Beaman - Capt. - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Saturday morning in Lafayette the mangled remains of Capt. Beaman, a well known retired Monon passenger conductor, were found on the Monon track. His watch and diamond pin were gone and his pockets turned inside out. He had gone to Chicago on Friday to collect some money and returned on the night train. The Lafayette Courier says, speaking of the tragedy:

In the minds of the coroner and eyewitnesses the death of Captain Beaman was no accident, but a murder of the plainest character, mysterious and terrible. The theory is this: It is probable that the victim was on the night passenger train returning from Chicago. As he was passing from one car to another he was assaulted by some one on the platform; the blow on the head was inflicted; the pockets were rifled, and the unconscious body pitched beneath the wheels. The man in charge of the train due here at midnight, going south on the Monon, was Conductor Byers. He saw Beaman get aboard his train at Chicago and noticed him sitting in the ladies’ car all the way down the road. Just as the train crossed the bridge over the Wabash River, Beaman got up and left the car, going forward to the smoker. A tall young man with a ticket to Crawfordsville followed him to the platform. The last seen of the two was when they stood on the platform talking. – thanks so much to our great typist “S”