Publicity Hurts Man Queried in Derailment

A Val Verde man who was investigated in the sabotage of an Amtrak train says his own railroad-related business has been destroyed by the unwanted attention, even though no charges have been brought against him.

John Ernest Olin’s California home was searched Dec. 13 by federal investigators, who took typewriters, railroad-related tools and other belongings.

“I’m devastated. I’m losing everything,” Olin told The Arizona Republic from his home.

Olin, who has denied any involvement with the derailment, said he has submitted to fingerprinting, footprinting and polygraph testing in cooperation with federal investigators.

Federal officials have refused to discuss their investigation of Olin, who has been involved in disputes with several railroads, including Amtrak and Southern Pacific.

Saboteurs loosened rails on Southern Pacific tracks near Hyder, about 55 miles southwest of Phoenix, sending most of the cars of Amtrak’s Sunset Limited plunging off a bridge into a desert gulch early Oct. 9. A crewman was killed and 78 passengers and others were injured.

Calling the sabotage an outrage, Olin said he’s looking forward to the arrest of those who did it.

“They should just shoot ‘em,” he said. “No trial. No nothing. Those people are terrorists.”

Olin’s company, Environmental Care and Clean-up Project Inc., clears weeds, metal and other debris from railroad rights-of-way in Arizona, New Mexico and California.

Olin said his company has lost more than $7 million in contracts because of the federal attention, even though investigators have never made any accusations against him in the derailment. He said he has had to lay off about 60 employees and begin liquidating equipment, including some of the company’s 35 trucks.

Olin’s attorney has said receipts and witnesses prove Olin was in Val Verde a few hours before the train wreck, putting him several hours’ drive from Hyder.

Part of the problem of being the subject of an investigation is the errors that occur in news reports, Olin said. One such error, he said, was the early reports quoting Army Reserve Personnel Center officials as saying that he was kicked out of a reserve unit, when in fact, the incident involved an impostor using Olin’s name.