John Crawford

John H. Crawford, a 28-year-old male, died in Birmingham, Alabama, on February 16, 1908, when a routine night on the Southern Railway turned into something far uglier than an accident. He was working as a special policeman for the railroad, the kind of job that put a man alone with the dark stretches of track, the rattle of freight cars, and the steady threat of trespassers and thieves who used the rail lines as both road and hiding place.

Sometime that night, Crawford encountered three ...

Special Policeman J. H. Crawford