Category: Hellraisers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: Last Act of Judge Jackson Is to Release the Murderers of Raleigh County Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Plea for Justice, Not Charity, Quote Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday March 15, 1905
From Cincinnati Enquirer:
Judge Jackson’s Last Act on Behalf of Coal Companies

Who among us can ever forget the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners of West Virginia? Judge Jackson also remembers and, thus, made sure to release their murderers as his last bit of work before leaving the bench. From yesterday’s Enquirer:

LAST WORK
—–
Of Judge Jackson Was the Release of
Deputies Charged With Murder

-SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE ENQUIRER

African-American Coal Miners OH, e-WV

Charleston. W. Va., March 13.-John Jay Jackson to-day wound up his career here as a United States Judge. He rendered his decision in the cases of Gaujot and Summers, growing out of the famous Stanford City fight between miners and Deputy Marshals two years ago.
Gaujot and Summers were indicted for murder in the State Court in Raleigh county, and were taken before Judge Jackson on writs of habeas corpus. Their cases were heard more than a year ago, but this decision was held up pending an appeal in the cases of Laing and Hurt in similar cases decided by Judge Jackson and taken to Circuit Court of Appeals. He had released the men on the ground that they were acting as Deputy Marshals of the United States when the killing was done, and therefore were not amenable to state law. His decision was affirmed by the higher Court. He held the same way in the Gaujot and Summers cases, and they were both released from custody and bond to-day.

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Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mary Petrucci: She fled burning tent as militia fired upon her and her children.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ludlow Mary Petrucci, Children all dead, ed, Trinidad Las Animas Co CO Affidavit, May 11, 1914
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 7, 1915
New York City – Mrs. Petrucci Tells Harrowing Story of Ludlow Massacre

Mrs Dominiski & Mrs Petrucci, NY Trib, Feb 4, 1915

On Wednesday morning, February 3rd, Mrs. Mary Petrucci sat listening to Mr. Jerome Greene, Secretary of the the Rockefeller Foundation, give his testimony before the Commission on Industrial Relations. She heard this man speak of the vast amounts of money donated to worthy causes by the foundation bearing the name of the man who controls the condition under which the Colorado miners and their families work and live. Pennsylvania’s New Castle Herald described her response to that testimony:

“The Rockefeller way of philanthropy,” he said, “is a far better way than if he [Mr. Rockefeller] were to blow it in on his own amusement or give his money away in an ostentatious manner.”

Mrs. Mary Petrucci seated in the front row, threw her arms about Mother Jones and, in an audible whisper, said:

My God! What do you think of that, and we and our families facing starvation in Colorado.

That afternoon, Mrs. Petrucci followed Mrs. Dominiski to the witness stand and recalled that terrible day when her three youngest children perished in the Ludlow Massacre. Her eldest had died just a few weeks earlier of illness.She described fleeing her burning tent, carrying the baby and pulling her little daughter by the hand while her four year old son ran along behind:

Well, in the evening when the fire started I came out of my tent; it was all on fire, and I came out of my tent, and as I was coming out of my tent under that tank there was a lot of militiamen, and I was running out and hollering with my three children, and they hollered at me to get out of the way and they were shooting at me and I ran into this place [the cellar where the children died].

She awoke early the next morning and made her way to the Ludlow depot, and from there to Trinidad. She lay ill with pneumonia for the next nine days, and only when she recovered did she learn that all of her little children were dead.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Mary Petrucci of Ludlow, “There is sorrow in our hearts..but there is no dishonor.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mary Petrucci, Joe's Little Hammer, NY Tb p7, Feb 4, 1915

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Hellraisers Journal: Thursday February 4, 1915
From the New York Tribune:
-Mary Petrucci Remembers Her Four Little Children

WE NEVER FORGET

The Petrucci Children, Lucy, Joe, Bernard, Baby Frank, 1913
The children of Mary and Thomas Petrucci
Who lost their lives in Freedom’s Cause
Lucy, Joe, Barnard, and Frank
Mary Petrucci, on tour, May 1914
Mary Petrucci

Once again, Mrs. Mary Petrucci has come east from the coal camps of southern Colorado to give testimony about the long struggle of the miners there. It was during this struggle in Freedom’s Cause that she and her husband lost all four of their children. The eldest, six-year-old Bernard, grew sick last March and died in the Ludlow Tent Colony after the militia refused to let Mary take him to a doctor in Trinidad. The three other children Joe-4, Lucy-2, and the baby, Frank-6 months, were murdered in April by the gunthug militia during the Ludlow Massacre. All three children were suffocated when the militia set the tent on fire over their heads as they sought shelter in the cellar beneath the floor, hiding from machine gun fire.

Mrs. Petrucci has come to New York accompanied by another miner’s wife, Mrs. Margaret Dominiski. Their testimony before the Commission on Industrial Relations will be thoroughly covered by Hellraisers over the next few days. Today we wish to present a long interview with Mary Petrucci conducted by Lucy Huffaker for the “Woman’s Varied Interests” section of the Tribune. Mary Petrucci hopes that by telling the story of her little children, their sacrificed lives will count toward the betterment of workers everywhere. During the interview, she stressed that she and her husband are still strong for the union despite their terrible loss. She concluded the interview with this statement:

But you’re not to think that we could do any differently another time..We are working people-my husband and I-and we’re stronger for the union than we were before the strike. We’ve paid-I guess you’ll admit and everybody will-that we’ve paid a pretty big price for our belief. I don’t know just how any man and woman can do more than have their children, all their children, taken from them, do you? But we’re not ‘scabs.’ We never have been and we never will be. There is sorrow in our hearts, and there always will be, but there isn’t any dishonor.

I can’ have my babies back..But perhaps when everybody knows about them, something will be done to make the world a better place for all babies. At least, I like to think so. It is the only thing which gives me any comfort.

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Hellraisers Journal: Democratic Party VP Candidate Authored Injunction Used Against Mother Jones

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 7, 1904
Presidential Campaigns:
Davis Authored Injunction Used Against Mother Jones

Democratic Campaign Poster, Parker and Davis

According to an article published in The Union of Indianapolis, and republished by The Western Laborer of Omaha, and thence by The Post-Standard, Henry G. Davis of West Virginia, candidate of the Democratic Party for the office of Vice-President of the United States, was the author of Judge Jackson’s injunction which led to that judge’s famous confrontation with Mother Jones. We suspect that Davis also had a hand in the injunction which led to the slaughter of the miners of Raleigh County in West Virginia. We are unable to prove that connection at this time, but we will certainly be looking for more information regarding Davis’ coal mines in West Virginia and the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners.

From today’s edition of The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York:

WHAT DAVIS STANDS FOR.
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Private Interests of the Man Who Is
“Against the Trusts.”
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The Western Laborer Omaha.

“I beg my countrymen as they value their liberty, to watch with a zealous eye the tendency of the many to centralize power in the hands of the few.”-Henry G. Davis

Here is the record of Davis, as published by The Union, printed at Indianapolis:

When Mr. Davis began operating mines, he issued and edict that no member of a labor union should be employed in any of his mines or on any of his roads. He has broken up the coal miners’ union along the lines of his roads where and whenever they have been organized. Mr. Davis evicted every union man and his family from the company houses blacklisted them and notified merchants that if favors were shown them or credit extended to them, their own credit would be shut off at his bank. He refused to haul the coal over his road that was mined by union miners, executing a complete boycott over union operators by refusing to place cars at their mines to be loaded.

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