FTRA suspected in serial murders of trainhoppers FWD
Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Mon, 5 Oct 1998 01:15:29 -0400
http://www.foxnews.com/foxfiles/081398/main.sml
=46WD Fox News - Show air date - August 13, 1998
THE MURDER TRAIN
Every year, tens of thousands jump train boxcars to catch a free ride
along the rails inside an empty car. But while the freedom of the rails
may carry its thrills, it also caters to killers on the run.
Over the past two decades, a gang known as the Freight Train Riders
of America has emerged from the boxcars and freight yards
crisscrossing the country. Police suspect the gang, which is
concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, may be responsible for hundreds
of assaults, thefts and murders along rail lines in the past 20 years.
The problem is, each part of a boxcar crime is mobile - the victim,
the suspect and the crime scene - making an investigation especially
tough.
"It could be a day or a week before the body is found," Bob Grandinetti,
a Spokane police detective who has tracked the FTRA, told Fox files.
"By that time, the evidence is gone, all the suspects, the witnesses are
gone. They could be 10, 20 states away."
In recent years, however, police have managed to apprehend and convict
two suspected FTRA gang members for murder. This week, Fox files
airs exclusive video and interviews from two of FTRA's most feared
killers: Robert Silveria, known as Sidetrack Silveria and Marvin
Moore, a.k.a. Mississippi Bones. Both men are now serving time for
boxcar murders.
Moore is serving 25 years for the murder of one rail rider, but he has
allegedly admitted to killing nine others. He targeted casual riders who
jumped onto boxcars for fun.
"They don=EDt even get a chance to get their pack off," he told Fox files.
Silveria, meanwhile, has pleaded guilty to four murders, but authorities
suspect he killed up to 28 or more. He killed to steal the gear of
day-tripping train-hoppers, like 39-year-old William Petit.
"When I was walking back to the boxcar, I was thinking, well, he's got
a mountain bike and back pack. I'm just going to rob him. And then
something told me, no, you're going to kill him. And that's what I
did," Silveria said, confessing to the 1995 bludgeoning of Petit.
Stealing gear wasn't Silveria's only motive. He also killed to prey
upon the growing numbers of day-tripping rail riders who wander into a
world where the estimated 1,000 FTRA members have roamed for
years.
As Silveria said while confessing to another crime, the murder of
20-year-old Michael Garfinkle, "He was, you know, not a real rail
rider."
END FORWARD
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