On a cold afternoon in late February 1924, the quiet town of Porter, Indiana, was shaken by the discovery of a brutal crime involving one of its local railroad workers. John LaBorn, a 65-year-old male resident of the area, was found dead inside his humble dwelling, which was described as a shanty or converted car home situated near the tracks. LaBorn had been employed as a trackman for the Michigan Central Railroad for over a decade and was known to be a man of significant physical stature, weighing over 225 pounds. Concerns arose after he failed to report for his shift on a Monday, leading his section foreman, James Davy, to check on his well-being the following Tuesday afternoon.
Upon entering the residence, the foreman discovered LaBorn sitting lifeless in a chair, his head slumped slightly forward. The scene revealed that he had been the victim of a violent homicide, having sustained two gunshot wounds to the forehead.
Blood from the lethal injuries had stained his clothing, and there were clear signs that the dwelling had been ransacked. His sweater had been pulled up, and his pockets were turned inside out, indicating that the perpetrator had rifled through his person in search of valuables. Authorities estimated that LaBorn had been deceased for two or three days prior to the discovery of his body, placing the likely date of his death around February 24, 1924.
Investigators determined that the primary motive for the slaying was robbery. Local rumors suggested that LaBorn had at one time possessed a considerable fortune, perhaps as much as $70,000, though it was believed he had lost much of his wealth in failed business dealings. despite the thorough search of his pockets by the assailant, the killer missed a significant sum of money hidden within the home. Officers processing the crime scene located $236 concealed in a wood box, which the intruder had overlooked during the search.
Despite the violent nature of the crime and the robbery motive, justice remained elusive. In the years following the murder, local reports lamented the lack of progress in the case, noting that authorities were still searching for the killer decades later. The investigation was hampered by a lack of witnesses and the isolated nature of LaBorn's living situation. No specific suspects were publicly named or charged in the immediate aftermath, and the murder of the railroad trackman became one of the county's enduring unsolved mysteries, with observers later remarking on the difficulty law enforcement faced in closing homicide cases in the region during that era.
