William Palmini - Murder on the Rails. The True Story of the Detective Who Unlocked the Shocking Secrets of the Boxcar...

Lt. William G. Palmini, Jr.
and
Tanya Chalupa

New Horizon Press
Far Hills, New Jersey

Copyright 2004 by William G. Palmini and Tanya Chalupa

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, including electronic, mechanical or any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher.

Requests for permission should be addressed to:

New Horizon Press

P.O. Box 669

Far Hills, NJ 07931

Palmini, William G. and Tanya Chalupa

Murder on the Rails:

The True Story of the Detective Who Unlocked the Shocking Secrets
of the Boxcar Serial Killer

Cover Design: Wendy Bass

Interior Design: Susan M. Sanderson

Library of Congress Control Number: 200410801

ISBN-13 (eBook): 978-0-88282-446-8

New Horizon Press

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

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This book could not have been written without the help and guidance of many individuals. First, the authors would like to thank our agent Jake Elwell for his faith and direction.

In the research for this book, our special thanks go to the following individuals for their assistance and input: Sergeant Mike Allison of the Roseville Police Department, California, Detective Bill Summers of the Placer County Sheriff's Office, California, and Detective Mike Quakenbush, Salem Police Department, Oregon. The authors also thank and acknowledge the following law enforcement officers for their contributions: Sergeant Wade Harper, Emeryville Police Department; retired Sergeant Douglas Bera, Woodland Police Department; Officer Keith Libby, Barstow Police Department; Detective Jack Underhill, Colton Police Department; Detective Jim Rider, Big Spring Police Department; Sergeant Donna Brown and Sergeant Jeff Johnson, Tallahassee Police Department; Detective Guy Yoshikawa, Salt Lake City Police Department; Special Agent Bruce Mellor, Kansas Bureau of Investigation; Agent Barry Galloway, California Department of Justice and Detective Kevin Horn, formerly with the Albany Police Department now serving as International Police Advisor in Iraq; retired Sergeant Ken Whitley for his expertise on prison tattoos.

We are also grateful to Mary Silveria for her generosity in sharing so much of her life with Robert Joseph Silveria Jr., and to Naomi Correia for her lively accounts of life on the edge. Also, many thanks to the members of the FTRA who allowed us into their world. Some of the names in this book have been changed.

This book is based on the experiences of William G. Palmini, Jr. and reflects his perceptions of the past, present and future. The personalities, events, actions and conversations portrayed within the story have been taken from his memories, court documents, interviews, testimony, research, letters, personal papers, press accounts and the memories of some participants.

In an effort to safeguard the privacy of certain people, names and a few identifying characteristics have, in some cases, been changed. Events involving the characters happened as described. Only minor details have been altered.

Robert Silveria Jr. was not the only killer I dealt with in my thirty-six years in law enforcement. I investigated scores of high profile crime cases before he came along. What made him different when we finally came face to face was his ability to make me forget, for at least a few moments, that I was dealing with a brutal killer with a long and bloody trail who had committed heinous crimes against fellow human beings.

Silveria pulled me into his world not once, not twice but three times, until I finally stopped to take a good look at what was happening. I used to buy into all the classic textbook explanations about serial killers. Silveria made me realize that not all serial killers are from the same mold and neither are all cops. And while all investigations into murders should be judged equally important, the fact is, theyre not. We live in a strange world, where what appears simple can be incredibly complex. Nothing points this out better than the elusive, entangled case of the Boxcar Serial Murderer. His was the kind of case that comes only once in a cops career, if ever.

As time passed and I combined the clues and insights that came from the investigation, as well as from talks with members of his family, friends and other members of his group, with what I personally saw and learned from Silveria, I recognized that Silverias early years were filled with classic signs of what was to come. At an early age, he was using drugs, robbing homes and doing poorly in school. Though he grew up in a comfortable, middle-class home, these attributes contain many of the characteristics of a serial killer. One of these is that the killer tends to be a white male with destructive behavior evident in his early years, from a middle-class or upper-middle-class background.

Serial killers usually dont stand out in a crowd. They tend to blend in with their environment. They can be married with children, successful at work and even admired by the community while carrying out a pattern of murders. When they are finally caught, neighbors, friends, and family members are usually astounded by the revelation.

It is in the way they view others that the classic psychopathic tendencies are shown. Serial killers view their victims and other people as inanimate objects. They feel no remorse for their victims. Finally, serial killers usually have a good intellect, which helps them avert attention and makes them capable of selecting perfect victims. These psychopaths are usually caught by accident and tend to think that no human being can be as clever or as bright as they are.

There is no certainty as to whether serial killers are made or born or if they can be changed. Its believed that the personalities of future serial killers are formed at the end of the first year of infancy. From an early age they show violent and/or antisocial tendencies. If they are let out of confinement, the history of some shows they will kill again and again. Nevertheless, Silverias life, while he appears to share much with the classic definitions of serial killers, raises interesting questions.

Eventually, I came to understand that Silverias madness had a purpose to it that went beyond the rage guiding it. He drew attention to the group of which he was a part, a violent sub-culture the American public wasnt even aware existed, the Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA). I learned that the organization was made up of an invisible population of train hoppers who survive on the forgotten edge of society, where men give up their original names for monikers that fellow train-hoppers choose for them. The group is loosely structured, a shadow segment of society boasting a membership estimated to be in the thousands. As in the old days of the Wild West, they live by their own code of honor and, most of all, silence. They can be spotted in every town a railroad passes through, rarely wandering outside their self-imposed boundaries of rescue missions and rail yards. Many are fugitives shying away from the law. As a member of the vicious FTRA execution squad, Silveria was a man trapped in his own worst nightmare. He spun a deadly web around the fate of others, earning himself the dubious honor of becoming the first known rail riding serial killer in more than a hundred years of railroad history.

What I didnt know when we first met was the long and strange history I would have with Silveria, returning not only to the case within my jurisdiction but to his convoluted and violent history long after the books on him were closed, until finally, the pieces of the puzzle fit and I came to understand the whole untold story.