 | This article possibly contains original research .(July 2017) |
The Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA) is a national group who move about America by freight hopping ("catching out") in railroad cars, particularly in the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada, and have sometimes been linked to crimes and train derailments.
The FTRA is sometimes claimed to have been founded by a group of Vietnam veterans in 1984 in a Montana bar. [1] [2] Members of the FTRA claim to be a loosely knit club of people who share a similar lifestyle, and organise for mutual support. [3] FTRA members are most frequently encountered along the BNSF Railway's Hi-Line, which stretches from Chicago to Seattle, often sleeping in switching yards, bridge underpasses, and boxcars along the route.[ citation needed ]
An offshoot of the FTRA, known as the Blood Bound Railroad Gang, distinguishes themselves by wearing red bandanas instead of the FTRA's black bandanas. [4]
In 2011, Gus Melonas, a spokesman for the BNSF, said the "FTRA and associated act[s] of riding and living on the rails have gone largely extinct." [5]
Retired Spokane police officer Bob Grandinetti has specialized in investigating the FTRA & FTRC[ expand initialism ] both as a Spokane police officer and since his retirement. He claims members of the group are linked to food stamp and benefit fraud, illegal drug trafficking, and thefts, as well as brutal assaults and murders committed against other transients, vagrants, and the public. [6] [7] These crimes and incidents have been linked to FTRA and FTRC members:
Realistically, any distinction of the FTRA as an organisation, or a count of its members, is a loose one at best, due to the circumstances inherent to rail riding, and to a transient lifestyle in general. This also speaks to the contradictory information regarding whether or not the FTRA is a well-organized criminal group. Author Richard Grant writes that various FTRA members, including American founder D. Boone, insist the group was founded on the basis of camaraderie between people sharing a similar lifestyle of adventure and not as a criminal organisation. [16]
A hobo is homeless in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works.
A boxcar is the North American (AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most loads. Boxcars have side sliding doors of varying size and operation, and some include end doors and adjustable bulkheads to load very large items.
Freighthopping or trainhopping is the act of surreptitiously boarding and riding a freightcar, which is usually illegal.
The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified serial killer who was active in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, in the 1930s. The killings were characterized by the dismemberment of thirteen known victims and the disposal of their remains in the impoverished neighborhood of Kingsbury Run. Most victims came from an area east of Kingsbury Run called "The Roaring Third" or "Hobo Jungle", known for its bars, gambling dens, brothels and vagrants. Despite an investigation of the murders, which at one time was led by famed lawman Eliot Ness, the murderer was never apprehended. In 2024, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office teamed up with the DNA Doe Project to exhume some of the victims and use investigative genetic genealogy to identify them.
Train surfing is typically a reckless, dangerous, and illegal act of riding on the outside of a moving train, tram, or other forms of rail transport. In a number of countries, the term 'train hopping' is used synonymously with freight hopping, which means riding on the outside of a freight train, while train surfing can be practiced on any type of train. This type of travelling can be extremely dangerous and even life-threatening, because there is a risk of death or serious injury due to falling off a moving train, electrocution by the power supply, colliding with railway infrastructure such as bridges, tunnels, station platforms, trackside buildings, railway signals or other trains, while riding outside of structure gauge on the side or on the roof of a train, or unsuccessful attempts to jump onto a moving train or off it. Today, the practice is illegal by statutes on many railroads in the world. Despite this, it is still practiced, especially on those railroads where the trains are overcrowded.
A gutter punk is a homeless or transient individual who displays a variety of specific lifestyle traits and characteristics that often, but not always, are associated with the punk subculture. Attributes may include unkempt dreadlocks, nose rings, Mohawk hairstyles, and tattooed faces. Gutter punks are sometimes referred to as "crusties", "crust punks", "traveler kids", "traveling punks", "punk hobos”, or simply "travelers", among other terms. Some self-identified gutter punks may distinguish themselves from "crust punks" and "travellers", and vice versa; however, there is considerable overlap between the groups, and the terms are often used interchangeably.
Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers.
The Hazards of Helen is an American adventure film serial of 119 twelve-minute episodes released over a span of slightly more than two years by the Kalem Company between November 14, 1914, and February 17, 1917. At 23.8 hours, it is one of the longest non-feature-length motion picture series ever filmed, and is believed to be the longest of the film serial format. Based on a novel by John Russell Corvell and the play by Denman Thompson, the series was adapted to the silent screen by W. Scott Darling.
Robert Joseph Silveria Jr., also known as The Boxcar Killer, is an American serial killer currently serving double life sentences in Wyoming. Silveria was also convicted in Kansas for the killing of Charles Randall Boyd, and in Florida for the killing of Willie Clark.
Keith Hunter Jesperson is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the Happy Face Killer because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and authorities. Many of Jesperson's victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. Strangulation was his preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child.
Bobb Hopkins, also known as Santa Fe Bo, is an American writer, director, actor, and producer who was founding director of the National Hobo Association.
Vaughn Orrin Greenwood was an American serial killer who gained the nickname the Skid Row Slasher. He murdered eleven vagrants in Southern California between November 1964 and January 1975, in addition to a failed twelfth murder that ultimately led to his capture.
Billy Richard Glaze, also known as "Jesse Sitting Crow" was a convicted American serial killer whose guilt has come into question by the discovery of DNA evidence excluding Glaze and implicating another man.
"New Timer" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad. Springsteen performs the song solo on the album, with only guitar accompaniment.
The Villisca axe murders occurred between the evening and early morning of June 9–10, 1912, in the town of Villisca, Iowa, in the United States. The six members of the Moore family and two guests were found bludgeoned in the Moore residence. All eight victims, including six children, had severe head wounds from an axe. A lengthy investigation yielded several suspects, one of whom was tried twice. The first trial ended in a hung jury and the second ended in an acquittal.
The National Hobo Association is an organization for enthusiasts of the hobo lifestyle, founded in Los Angeles as part of a "hobo revival" in the US in the late 1970s and during the Reagan administration. It was last headquartered in Nisswa, Minnesota.
Andrew David Edwards is an American serial killer. A jobless drifter, Edwards murdered four fellow itinerants across three states between 1987 and 1992 in alcohol-induced rages, and attempted to murder a fifth in 1993. Following his last attack, he was arrested and subsequently confessed to the murders, receiving a sentence of life imprisonment for his crimes.
Donna R. Perry is an American serial killer. She was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in 2014 for killing three women in 1990. Perry underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2000; her gender identity formed a portion of the defense's argument.
Lloyd Gomez, known as The Phantom Hobo Killer, was an American serial killer who robbed and murdered nine vagrant men across California from 1950 to 1951. The murders were only linked to Gomez after he was arrested for a different crime and confessed to them. He was subsequently tried, convicted, and formally sentenced to death for the murder of Warren Cunningham, his second victim. He was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison in 1953.