Robert Silvera's home page
Back to the Famous FTRA killers page
Side Track
AKA:
Robert Silvera's home page
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Has confessed to four killings last time I checked,maybe more by now!
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Conspicously absent from these tags and from Silveras jacket are any of the swastikas
and SS lightning bolts for which according to media fiction FTRA grafittie is supposed
to be so famous for!
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According to this new FTRA dude:
"Side Track is a dip shit. He was old FTRA and probably did kill, however,
I think he was a Psyco not typical because hitler was a killer doesnt mean all black
headed men are killers. I'm new FTRA I'm not the old wore out FTRA bums."
According to Dective Quakenbush, Silvera is
the Leader of the FTRA
some good info on how they caught
Silvera in roseville who is suspected of 20 murders
Silvera who is already doing two live sentinces gets a third life sentence in Kansas.
Since he was only killing train bums nobody really gives a shit about spending the
money to put him to death. Click the link to read the original or read my copy below
http://cda.net/stories/1998/May/21/S393956.asp
March 21 1998
`Boxcar Killer' convicted in Kansas
Man already sentenced in Oregon slayings
Associated Press
The so-called ``Boxcar Killer,'' linked to a series of hobo killings in seven
states, including Washington, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder and
was sentenced to life in prison for the bludgeoning death of a man at a state park.
Before he was sentenced by Ellsworth County District Judge Barry Bennington, Robert
Silveria, 39, apologized to relatives of Charles Randall Boyd, who was beaten to
death in a collapsed tent at Kanopolis Lake's South Shore State Park.
Court records show Boyd, who was in his 40s, met Silveria in El Paso, Texas, while
Boyd was building a bunk house for a youth ranch managed by Christ is the Answer
Mission. Silveria returned with him to the ranch and later traveled with him to Kansas.
When Boyd's body was discovered in July 1995, Silveria was nowhere to be found.
Also missing were Boyd's identification, personal belongings and vehicle.
Silveria was arrested by a railroad police officer eight months later in Auburn,
Calif. He had Boyd's credit cards with him, prosecutors said.
The judge ordered Silveria to serve his sentence consecutive to two life sentences,
both without parole, that he already faces in Oregon for his convictions of two killings
there.
A serial killer provision in the Kansas death penalty statute allows capital murder
charges for the premeditated killing of more than one person in two or more acts.
But Ellsworth County prosecutor Joe Shepack said he did not pursue the death penalty
because of limited resources.
``Part of it is cost. Part of it is not necessarily dollars and cents, it's applying
fairly stretched law enforcement resources and prosecutorial resources elsewhere,''
Shepack said Wednesday night in a telephone interview. ``Do I feel comfortable with
three or four life sentences? Yes.''
After his arrest in California, Silveria was ultimately linked to more than a
dozen homicides in seven states during a 15-year period.
Most victims were killed in their sleep for their identification and other belongings.
Police say Silveria used birth certificates, Social Security cards and the names
of his victims to obtain food stamps and other public assistance.
Oregon prosecutors were the first to file charges against Silveria, accusing him
of robbing and killing William Avis Pettit, 39, of Salem on Dec. 1, 1995. Pettit's
battered body was found in a boxcar.
In Florida, Silveria is accused of killing Willie Clark, 52.
It was uncertain Wednesday whether Florida officials would seek Silveria's immediate
extradition or if Silveria would return to Oregon.
Boxcar
serial killer' pleads guilty
By Wayne Wilson
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Feb. 8, 1998)
Robert Joseph Silveria
A boxcar-riding transient who confessed to killing more than a dozen men in railroad
yards across the country has formally pleaded guilty to two slayings in Oregon and
will soon be on his way to prosecution in Kansas or Florida.
Robert Joseph Silveria, 38, was arrested in Roseville by an alert
railroad cop in March 1996 and, during a 10-day stay in the Placer County jail, provided
investigators from seven states with enough detailed information about a series of
homicides to become known as the "boxcar serial killer."
That description was solidified when Silveria tearfully pleaded guilty before
Marion County, Ore., Circuit Court Judge James Rhoades to the December 1995 aggravated
murders of William A. Pettit, 39, and Michael A. Clites, 24.
In a prepared statement read to the judge Jan. 31, Silveria wept as he admitted
causing the deaths of both men by beating them for the purpose of robbing them.
Pettit's body was found in a parked boxcar on Dec. 3, 1995, in Millersburg, Ore.,
and Clites' was discovered in a freight car near Portland, Ore., on Dec. 6, 1995.
The judge promptly sentenced Silveria to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment
without the possibility of parole, and because of his pleas, he may not appeal the
judgment, according to prosecuting attorney Diana Moffat.
A hearing will be conducted Feb. 16 to determine if Silveria is willing to waive
extradition to Ellsworth County, Kan., or to Tallahassee, Fla., which have filed
warrants charging him with murder in their jurisdictions.
In Kansas, Silveria is alleged to have killed Charles Boyd, 46, in Kanopolis State
Park on July 28, 1995. In Florida, he is charged with the April 28, 1994, bludgeoning
of Willie Clark, 52.
According to Moffat and the chief investigator on the case, Mike Quakenbush of the
Salem, Ore., Police Department, solid evidence also links Silveria to the April 9,
1989, beating death of Anthony Garcia, 62, in West Sacramento; the Aug. 2, 1994,
killing of Michael A. Garfinkle, 20, in Emeryville; the April 21, 1995, homicide
of Roger Bowman, 38, in Salt Lake City; and the Oct. 15, 1995, slaying of Paul W.
Matthews, 43, in a hobo camp outside Whitefish, Mont.
While Silveria's statements permitted detectives to clear those homicides, formal
charges have not yet been filed and may never be.
Another dozen or more killings were addressed by Silveria during his stay in the
Placer County jail, but there is insufficient evidence to confirm his involvement
From the LA times
A key break came with the arrest last year in Roseville, Calif., of Silveria,who subsequently confessed to a string of boxcar killings from Florida to Montana
between 1981 and 1995. A native of San Jose, the 38-year-old Silveria occasionally
held down odd jobs but appeared primarily to have made his living knocking off fellow
train riders for their welfare and disability checks, authorities said.
Silveria, who has the word "Freedom" tattooed on his neck, purportedly
explained his spree in a series of letters to a former Placer County jail mate, later
filed with the court. He pronounced himself "the leader of my nation: the homeless,"
and added: "I could have tortured others of your world, but I chose to torture
my world, because I preyed on the weak.
"People always said I looked like the devil when I was beating the s--- out
of [someone]," he wrote.
Silveria has subsequently denied FTRA affiliation, and
authorities say he now claims that purported confessions were coerced. His lawyers
have declined comment.
Silvera allegedly identified other FTRA members in numerous killings, including
Spokane resident Hugh ``Dog Man Tony'' Ross, who rode with Silveria for years
Subject: Re: Train-Hopper Killer
Date: 1996/03/18
Newsgroups: misc.transport.rail.americas
In article <4htlo8$6mv@nntp.crl.com>, Silas Warner <silas@velo.com>
wrote:
Reprinted and abridged from the San Francisco Examiner for March 9.
This article can be found on the San
Francisco Examiner web page at:
http://www.sfgate.com/examiner/index.html
AUBURN - Authorities now suspect that a transient accused of preying on fellow
boxcar riders may have committed at least 12 homicides and possibly dozens more.
Police are inquiring about 37-year-old Robert Joseph Silveria.
Court documents say he confessed to an unspecified number of murders and provided
"exact and specific detail" on slayings in California, Arizona, Kansas,
Montana, Oregon and Utah.
Silveria, who rode the rails using the nickname "Sidetrack", is a member
of a loosely organized "gang of thugs" known as the Freight Train Riders
Association, investigators said. Silveria told an uncle by marriage that he had
killed 47 people. "He said it was caused by a deep anger in him.
He said that after the first one it just got easier and easier."
So far, Silveria has been charged only with the murder of William Pettit, Jr.,
39, whose body was found in a boxcar in Millersburg, OR.
Other slaying vicims may include Michael Garfinkle, 20, who was found beaten to
death Aug. 2 in Emeryville.
Silas Warner
Right it supports my contention that the greatist danger on trains if from other
train hoppers. How many dead tramps per year do we have in the US. Notice that for
a really long time knobody worried to much about these bums geting killed. If he
had killed 47 lawyers I would think that the cops would have been on him quicker.
Eric Jackson
jaks@netcom.com
From North Bank Freds
Brooklen yard pages
Very chillingly, this photo illustrates the dark side of tramping, in the form
of a moniker left in 1996 by Robert "Sidetrack" Silveria, the alleged FTRA
boxcar killer. One could find this grafitto under the Holgate St. bridge over Portland's
Brooklyn Yard,
in the jungle area. UP painted over all of the jungle's graffiti in July 1997, so
this piece is gone. Interestingly, the grafitto used to say "FTRA" under
the "ACK" in the word "Sidetrack", and I happened to be in the
jungle when another FTRA tramp crossed it out, sputtering something about how Sidetrack
wasn't fit to be an FTRA member after all of his alleged crimes.
Who do the police say
Silvera killed
One of the answers came in August of 1994, when 20-year-old Michael Garfinkleof Tarzana, on summer break from college, strapped on a backpack and headed north
through California on the rails. Police say he met suspected FTRA member Robert Silveria
near Emeryville. Silveria later admitted killing the young man with an ax handle.
A longtime rail rider who reportedly has confessed to at least nine slayings,
Silveria walked up toward Garfinkle's camp, where the young man told him: "This
is my area," Emeryville police Detective Wade Harper said. Silveria apparently
disagreed.
Darren Royal Miller, age 19, killed July 8, 1992
And since his questioning began following his arrest March 2 in Roseville, Silveria
has been linked to the July 8, 1992, killing of Darren Royal Miller, 19, in Thompson
Springs, Utah.
Roger Bowman, 38, on April 21, 1995, in Salt Lake City,
Charles Boyd, 46, in July 1995, in Ellsworth County, Kan.;
Paul Wayne Mathews, 43, on Oct. 15, 1995, in Whitefish,Mont.
William Pettit Jr age 39,December 1995
Silveria is awaiting trial in Salem, Ore.,in
the bludgeoning of 39-year-old William Pettit Jr. in 1995. Oregon prosecutors
plan to introduce confessions to at least five other killings across the country.
Placer County investigators said that at the time of his arrest, they found in
Silveria's possession pieces of Pettit's personal property, articles of clothing
and a lock of his hair.
Oregon prosecutors have accused Silveria of aggravated murder and first-degree
robbery in the December 1995 death of William A. Pettit Jr., 39, whose battered body
was found in a boxcar in Millersburg, Ore., near Salem.
Here
is an article about him being take to oregon for trial
Michael A. Clites, 24, on Dec. 5, 1995, in Eugene, Ore.
two victims in Pima County, Ariz., who have yet to be found and identified.
California transient linked to murders of 14 drifters
Reuters
News Service
SAN FRANCISCO -- A transient being held in northern California has been linked
to the murders of 14 drifters who rode the nation's railroads, authorities said Saturday.
Railroad police arrested Robert Joseph Silveria, 36, a week ago at a rail yard
in Roseville, near the state capital Sacramento, on a warrant for violating probation,
the Placer County Sheriff's Department said.
Since then detectives have been investigating whether Silveria may have been involved
in a series of murders of male transients who ride railroad boxcars in the western
United States between 1981 and 1995, it said.
The victims -- drifters or job-seekers who catch rides on freight trains -- were
usually stabbed or bludgeoned to death and robbed of their meager belongings.
A statement from the Placer County Sheriff's Department said Silveria "has
been linked to 14 murders" in Oregon, Montana, Utah, Kansas, California, Arizona
and Washington state.
So far Silveria, who is jailed in Auburn, Calif., has been charged with only one
murder, that of William Pettit, 39, whose body was found last December in a boxcar
in Oregon.
Silveria appeared before a magistrate Friday on a Marion County, Ore., warrant
charging murder and robbery and agreed to be extradited to Salem, Ore.
The Sheriff's Department said detectives believe Silveria may be a member of a
criminal transient gang known as the F.T.R.A., or Freight Train Riders Association.
Another
story about how Side track used the victems ID's
Silvera
in excite
Search
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