www.DistinctlyMontana.com
37
With lanterns, clubs and guns, they rousted the hobos out of
boxcars, hurling blows, invectives, and sometimes bullets at them.
Some railyards were reasonably lenient, turning a blind eye to the
largely innocuous hobos looking for work. But some bulls were
so zealous and violent in their pursuit of hobos that they seemed
to take a sadistic pleasure in the carte blanche granted them to
cause pain. Those "catching out" would hope to avoid bulls like
Jeff Carr, who acquired a reputation for viciousness along the
Union Pacific line. Having failed to catch Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid in an earlier phase of life, he con-
soled himself with murder. According to onetime
hobo and crime writer Jack Black, Carr "is a rail-
road bull and he is bum simple—simple mind-
ed on the subject of killing bums. If you run
he'll shoot you; if you stand he'll get you
six months, and he'd rather you run." Carr
would later serve as the inspiration for
Ernest Borgnine's murderous Conductor
in the film Emperor of the North, starring
Lee Marvin.
Sometimes, however, it was the bull
that got the horns. They might try to
roust what they think is a garden va-
riety vagrant and find someone like
Carl Panzram, born in Minnesota
before escaping reform school
at 14 and riding the rails west
to embark on a career of mur-
der, church burning, and rape.
Panzram was arrested in Butte,
Miles City, and Helena before
eventually committing at
least 22 murders. But then,
Panzram wasn't a hobo; he
didn't like to work. Or rath-
er, the work he enjoyed
most was burglary, arson,
robbery, murder, and
rape. So let's not paint
Panzram as a hobo; he
was, at best, a particu-
larly nasty yegg.
For all that, despite
the risk of violence,
starvation, and derail-
ment, the thought of
a place like Montana in
summer must have sounded
like a trip to the fabled "lemonade
springs where the bluebird sings in the
Big Rock Candy Mountains."
THOSE
"
CATCHING OUT
"
WOULD HOPE TO AVOID BULLS LIKE JEFF CARR,
WHO ACQUIRED A REPUTATION FOR VICIOUSNESS...
