The Galveston Daily News
October 19, 1889
pg 12

A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
A NORTH TEXAS RAILROAD CONDUCTOR KILLED ON HIS TRAIN

He is Shot Dead by a Passenger Whom He had Ejected for the Non-Payment of Fare - The Murderer Unknown.

SHERMAN, Tex., Oct. 18 - A terrible tragedy was enacted on the north bound exposition special to-night, in the extreme suburbs of East Sherman and about half a mile north of the union depot, in which Conductor John W. Brown lost his life
at the hands of a man whose name at present is unknown. The circumstances, as well as can be learned at this late hour,
are in substance as follows: A man dressed in a dark reddish suit of clothes, which gave evidence of being well worn, and waring a dark hat with a low crown and narrow, stiff brim, boarded the train at Dallas and presented a ticket for Sherman, which the conductor took up, and the man went into the front coach, and removing his coat, out of which he made a pillow,
he went to sleep, or to all appearances was asleep. When the train pulled into the union depot in this city he remained there, making no demonstration to leave.  When the train reached the College street crossing Conductor John W. Brown went to him and informed him that his ticket had expired, and that he would either have to get off or pay his fare.  He objected, saying that he had not been awakened at Sherman.  Mr. Brown told him he could not ride without paying.  He then protested that he was a railroad man. Brown reached for the bell cord, and the passenger said he would get off.
Brown accompanied him to the front door of the coach, and the man got off.  Brown shut the door and started back through the coach.  It is thought he saw the man trying to get back on, for when he reached the other door he stepped on the platform and looked on the side the man had gotten off.  There was a report and a flash, and Brown staggered back into the car. This
is the story of the colored porter Boyd.
John Knox of Trenton, a passenger, was in the next car to the shooting, and says: "I saw the train stop and the man get off, and the conductor walk back to the rear platform of the first coach.  He had not been there a second when there was a flash and a report.  I saw the conductor stagger back into the coach with a cry of pain and I ran right in.  When I got into the coach
he (the conductor) was sitting with his head leaned up against the window, and he reached out his right hand to me and tried to speak.  His hand fell, and when I saw the crimson spot on his shirt front I knew he was dead.  I would know the man who
did it.  I saw him two weeks ago at Trenton, where he picked cotton.  He told me he had worked in a restaurant at Paris
and also in the French kitchen at Denison."
His description of the man was: "Of moderate build; had on a dark suit. His hair is of a sandy nature and his mustache, which is not very heavy, is like it."
W.D. Fitzgerald, the newsboy, says: "I saw him when he and Mr. Brown had a few words about getting off of the train, and he got off of his own accord, but was mad because he had to.  I saw Mr. Brown when he walked to the other end of the car, and heard the shot.  I was looking at him when he staggered in, and I heard him say: "Oh my God, I'm hit in the breast."  There was a passenger who came in when he sank down first.  He (the passenger) pulled off his coat when got into the car, and I noticed that he had several papers in his pocket."  The porter also tells this story.
The officers are hard at work on the case now, and are on the trail of the murderer.
Word has been sent to Greenville for the sheriff to come at once with his dogs.  The fatal wound is almost directly in the center of the breast, and was apparently made with a 35-caliber pistol.  The killing took place about 10:20 p.m.  Mrs. Brown is in Dallas in attendance on the fair and has been notified.



Fort Worth Daily Gazette
August 5, 1890
pg 1

IS HE THE MAN
A Man in Jail at Denison Charged with Killing Conductor Brown Last October
Special to the Gazette.

DENISON, Tex., Aug 4 - On the 18th day of last October a man on a Houston and Texas Central passenger train en route from the Dallas fair to Denison shot and killed Conductor John W. Brown just outside the northern limits of the city of Sherman. The particulars of the tragedy were given in full on the date of the occurrence in the columns of the GAZETTE.  The man who fired the fatal shot made his escape.  Several arrests were made, but none of the suspects proved to be the guilty man.  The porter on the train, C.H. Bowen, always contended that he could recognize the man in case he saw him, and Bowen went in the barber business in Denison after the murder.  About three months ago a man stepped into the barber shop for a shave. Bowen recognized the man as Brown's murderer and went out after an officer.  He failed to find one and the man walked out again.  Bowen ran across the man, but no officer was near and again his man got out and away.
To-day he spied his man again, and the city officers arrested him.  He gave his name as George Sewell, and claims Pilot Point, Tex., as his home.  Bowen says he is the man without doubt, and the description of the man who did the shooting tallies fairly with that of the man under arrest.  Sewell claims to be able to prove an alibi.  At present he is in jail.



The Galveston Daily News
February 21, 1891
pg 5

A MURDERER LYNCHED
A SENSATIONAL STORY FOLLOWS THE BROWN MURDER

The Slayer Was Caught the Night of the Killing at Denison and Died the Same Night - His Body Went Into Red River.

Sherman, Tex., Feb. 10 - When the word was sent out a few days since that the murderer of Conductor John Brown had
been captured the whole state read of it with satisfaction, for it has long been a case shrouded in the very deepest of mystery.  But when the report was being talked over the streets of the city the next day, a gentleman of undoubted
veracity and who is not liable to go off at a tangent, made a remark in the presence of two or three gentlemen, in substance as follows: "The murderer of Conductor Brown has met his doom long since.  He died the night the murder was committed."
This statement was carefully dotted down by a News reporter, and since then had not been botched to the gentleman who made it, but to-day, thinking it the proper time to more fully inquire into the cause of the startling remarks above quoted, the newspaper man visited the gentleman whose name I am pledged not to reveal, said to me; "The man who killed Conductor Brown is dead.  He was caught as he crawled from under the trucks of one of the passenger couches as it pulled into
Denison and was very quietly taken away and that night died.  For awhile his body was hidden in Red river, but after awhile the water gave up its dead and a strange body found on a near bank some weeks afterward was never recognized.  This is what was told me by a gentleman for whose truthfulness I will vouch.  How he knew it I know not, but he talked like one who knew."
The reporter knows his informant to be a reliable man; his informant vouches for the truthfulness of the gentleman who told him.  That is the sum total of it.  It is sensational and will be read with doubt by many.
But on the top of this there are in the possession of Chief of Police Blain of this city letters, telegrams and communications signed by men who give their names and post office addresses, which point almost to a moral certainty to the man under detention in another state as the real murderer of Conductor Brown, and delay in bringing him to Sherman is owing to the fact that the expense of doing so is very great and is much greater than local officers desire to incur without knowing in
what way they are to be reimbursed.  The rewards offered for the arrest and conviction of the murderer, if still outstanding, would compensate any reasonable outlay, but it can not be learned whether or not these rewards still hold good.
At present the matter stands thus: A man not yet charged with the murder is in jail on a charge sufficient to hold him. Officers and citizens of that section whose veracity and integrity no one has a right to question, say he is Brown's murderer. Other reliable sources say a man was lynched.  No one has positive right to question that but they can doubt that it was the murderer of Conductor Brown.
Has a murderer or an innocent man been given a summary doubt is a question asked here.



The Galveston Daily News
March 15, 1891
pg 8

CONDUCTOR BROWN'S MURDER.
Charles M. Parker Charged with the Crime and an Requisition Applied for.

SHERMAN, Tex., March 14 - To-day a complaint was filed against Charles M. Parker, charging him with the murder of Conductor John W. Brown of East Sherman October 14, 1889.  An application will be made to Governor Hogg for requisition papers at once.  There seems so very little room for credence in the recent report that the murderer of Brown had been
taken from the trucks of one of the passenger coaches of the train which bore the body of Brown into Denison and then taken to Red river bottom and lynched.  Chief of Police Blain, who has been diligently at work in pursuit of the alleged murderer, has just returned from the place where Parker is incarcerated.



Austin American-Statesman
March 19, 1891
pg 7

The Murderer of Conductor Brown
SHERMAN, March 14 - Today Marshal Blaine filed complaint in the justice court against Charles Parker for the murder of Conductor John Brown on the Central railway, about one year ago.  Parker is in Missouri, where the marshal visited him in
his cell in a county jail, but did not make his visit known to him.  The officer recognized him, having had him in the calaboose at one time.  There will be an eye witness to the killing, who, it seems, was traveling with Parker when the killing occurred, and would not then give him away.  Requisition papers have been applied for.



Austin American-Statesman
March 27, 1891
pg 1

Charged With Murder.
SHERMAN, Tex., March 26 - Marshal Blain left for Joplin, Mo., today having all the papers necessary to bring Charles Parker here charged with the murder of Conductor Brown, the particulars of which are well known to the reading public.  Parker is in jail on a charge of burglary at Joplin but during the recent visit of Blain to that city, made arrangements for the transfer of Parker having later succeeded in getting requisition papers issued.  There is strong evidence to convict, the grand jury having only a few days ago found an indictment.



The Galveston Daily News
March 30, 1891
pg 3

Marshal Blaine at Sherman
SHERMAN, Tex., March 29. - Chief of Police Blaine arrived to-day at 3:10 p.m., with John Conner, alias Charles Parker, charged with the murder of Conductor Brown in East Sherman, October 18, 1889.
Some time since, Parker, as he was known in Missouri, was arrested with another party on the charge of burglarizing a store near Carthage, Mo.  After his incarceration Chief of Police Blaine was placed in communication with a man who says he knows that Parker is the man who was put off the train by Conductor Brown just before the shot was fired.  Affidavits to that effect have been made and not only that witness but others will be forthcoming at the final trial.  Parker was recognized by Blaine as a man who had been fined in the police court under the name of Connor some time since and about the time
Brown was killed, and he at once acknowledged that he was the man.  He worked at one time on a section for the Houston and Texas Central railway in South Sherman, and told the officers that he went from Sherman to Dallas.  All this is located about the time of the killing of Conductor Brown.  Chief of Police Blaine was told by the officials of the Jasper county (Missouri) jail that he, Parker, has coolly related to his fellow prisoners in jail an account of how he had murdered his wife and child some years before in that state (Missouri).  He said he played the insanity dodge and was sent to the asylum at Fulton, Mo., where he was pronounced cured in a short time and released.  Yesterday his fellow defendant in the burglary case pending in the courts at Carthage, Mo., pleaded guilty and got five years.  Parker, as he is known in the indictment, would not enter a plea of guilty.  He talks very little about the charge and only asked where the killing took place when he was arrested.



The Galveston Daily News
March 31, 1891
pg 3

DID CONNORS KILL HIM?  HE IS INDICTED BY THE GRAND JURY AT SHERMAN.
He Tells a News Reporter His Story and Denies Killing Conductor Brown. Arrested on Charges of  Burglary.

SHERMAN, Tex., March 30. - John Connor, alias Charles Parker, was indicted today by the grand jury for the murder of Conductor John Brown, in this city October 16, 1889. He was very nervous all yesterday afternoon, but to-day seems self-possessed. A News reporter visited Connors in his cell this evening and was given the privilege of interviewing the prisoner.
Connors made no objections and was, in fact, willing to make a statement which was in substance as follows:
My name is John Connors and I am an Irishman by birth and a native of Limerick and about 38 years old, and I came to America when I was quite small.  I have worked a great deal on railroads since I became old enough to do so.  I was in jail at Carthage under the name of Parker, but my true name is Connors and the pay rolls of both the Texas and Pacific and Houston and Texas Central railways show that I worked under the name of Connors in Texas and I also worked under my right name in the Indian Territory.  I will tell you the whole truth in this matter.  Early in November I was in Sherman and got drunk at Zimmerman's saloon near the Cotton Belt railway.  Policeman Charlie May arrested me and put me in the station house.
Chief Blain turned me out on Sunday morning.  The next day I went to work for Pete Johnson, the section foreman of the Houston and Texas Central railway in the south part of the town.  I worked there a few days, and while there I first heard of the murder of Conductor Brown.  I had never seen Brown to know him.  I had a falling out with Johnson and quit him.  I went over to Honey Grove and worked there all the winter on the railroad for a man by the name of Burke.  I also worked in the Indian Territory.  I was in company with a man who was arrested for burglary in Jasper county, and was taken also and indicted.  None of the stolen goods were found on me, but I had some burglars' tools in the way of drills and fuse upon my person when I was arrested.  I was also indicted for burglary in Vernon county.  It was while in the Jasper county jail, that I with other prisoners fixed up a plan by which I could get out of Missouri and perhaps escape the case pending against me
in Vernon county.  I thought of the murder of the railroad man near Sherman and got Charles Connors, another prisoner, who was about to be released from jail, to allow the signing of his name to a letter to Sherman.  The letter was directed to Chief Blain, and I suppose that my arrest grows out of that letter.  I have no fears of the case pending against me in Jasper county, Mo., but I know they will ditch me in the Vernon county case.  My partner got three years in that case.  I am telling you the truth, and desire you to give it as my statement of the case.
"I am in no way connected with the murder of Conductor Brown."
"I see," said the reporter.  "What you are charged with having admitted that you murdered your wife and child Missouri, and to escape punishment successfully played the insanity dodge and soon secured your release from the asylum as cured.  Is there anything in this story?"
"There is nothing.  I have never been married.  I will tell you how that all got reported in the newspapers.
The prisoners had a way of joking with the turnkey, Mr. Douglass, and that is the story I told him.  I will be able to substantiate all I have told you by the prisoners who were with me in the Carthage jail."



Fort Worth Daily Gazette
April 1, 1891
pg 8

IS HE THE MAN?

Could Not Identify Parker - Insane - Released on Bail.
Special to the Gazette.
SHERMAN, Tex., March 31 - Archie Derrish, a Canadian, was to-day insane, caused by illness - neuralgia of the stomach.  He has been refusing stimulants for some time and barely takes enough to keep him alive.  He is a tailor and has been a man of rare intelligence.
William Trumbo was sent to the asylum at Terrell to-day.  He is the boy who tried to shoot himself at Whitesboro recently.
The negro porter who caught Conductor Brown in his arms when shot on the Central train, has been brought before Charles Parker, now in jail, and says that he cannot positively identify the man.
Dennis Watson, indicted for the murder of Charlie Bean at Elmont, was admitted to bond in the sum of $2000 to-day under a writ of habeas corpus.



The Democrat
April 2, 1891
pg 4

Behind the Bars at Sherman

Sherman, Texas, March 29 - Chief of Police Blain arrived to-day at 3:10 p.m. with John Conner, alias Charles Parker, charged with the murder of Conductor Brown in East Sherman, Oct. 16, 1889.  Some time since Parker, as he was known in Missouri, was arrested with another party on the charge of burglarizing a store near Carthage, Mo.  After his incarceration Chief of Police Blain was placed in communication with a man who says he knew that Parker is the man who was put off the train by Conductor Brown just before the shot was fired.
Affidavits to that effect have been made and not only that witness but others will be forthcoming at the final trial.  Parker was recognized by Blain as a man who had been fined in the police court under the name of Connor some time since and about the time Brown was killed, and he at once acknowledged that he was the man.  He worked at one time on a section for the Houston and Texas Central railway in South Sherman, and told the officers that he went from Sherman to Dallas.  All this is located about the time of the killing of Conductor Brown.  Chief of Police Blain was told by the officials of the Jasper county, Missouri jail that he, Parker, had coolly related to fellow prisoners in jail an account of how he had murdered his wife and child some years before in that state, Missouri.  He said he played the insanity dodge and was sent to the asylum at Fulton, Mo., where he was pronounced cured in a short time and released.  Yesterday his fellow defendant in the burglary case pending in the courts at Carthage, Missouri, pleaded guilty and got five years.  Parker, as he is known in the indictment, would not enter a plea of guilty.  He talks a very little about the charge and only asked where the killing took place when he was arrested.
______________________

Brown's Murder

Chief of Police John M. Blain left on the noon train today for Carthage, Mo., for the purpose of bringing to this city Chas. Parker, charged with the murder of Conductor Brown, which occurred near the union depot in this city on the night of Oct. 18th, 1889.  Mr. Blain has been following a clue for several months, and finally located his man in the county jail at Carthage, Mo., where he now lies under a charge of larceny.
Mr. Blain took the necessary steps to secure requisition papers from Gov. Hogg and then secured a warrant from the governor of Missouri, ordering the prison officials to turn Parker over to him.  Mr. Blain and his prisoner will probably arrive here on the evening train on Saturday.
Parker, the man who is charged with this diabolical crime, has lived in this city and is known to many of our inhabitants.  His real name is not Parker, but this an alias assumed to assist him in escaping.
The mystery surrounding this murder is in a fair way to be cleared up, as Mr. Blain and County Attorney Smith think the chain of evidence against Parker conclusive.  Parker so far has refused to make a statement. - Sherman Register.



The Austin Weekly Statesman
April 9, 1891
pg 6

CONDUCTOR BROWN'S MURDERER
Evidence Accumulating to Draw the Rope Tighter Around His Neck.

SHERMAN, Tex., April 4 - Marshal Blaine today received a letter from the deputy sheriff, who is jailer of Jasper county, Mo., which draws the rope tighter around the neck of Conductor Brown's murderer:

CARTHAGE, Mo., April 1 - J. M. Blaine, city marshal Sherman - I let a man out of jail this morning who was in the same cell with Parker.  He says he heard Parker say he killed the conductor.  The man's na . . . lives in Webb City, in this county.  I thought probably that this might have some bearing on the case.  If I can assist you any I will do so with pleasure.
Yours truly,
S. J. Douglass, Deputy Sheriff."

The man who was on the train and put Blaine on the right man, if he proves to be such, was coming to Texas with Blaine one week ago, but was arrested and pulled off the train at Fort Smith on some pretense, believed to be by some one who wants to gobble the reward if any is allowed.



Fort Worth Daily Gazette
April 21, 1891
pg 1

MURDER TRIAL AT SHERMAN

The Case of John Conner, Alias Charles Parker, Called - Some of the Evidence Given.

Special to the Gazette.
SHERMAN, TEX., April 20 - The murder trial of John Connor, alias Charles Parker, was called to-day and three witnesses have
been examined up to the close of court this evening, Marshal Blain, Charles Connors of Missouri and the newsboy on the train.
Connors admits that he was to get half the reward for the conviction of the accused, and was asked and did copy the letter
in court.  He wrote to Blain informing him of the whereabouts of Parker.  Connor claims that he was on the train, and that Parker was the man he put off, and who fired the shot.
It was developed on the stand that the witness was an ex-convict, and had borne a bad name, which will have its weight
with the jury, there can be no doubt, in favor of the prisoner.
The newsboy could not identify the prisoner.
Marshal Blain had him in the calaboose for being drunk some days before the killing and he was also here afterwards.  The
opinion prevails that he can never be convicted upon the evidence thus far adduced.



The Galveston Daily News
Wednesday, April 22, 1891
pg. 3

ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE
Charles Parker Arraigned for Murder of Conductor Brown
Charles Connor Testifies that Parker Was Ejected from the Train on the Night of the Murder - Testimony of the Train Boy.

Sherman, Texas, April 21 - The case of the state of Texas vs. Charles Parker, charged with the murder of Conductor Brown, was announced ready for trial by both parties yesterday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock.  The jury was secured after the examination of about 50 men, summoned in a special venire.
Fitzgerald, the newsboy on the train the night of the shooting, detailed the circumstances surrounding the killing.  He said from the best of his knowledge it was done by a man whom Conductor Brown had put off the train for not paying his fare; that the height and color of defendant's eyes are like those of the man who was put off; that when he went to the jail to-day to pick out the man most like the man who killed Brown he had picked out another man.  He recognized Charles Connors, a witness for the state, as one of the passengers who were in the second coach from the engine, the man having been put
off at the front end of the first coach of the excursion train, which was plying to and from the Dallas fair.
Charles Connors, the principal witness for the defense, said in substance: I live in Fredonia, Kansas.  Know the defendant. 
I knew him by the name of Charles Parker and also Dolan.  Saw him first in Nevada, Missouri in the spring of 1886.  Saw him most at Lillietta, Creek nation.  Was on a cattle train with him for about 10 days.  I next saw him on the Central railway about
4 stations below the city (Sherman) on the night of October 18, 1889.  I saw him in McAllister, I.T., after that.  I had been to Dallas, and a man by the name of Reinhardt was sitting in the next seat behind me in the second coach.  I spoke to Parker, the defendant, when I first saw him.  I know he is the man who was put off by the conductor that night, and I know the conductor was shot and killed near Sherman that night.  Brown was on the rear end of the car.  I said nothing about what
I saw because I wanted to get to Kansas and knew they would detain me if I got to talking.
I also saw him again at Muscogee, I.T., and then at the jail in Carthage, Missouri.  I think the defendant was under the influence of liquor that night.  On cross-examination the prisoner said he was 31 years of age and gave his occupation as a little of everything.
I was doing time for taking a ring while I was intoxicated when I met Parker in jail at Carthage, Missouri.  I wrote a letter to Chief of Police Blain at Sherman, telling him that I knew of the whereabouts of the man who killed the conductor, and told him I wanted half the reward.  I saw Mr. Blain in Carthage, and there we made the agreement to that effect.  Once before I
told an officer that it was Parker who did the killing.  That was Deputy Marshal Hughes at Muscogee.  I don't pay my expenses at the hotel; they are paid by some one.  Mr. Blain sent me money to come to Sherman.  I started once before, but was arrested at Ft. Smith on the charge of stealing cattle and a six-shooter, but was released.
Chief of Police Blain in substance detailed the receipt of a letter from a man who signed himself Charles Connor.  He gave about the same synopsis of the contents as detailed by Connor.  Here the letter was produced and read to the jury, after which it was given to the jury for their personal examination.  Blain continued: "I wrote and telegraphed him I would give
him half the reward.  The defendant was fined in the city court of Sherman on November 5 for being drunk on November 2.  The prisoner said to me at the jail in Carthage: 'Charles Connor has been telling a lot of lies about me.'  I had not told him
then that Connor had told me anything."
Connor was recalled and removed from some distance from the lawyers for the defense and was required to rewrite his first letter to Chief of Police Blain as it was dictated to him.  The original and the copy were both filed with the district clerk and amid a buzz of apprehension court adjourned.
The jury in the case of John Connor, alias Charles Parker, charged with the murder of Conductor Brown of the Houston and Texas Central railroad, returned a verdict of not guilty.
The prosecuting witness, Charles Conners, was arrested on a charge of perjury, and in default of bail was remanded to jail.



Fort Worth Daily Gazette
April 22, 1891
pg 6

"NOT GUILTY."
THE BOTCHED WORK OF DETECTIVES WHO WANT MONEY.

Parker, the Alleged Assassin of Conductor Brown, Proves an Alibi - The State's Witness in Jail for Perjury.

Special to the Gazette.
SHERMAN, TEX., April 21. - Charles Parker, an inmate of the Carthage, Mo., jail, was brought here a month since by Marshal Blain, he having obtained the necessary requisition papers, charged with the murder of Conductor John Brown on the Houston and Texas Central passenger train in Sherman, October 18, 1889. One Charles Connors who claims to have been on the train when the murder was committed, wrote here in February last, charging the crime to Parker and wanted half of the $1000 reward offered by Receiver Dillingham.
The case went to trial here yesterday.  Connors, the important witness who "'gave Parker away," was here to testify.  He swore that Parker was on the train.  He knew him well and he was the man who killed Brown when put off the train.  The defense proved a complete alibi, and that Parker was working at McAllister with a bridge gang when the murder was committed.  The negro porter, who caught the conductor in his arms when he was shot, said that Parker was the wrong man. Upon this evidence, and the fact that Connors had served a term in jail himself, Judge Muse ordered the jury to return a verdict of "not guilty" without leaving their seats.  The state finding no evidence to convict the next act in the drama of life was the swearing out of a complaint against Connor for perjury, and after a hearing before Justice Hinkle, which placed him in a very tight box, he was committed to jail in default of $500.  Connor has a hard face, and the general belief prevails that he will get a term in the state's prison for his efforts to fix the awful crime upon an innocent man for the money he hoped to get out of the job.  Parker goes back to Missouri for trial on the charge held there when he was transferred here.