, and supplements, and their coronary artery calcium was measured. Ten years later, coronary calcium was measured again. Participants were broken into fi ve groups (quintiles) based on their typical total daily calcium intake (food plus supplements). In the highest quintile of total calcium intake, the risk of cor- onary artery calcifi cation at 10 SPORTS DEPARTMENT: SAM WRIGHT, Sports Editor...................942-3325 Ext. 204 • swright@cgsentinel.com CUSTOMER SERVICE CARLA WILLIAMS, Office Manager.................942-3325 Ext. 201 • cwilliams@cgsentinel.com LEGALS.............................................................942-3325 Ext. 200 • cwilliams@cgsentinel.com NEWS DEPARTMENT: CAITLYN MAY, Editor......................................942-3325 Ext. 212 • cmay@cgsentinel.com GRAPHICS: RON ANNIS, Graphics Manager (USP 133880) Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: Ten Weeks ........................................................$9.10 One year ........................................................ $36.15 e-Edition year ................................................ $36.00 Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00. In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscriptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. Call 942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Advertising ownership: All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval. Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2015 Cottage Grove Sentinel. High doses and women years was reduced by 27 per- cent, suggesting that calcium is protective. However, the use of calcium supplements was also associated with an increased risk (12-22 percent) of coronary artery calcifi ca- tion, suggesting that dietary calcium and supplemental cal- cium may have contradictory effects. Each quintile was then split into users and non-users of calcium supplements. Out of those 10 groups, the greatest risk of coronary artery calcifi - cation was in supplement us- ers in quintile 1, meaning the group that had the lowest food calcium intake but took calci- um supplements.2 This study suggests that dietary calcium is protective, and supplemen- tal calcium may not be and may even be harmful. If calcium supplements are harmful, but food calcium isn’t, why? The primary difference seems to be the dose. Many calcium supplements con- tain 1000 mg or more, which is much more than would be found in a typical meal. Blood calcium is very tight- ly regulated, always kept in a narrow range. However, after a large dose (such as a high- dose calcium supplement), the usual regulatory mechanisms are temporarily overwhelmed, there is a transient increase in blood calcium,3 and this could be a problem. Observational studies suggest that elevations in blood calcium contribute to carotid atherosclerotic plaque thickness, calcifi ed plaque, and cardiovascular events.4,5 This is presumably because elevated blood calcium promotes blood coagulation and deposits of cal- cium (calcifi cation) in the arter- ies. Calcifi cation stiffens the ar- teries, increases the vulnerabil- ity of atherosclerotic plaques, and increases cardiovascular risk.6,7 Only high dose supple- mental calcium can raise blood calcium signifi cantly. Are we sacrifi cing our bones to save our arteries? Are women more prone to osteoporosis if they don’t take high-dose calcium supple- ments? The research says no. Calcium defi ciency can cause osteoporosis, however the ev- idence suggests that calcium supplementation is helpful only when someone is vitamin D-de- fi cient. Vitamin D adequacy allows for increased absorption of calcium when intake is low. The risk of fracture due to low calcium intake is increased if vi- tamin D intake is also low.8 When calcium and vitamin D were supplemented together, vi- tamin D plus a smaller amount of calcium (less than 1000 mg) better prevented fractures than vitamin D plus larger amounts of calcium (1000 mg or more).9 High-dose calcium supplemen- tation was even found to in- crease hip fracture risk in a me- ta-analysis of 4 clinical trials.10 The take-home message from these studies is that high-dose calcium is not necessary for protecting bones, and may even make things worse, but vitamin D adequacy is important. Not every study has detect- ed a harmful effect of calcium supplements. Two meta-analy- ses pooling many calcium sup- plementation trials determined that regularly using calcium supplements (1000 mg or more calcium/day in most studies) was associated with a 20-30 percent increase in the risk of heart attack and/or stroke.11,12 However, two other meta-anal- yses did not did not fi nd any increase or decrease in the risk of cardiovascular events in the groups taking calcium sup- plements compared to control groups.13-15 The major difference between the meta-analyses coming to different conclusions was the data included from one trial in particular, the Women’s Health Initiative. The Women’s Health Initiative allowed women to continue taking their personal calcium supplements during the trial. Some argue that this could have masked the risk as- sociated with calcium supple- ments.12,16 Others argue that the data is still confl icting, and the evidence doesn’t support a benefi cial or harmful effect of calcium supplements, yet.17,18 My conclusion: I advocate a cautious, conservative approach to calcium supplementation Despite this disagreement, and in light of the new study on arterial calcifi cation, there is enough evidence to be cau- tious about high-dose calcium supplements. The wise focus should still be on obtaining adequate calcium primarily with food, especially since high-dose calcium supple- ments provide minimal (if any) benefi t for osteoporosis prevention. For many people, green veg- etables, beans, nuts and seeds most likely provide enough calcium without the need for supplements. Certain groups – such as pregnant, nursing, and postmenopausal women, as well as those with osteopenia or osteoporosis and those with small appetite for green vegetables – may want to consider adding a small dose of supplemental calcium, spaced throughout the day to assure optimal cal- cium intake, along with their Vitamin D3 supplements. For these groups, I recommend using lower dose, whole food calcium supplements (whole powdered seaweed, for exam- ple) to more closely replicate getting calcium from foods. Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and a board certifi ed family physician specializing in lifestyle and nutritional medicine. The Eat To Live Cookbook offers over 200 unique disease-fi ghting deli- cious recipes and his newest book, The End of Heart Dis- ease, offers a detailed plan to prevent and reverse heart dis- ease using a nutrient-dense, plant-rich eating style. Visit his informative website at DrFuhrman.com. Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to newsquesƟ ons@drfuhrman. com. The full reference list for this article can be found at DrFuhrman.com. Letters to the Editor policy The Cottage Grove Sentinel receives many letters to the editor. In order to ensure that your letter will be print- ed, letters must be under 300 words and submitted by Friday at 5 p.m. Letters must be signed and must include an address, city and phone number or e-mail address for verifi cation purposes. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters must be of interest to local readers. Personal attacks and name calling in response to letters are uncalled for and unnecessary. If you would like to submit an opinion piece, Another View must be no longer than 600 words. To avoid transcription errors, the Sentinel would prefer editorial and news content be sent electronically via email or electronic media. Hand written submissions will be accepted, but we may need to call to verify spelling, which could delay the publishing of the submission.
