“Still” Run Down by N & W Train; Owners are in Jail – 16 May 1921
Two alleged bootleggers, John Webb, aged 26? years and H. O. Adams, 49? years old, claiming to live in Adams county, six miles southwest of Peebles, Ohio, on the Steam Furnace Pike, came to grief through their own carelessness about 10:30 Sunday night, when they drove the overland automobile in which they were riding, onto the N&W railroad tracks where the — stalled and a few minutes later it was struck and almost completely demolished by east-bound passenger train no. 24 known as the — due to arrive in this city at 11:00 p.m.
The accident occurred at the Henry – crossing, one mile west of —-, and was caused by the men. All of whom were considerably under the influence of liquor. It is claimed, turning the machine up the railroad tracks instead of continuing over the crossing and keeping the road.
The auto humped over the ties for a considerable distance and as there is quite an embankment, caused by the track grade at the point the men were unable to get the car in the clear before the fast train came thundering along and crashed into it.
Failing in the effort to get the car off the track, Adams hearing the whistle of the approaching train sounding in the distance, ran up the tracks to signal Engineer Henry Davis by lighting matches, the only means at hand, but he was too late and the crash followed, although the engine pilot applied the emergency brakes and halted the train in a short space.
The train crew and Detective Lee Einspanier? who chanced to be aboard, hurried back to the scene of the wreck, and found Webb lying within two feet of the tracks with debris from the smashed-up automobile about him. The man claimed that he was in the machine when it was hit but the fact that he did not sustain a scratch discredits the statement.
A further investigation resulted in the uncovering of a 10-gallon copper still, fully equipped with coils and a small quantity of high-proof moonshine liquor, among the wreckage, and this find, led the officer to take Webb and Adams into custody and bring them to the county jail, where they are being held on former charges of unlawfully possessing the still and transporting liquor, besides they will probably be required to meet additional charges of obstructing the railroad tracks.[1]
[1] Portsmouth Daily Times, Portsmouth, Ohio, Monday 16 May 1921, page 3
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