Robert E. Lee Folkes was born on June 20, 1922, in the Arkansas Delta. By age 12, he was working in South Los Angeles and attended Jefferson High School in the mid-1930s. In the early 1940s, Folkes worked as a cook on Southern Pacific trains running between Los Angeles and Portland.

On January 23, 1943, Train No. 15 departed Portland's Union Station after 1 a.m., heading to Los Angeles. Among the passengers were Robert E. Lee Folkes and Martha James, a 21-year-old Navy bride from Norfolk, Virginia. Around 4:30 a.m., near Tangent, Oregon, passengers awoke to Martha James screaming, "Oh my God, he's killing me." She was found with her throat slashed in her sleeping berth. Marine Pvt. Harold Wilson was seen covered in blood, standing beside the dying woman.

Wilson claimed he chased the assailant but lost him. His descriptions of the attacker varied, initially describing him as a "light negro or dark white man." Investigators turned their attention to Folkes, an African American cook on the train.

Folkes was arrested upon the train's arrival in Los Angeles on January 24, 1943. After several days in custody, he confessed to the murder. However, the circumstances of his confession were questionable. Reports indicated that Folkes's face was swollen, and he was intoxicated when seen by his wife and mother after the interrogation. His defense attorney, Leroy L. Lomax, argued that the confession was coerced by force.

During the trial in April 1943, the prosecution claimed Folkes had a violent sexual attraction to white women, a stereotype rooted in racism. Despite witnesses placing Folkes in the kitchen at the time of the murder, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. After unsuccessful appeals, Folkes was executed in the gas chamber at the Oregon State Penitentiary on January 5, 1945.