On a summer afternoon in Aurora, Indiana, while the engineer and fireman stepped away from their switch engine to eat dinner, 23-year-old Louis R. Henry climbed aboard and tried to take control.
Henry, an employee of the Cochran Chair Manufacturing Co., was not a railroad man. According to the 1923 report, he had “suddenly became deranged” before entering the Baltimore and Ohio Southern Railroad yards in West Aurora and taking possession of the engine.
When Railroad Detective Robert E. Barkley ordered him down, Henry refused. Instead, he hurled large lumps of coal at the detective.
Henry was overpowered and taken to the county jail.
A sanity board later declared him to be of unsound mind, and he was to be sent to the Southeastern Hospital for the Insane at Madison for treatment.
Crazed Man Tries to Steal Engine
AURORA, Indiana. — Louis R. Henry, 23 years old, an employee of the Cochran Chair Manufacturing Co., suddenly became deranged and took possession of the switch engine in the West Aurora Baltimore and Ohio Southern Railroad yards.
Henry was attempting to operate the engine during the noon hour while the engineer and fireman were eating their dinners, and was ordered off the engine by Railroad Detective Robert E. Barkley.
Henry refused and threw several large lumps of coal at Detective Barkley. He was overpowered by the train crew and locked up in the county jail.
A sanity board pronounced him of unsound mind, and he will be taken to the Southeastern Hospital for the Insane at Madison for treatment.
He is a son of James E. Henry, a cabinet maker.
Source: South Bend News Times. South Bend, Ind. July 2, 1923.
