The Bureau Can't Get Its Fax Straight

For almost two years, the FBI has been investigating the October 1995 derailment of an Amtrak train in Hyder, Arizona, an accident which killed one railroad worker and injured more than 100 passengers. Investigators believe someone had triggered the deadly crash by tampering with railroad tracks. Code named "Splitrail," the FBI probe is one of a handful of major cases highlighted on the bureau's web page, which appeals to the public for help in solving the crime. Earlier this month, the FBI's Phoenix office forwarded a memo to federal prosecutors detailing aspects of the Splitrail probe, including the name of an "additional suspect" in the case. The FBI fax was supposed to have been sent to the U.S. Attorney's Office, but that's not where it went. A bureau employee apparently pressed a wrong button on the FBI fax machine and sent the memo instead to local media outlets (as if the document was a press release). Here's the memo and the accompanying fax cover sheet. If "suspect" Stephen Albert Mills is cleared of any wrongdoing, he might want to dial up Richard Jewell for litigation advice. (3 pages)