Many have heard the faithful tale of when, on April 30th, in 1900, at Vaughan, Mississippi, Casey Jones died while trying to slow down his train that crashed into another train, killing him but saving his passengers. Songs where sung and stories where told glorifying is exploits.

Ever wonder who was the engineer on the other train?

No stories are told. No songs are sung for Cletus Redleg senior engineer on Rhode Island Chicken Railroad.

While he was not killed in the collision, he had to live with the persecution of being the opposite controller of the train that killed Casey Jones, now a folk hero.

He lost his job, his marriage failed, he even lost his relationship with his two girlfriends. He turned to consuming grain alcohol. Became homeless and pennyless and died from drinking a 3 gallon container of embalming fluid.

Let’s all take a moment and consider the life of Cletus.

 

Skull and Chicken Bones