Tunnel 13

“Way out west in Oregon in 1923 / the DeAutremont brothers wrecked the train just as brutal as can be.” A century ago, three brothers stopped a mail train near the California-Oregon border. They killed four men, and seemingly left with very little. Their attack kicked off what was, at the time, the nation’s largest manhunt. It also helped to establish the field of criminal forensics. And while you could learn about the DeAutremont brothers through songs about their violence, Julian Smith’s account, for Alta Journal, shouldn’t be missed.

Investigators quickly found a dynamite detonator and a Colt .45 pistol near the tracks. Three backpacks, pairs of footpads soaked in creosote—presumably to confuse bloodhounds—and a pair of bibbed overalls turned up nearby. After a strong breeze made people start sneezing, the police realized the robbers had spread pepper on the ground, also to throw dogs off their scent. Investigators also discovered a cabin, where they found cartridges from a .45 and other supplies that indicated someone had been there recently. Yet agents were still mystified by the basic facts of what one newspaper was calling “the boldest train robbery since the days of the Old West.” Nobody could even say how many suspects there were, since every eyewitness was dead. Why had they picked this particular time and place and train? Were they professionals or, as the wealth of clues suggested, a bumbling bunch of amateurs? And if the latter, how had they simply vanished?