Hellraisers Journal: News from Colorado Coalfield Strike: Forbes Tent Colony Attacked by Operators’ “Death Special”

Let every miner wear his red bandanna
around his neck. It is our uniform.
-John Lawson
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 19, 1913
News Round-Up from the Coal Miners’ Strike in Southern Colorado

Wednesday October 15, 1913 – Southern Coalfields, Colorado
-Coal Operators Provide Gunthugs with “Death Special.”

The coal operators have brought a new machine into the strike zone of Colorado. Called the “Death Special” by the miners, the machine is an automobile covered with armor and equipped with a search light and a machine gun. It is usually seen roaming about the various tent colonies filled with Baldwin-Felts gunthugs holding their rifles at the ready. Word has it that Mr. Felts, himself, had the large automobile delivered from Denver to Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron plant in Pueblo. There the sides were torn down and replaced with three-eights-inch steel plates. The machine gun was shipped in from West Virginia where it had served previous duty against the miners of that state.

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Thursday October 17, 1913 – Trinidad, Colorado
-Death Special follows 48 Union Men from Starkville to Trinidad

Yesterday strikers engaged in peacefully picketing at the Starkville Mine. This mine is owned by James McLaughlin, brother-in-law of Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado. Forty-eight of these union men were rounded up, placed under arrest by company guards and county deputies and marched the three miles back to Trinidad. On either side of them were rows of armed gunthugs, and behind them came the Death Special with its spotlight and machine gun aimed at their backs.

The union men offered no resistance, but as they come down the hill into Trinidad, they began to shout. They are being held in the Las Animas County Jail.

G. C. Jones, organizer for the Western Federation of Miners, was beaten by Gunthug Belk and by A. C. Felts as he attempted to get a Kodak of the menacing machine. The young photographer, Lou Dold was more successful.

In the past few days other attacks upon the striking miners and their families have been perpetrated by the mine guards. The Sopris Tent Colony was shot up by company gunthugs as they sped by in an automobile. In Walsenburg, Gunthug Lou Miller and six of his companions, roamed the streets assaulting strikers and union sympathizers wherever they found them. The town of Segundo was sprayed with machine gun fire for a full ten minutes as punishment for the beating of guard who had insulted a woman there.

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Saturday October 18, 1913 – Forbes Tent Colony, Colorado
-Mine Guards Attack with Death Special, Striker Luca Vahernick Killed

Mine guards, yesterday, attacked the Forbes Tent Colony making use of  the machine gun from the Death Special. Guards on horseback also used their rifles in the attack. A miner, Luca Vahernick, was killed, and a boy, Marco Zamboni, was shot nine times in the legs. A young girl who was on her way home from school was shot in the face. She lives on a near-by farm. The attack began at 2 p.m. and continued until dusk. The miners had only seven rifles or shotguns, six revolvers, and very little ammunition, but they were able to defend the Colony and prevented the guards from entering.

John Lawson arrived at Forbes this morning. As Lawson approached the camp, he found the Gunthugs Belk and Belcher lurking about, and confronted them. These are the same guards who were involved in the murders of Brothers Lippiatt and Powell, and now it appears, they have murdered another union brother. Louie Tikas stepped between Lawson and Belk, in that quiet, calm way of his and eased them apart. And, in this way, he may have saved Brother Lawson’s life.

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Sunday October 19, 1913 – Forbes Tent Colony, Colorado
-Tent with 148 Bullet Holes Will Be Shipped East

During the attack by the gunthugs on the small tent colony at Forbes Junction, Old Man Ure took shelter under the bed in his tent as bullets flew around him. The next day he counted 148 bullet holes which had ripped his tent to rags. The tent was shown to John Lawson yesterday and will be shipped East as an example of the brutality of the gunthugs in the Colorado strike zone.

The attack started at about 2 p. m. on Friday at the men’s colony. A separate colony had been established for the women and children about 300 yards away, to protect them in case of just such an attack. The men of the camp, about 25 in all, were playing cards when the Death Special appeared on the road near the Colony. The gunthugs calmly got out, took out the machined gun and set it up on the ground pointed at the miners. About the same time, gunthugs on horseback approached from the north. The strikers had only 13 guns between them, but they picked them up and prepared to defend themselves and the Colony as best they could.

A few yards from the tents, the horsemen stopped and Charles W. Kennedy dismounted. He approached the miners under cover of a white handkerchief and said:

It’s all right, boys, we’re union men.

The miners gathered around Kennedy as he showed them his union card and passed a bottle around.  Then he said:

I want to tell you something. What I want to say is that we’re going to teach you damned red-necks a lesson.

At that point, he dropped his white flagged and rolled off to the side.

The gunthugs on horse back fired their carbines and Luca Vahernick was killed instantly, shot through the brain. As the other miners ran to a gully for cover, the machine gun began to fire. Marco Zamboni had been in the men’s camp visiting his father, and he attempted to run back to the women and children’s camp. The gunthugs aimed the machine gun at him and cut him down. As he attempted to crawl away, they shot at him again. After that the boy lay still.

The wounding of the farmer’s daughter who was walking home from school appears to have been unintentional. Although, once these murderers begin shooting, anyone appears to be a target, regardless of their age.

The attack continued until about 6 p. m. when the gunthugs withdrew. The miners were then able to tend to their dead and wounded. The Zamboni boy, who had been pinned down all that time with nine bullet wounds in his legs, was carried to the the women’s camp. The miners stayed up all that night keeping guard on the two tent colonies.

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IMAGES

Baldwin Felts Death Special
https://www.du.edu/ludlow/gallery2.html

Louie Tikas with John Lawson at Ludlow
https://ludlowsymposium.wordpress.com/about/

See also:

From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of Oct 13, 1913
-Frank Hayes Calls for Congressional Investigation
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90051521/1913-10-13/ed-1/seq-1/

From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of Oct 16, 1913
-49 Strikers Arrested, Marched to Trinidad
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90051521/1913-10-16/ed-1/seq-1/

The Ludlow Massacre
-by Walter H. Fink
Denver, Colorado, 1914
-re Death Special at Forbes Tent Colony
https://archive.org/details/ludlowmassacrere00finkrich/page/77/mode/1up?view=theater&q=%22death+special%22

Tag: Forbes Tent Colony CO
https://weneverforget.org/tag/forbes-tent-colony-co/

Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1913-1914/