3 December 2006
1908 Murder in Colonist Car at Winnipeg
Winnipeg Manitoba - Eccles Lennox chose the wrong time to
fall asleep on a train.
When he awoke from his deep slumber, the Scotsman found himself alone in the Pullman coach which had already been stored on Track 12,
located under the Arlington Street Bridge.
Thomas Cooper was the first to spot Lennox asleep about 7:45 p.m., 17 Nov 1908.
Sleeping
"I was passing by one of the colonist sleeping cars and saw him at the window. I held up my lantern and the old fellow appeared
to be sleeping," Cooper testified less than a week later at the coroner's inquest. "I called to William Carroll, a switchman
and we entered the car together. I shook the old guy to wake him up."
Cooper testified he again ran into Lennox shortly before 10 p.m..
"He said I have lost my hat and my grip (suitcase)," Cooper told coroner Dr. Gordon Bell.
Cooper and fellow trainman Hudson Gunn decided to put Lennox in another car, named the Shushwap, so he could catch the 96 train to
Toronto the next morning.
Lennox told the men he worked in Portage la Prairie for the Grand Trunk Railroad and was en route to Glasgow to visit his wife and
five children. Police found a second-class ticket for the 21 Nov 1908 sailing of the SS Numidian, $80 in
cash, and a receipt that showed he'd sent his wife Martha the princely sum of $500.
Shortly after 3 a.m., Cooper, in the company of Kris Krindle, again saw Lennox, this time the Scotsman was banging on the railway car
window. He told the men he'd been robbed by a man claiming to be a CPR policeman.
Lennox was told to stay in the car until morning when he could report the crime to police. By the time the sun rose Lennox was shot
dead.
Cooper learned of the shooting about 7 a.m., about an hour after leaving work. His thoughts of a deep sleep were shattered, he
claimed, by the arrival of Thomas Henry Hicks at his Manitoba Avenue home.
"That man in the Shushwap is dead," Hicks is purported to have blurted out.
Three days after the homicide, Hicks was charged with capital murder and Cooper was locked up as a reluctant witness.
With the arrest, police may have simply been trying to save Cooper's life. Two days after he discovered Lennox's body, somebody
slipped carbolic acid into Cooper's flask of coffee.
The autopsy showed Lennox had been shot once through the chest and twice in the head. Hicks denied any involvement and pleaded not
guilty to capital murder.
During the murder trial, the Crown presented Walter Rogers and a version of the events prior to the shooting not known by any other
person in the CPR yards that night.
Rogers claimed he was walking past the Shushwap shortly after lunch when Lennox claimed to have been robbed of $100. Rogers also
claimed the description of the bandit matched that of Hicks.
"(Lennox) explained he had given Hicks a $20 bill to go an buy some more liquor and that he had neither received the liquor nor
the money," testified Rogers.
Lennox had purchased booze earlier in the evening, but he'd only given Hudson Gunn $5 to make the purchase at the Bell Hotel.
Rogers also claimed he tracked down Hicks and told him: "Tom, you robbed that man of some money. Give it back!"
Hicks denied stealing anything and later told police that Rogers claimed he could square everything if "he would go back and give
the stranger $5."
Hicks became the only suspect when he disappeared for the two days immediately following the murder. He was arrested after police sent
another coach cleaner to Hicks's rooming house with a message he had to get to work.
When Hicks arrived at the railyard around 11 p.m., he was placed in handcuffs by Sgt. Blair of the Winnipeg police.
Nobody knows why Rogers was allowed to testify, or if he'd made some sort of deal with the Crown on other charges. What is known is
that Rogers was a good friend to John Krafchenko, later hanged at Vaughan Street Gaol for killing a bank manager.
Krafchenko was allowed to testify against Hicks but during his charge to the jury, Justice Richards sided with defence lawyer R.A.
Bonnar who put forward the argument that the testimony was fabricated.
Admitted
Krafchenko claimed he'd been in the Northern Hotel prior to going to the CPR yards in an attempt to have some freight shipped out of
the city and he had seen Hicks in the vicinity of the death car. He also admitted he was awaiting sentencing for a couple of robbery
convictions.
In his charge, Justice Richards told the jury not to put to much stock in the testimony of Rogers or Krafchenko.
"We must pay no attention to what we have known to be public opinion," charged Richards. "Do your duty. If the evidence
does not show him to be guilty, you must let him go.
"There are two verdicts: guilty or not guilty. Guilty means the case has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Not
guilty does not mean he is innocent. It means the case has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt."
The jury needed only 40 minutes to declare Thomas J. Hicks not guilty of murder.
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