On a cold New Year's Eve in 1978, the life of 42-year-old Robert Lee Blake, a flagman for the railroad, was tragically cut short in a violent rampage at the train depot in Jackson, Michigan. Blake, a male from Southgate, was one of three railroad employees who fell victim to a disgruntled former railway worker named Rudy Bladel. Bladel, known as 'The Railway Killer,' harbored a deep-seated grudge against railroad employees after losing his job following a merger.
His anger festered for years, eventually leading him to seek revenge.
On that fateful evening, Bladel entered the Jackson depot armed with a 12-gauge shotgun he had concealed in a suitcase. He first encountered Robert Lee Blake and a conductor, 50-year-old William Gulak of Lincoln Park, shooting both men at close range. As Bladel was leaving the room, he came across 32-year-old fireman Charles Lee Burton of Jackson, who was peeking in after hearing the commotion. Bladel shot him as well, leaving a scene of carnage in his wake before disassembling his weapon and hiding it under some bushes.
The investigation into the triple homicide quickly pointed authorities toward Rudy Bladel, who was already a suspect in a series of other attacks on railroad workers in Michigan and Indiana dating back to 1963. He was arrested on March 22, 1979, and initially confessed to the Jackson murders. However, the legal journey to hold him accountable was fraught with complexities. Bladel's confession was challenged on the grounds that it was obtained without his lawyer present, a case that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Despite his initial confession being overturned, Bladel was tried and convicted of the three murders. He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison. A second trial was held in 1987 after the initial conviction was overturned, and again, he was found guilty and sentenced to life. Rudy Bladel, the man responsible for the death of Robert Lee Blake and several others, died of thyroid cancer in a Jackson, Michigan hospital on November 15, 2006, while still serving his sentence.
