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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 6, 1914
Las Animas County, Colorado – Affidavits from Survivors of the Ludlow Massacre
Over the next few days Hellraisers Journal will present affidavits from those who were in the Ludlow Tent Colony as the militiamen, Rockefeller’s gunthugs, ended their attack upon the colony by burning down the tents, the homes of 1200 men, women and children.
Mrs. Ed Tonner describes how Mrs. Costa begged for her life and the lives of the women and children (including three of her own) as the gunthugs, led by Linderfelt, prepared to set fire to tent #58:
AFFIDAVIT.
State of Colorado.
Las Animas County, ss:Mrs. Ed Tonner, of lawful age, being first sworn, upon oath deposes and says: That her name is Mrs. Ed Tonner. When Mr. Linderfelt came into camp with his auto load of ammunition, I heard Mrs. Costa crying, and she began praying Santa Maria and begging him not to kill her and her little children, and he replied to her, “There is no use in you crying and carrying on, as we have orders to do this, and we are going to do it; no mercy on any of you.”
Mrs. Ed Tonner.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of April, A. D. 1914.
[SEAL.] Leon Griswold, Notary Public.
My commission expires September 10, 1917.[Emphasis added.]
Mrs. Pedregone describes how she watched the “guards and militia” set fire to her tent:
AFFIDAVIT.
State of Colorado,
Las Animas County, ss:Mrs. Alcarita Pedregon, being first duly sworn, on oath deposes and says: That her name is Mrs. Alcarita Pedregon. I got up late in the morning, and I seen the guards and militia on horseback, and they got off the horses and fell down on the ground to get away from the fire, and then I went into the hole with the children. There were 11 children and 4 women in the hole, and we stayed in that cellar from 9 in the morning until 6 the next morning. I seen a militiamen come over there and look inside the tent and strike a match and set fire to the tent. I stayed in the tent until it was all burned up. There were 11 children and 2 women suffocated with the smoke where I was. I lost 2 children in this cave when the tent was burned. I don’t know where my husband was at this time. I looked up out of the hole and saw the soldier set fire to the tent with a match. I lost everything I had in his fire.
Mrs. Alcarita (her x mark) Pedregon.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 1st day of May, A. D. 1914.
[SEAL] Leon V. Griswold, Notary Public.
My commission expires September 10. 1917.[Emphasis added.]
Mr. William Snyder describes how that gunthug-infested militia unit set fire to his tent while his family was still inside, how they mocked him and threatened him as he held his dead son in his arms, how Linderfelt raged at his wife as she begged for the life of her husband: “Please don’t shoot him; they have killed one of my children already,” when Linderfelt says, “It is a damned pity that all of you damned red-necked bitches were not killed.”
Mr. William Snyder describes how his family was terrorized by the Colorado National Guard which was under the command of Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado:
AFFIDAVIT.
State of Colorado,
Las Animas County, ss:William Snyder, of lawful age, being first sworn, on oath deposes and says: That his name is William Snyder. On Monday morning, April 20, at 8 o’clock in the morning, or about, after the gunmen had lined on the Colorado South eastern tracks, they sent a detail of four to the Ludlow tent colony, presumably to arrest one man without a warrant. We refused to give up the man without the due warrant of law; that the said detail said that they would get their man if they had to search the camp; that we were to produce that man by afternoon or they would search. They went over to old Company K camp and reported, and from there they fired three signal shots, dynamite, I guess, they were using — and all guards began to pull out of the canyons, that comprises the two canyons, and also between 20 and 30 cavalry on horses left the Company K camp and crossed the C. & S. track, main line, by the depot and took position south of the C. S. E. tracks.
Our men realizing that trouble was in the air, in order to avoid a massacre and the shooting of men and children, went to the C. & S. E. tracks on the north and took up a position against them to keep them away from the women and children; that the gunmen, to start trouble, undoubtedly fired the first shot, and from that time on the battle raged, they using their machine gun, three machine guns being in action; that at about 4.30 our men, running out of ammunition, had to retreat, and from that on the Baldwin-Felts took our position and the colony, and they shot up the colony with the machine gun and rifles and started to burning the tents, not stopping to look if there were any women, children, or anybody else around.
Owing to us turning our arms into the militia several times they took advantage of our unarmed situation and tried to carry out the threats that they had made — that they would clean Ludlow out, and did.
I myself, not being armed, stayed on the tent-colony grounds to protect my family to the best of my ability, and that about 4.30 p. m., when the thugs or militia had right flanked our colony and shot through my tent and killed our boy, showing clearly that they did not stop to see whether there were any women or children on the colony ground or not. Just previous to the time the boy was shot he got out of the hole or cave, where my children were, to get his sister a drink of water, and as the firing had slackened the children had left the hole, being out of the hole from five to eight minutes, and stepped into the bedroom of my tent. The boy Frank was sitting in the chair with his sister on the floor between his knees, and he was in the act of stooping to kiss or caress his sister when the bullet struck him above the temple on the right side and blew his brains out. I was standing near the front door of my tent and I heard the impact of the bullet striking the boy’s head and the crack of the bullet as it exploded inside of his head. The boy was killed by an explosive bullet. I went to the boy to render what assistance I could, and while falling I caught him in my arms and in the act of letting him down to the floor two more bullets passed over me in the tent. Then I went to the hole where my family and children were, and seeing the boy in his death struggles went to him again; was in the act of washing his face when another bullet went over me. The firing became so heavy that I went to my family and stayed in the cave with them until they burned the tents.
They fired this tent of mine by standing by the southeast corner with a piece of paper on fire in their hands, and as the tent was blazing they came in the tent. This I observed by looking out of the hole where we were located. As the tent was in flames they opened the door and came in, and then my wife pleaded to save her children, telling them they had already killed one, and for God’s sake to save the others. Whereupon this officer assisted Mrs. Snyder from the hole and the other children.
By this time there was five or six of the militia or thugs in the tent and wanted to kill me; and I asked them to let me get my dead boy to the depot, and to which this officer consented, after cursing me, putting a gun to my head and threatened to kill me, and on leaving the tent with the corpse I laid him down outside of the door and put on my coat and I requested some one to help me carry this boy to the depot, when I was told that I was big enough to carry him myself, and which I did over my shoulder and my 3-year-old daughter in my arms, when George Tittsworth, Sr., who, to the best of my knowledge, set fire to the tent, throwed a gun on me and said, ” You God damn dirty son of a bitch, I ought to kill you right here; you have fired as many shots as any body,” and he touched my head, or nearly so, with his revolver and said, ” I will kill you.” My wife pleaded in behalf of her dead boy to let us get him to Trinidad, and this officer escorted us to the depot, but on passing Snodgrass’s store at Ludlow Linderfelt throwed his flash light in my face and wanted to know what “God damned red neck S. B. they had here,” when Mrs. Snyder says to Linderfelt, “Please don’t shoot him; they have killed one of my children already,” when Linderfelt says, ” It is a damned pity that all of you damned red-necked bitches were not killed.”
But we kept on till we got to the depot, and there the floors were covered with the thugs and provisions that had been robbed from Snodgress’s store, and they were joshing and making remarks over their day’s work. While lying there listening to these remarks I heard one in particular say that he knew he killed one at the bridge and would have to go down at daylight and try and get another one. I heard several say they had killed one, two, or three, and they thought that they had a pretty fair day’s work, but also thought themselves that the regulars would be in the next night.
I was called into the baggage room to be consulted by some officer in regard to the leaders and Louis Tikas in particular. They asked the question if Louis Tikas was not the cause of the troubles and a leader of the Greeks, and I answered, ” No; he was the interpreter.” They asked me if I saw a gun on Tikas, and I told them ” No.” They said, ” Well, we killed him to-day and found a gun on him.” Then they asked where the gunmen got their arms and ammunition; I said, ” I do not know.” I did not have any myself, so I was then asked what I was coming to Trinidad for. I told them as I had no place else to go at present I had to go to Trinidad to get relief and a place for the family to stay and to bury my boy. I was then advised I had better get out of this country altogether.
At the time the machine guns were turned on the tent colony the strikers were taking to the hills on account of their ammunition being used up. Before the signals were fired Louie, having been notified that the south of the C. & S. E. tracks were swarmed with the militia with machine guns in position, pointing toward the colony, he went personally himself to see, and while coming back to notify the colony of the conditions the men had found out for themselves and started back to direct the fire away from the women and babes.
All my earthly effects and cash were destroyed.
Further affiant saith not.
William Snyder.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 1st day of May, A. D. 1914.
[seal.] Louis Griswold, Notary Public.
My commission expires September 10, 1917.[Paragraph breaks and emphasis added]
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SOURCE
Industrial relations: final report and testimony submitted to Congress
by the Commission on Industrial Relations.
Washington, D.C., Gov. Print. Office, 1916.
Volume 8: 6999-8014
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112087783327&seq=7
7377-Snyder
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112087783327&seq=397&q1=red+bitches&start=1
7383-Tonner re Costa
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112087783327&seq=403&q1=tonner&start=1
7386-Pedregon
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112087783327&seq=406&q1=pedregon&start=1
IMAGE
Karl E Linderfelt, Butcher of Ludlow
https://www.du.edu/ludlow/gall2b.html
See also:
Note: The family name is spelled “Pedregone” on the Ludlow Monument:
https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/labor-day-history-ludlow-massacre/
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 3, 1914
re Wednesday December 31, 1913, Ludlow, Colorado
–Lt Linderfelt rages at Ludlow depot, declares himself “Jesus Christ”
Tag: Ludlow Massacre
https://weneverforget.org/tag/ludlow-massacre/
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1913-1914/
WE NEVER FORGET
Tuesday April 21, 1914 – The Black Hole of Ludlow
Early in the morning, as Mary Petrucci struggled back to consciousness, she found herself in the blackened cellar beneath tent #58. Beside her were the bodies of her children, baby Frank, Lucy-2, and Joe-4. Also dead were Cedi Costa wife of Charlie Costa, and her children, Lucia-4 and Onafrio-6. Cedi was pregnant and at term. The baby was born postmortem, and that tiniest of strikers was laid upon Cedi’s breast and buried with her in her coffin. Lost also were Patria Valdez, along with all of her children, baby Elivira, Maria-7, Eulalia-8, and Rudolfo-9. The Pedregone children, Cloriva-4 and Rogerlo-6 were both dead. Their mother, Alcarita Pedregone, was the only other survivor from the burning of tent #58.
WE NEVER FORGET the Men, Women and Little Children
Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause
at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914
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The Women and Children of Ludlow · Tom Breiding