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Webmaster's note.
Confusion prevailed on the night of Nov. 10, 1929, when Southern Pacific's West Coast Limited was derailed and its passengers robbed behind today's Saugus Speedway & Swap Meet. How many bandits were there? One? Two? More? Investigators followed all manner of leads until they ultimately settled on one party — Tom Vernon. Meanwhile, one Lester F. Mead turned himself in and confessed. Apparently that's who (1929) Signal Editor Dad Thatcher was referring to when he reported there was a confession, but that the confessor turned out to be a "crazy man" — "a recently escaped inmate of an insane asylum." 8x10 glossy news wire photo from Eyre Powell Press Service of Los Angeles, touched up by an unidentified newspaper photo editor who used only the mugshot area. Glued-on cutline reads: (FROM FRANK B. HOWE) CONFESSESS WRECKING TRAIN Lester F. Mead, pictured here as he was taken to the scene of the tragedy by deputy sheriffs to explain his act in detail, has confessed to Los Angeles authorities that he pulled the spikes which wrecked the West Coast Limited near Saugus, Calif., a week ago, in which robbers entered the train immediately after it was ditched and held up the passengers. Mead says he was hired by two other men to do the job of removing the rail and that he did not participate in the robbery. Train wrecking is punishable by death in California.
LW2859: 9600 dpi jpeg from original wire photo purchased 2017 by Leon Worden.
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Passengers / Earliest Known 11-10-1929
Daybreak 11-11-1929
Newsreel Footage
Loren Ayers x5
Boynton Story
Pollack Story
LAT 11-11-1929
Vernon Captured
Mugshots 12/1929
Extradition 12-12-1929
AP 12-19-1929
REAL: Tom Vernon Prison Records
REAL: Horse Theft 1920
BOGUS: Tom Vernon Letters 1929-1963
BOGUS: Tom Vernon's Fake Photo ID 1962
BOGUS: Vernon's Own Story in 3 Parts
BOGUS: Cattle Kate Story 12-7-1929
BOGUS: Vernon Retells Story in 1953
BOGUS: Sweetwater Incident 1967
BOGUS Sideshow: Lester F. Mead
'Confessor' 11-1929
REAL: Buffalo Vernon 1884-1939
1957-1958 x3
Pardon 1964
Death Cert. 1967
After the Wreck
No. 5042 x3
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