Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 7, 1915 New York City – Mrs. Petrucci Tells Harrowing Story of Ludlow Massacre
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.
New York City, February 3, 1915, Afternoon Session
-Commission on Industrial Relations:
TESTIMONY OF MRS. MARY PETRUCCI.
Chairman Walsh. What is your full name?
Mrs. Petrucci. Mary Petrucci.
Chairman Walsh. Mary Petrucci?
Mrs. Petrucci Yes.
Chairman Walsh, how old are you, Mrs. Petrucci?
Mrs. Petrucci Twenty-four.
Chairman Walsh. Twenty-four?
Mrs. Petrucci Yes.
Chairman Walsh. Where do you live now?
Mrs. Petrucci Ludlow.
Chairman Walsh. Ludlow, Colo.?
Mrs. Petrucci Yes.
Chairman Walsh. What is your ancestry; your father and mother were natives of what country?
Mrs. Petrucci Italy.
Chairman Walsh. You are of Italian descent?
Mrs. Petrucci Yes.
Chairman Walsh. Where were you born?
Mrs. Petrucci In Hastings, Colo.
Chairman Walsh. What is Hastings, Colo.—is that a coal-mining camp?
Mrs. Petrucci It is a mining camp.
Chairman Walsh. About how many people are there in Hastings?
Mrs. Petrucci I could not tell you.
Chairman Walsh. Are you a married woman?
Mrs. Petrucci Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Is your husband a citizen of the United States?
Mrs. Petrucci Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Do you know whether or not your father was a citizen of the United States?
Mrs. Petrucci He was.
Chairman Walsh. You are a native born Coloradian?
Mrs. Petrucci Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Where did you go to school, Mrs. Petrucci?
Mrs. Petrucci In Hastings.
Chairman Walsh. In the mining camp?
Mrs. Petrucci Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. You were raised in Hastings, were you?
Mrs. Petruccl Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. When did you leave there?
Mrs. Petrucci. When I was 13 years old.
Chairman Walsh. At what age were you married?
Mrs. Petrucci. Sixteen.
Chairman Walsh. Where did you say you lived now?
Mrs. Petrucci. At Ludlow, Colo.
Chairman Walsh. I am going to ask you, if you will, to give a little brief description of your life, when you lived in Hastings; that was a mining camp of what company?
Mrs. Petrucci. I think of the Victor-American Fuel Co.
Chairman Walsh. Was your father a miner there?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Did you live in a company house?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Was there a school in the camp to which you went?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Did you go to school at any place outside of Hastings?
Mrs. Petrucci. Not when I lived in Hastings.
Chairman Walsh. Were there any church facilities in Hastings?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. None at all?
Mrs. Petrucci. None.
Chairman Walsh. You had had some religious training, your ancestry were religious people, were they not?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. What faith did they profess?
Mrs. Petrucci. They were Catholics.
Chairman Walsh. After you left Hastings where did you go then?
Mrs. Petrucci. I went to Tabasco and Berwind.
Chairman Walsh. Are both of those mining camps?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir; they belong to the C. F. & I.
Chairman Walsh. They belong to the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co.?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. What age did you leave Hastings?
Mrs. Petrucci. When I was 13 years old.
Chairman Walsh. What was the first place you went to?
Mrs. Petrucci. Starkville.
Chairman Walsh. Where were you when you were married?
Mrs. Petrucci. In Ramey.
Chairman Walsh. Was Mr. Petrucci a miner when you lived there?
Mrs. Petrucci. No; he was running a box-car loader.
Chairman Walsh. For the railroad company?
Mrs. Petrucci. No; for the mining company.
Chairman Walsh. You married him at what place?
Mrs. Petrucci. In Walsenburg.
Chairman Walsh. That is a mining town, is it?
Mrs. Petrucci. I suppose so.
Chairman Walsh. Where were you living at the time you married him?
Mrs. Petrucci. In Ramey.
Chairman Walsh. Is that a mining camp?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. You simply went to Walsenburg to be married?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. After your marriage where did you live—in what mining camp, in Ramey?
Mrs. Petrucci. In Ramey.
Chairman Walsh. The Ludlow mine called Ramey?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. How long did you live in Ludlow before April 20, 1914?
Mrs. Petrucci. Since January.
Chairman Walsh. Where did you live prior to that time?
Mrs. Petrucci. In January?
Chairman Walsh. Before January?
Mrs. Petrucci. I lived in a house on a ranch. It was leased by my husband and this other man.
Chairman Walsh. Where were you when the strike was called?
Mrs. Petrucci. In Ramey.
Chairman Walsh. And Mr. Petrucci was working for a mining company, was he?
Mrs. Petrucci. No; he was out on strike.
Chairman Walsh. He went out on strike, did he?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. What sort of weather was it when he went out on strike?
Mrs. Petrucci. I could not tell you; it was in September.
Chairman Walsh. Now, when you went out on strike where did you go? Where did the miners and their families go?
Mrs. Petrucci. In the tent colony.
Chairman Walsh. In Ludlow?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. About how many folks were in the camp when you went to the tent colony.
Mrs. Petrucci. I could not tell you how many.
Chairman Walsh. Was there a large number?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Were there 1,000 people, men, women, and children, or 500, or what?
Mrs. Petrucci. I suppose about 600 or 700.
Chairman Walsh. And they had tents there side by side, did they, with streets running down between them?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. And did they start a little organization there and have some leader that exercised some authority about keeping order and things like that?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Who were the different leaders of the Ludlow colony?
Mrs. Petrucci. Louis Tikas and Mr. Fyler.
Chairman Walsh. Louis Tikas and Mr. Fyler?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. How did the people in that camp get along together? Was there disorder and fights or anything like that?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. What were your relations to each other while you were in the camp? I am trying to put it into everyday terms. Were you happy there and friendly with each other, and did you visit back and forth?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir; we had a good time.
Chairman Walsh. How did you like it in comparison with the coal camp?
Mrs. Petrucci. I liked it better in the tent colony.
Chairman Walsh. You would rather live there in the tent colony all the year around, would you?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Where were you living when the strike of September, 1913, began in Colorado?
Mrs. Petrucci. I was living at Berwind.
Chairman Walsh. At Berwind.
Mrs. Petrucci. In 1913?
Chairman Walsh. Yes.
Mrs. Petrucci. At Ramey then.
Chairman Walsh. Stating it briefly, did you have some unpleasant experience with the militia in speaking to you?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes; they came up there and insulted us every day until we had to move down so we would not be insulted.
Chairman Walsh. Did you stay at Ludlow until the colony was destroyed in April, 1914?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Was that the day after the Greek Easter Sunday?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Who brought you to this meeting, Mrs. Petrucci?
Mrs. Petrucci. Mr. Lawson.
Chairman Walsh. Mr. John R. Lawson?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Was that the day after the Greek Faster Sunday, that the occurrence at Ludlow took place?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. What did the members of the colony do on the Greek Easter?
Mrs. Petrucci. They were just having a good time.
Chairman Walsh. What did they do? I think the lady who preceded you stated that they had a ball game or something?
Mrs. Petrucci. Oh, yes; on Sunday.
Chairman Walsh. Did the crowd turn out to the ball game?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. During the winter following the strike in September, was there any severe or cold weather?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. How did you find it in the tent colony?
Mrs. Petrucci. It was pretty warm; we had coal and everything.
Chairman Walsh. And your conditions were comfortable?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. You did not suffer in that way?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Did you visit back and forth with the others there in the camp?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes. sir.
Chairman Walsh. What time of day did you leave your camp?
Mrs. Petrucci. When?
Chairman Walsh. On April 20?
Mrs. Petrucci. I didn’t leave my tent at all.
Chairman Walsh. You are the lady, I believe, who lost the four children?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. Was the basement in which these lives were lost under your own tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. When and how did you get to that place?
Mrs. Petrucci. 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.
Chairman Walsh. It was three children you had?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. You ran into this place where that basement was?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. What had that basement been used for—to take care of ladies during confinement in the camp?
Mrs. Petruccl Yes.
Chairman Walsh. And they were kept away from the noise and any disturbances that might take place?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. Did anyone see you and your children leave the tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. What did anyone say or do when you and your children left the tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. These were the guards that saw me. As I was coming out of my tent they were hollering at me to look out, and shooting after me, and that scared me, and I went into the cave.
Chairman Walsh. How far were the guards from you when they hollered at you and shot at you?
Mrs. Petrucci. About 25 yards from my tent.
Chairman Walsh. They could see you plainly and you could see them?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Into what tent did you and your children run in connection with the other tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. Right at the back of mine. My tent was No. 1 and this was No. 58, right on the back of my tent.
Chairman Walsh. When you went in there was it your intention to take the children into the cellar of that tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir; for protection.
Chairman Walsh. How did you get into the cellar of that tent? Was there boards over the cellar?
Mrs. Petrucci. There was boards, but there was steps to go down.
Chairman Walsh. Was the door open or shut when you reached the tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. Open.
Chairman Walsh. Was it left open or shut after you went down?
Mrs. Petrucci. Left open.
Chairman Walsh. If it came to be closed, did you ever know how it came to be closed?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Where were the steps into the cellar of the tent into which you went, after you left your tent? Where were the steps in this tent you ran to for protection?
Mrs. Petrucci. They was dug in the earth.
Chairman Walsh. Just earth steps?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Where were they with reference to the front or back of the tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. They were just like this [indicating], right in front of me.
Chairman Walsh. After you walked right in there you could go down the steps into this basement room?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. How deep was the room under the surface of the earth?
Mrs. Petrucci. I think about 6 feet.
Chairman Walsh. How many people were in the cellar when you got down into it?
Mrs. Petrucci. Three women and eight children.
Chairman Walsh. Who were the women?
Mrs. Petrucci. Mrs. Costa, Mrs. Valdez, and Mrs. Patragon, and myself.
Chairman Walsh. Were those other women friends of yours that had been in the tent colony?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. How did you get your children in there?
Mrs. Petrucci. They followed me; I had my baby in my lap and the little girl by the hand and the oldest walked by himself.
Chairman Walsh. How old were the children?
Mrs. Petrucci. One was 4; he would have been 5 yesterday; the little girl was 2 1/2, and the baby 6 months old.
Chairman Walsh. Did you talk to Mrs. Costa after you got in the tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. What conversation did you have when you got in there?
Mrs. Petrucci. I said to Mrs. Costa “They are burning the tent and we had better get out.” She said, “Oh, Mary, you had better stay in, because it is safer in here, and we could not burn,” not realizing about the smoke.
Chairman Walsh. What time was that with relation to the time you went into the tent— how long afterwards?
Mrs. Petrucci. It was not more than 10 minutes after I was in there that the tent started on fire, and we soon became unconscious.
Chairman Walsh. You were in there 10 minutes before you lost consciousness?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Before you lost consciousness did you realize that the tent was on fire?
Mrs. Petrucci. I seen that it was on fire.
Chairman Walsh. It was not on fire when you went in there?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir, or I would not have gone in.
Chairman Walsh. Were you unconscious all night?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes. sir; until the next morning at half past 5.
Chairman Walsh. What was your first consciousness the next morning?
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Mrs. Petrucci. Just as soon as I came out I went to look at my barrel for a drink of water, I was so suffocated, and then I happened to look back and there was five or six more tents that were not burned, and I was going to the depot, and when I was going to the depot there were guards coming down and I was looking back for fear they would shoot me.
Chairman Walsh. Now, did you suffer when you came to, Mrs. Petrucci? Were you in bad physical condition? Did you feel badly?
Mrs. Petrucci. I suppose I was worse than a drunken person. Every place I would go the road was all mine.
Chairman Walsh. The road-
Mrs. Petrucci (interrupting). Yes; like a drunken person.
Chairman Walsh. And how long did you feel that way that morning? How long did that last? That bad feeling?
Mrs. Petrucci. I don’t know how long it lasted, because as soon as I got to Trinidad I had to go to bed.
Chairman Walsh. How long were you in bed?
Mrs. Petrucci. I was in bed nine days. I took pneumonia.
Chairman Walsh. Pneumonia, and in bed nine days?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Now, did you suffer a great deal during that time and before you were taken to your bed?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. When did you get to Trinidad, and how were you taken to Trinidad?
Mrs. Petrucci. Well, I went up at the depot that morning, and when I got there somebody paid my ticket, and when I got in Trinidad I didn’t know nothing, or didn’t know nobody.
Chairman Walsh. Now. did you relate your experiences to the leaders of the miners after you got to Trinidad?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Who first did you tell your story to?
Mrs. Petrucci. I told my first story to Mrs. Champion.
Washington D.C., May 1914. Mrs. Lindsey, Judge Lindsey, with Ludlow Survivors: Mary Petrucci, Mary Thomas, and Pearl Jolly. Mrs Champion to far right, and daughters of Mrs Thomas in front row.
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Chairman Walsh. Is that a friend of yours?
Mrs. Petrucci. No; she lives in Denver.
Chairman Walsh. Mrs. Champion?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. She made an investigation down there?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. That was a lady that lived in Denver?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. And you told her this same story?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Did you know your children were dead when you were taken out that morning?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. And when did you find it out?
Mrs. Petrucci. Well, when I went around up to the depot, I sent Mrs. Holleran down to see, and she couldn’t find this place where the children were.
Chairman Walsh. Have you ever been out of Colorado before this trip?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. This is the first time, of course, you ever were in New York or these cities that you passed through?
Mrs. Petrucci. Oh, I was in Washington in May.
Chairman Walsh. You were in Washington in May?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. After this Ludlow affair?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. And that was the first time you were ever out of Colorado?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Chairman Walsh. And you don’t know what school facilities other people had?
Mrs. Petrucci. No.
Chairman Walsh. You didn’t know, except from what you heard, that people went to church and got religious-
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. You had just been told that. Did you go to church in Trinidad any?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. Was there any place in the towns in which you lived to which the people could resort for social intercourse—that is, to meet each other daily or nightly?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. There was no such place?
Mrs. Petrucci. No.
Chairman Walsh. Did you have some questions, Mr. Weinstock?
Commissioner Weinstock. Yes.
Chairman Walsh. Commissioner Weinstock would like to ask you some questions. Commissioner Weinstock. Do you know, Mrs. Petrucci, how the fire started?
Mrs. Petrucci. No; I do not.
Commissioner Weinstock. You did not see the fire at the start?
Mrs. Petruccl No; I did not see the fire at the start, because I had my cellar door shut; because the bullets were coming in there so thickly I had to close it. And when I saw it, it was kind of a stream across the door—there was, you know, that was carried down— you know I got out of my tent; it was all on blaze.
Commissioner Weinstock. At the time you left the tent it was already on fire?
Mrs. Petruccl Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. That is, the fire had spread from one tent to another?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. All down the line?
Mrs. Petrucci. I don’t know if it spread or they set them on fire, but I suppose some one set my tent on fire, because my tent was the first one burning.
Commissioner Weinstock. The fire started in your tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. That was the beginning of the whole fire, right in your tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. What time of the day did that happen?
Mrs. Petrucci. Well, it happened in the evening, I guess about 6-
Commissioner Weinstock. At night or in daylight?
Mrs. Petrucci. It was still light.
Commissioner Weinstock. Did you notice anybody around your tent?
Mrs. Petrucci.No, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. Did the fire start inside the tent or outside?
Mrs. Petrucci. From the outside, it was, but when I saw it it was all on fire.
Commissioner Weinstock. Were you in the tent when it took fire?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes; I was inside of my cellar.
Commissioner Weinstock. At the time the fire started?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. Then couldn’t you tell how it happened?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir; I got frightened, you know. I had my three children with me, you know, and to save me-
Commissioner Weinstock. Did you have a cellar in your tent?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Commissioner Weinstock. And you were down in the cellar?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. And then when you saw the fire you came out of the cellar?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes; I jumped out of the cellar with the baby in my lap, and then took one of the other children, one by one, by the hand and pulled them out of there and run into this cave.
Commissioner Weinstock. What had become of your neighbors, the ones that had the tents next to you?
Mrs. Petrucci. I don’t know. There were three of them in that hole—in that cellar.
Commissioner Weinstock. With you?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. Then you took them from your cellar-
Mrs. Petrucci. No; they was not in my cellar; they were in this bedroom cellar that we just spoke about.
Commissioner Weinstock. Now, let me make sure that I understand it. Did every tent have a cellar, too?
Mrs. Petrucci. Not every one of them.
Commissioner Weinstock. Your tent had a cellar?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. And then this other tent that you went to also had a cellar?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. And then you came out of your cellar and went over to this other one?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. Now, as you came out of your tent to go to this other cellar did you notice any people around there?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. Nobody?
Mrs. Petrucci. No; just the militiamen under that tank.
Commissioner Weinstock. How far were they from where you were?
Mrs. Petrucci. About 25 yards. I think.
Commissioner Weinstock. They were the closest persons to your place?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. And you have no idea how the fire started?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Commissioner Weinstock. That is all.
Chairman Walsh. Just one question. Did they keep away from you the knowledge of your children’s death when you were taken out that morning?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Did the people tell you that your children were dead?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. They took you right off to Trinidad?
Mrs. Petruccl No. This—I sent Mrs. Holleran down to see if my children were alive yet. I sent her down, and nobody knowed that place.
Chairman Walsh. And what did this lady tell you? Did she tell you your children were dead?
Mrs. Petrucci. She did not.
Chairman Walsh. She did not find them?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. And who went to Trinidad with you?
Mrs. Petrucci. There was lots more women up at the tent-colony depot.
Chairman Walsh. Did you try to find your children again before you went to Trinidad?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. What did you think had become of them?
Mrs. Petrucci. I was not thinking any way.
Chairman Walsh. Your mind was in such a condition that you could not think?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Chairman Walsh. Commissioner Lennon wants to ask you a question.
Commissioner Lennon. Were your children and the others found after you had gone to Trinidad?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Lennon. They were found afterwards?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Lennon. Those were all the children you had, were they—the three?
Mrs. Petrucci. I had four, and one had died the 7th day of March, and this was the 20th of April.
Note: Bernard died of illness a few months before the Ludlow Massacre.
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Chairman Walsh. Commissioner Ballard would like to ask you a question or two. Commissioner Ballard. Mrs. Petrucci, you finally came to yourself and came out yourself?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes.
Commissioner Ballard. And walked away?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Ballard. You were sort of half dazed and half unconscious?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Ballard. Do you remember whether, when you went in that cellar, whether the door was closed?
Mrs. Petrucci. It was open.
Commissioner Ballard. The door was open?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Ballard. And after you all got in there why it was closed, after the tent was on fire?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir. We couldn’t close it because we didn’t have time to.
Commissioner Ballard. The door never was closed?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir.
Commissioner Ballard. The smoke came right in?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Ballard. Did you all pull any bedclothes over you or bed covers down there?
Mrs. Petrucci. I did not, but Mrs. Costa did. There was one in there, and she took it and put it over herself and her two children, and I asked her to give me some of it and she said there was not enough for herself.
Commissioner Ballard. Well, how long had you been in the tent colony?
Mrs. Petrucci. Since January.
Commissioner Ballard. And you liked it there very much?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Ballard. Who paid the expenses while you were there?
Mrs. Petrucci. The union.
Commissioner Ballard. Who is paying your expenses now?
Mrs. Petrucci. The union.
Commissioner Ballard. That is all.
Chairman Walsh. Commissioner Garretson would like to ask you a question or two, Mrs. Petrucci. Commissioner Garretson. Were you the only one that came out of that
cellar alive?
Mrs. Petrucci. No, sir; I and another woman.
Commissioner Garretson. Did she regain consciousness before or after you did?
Mrs. Petrucci. She regained before I did.
Commissioner Garretson. Did she arouse you?
Mrs. Petrucci. No.
Commissioner Garretson. She left on her own volition?
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Garretson. And you afterwards
Mrs. Petrucci. Yes, sir.
Commissioner Garretson. That is all, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Walsh. That is all. Thank you very much, Mrs. Petrucci.
