Two Men Confess to Burning a Northern Pacific Bridge Near Thorp
Charles Matson and John Goes plead guilty to arson on the railroad; John Green denies the charge as the court postpones sentencing.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Charles Matson and John Goes, who are charged with burning a bridge on the Northern Pacific road near Thorp on July 11, pleaded guilty before Judge Hanford yesterday, and John Green, who is accused with them, pleaded not guilty. Green’s trial was postponed till tomorrow at 9 a.m., and sentence was postponed in the cases of Matson and Goes until after Green’s trial, so that the court may better judge of the facts of the case by the evidence submitted.
“Charles Matson and John Goes ... pleaded guilty before Judge Hanford yesterday, and John Green ... pleaded not guilty.”
Arson on a railroad bridge was a serious crime in a region dependent on rail, and the Thorp case shows how quickly a local courtroom became a stage for the conflicts of the 1890s. Today, attacks on transportation infrastructure are treated as federal offenses, and the same questions about sabotage, evidence, and conspiracy still shape such prosecutions.
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