John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1864 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train in Vaughan, Mississippi.

Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad, based in Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi. He was noted for his exceptionally punctual schedules, which sometimes required a degree of risk, though this was not a factor on his fatal last journey. However, there is some disagreement about the sequence of events on that night, April 29–30, 1900.

He was due to run the southbound passenger service from Memphis to Canton, Mississippi, departing 11:35 p.m. Owing to the absence of another engineer, he had to take over another service through the day, which may have deprived him of sleep. He eventually departed 75 minutes late but was confident of making up the time with the powerful ten-wheeler Engine No. 382, known as "Cannonball". This was later referenced in a New York newspaper to describe Erwin Baker and his infamous "Cannonball Run".

alt=Casey Jones postcard|thumb|Casey Jones postcard with a commemorative postage stamp

Approaching Vaughan at high speed, he was unaware that three trains were occupying the station, one of which was broken down and directly on his line. Some claim that he ignored a flagman signaling to him, though this person may have been out of sight on a tight bend or obscured by fog. All are agreed, however, that Jones managed to avert a potentially disastrous crash through his exceptional skill at slowing the engine and saving the lives of the passengers at the cost of his own. For this, he was immortalized in a traditional song, "The Ballad of Casey Jones".

Family background

Jones was born in rural southeastern Missouri. The Jones family moved to Cayce, Kentucky, after his mother Ann Nolan Jones and his father Frank Jones, a schoolteacher, decided that the rural areas of Missouri offered few opportunities for their family. It was there that he acquired the nickname of "Cayce", which he chose to spell as "Casey".

Jones met his wife Mary Joanna "Janie" Brady through her father, who owned the boarding house where Jones was staying. Since she was Catholic, he decided to convert and was baptized on November 11, 1886, at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Whistler, Alabama, to please her. They were married at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jackson, Tennessee, on November 25, 1886. They bought a house at West Chester Street in Jackson, where they raised three children.

In the summer of 1887, a yellow fever epidemic struck many train crews on the neighboring Illinois Central Railroad (IC), providing an unexpected opportunity for faster promotion of firemen on that line. On March 1, 1888, Jones switched to IC, firing a freight locomotive between Jackson and Water Valley, Mississippi.

He was promoted to engineer, his lifelong goal, on February 23, 1891. Jones reached the pinnacle of the railroad profession as an expert locomotive engineer for IC. Railroading was a talent, and Jones was recognized by his peers as one of the best engineers in the business. He was known for his insistence that he "get her there on the advertised [time]" and that he never "fall down", meaning he never arrived at his destination behind schedule. He was so punctual, it was said that people set their watches by him. His work in Jackson primarily involved freight service between Jackson and Water Valley. Both locations were busy and important stops for IC, and he developed close ties with them between 1890 and 1900.

  • The Fred J. Lee biography Casey Jones contends that the men arrived in Memphis on No. 4 on April 29 at 9 p.m. They were asked to turn around and take No. 1 back to Canton to fill in for Tate. This would have given them little time to rest, as No. 1 was due out at 11:35 p.m. In both accounts, Jones's regular run included trains 1 and 4.
  • In a third account, trains 3 and 2 were Jones' and Webb's regular run, and they were asked to fill in for Tate that night on No. 1, having arrived that morning on No. 2.

As the crews of the parked freight trains ran to the scene, they quickly extinguished a small fire, caused when the hot coals from the firebox of Jones' engine lit the scattered hay from one of the boxcars. They then approached the overturned locomotive and found Jones' body underneath the cab. There is conjecture about the cause of death; some versions of the story say a piece of lumber was driven through his neck. Another says that one of his arms was ripped from its socket. Yet another states that his skull was crushed, or that he had been scalded to death by escaping steam. Above all, popular legend holds his hands still clutched the whistle cord and brake when his body was pulled from the wreckage. His watch stopped at the time of impact, 3:52 a.m. At any rate, it's believed Jones' actions prevented any other serious injury and death; Jones was the only fatality of the collision. He had been able to reduce his speed to about before impact.

The railroad employees carried Jones' remains over half a mile to the Vaughan depot and laid them upon a baggage cart. The depot was closed for the night, requiring some of the men to kick the door down in order to access the telegraph office to report the crash.

The wrecked 382 was brought to the Water Valley shop and rebuilt. It was soon back in service on the same run with Engineer Harry A. "Dad" Norton in charge—but bad luck seemed to follow it. During its 37 years of service, "Ole 382" was involved in accidents that took six lives before it was retired in July 1935. During its career, the 382 was renumbered 212, 2012, and 5012. as it happened near Kinmundy, Illinois. at age 83. Jones's widow, Janie Brady Jones (born October 29, 1866), died on November 21, 1958, in Jackson at age 92. At the time of Jones' death at age 37, his son Charles was 12, his daughter Helen was 10 and his youngest son John Lloyd (known as "Casey Junior") was 4.

Jones's wife received $3,000 in insurance payments (Jones was a member of two unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and had a $1,500 policy with each union), and later settled with IC for an additional $2,650 (Earl Brewer, a Water Valley attorney who would later serve as Governor of Mississippi, represented her in the settlement). also known as "Casey Jones, the Brave Engineer", recorded by, among others, Billy Murray, Mississippi John Hurt, Harry McClintock, Furry Lewis, Johnny Cash, Ed McCurdy, and played live by the Grateful Dead, as well as Jones' friend Wallace Saunders, an African-American engine wiper for the IC. Songs titled "Casey Jones", usually about the crash or the engineer, have been recorded by Vernon Dalhart (Edison Disc recorded June 16, 1925), This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb, Feverfew (now known as Blueboy), Tom Russell, The New Christy Minstrels, Skillet Lickers, and the Grateful Dead.

Industrial Workers of the World activist Joe Hill wrote and sang a protest song parody of "The Ballad of Casey Jones", entitled "Casey Jones—the Union Scab". The song fictitiously portrays Jones as a strikebreaker at Southern Pacific. Hill's version of the song was later performed and recorded by Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger, in Russian by Leonid Utyosov, and Hungarian by the Szirt Együttes. The historic figure Casey Jones was a dues-paying member of two unions.

Songs about or related to Jones or the crash include:

  • "Casey's Last Ride" – Kris Kristofferson
  • "J C Cohen" a parody by Allan Sherman
  • "Casey Jones" – Johnny Cash
  • "Casey Jones" – Elizabeth Cotten
  • "Do The Paranoid Style" – Bad Religion
  • "Casey Jones" – Grateful Dead
  • "Talking Casey" – Mississippi John Hurt
  • "To the Dogs or Whoever" – Josh Ritter from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
  • "April the 14th Part 1" and "Ruination Day Part 2" – Gillian Welch from Time (The Revelator) — Casey Jones becomes a simile for another great collision, that of the RMS Titanic, on April 14, 1912.
  • "St Luke's Summer" – Thea Gilmore from Rules For Jokers
  • "KC Jones" – North Mississippi Allstars
  • "Ridin' With the Driver" – Motörhead
  • "Casey Jones Was His Name" – Hank Snow
  • "Freight Train Boogie" – Marty Stuart
  • "Freight Train Boogie" - The Delmore Brothers
  • "Knocking Down Casey Jones" – Wilmer Watts
  • "What's Next to the Moon" – AC/DC
  • "Casey Jones—the Union Scab" – Joe Hill
  • "Casey Jones" – Gibson Bros. from "Big Pine Boogie"
  • "Casey Jones" – This Bike is a Pipe Bomb
  • "Casey Jones" – The Black
  • "Casey Jones" – Claudia Lennear
  • "Casey Jones" – Furry Lewis
  • "The Ballad of Casey Jones" – Band of Annuals
  • "Grist for the Malady Mill" – mewithoutYou
  • "What Have They Done To The Trains" – Roy Acuff
  • "Casey Jones" – Tony Trischka
  • "Statecny Strojvudce" – Ladislav Vodicka
  • "Strojvudce Prihoda" – Jiri Voskovec and Jan Werich
  • "Casey Caught the Cannonball" – Jimbo Mathus
  • In the lyrics of their 1964 recording of Wabash Cannonball (found on the album Connie Francis and Hank Williams Jr. Sing Great Country Favorites), Connie Francis and Hank Williams Jr. make reference to Jones: "We'll drink a toast to Casey Jones, may his name forever stand".
  • In the lyrics of "From Dusk to Dawn" by the Fever Dolls, the chorus includes the line "Raise a glass to Casey Jones and to days of past and of fates unknown"

Media references

  • A 1927 movie, Casey Jones (1927), stars Ralph Lewis as Casey Jones, Kate Price as his wife, and a young Jason Robards Sr. as Casey Jones, Jr.
  • The Return of Casey Jones was released by Monogram Pictures in 1933. The movie was based upon the novelette written by John Johns, a real New York Central conductor, originally published in the April 1933 issue of Railroad Stories Magazine. The story was reprinted by Bold Venture Press in 2019 in Railroad Stories #7, collecting other stories by John Johns.
  • In his 1975 painting "Sources of Country Music", Thomas Hart Benton chose Casey Jones' fateful Engine No. 382, the "Cannonball", to represent the influence of railroads on Country Music.
  • A 1938 dramatic play by Robert Ardrey called Casey Jones stars a 1930s version of the hero. It was produced on Broadway with a critically heralded locomotive set-piece by Mordecai Gorelik.
  • In the 1941 Walt Disney movie, Dumbo, a song refers to the engine of the circus train as 'Casey Junior' early in the film. This inspired the Casey Jr. Circus Train attractions found at both Disneyland Park in Anaheim and Disneyland Park in Paris and the Casey Jr. Splash 'n' Soak Station at the Magic Kingdom.
  • In 1950, the Disney studio produced an animated cartoon short based on Casey Jones, entitled The Brave Engineer.
  • From 1954 until 1973, Roger Awsumb played Casey Jones on Lunch With Casey in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market on WTCN-TV.
  • The 1956 James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever references Casey Jones during a train chase.
  • Airing in 1958, Casey Jones was a television series loosely based on Jones's legend. It starred Alan Hale, Jr. as Casey Jones; Hale would later become well remembered for his role as "The Skipper" on the TV series Gilligan's Island. The series only ran for one season, with a total of 32 episodes. Its co-star was Dub Taylor.
  • Beginning in 1950, Good & Plenty candy began an advertising campaign featuring a cartoon character named "Choo-Choo Charlie," a child railroad engineer who appeared in ads featuring a jingle based on "The Ballad of Casey Jones".
  • In an episode of Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels titled "The Legend of Devil's Run", the villain's name is Casey Jones.
  • Sesame Street: "The Ballad Of Casey Macphee" casts the Cookie Monster as an engine driver faced with his train loaded with cookies, chocolate, milk and cows trapped by an avalanche, but while tempted to consume the food bravely chooses to "eat the snow instead".
  • The 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman features a coarse cadence call about "Casey Jones", led by Gunnery Sgt. Foley (Louis Gossett Jr.). It carried over into the real military, until it was outlawed under the regulations regarding sexual harassment.
  • Casey Jones is mentioned in Caryl Phillips's stageplay The Shelter (1984).
  • Casey Jones is the vigilante comrade of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • An episode of The Real Ghostbusters (titled Last Train To Oblivion) (1987) features the ghost of Casey Jones. He abducts Peter Venkman, and always yells at him for more coal. Peter eventually realizes that Jones wants to repeat the journey that killed him, so that he can avoid the collision this time.
  • Neil Young's song "Southern Pacific" alludes to the Casey Jones legend by imagining a railroad engineer named "Mr. Jones" who meets a less heroic but in some ways a more tragic fate: when he turns 65 years old, he is compelled into retirement by the railroad company as "company policy."
  • Tommy Lee Jones' character in the film The Fugitive mentions Casey Jones after the initial train crash of the movie.
  • A 1993 episode of Shining Time Station called "Billy's Runaway Train", includes a play about Casey Jones.
  • In a 1996 The Simpsons episode, "Burns, Baby Burns", guest star Rodney Dangerfield voices a character that chases after a train and calls out to the conductor by referring to him as Casey Jones.
  • In 1997, The Green Bag published a poem by Brainerd Currie, Casey Jones Redivivus, about a man injured in a railroad accident.
  • In 2002, Dharma and Greg episode 19, season 5 "This Diamond Ring", Marlene calls a customer of a bookstore Casey Jones, who wants to buy a book about The Collectors Guide To Modern Railroads and Cooking For One.

Museums

  • The Historic Casey Jones Home & Railroad Museum in Jackson, Tennessee
  • Water Valley Casey Jones Railroad Museum in Water Valley, Mississippi
  • Casey Jones Railroad Museum State Park in Vaughan, Mississippi (Museum closed in 2004)

References

  • A History of Railroad Accidents, Safety Precautions and Operating Practices, by Robert B. Shaw. p290. (1978)
  • Ballad of Casey Jones
  • Photo of Sim Webb
  • U.S. Postage stamp on Casey Jones
  • Life Magazine Jan 26, 1942 story of Casey Jones