The Bonham News
September 12, 1902
pg. 3

WRECK COST LIFE
Engineer Killed and Fireman Fatally Hurt in a Collision at South McAlester
South McAlester, I.T., Sept. 14 - Katy passenger train No. 4 was cornered by a switch engine at the outside yard limits here this morning at 6:23 and the engineer of the passenger, W.R. Lanam, was killed and the fireman, Charles Johnson, was badly if not fatally injured.  Both men are from Denison, Texas, and have families.  The passenger was running 15 minutes behind time and at a speed of 40 miles an hour, according to the estimate of Conductor W.D. Oldham.
A switch engine under charge of Engineer Debuck had been doing work on the main line and did not have time to make clear after seeing the approaching passenger.
The switch was thrown and the throttle was wide open on the backing switch engine, which lacked but a few feet of being clear. Engineer Lanam saw the danger, threw on the emergency brake and reversed, but he did not jump.  The whole side of the switch engine was torn off and the passenger engine was completely demolished.
The tender and mail car were thrown to one side, while the balance of the train went to the other side.  The engineer was picked up unconscious beside his tender.  His head was hurt, one leg ground off, his left shoulder broken and other injuries were observed.  He lived 30 minutes.  Fireman Johnson had an ugly gash in the head which injured the brain.  Mail Clerks G.F. Tuley, Sherman Baird and A.A. Montague, all of Sedalia, Missouri, were slightly bruised and cut up.  The baggage car and smoker were derailed, but not a passenger was hurt.
Engineer Lanam had been on the Katy 14 years and was regarded as one of the most competent engineers.  He was the engineer who pulled the Katy passenger train held up at Caney, I.T. in August of last year.

Denison, Tex., Sept. 14 - Engineer William Lanam, who was killed in the collision at South McAlester, had been in the service of the Katy running out of this city for about 15 years.  He was considered one of the coolest headed and most reliable engineers in the service.  He had had many thrilling experiences in his service.  On August 13, 1901, Lanam was engineer on Katy train No. 3, which was held up at Caney Tank, about 40 miles north of Denison by robbers.  The express car was dynamited and the passengers robbed.
Lanam was cool and self-possessed during the robbery.  When 2 men crawled over the tank of his engine and presented pistols at his head and ordered him to stop his engine at Caney Tank, he had nothing to do but obey.  The robbers left 2 men with six shooters to guard him and the fireman while the other were robbing the train.  Under guard Lanam was cool and jocular and ridiculed the men while they were going through the cars.  He was one of the principal witnesses at the trial of the robbers a few months later and it was partly his testimony that sent them all to the penitentiary for life.  While he was under guard by the robbers he had been able to scrutinize their countenances and was enabled to identify some of the men.
Lanam had been in several close places on the thirteenth of the month, and when some of his friends had asked him if he was not superstitious about that day of the month on account of the serious places it had been his lot to be in on that date, he said he had never had serious trouble on the 13th, but that when his time came to die or get seriously hurt, it would be on the 14th.
While this was said in a jocular mood it proved true that he was to meet death not on the unlucky 13th but the day after .
The dead engineer leaves a widow and 2 children.
Fireman C. Johnson, who was fatally injured, resides at 1211 South Travis Avenue.  He was taken to the hospital at South McAlester after his injury and died about 3 hours later.