Payette-Ada County ID Archives Obituaries.....Jennings, David Floyd 1924 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/id/idfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Cheryl Hanson ihansonb@fmtc.com December 21, 2005, 5:26 pm The Payette Independent 8-28-1924 The Payette Independent Payette, Idaho Thursday, August 28, 1924 SHORT LINE BRAKEMAN KILLED BY ANOTHER Dave Jennings Shot Down Without Warning on Boise Depot Platform by Nick Watkins - Will Plead Unwritten Law BOISE - "the unwritten law" will be the defense of Nick Watkins, O. S. L. brakeman who slew Dave Jennings Tuesday by shooting him in the back. Watkins, driven "temporarily insane" because of an alleged relationship between his wife and Jennings, was not responsible for the brutal act. This is what Defense Attorney Albert S. Delana will endeavor to show the jury when his client goes on trial, although he himself is not responsible for the statement. With five bullet wounds in his body, shot at a range of less than 10 feet, Dave Jennings, O. S. L. brakeman, sank mortally wounded to the station depot Tuesday morning at 11:30 o'clock as he was helping a woman passenger alight from the "Pony" train. His slayer was Nick Watkins, another brakeman, who shot his victim once in the back, once in the side as he was reeling to the pavement and thrice in his prostrate body. "Dave, Dave, speak to me," cried Mrs. W. N. Clifton, who had ridden on Jennings' train from Huntington, as she knelt beside the dying man. But Jennings could only answer with moans. In a few minutes he was dead. Handing his gun to another brakeman, Watkins walked into the baggage depot and gave himself up to James Coughlin, a conductor on the train. Ira Emory, patrolman, made the arrest and took Watkins to the sheriff's office. "I want to see Elbert Delana," he told Emory on the way to the jail and by coincidence Mr. Delana was in the sheriff's office when the prisoner entered. In a tiny cell in the Ada county jail, Watkins, highly nervous and unstrung, a cigaret twitching between his lips, received a Capital News reporter with anything but a welcome. "No, it wasn't from a scrap over booze," he said, defiantly. "I don't want to talk to you. You're doing me a disfavor, I'll give you the essential details later. I should say it wasn't over booze. I don't want to see you. "I'm not as crazy as I look," either, I'm a grieved man, that's what I am." The prisoner endeavored to concentrate his mind on a list of things he wanted which he had been endeavoring to write on a pad of paper the sheriff gave him. He pretended not to hear the reporter's questions. Several theories as to Watkins motive were advanced by officers, but it is said that they eliminated all of them except the "triangle" theory. The slain man lived at 1120 State and has a wife and one child. Watkins lives at 427 South Eleventh street. He is married but has no children. The shooting was witnessed by a number of passengers and railroad men whose versions of the affair differed but little in their essential details. Mrs. Clifton told a Capital News reporter a few minutes after the shooting and before the coroner had arrived on the scene, that she had ridden with Jennings from Huntington, where the train is made up. When the train stopped in Boise he alighted and was in the act of assisting her down the car steps when Watkins approached. "He didn't say a single work," Mrs. Clifton related. "When he was only a little bit away he started shooting. Dave fell at the first shot. As he was reeling, half turned toward Watkins, he was shot again. And then three times more." Mrs. Clifton said that she was acquainted with both men, that both were sober and industrious and that she had never known of any trouble between them. Others who knew the victim and the assailant made similar statements, including the conductor, Mr. Coughlin, who lives at 421 Main Street. Both men, he said, had acted as brakemen on his trains - Jennings for the past four or five years. He spoke highly of the reputations of each. "They were easy to get along with, as far as I ever knew," said Mr. Coughlin. "I didn't know they were enemies." On the platform of the car awaiting their turn to get off the train, were Mrs. J. A. Steele and daughters, whose version was substantially the same as given by Mrs. Clifton. It was only a few minutes after the slaying that the deputy sheriffs and Coroner William McBratney were on the scene taking names of whitnesses and interviewing them briefly. A large crowd gathered almost immediately and when the ambulance arrived, attendants had difficulty forcing their way through with the basket in which the body was to be place. Additional Comments: According to the Idaho Death Index, David Floyd Jennings was born 8-24-1892 and died 8-26-1924. ch File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/id/payette/obits/j/jennings1105nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/idfiles/ File size: 5.2 Kb