Tuesday, WBOC’s Delmarva Life asked me to stop by the Salisbury studio to talk about terrible railroad accidents and crimes, a time when murder and mayhem rode the rails on the Peninsula.
In the decades around the turn of the twentieth century, trains were the dominant form of transportation and unsettling accidents and violent deaths frequently disrupted excursions, dominating the headlines of newspapers and alarming the traveling public.
Since I kept running into these horrific tragedies while doing community studies, I started exploring the unexamined stories of murder and mayhem on the rails, including cold-blooded killings, Jesse James-like train robberies, devastating explosions, and serious accidents.
As I studied them I developed a talk called Murder and Mayhem Rode the Rails. Here’s a link to information on the talk.
Murder & Mayhem Rode the Rails on Delmarva
Here are some links to blog posts about incidents in the region,
Young Edwin Roach Killed in Greenwood Explosion
Disastrous Railroad Accident Takes Seven Lives in Delmar in 1909
Terrible Railroad Calamity at the C & D Canal Drawbridge
During Midnight Raid on Freight Car in 1900, Clayton Police Officer Slain
The Day the Railroad Cars Crashed into the Susquehanna River
Reflections on Delmarva's Past 