True Crime-Paranormal-Conspiracy Theories Stories Part V #Wattys2023

Off the Rails: The Darius McCollum Story

Darius McCollum (born March 28,1965) is an American man primarily known for posing as a New YorkCity Subway motorman, bus driver, and subway trains operator due tohis fixation with trains and public transport. McCollum is a New YorkCity resident with a long arrest record for crimes related to thetransit system operated by the city's Metropolitan TransportationAuthority (MTA). He has been fascinated with buses and trains sincehis childhood and is autistic.

Characteristics

Since an early age, McCollum has beeninterested in trains, frequently riding the New York City Subway. Hisfixation with trains led McCollum to continuously impersonate MTAemployees or employees of a related entity, which led to multiplearrests. McCollum has been rejected for employment by MTA on numerousoccasions, although he is reported to have more knowledge on thetrains, schedules, procedures and rail operations than any currentemployee.

A prison psychiatrist who did anevaluation diagnosed him with Asperger syndrome. McCollum is said tohave memorized the New York City Subway map by age 8.

Notable arrests

According to McCollum's mother, hisinterest with the New York City Subway system started since youth,when motormen permitted him to drive trains. McCollum was firstarrested in 1980, at age 15, when he drove an E subway train withpassengers for six stops. While imprisoned at Rikers Island, he wroteto the New York City Department of Correction and asked if he coulddrive one of their buses. By the mid-1990s, McCollum "hadbecome a minor cult figure", particularly after the MTAposted thousands of wanted posters in trains and stations so thatriders could report sightings. Occasionally, McCollum would appear astransit employees named "Morning" or "Manning",who riders invariably experienced as friendly and helpful.

By 2000, McCollum had been jailed 19times for transit-related crimes. In 2000 he pleaded guilty tocharges of forgery and burglary for signing out a train according toproper MTA procedure to perform customary duties (extinguishing trackfires, supervising maintenance), and then signing it back in. He wassentenced to a minimum of 2+1⁄2 to 5 years in prison.

In 2005, McCollum was apprehended at aLong Island Rail Road yard with the keys to an M-7 railcar in hispocket. They had been given to him by other MTA employees who hadgiven him their shifts, but he pleaded guilty to attempting to steala locomotive and was sentenced to three years in prison. Although hewas released from Sing Sing in 2006, he was reimprisoned for breakingparole after he was found in possession of railroad property.

On June 13, 2008, McCollum, 43, wasarrested again. He was wearing a hardhat and carrying a knapsack,flashlight and gloves with an MTA logo. He was dressed in the blueT-shirt and work pants typically worn by track workers and wasarrested as he tried to enter a restricted area of a midtown station.McCollum was charged with criminal impersonation, criminal trespassand possession of burglary tools—a hammer and screwdriver tucked inhis backpack. These "burglary tools" are also thetypical repair equipment that all MTA maintenance workers carry. Whenhis mother was interviewed over the telephone, she said, "Anytime Darius wears anything remotely resembling the transit uniform,he gets arrested."

McCollum was released from theDownstate Correctional Facility on July 3, 2007—nine months afterhis arrest for violating parole by returning to the city fromWinston-Salem, North Carolina. He was arrested at Penn Station onOctober 5, 2008, for impersonating a Long Island Rail Road employeeand answering passengers' questions.

On August 31, 2010, McCollum wasarrested for the 27th time and charged with grand larceny andpossession of stolen property in connection with the theft of aprivate bus from a Trailways of New York terminal in Hoboken, NewJersey. According to police, McCollum allegedly boarded the bus atapproximately 6:30 a.m. that morning and discovered the keys left inthe ignition. McCollum is accused of then commandeering the bus, withthe theft reportedly going unnoticed for two hours as McCollum drovearound John F. Kennedy International Airport and Jamaica, Queens.McCollum was taken into custody without incident. Police statedMcCollum is "very smart, he's not a dumb guy" andthat he was a "gentleman" during arrest andprocessing.

At the time of his arrest, he had spent18 years—more than a third of his life—in jail fortransit-related offenses. In 2013, McCollum pleaded guilty tostealing the Trailways bus. On December 24 2013, McCollum wasreleased on parole and was to voluntarily enter cognitive behavioraltherapy. The terms of the parole, which lasted until August 24, 2015,required that he does not operate a motor vehicle.

On November 11, 2015, McCollum wasarrested for stealing a Greyhound bus from the Port Authority BusTerminal in Manhattan. He drove the GPS-equipped bus forapproximately 2 hours until his arrest at approximately 4 p.m. inGowanus, Brooklyn. According to The New York Times, McCollum statedthat he would hijack a plane after his arrest.

Although his parents, who moved toWinston-Salem, North Carolina, believed McCollum should have left NewYork to avoid his addiction with trains, parole conditions have untilrecently repeatedly restricted McCollum to remain in New York City.Suggestions from his parents and autism advocates that the MTA find away to hire McCollum in some capacity, in the manner of FrankAbagnale, are rejected by transit officials, who fear legalliability.

In January 2018, McCollum took a pleabargain in which he agreed to go to a psychiatric institution for an"indefinite" period of time.

In October 2018, a judge ruled thatMcCollum was dangerously becoming mentally ill, and was sentenced tothe Rochester Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, a prison facility forthe most dangerous imprisoned criminals.

He is supposed to have regularretention hearings to decide if he is still "dangerouslymentally ill".

In popular culture

After McCollum used an insanity defensebased on Asperger's, he became a folk hero to people with autismspectrum disorder, especially children, celebrated for his "rebellionagainst what autistics often call the dreary world of the'neurotypicals'". In spite of his diagnosis from severalpsychiatrists, during at least two criminal proceedings, this defensewas denied as the judge ruled he was "capable of controllinghis impulses".

A Harper's Magazine article on McCollumby Jeff Tietz was a finalist in profile writing for the 2003 AmericanSociety of Magazine Editors awards. At the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe,Paperhat Productions of New York mounted a play by director JudeDomski called Boy Steals Train, based on McCollum's life and lettersMcCollum wrote to Domski, and described as "pointing ashaming collective finger at a judiciary that refuses to recognizeMcCollum's condition". The play was awarded a Fringe Firstby The Scotsman and the troupe won a Best Ensemble Acting Award. Hisstory was also made into a BBC radio play, broadcast on BBC Radio 4in August 2005.

McCollum appears in Episode 2 of "TheDark End of The Spectrum", a two-hour, two-part, radiodocumentary that aired on CBC's radio show Ideas on June 2, 2008, andagain on July 24 (Part 1) and July 31 (Part 2), 2009.

A documentary film about McCollum, Offthe Rails: The Darius McCollum Story, directed by Adam Irving,premiered on April 7, 2016, at the Full Frame Documentary FilmFestival in Durham, North Carolina.