BEHEADED BY LOCOMOTIVE. ~ Switch Engine Derailed by Clothing of Night Watchman Killed on Belt Line Track.

April 21, 1909
BEHEADED BY LOCOMOTIVE.

Switch Engine Derailed by Clothing
of Night Watchman Killed
on Belt Line Track.

L. Hougardy, night watchman for the Cypress Incubator Company, was decapitated and his body mangled by switch engine No. 2118 about 100 feet east of Penn street on the Belt Line tracks at 9:45 o'clock last night. Money in the man's pockets, together with his clothing which wadded up in front of the wheels, derailed the engine.

Engineer William White and Fireman Stoiver, by their combined efforts, could not dislodge the body, so No. 3 police station and the coroner were notified.

"I was keeping a sharp lookout on all sides because of the rain," said Engineer White. "I did not see the man, and can not yet understand how he came in front of the engine unnoticed, unless he had been murdered and laid across the rails or had been hit by another engine. The first notice I had of the accident was the jolt of the front wheels leaving the rails."

Engineer White has the reputation of being a careful engine driver of many years' experience. He lives at 2107 Belleview. Fireman Stoiver lives at 2719 Holly street.

Hougardy's identity was learned through his failure to pull the Western Union hourly call box. He lived near Broadway and Southwest boulevard.

An autopsy will be held today.