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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 20, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Northcutt Attacks Louie Tikas, Leader of Greeks at Ludlow
From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of November 13, 1913
Jesse G. Northcutt, former Colorado district judge, is the publisher of the Trinidad Chronicle-News, he has also been hired on as attorney for the coal operators. Furthermore, he is known to assist John J. Hendrick, the district attorney for Colorado’s Third Judicial District which covers Las Animas and Huerfano counties. How handy for the operators to have one of their own working within the criminal justice system under which striking miners are being prosecuted!
Thus, we see that Judge Jesse G. Northcutt plays several roles within the strike zone: “respected” former Judge, attorney for the coal operators, and the assistant to the District Attorney. Let us now add to that list, the role of master of public opinion through the pages of the Trinidad Chronicle-News:
“Louie the Greek” leader of three hundred of his country men-striking miners at the Ludlow tent colony, is perhaps the most conspicuous figure in the industrial war in southern Colorado. “Louie the Greek” is shrewd and fearless-a veteran of the Balkan war, and he controls the Greeks at the tent colony with a spoken word, a lift of the eye brows or a gesture of his hand.
[Emphasis added.]
The above is from the November 13th edition of the Judge’s newspaper. A week earlier (November 4th), the Chronicle described Louie’s fellow Greek miners as:
..a band of warlike Greeks who have been carrying on guerrilla warfare in the hills for weeks and who have repeatedly declined to obey the orders of the strike leaders.
[Emphasis added.]
As far as reporting goes, the job done here is not such a great one. Tikas never went to war in the Balkans, although several of his fellow Greek miners did. Louie Tikas is, in fact, a United States Citizen. He is a respected leader in the Ludlow Tent Colony where he is known for his quiet, calm manner in the face of severe provocation from the deputized company gunthugs.
And as to armed Balkan War Veterans in the Ludlow Tent Colony, all we have to say is: Thank God, the miners and their families have some protection from the hundreds of imported deputized armed gunthugs with their machine guns, high powered rifles, searchlights, and the Death Special which roams the strike zone at will.
Judge Jesse G. Northcutt was seen riding in that very same Death Special which flaunts the mounted machine gun that killed Brother Luca Vahernick at the Forbes Tent Colony. The Judge was found in the Death Special along with the gunthugs Belcher and Belk at Forbes, by John Lawson, the morning after the attack. It was Louie Tikas who stepped between Lawson and Belk in that quiet, calm way of his, and perhaps, saved Lawson’s life.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Louis Tikas, Song by Frank Manning
https://unionsong.com/u154.html
The Chronicle News
(Trinidad, Colorado)
-Nov 13, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90051521/1913-11-13/ed-1/seq-1/
-Nov 4, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90051521/1913-11-04/ed-1/seq-1/
Buried Unsung
Louis Tikas and the Ludlow Massacre
-by Zeese Papanikolas
U of Nebraska Press, 1991
https://archive.org/details/buriedunsungloui0000papa/mode/1up?view=theater
https://archive.org/details/buriedunsungloui0000papa/page/87/mode/1up?view=theater&q=northcutt
https://archive.org/details/buriedunsungloui0000papa/page/90/mode/1up?view=theater&q=northcutt
https://archive.org/details/buriedunsungloui0000papa/page/91/mode/1up?view=theater&q=tikas
See also:
Tag: Louie Tikas
https://weneverforget.org/tag/louie-tikas/
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1913-1914/
More on Judge Jesse G Northcutt working with District Attorney Hendrick from:
Blood Passion
The Ludlow Massacre and Class War
in the American West
-by Scott Martelle
Rutgers U Press, 2008
(search: “only role Hendrick did not allow Northcutt”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=sH5oOK3MKqUC
About the only role Hendrick did not allow Northcutt to perform was delivering the opening and closing statements in trials; he reserved that job for himself. Northcutt handled interviews with witnesses, investigations of crimes, decisions on what charges to file, and some courtroom appearances. “I generally put as much work on him as I can,” Hendrick said. The net effect was the overt co-option of local legal authority by the mine operators, which, combined with the deputizing of Baldwin-Felts gunmen and mine guards, cemented the miners’ hard-to-refute belief that the local political structure had been corrupted against them.
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Louis Tikas
A song by Frank Manning ©2002