DEATHS OF RANDALL & CARROLL PROBED by Coroners Jury As was announced in Saturday's telegraph the mutilated bodies of the men were found by a switching crew at 1:30 a.m. It developed at the inquest that Randall
had stopped at the depot after midnight for a match and it is presumed they were walking west on the tracks enroute to Randall's rooming house in the 300 block on Wallace street.
The train crew was unaware the men had been struck until the train was stopped at Cedar Rapids, Iowa for refueling.
Randall was decapitated and both legs severed and Carroll's head was so battered that he was identified only by a scar on the bridge of the nose. His legs also were severed.
Randall was born Nov. 18, 1892, at Amboy, the son of William and Alice Randall. He moved to Sterling about 1910. He was married Feb. 10, 1917 to Flossie Owens, who died several years ago.
He was employed as a brakeman on the Chicago & Northwestern for 20 years until he terminated his employment with the railroad about 12 years ago.
Survivors include four daughters, Mrs. Stacy Morehead and Miss Janet Randall, both of Sterling and Mrs. Harold Hurd, Jr. and Mrs. John B. VanDenson both of Harmon; his mother Mrs. Alice Randall of Dixon; a brother
Roy Randall of Dixon and six sisters; Mrs. Charles Shearer of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., Mrs. Lee Cook of Sterling and Mmes. Evelyn Reynolds, Charles Laidig, Bert Britt and William Gerdes all of Dixon.
Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Wednesday at Woods funeral home in Sterling. Burial will be in the Rock Falls Cemetery.
Carroll was born July 14, 1876 in Harmon the son of Barney and Anna Carroll. He was employed by the Northern Utility Co. for several years. He is survived by a brother Thomas Carroll of Walton. Two sisters Mrs. Edward Fagan of Sterling
and Mrs. Mary Stucker of Dixon died previously.
Burial services will be held at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Oakwood cemetery Dixon.
Dixon Evening Telegraph 12 June 1944
Two Killed by Northwestern Fast Mail Saturday Morn
A Jury impannelled by Coroner Dr. C.M. Frye of Whiteside county Saturday afternoon found that Walter Charles (Buck) Randall, 51 and
James Carroll, 67 had been killed by being struck by the Chicago & Northwestern fast mail train at about 12:25 o'clock Saturday morning near the Avenue A
crossing, about a block west of Sterling passenger station.
