Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This odd little story appeared in the "Danville Morning News," June 28, 1907:

Baffled to explain how the mangled body of a young man was catapulted through the window of a Third avenue trolley car near the east tower of the Brooklyn bridge, the police department has assigned its cleverest detectives to account for a tragedy, the mystery of which might puzzle Sherlock Holmes himself. The victim is believed from cards found in his pockets to have been John Nelson, a Brooklyn machinist. The Third avenue car was just approaching the bridge tower late last night when a heavy body crashed through the rear platform window into the center of the aisle. It was a man's corpse. 

The body could not have fallen from directly overhead, for the car roof extends three feet over the window. The police figured that the man must have tumbled from an "L" car, struck a pillar and bounded sideways into the car. But no car can be found on which such an accident occurred. Several of the passengers seriously advance the theory that the man fell from a balloon, but the police laugh at the idea. There was a panic in the car when the corpse bounded through the window. The conductor and motorman were arrested.

As far as I've been able to find, the mystery never was solved.  And, no, I haven't the faintest idea why police arrested the conductor and motorman.