In the early morning hours of December 7, 1911, in Memphis, Tennessee, Special Policeman Victor C. Benner of the Illinois Central Railroad Police Department was shot and killed. He was riding on a switch engine with two U.S. Deputy Marshals, traveling south from the McLemore Yards toward the Nonconnah Yards. When the engine stopped near Horn Lake Road for the conductor to throw a switch, a group of other railroad guards who had been drinking nearby mistook the men on the engine for trespassers and opened fire.
A bullet struck Special Policeman Benner in the neck, killing him instantly. The two deputy marshals returned fire, wounding two of the guards. In the exchange of gunfire, one of the deputy marshals, George W. Dillaway, was struck in the chest. He would succumb to his wound seven days later. Despite the deadly outcome of their actions, none of the intoxicated guards who initiated the shooting were ever prosecuted for the murders of Special Policeman Benner and Deputy Marshal Dillaway.
