The 100th anniversary of a notable American crime is approaching. It was on October 11, 1923 that three young men--brothers--attempted to hold up a Southern Pacific passenger train at Tunnel 13, under the road to Mount Ashland. The robbery failed, and the DeAutremont Brothers ended up killing four members of the train crew.
A special live edition of Underground History will be held at Ashland Hills Inn on October 11th, and Chelsea Rose is covering several aspects of the incident in the UH podcasts. The tracking of the murderers involved some of the first uses of what we know today as forensic science. And Ashland is home to a federal laboratory using such science to investigate crimes involving animals. Barry Baker, the Deputy Director of the lab, talks about the growth of the science from a century-old tragedy.