Anaconda Standard, Jan. 11, 1917:

The story of the crime was that seven negroes boarded an eastbound freight train on the Great Northern railway at Nihil on Oct. 5 with the intention of beating their way. They found the car they boarded, a gondola loaded with lumber, already occupied by three white men. The deceased [Michael Freeman] and two companions, Earl Fretwell and Claud C. Campbell. The negroes first went through the white men, obtaining a small sum of money and some trinkets, and then directed them to get off the train, which was going at the rate of 30 miles an hour. The men begged to be allowed to remain on the train until it stopped or slowed down. Fretwell started to comply, being urged by blows, and was struck on the head with a revolver and fell from the car. Campbell jumped from the train, followed by a fusillade of shots. Freeman was shot from behind, the bullet entering his back, and his body thrown from the train, being found alongside the track the next morning.

National Public Radio, July 2, 2014 (associated audio story):

“I was curiosity with a ‘C.’ I just started to pepper him with questions — ‘Oh, Grandpa, what was it like? Did they lose their heads? Did their eyes bug out? Did everybody cheer? Did everybody cry?'” Zachary says.

“And he raised a hand, which told me to shut up. And he said three words: ‘It was awful.'”

On this day..

• 1938: Herman Hurmevaara, Finnish Social Democrat
• 1919: Heinrich Bosse
• 1906: Robert E. Newcomb and John Mueller
• 1943: Mildred Fish-Harnack, an American in the German Resistance
• 1894: Joe Dick, "allowed to go anywhere he desired"
• 1318: Dukes Erik and Valdemar Magnusson
• 1943: Toralf Berg, Norwegian resistance member
• 1912: Thomas Jennings, fingerprinted
• 1939: The only triple execution in Manitoba
• 1535: Etienne de la Forge, John Calvin's friend
• 1495: William Stanley, Lord Chamberlain
• 1973: Francisco Caamaño, the Dominican Republic's would-be Fidel