Coughlin killed on tracks

HISTORY train Luray

May 15, 1890 — Last Friday Coroner Dr. Hudson received a dispatch from Shenandoah announcing the death of Thos. Coughlin at that place, which had occurred but a few hours before.

The doctor went promptly to examine into the circumstances attending his death, and ascertained the following facts:

That Coughlin had left Shenandoah considerably under the influence of liquor for his home about a mile south of the town a short while before the departure of train No. 4 for this place.

His body was found soon after in a horribly mutilated condition — his head severed from the trunk — and other ghastly mutilations, giving unmistakable evidence that he had been run over by the train.

The coroner upon the ascertainment of these facts deemed an inquest unnecessary and turned the body over to his friends for burial.

Mr. Coughlin leaves a wife and three children. His wife is a daughter of Mr. John Sindlinger, of Shenandoah.

He was universally popular and his death is deeply deplored by all who knew him.

~ From the public archives of the Page News and Courier

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