"THE TRAIN DEATHS"

One of the most compelling stories to emerge in connection to the Mena, Arkansas drug trade is of "The Train Deaths." Two teenagers were murdered and their murders were covered up by every level of law enforcement. Only one mother's persistance revealed the truth. Justice has not prevailed and probably never will. Saturday night, August 22, 1987: Seventeen year old Kevin Ives and his friend sixteen year old Don Henry set out for a night of deer-hunting. A little after 4:00am they were both hit by a Union-Pacific train heading north. These are the facts everyone agrees on. The controversy is about the hours in-between. Arkansas State Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak ruled the deaths accidental. He was resolutely supported by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Linda Ives, however, refused to believe Malak's ruling that the boys passed out from marijuana use and laid down on the tracks. She pursued this until the bodies were exhumed and reautopsied by a pathologist from Atlanta who concluded that Kevin had been beaten with a rifle butt that crushed his skull and Don died from being stabbed repeatedly with a survival knife - murder. While this should have resulted in punishment for the offenders it resulted in even more cover ups and a still-unsolved double murder in Arkansas.

Hours earlier, Arkansas State Trooper Wayne Lainhart had investigated a report of two gunshots in the area and had found nothing. He also responded to the train collision site and was also quite surprised at the disinterest of the deputies in the possibility of murder. He mentioned this to the deputies and noted that he doubted the deaths were an accident. The EMTs who responded agreed, saying that the color of the blood and internal organs suggested the boys had died much earlier. Lt. Richmond said to treat the deaths as a traffic accident. Traffic accidents in Arkansas require no autopsies so the bodies were sent to a funeral home. Within hours Deputy Tallent changed his mind and had them sent to the state crime lab where Fahmy Malak ruled cause of death as accidental or suicide due to marijuana use.

A witness that night, Ronnie Godwin was going home from Gigi's, a private local nightclub and at Ranchette Grocery Store he saw two police officers beating up two boys. Instead of driving by he pulled behind a row of cargo trailers and watched. The officers continued the beating and finally threw the boys into the back of their unmarked vehicle and drove up a dead-end road to Alexander Mountain. He knew they'd have to come out the same way so he waited and about fifteen minutes later the officers returned and drove off in the direction of the railroad tracks. Mr. Godwin refused to confirm or deny the identities of the officers as Kirk Lane and Jay Campbell. He will not comment at all about this. Another witness - known only as Jerry - saw the same scene that night, also. He reported it at the sheriff's department and was promptly arrested for failure to pay child support, held for ninety days, then released and told to leave town. He did. Finally Linda Ives got the FBI to reopen the case in June of 1994. On November 29, 1985 she was told there was "no evidence that any crime had been committed." End of story as far as law enforcement is concerned.

Early on Sunday morning, August 23, 1987 the Union-Pacific train was heading north with a three-man crew: Conductor Jerry Tomlin; Engineer Stephen Shroyer and Brakeman Danny DeLamar. They crested Bryant's Hill at Alexander, Arkansas (about 25 miles north of Little Rock) and made their descent into the bottomlands below. The passed a crossing and as they approached a small trestle over Crooked Creek they noticed a dark spot on the rails ahead of them. All three men were looking at the spot trying to make out what is was. When they were about a hundred yards away, it dawned on all three in the same instant what they were seeing--two young men and a rifle laying on the tracks. The boys were covered by a pale green tarp from waist to knee. Engineer Shroyer hit the emergency brake and the train whistle at the same time. The boys were laying with their heads against the west rail, facing up with their feet over the east rail. Both had their arms by their sides. Shroyer could not absorb the calmness of the boys as death hurtled loudly toward them. Neither boy jerked, opened his eyes or otherwise moved a muscle.

From the evidence Linda Ives and others have discovered the story emerged of what happened that night. All unofficial, of course, it really can't be any other way without causing great distress to the players involved who are being protected at the highest levels of government. Some of the Mena drops were referred to as "A-12" drops. A-12 drop #49 was a money drop that went missing. It contained a transmitter that could be traced to the CIA. The cops in charge of the missing drop decided to hide out and see who might show up to try and steal another drop. Kevin Ives and Don Henry happened to be in the area of drop #50 and they were ambushed. They were beaten and killed, then placed on the railroad tracks to cover the murders. It didn't work out like that, but the federal government is trying to force-feed us that version regardless of the evidence. The deaths of Kevin Ives and Don Henry are not the first attributed to the Mena, Arkansas cocaine trade and they were not the last. Theirs was the greatest tragedy though, because their only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were killed by the very same police officers who are sworn to "protect and serve" the masses. Personally, I can do without protection and service when the police officers are more corrupt than the "criminals" like Kevin Ives and Don Henry. I would like to someday see justice prevail in this case but it will never happen. I can only hope the souls of these boys are at rest without justice and those responsible "souls" get their just reward someday.

Suddenly the crew saw nothing, but heard them hit the boys. They finally got the train stopped a half-mile from when the emergency brake was first applied. Shroyer stayed on the train with the radio while Tomlin and DeLamar walked back to confront the carnage. About thirty-five cars back they found the first body part. The remaining body parts were strewn over a quarter-mile area. Both men noticed that the blood didn't look right. It was way darker than fresh blood ought to be.

The Saline County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene at 4:40am, thirteen minutes after the crew reported the collision. Deputy Chuck Tallent and Lt. Ray Richmond were the responding officers. Despite the crew's information, the deputies insisted on treating the scene as if it were an accident scene. Conductor Tomlin blandly observed, "One boy not moving--maybe. But two? I have some trouble with that."

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