Freight Train Riders of America

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The Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA) is an American gang of homeless men who move about in railroad cars, particularly in the northwestern United States.

Contents

[edit] History and background

The FTRA is believed to have been founded in the early 1980s in Montana.

Members of the FTRA claim to be a loosely knit club of homeless people organized for mutual support. Some homeless people not associated with the FTRA claim good experiences interacting with FTRA members; others report bad experiences with them. Complicating the matter is that many railroad officials consider the very existence of the FTRA to be an urban legend, others will say that they believe the group exists but have never seen any actual evidence of their activities, and others will say they have seen evidence the group exists but not that they are the violent, criminal group they are claimed to be.[1]

Believed to number as many as 1,000, FTRA members are most frequently encountered along the BNSF Railway's Hi-Line, which stretches from Minneapolis to Seattle, often sleeping in switching yards, bridge underpasses and boxcars along the route.

[edit] Criminal accusations

Retired Spokane police officer Bob Grandinetti has specialized in investigating the FTRA, both as a Spokane police officer and since his retirement. He has linked members of the group to food stamp fraud, illegal drug trafficking, and hundreds of thefts, as well as brutal assaults and murders committed against other transients, hobos, and freighthoppers. It is important to note that an individual who represents themselves as FTRA-affiliated does not criminalize the entire group by default.

A series of murders of transients along the rails committed by a serial murderer, Robert Joseph Silveria Jr. (aka "Sidetrack"), led to police and media attention on the FTRA, including a May 1996 murder which led to the FTRA's being profiled on America's Most Wanted. Silveria claims to have not been a member of the FTRA, but former police officer Bill Palmini, in his book Murder on the Rails about the Silveria murders, says he was a member. Robert Silveria is currently serving a double life sentence in Oregon for the murders.

Some graffiti attributed to FTRA members[according to whom?] has included Nazi swastikas; this has led to speculation that the FTRA has a white supremacist orientation and comparisons to the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Since no other evidence exists other than the graffiti for the FTRA being a white supremacist group, these allegations are generally discounted. Most other homeless people who have interacted with FTRA members compare them to the Hells Angels motorcycle club, not to the Aryan Brotherhood. Much of the hype on the FTRA is overstated.

Realistically, any distinction of FTRA as an organization, or a count of its members, is a loose one at best due to the circumstances inherent to rail-riding, and to homelessness in general. This also speaks to the contradictory information regarding whether or not FTRA is a criminal group, or embraces white supremacism in any 'official' capacity. A sensible inference is that, while FTRA was 'founded' on the basis of camaraderie between people sharing a similar lifestyle, and not as a criminal nor a hate group, individuals claiming membership may commit criminal acts or harbour supremacist ideologies, irrespective of FTRA itself, and for which they alone are responsible.

[edit] The FTRA in popular culture

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Valdemar, Richard (30 November 2007), "The Freight Train Riders of America", Police, The Law Enforcement Magazine, http://www.policemag.com/Blog/Gangs/Story/2007/11/The-Freight-Train-Riders-of-America.aspx, retrieved 22 October 2009 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freight_Train_Riders_of_America"
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