(above left) Hugh, Ray, and Roy DeAutremont used this stolen DuPont Blasting Machine to blast open the Railway Post Office car mail door in their bungled robbery. They had hoped to find gold on board. There was no gold and the brothers used too much dynamite, destroying the car.
(above right) Photograph of the destroyed railway mail car after DeAutremont’s devastating robbery
On October 11, 1923, Hugh, Ray, and Roy DeAutremont, stopped Southern Pacific train #13 in southern Oregon, thinking there was gold in the mail car. The three brothers used too much dynamite trying to blow open the mail car door. They destroyed the car, killing mail clerk Elvyn Dougherty and shot and killed three more train workers before escaping empty-handed.
Postal inspectors distributed wanted posters for the brothers across the U.S. and into Canada and Mexico. The international manhunt produced the arrest of Hugh DeAutremont in 1927, followed by the apprehension of his brothers a few months later. All three were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
