On September 2, 1931, a fifteen-year-old boy while hopping on a Western Pacific freight train at Flanigan fell under the wheels and was horribly mangled at the scene.  Reports from the Coroner’s Inquest and newspapers accounts were sketchy.

Accordingly, 15 year old Paul McArthur left on a Southern Pacific freight at Reno. The Southern Pacific train stopped at Flanigan to allow the Western Pacific to travel through. At the point McArthur got off the Southern Pacific train and tried to hop on the moving Western Pacific train slipped and fell. After the Western Pacific passed through, Southern Pacific employees noticed the boy lying on the ground. They gave him first aid and took him to Wendel where the Allen & Edenholm ambulance was summoned. McArthur was apparently in a state shock and he told Edenholm, the ambulance driver, where he was from, and that he did not appear to suffer.  He died shortly after his arrival at Riverside Hospital in Susanville.

When the Coronoer’s jury was summoned the next day, it deemed not necessary for the trainmen to testify, since no one actually saw what happened. When Edenhom concluded his testimony he stated, “McArthur was just his beating his way, and he didn’t have a cent to his name and he hadn’t eaten for several days. It is a pitiful case and very unfortunate.”  The Coroner’s verdict” Shock from injury in railroad accident. He was a trespasser on freight train (Western Pacific R.R.) and accidentally fell under train. Train crushed both thighs.”

Tim