1. Railroad Bill was eventually shot dead in an ambush at a store he was known to visit.
16 Facts About Railroad Bill
1. 2.
Slater is celebrated in the folk-ballad "Railroad Bill", which has been recorded by numerous artists, including Lonnie Donegan, Taj Mahal, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Andrew Bird, Roger McGuinn, Doc Watson, and Dave Alvin.
3.
Railroad Bill joined a turpentine company in South Carolina and continued with the firm when it moved to Baldwin County, Alabama, and Bluff Springs, Florida.
4.
Railroad Bill responded by dispatching detectives to investigate the offender and offering a $350 reward for his capture.
5.
Railroad Bill forced the trainmen to seek refuge in a section house where they were reinforced by a bridge crew and armed themselves with shotguns.
6.
Railroad Bill sprang into the cab and forced the engineer to drive it out of the station.
7.
The gunfight lasted until Railroad Bill ran out of ammunition and escaped into the swamplands.
8.
Railroad Bill was familiar with the desperado and made a public promise to capture him.
9.
Railroad Bill made arrangements to rendezvous with Stinson a few nights later at a remote cabin by a railroad track in Mount Vernon, Alabama.
10.
Railroad Bill had learned of the plan and had avoided the attack.
11.
In July 1895, Sheriff McMillan at Brewton, Alabama, learned that Railroad Bill was in Bluff Springs, Florida.
12.
Railroad Bill's trail was located in Escambia County, Alabama on July 29,1895, and a posse followed it into the swamplands of Murder Creek, between Brewton and Castleberry, Alabama.
13.
Railroad Bill's growing legacy of miraculous escapes, which would ultimately number about seventeen, led to a profusion of tongue-in-cheek stories by African Americans taunting the failure of authorities to hem in the nationally-famous desperado.
14.
On March 7,1896, Railroad Bill was cornered and killed inside a general store in Atmore, Alabama.
15.
One posse member entered the store about the same time as Railroad Bill and waited for the second posse member, Atmore Constable Leonard McGowin, to arrive.
16.
The body of Railroad Bill was embalmed and transported by officers to Montgomery, Alabama, for official identification that would qualify the payment of reward money.