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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 30, 1899
Wallace, Idaho – Paul Corcoran Found Guilty of Second Degree Murder
From The Butte Miner of July 28, 1899:
IN THE SECOND DEGREE
—–
Paul Corcoran Found Guilty by
a Jury at Wallace.
—–SEVENTEEN YEARS IN PRISON
—–
The Defense Will Trust to Executive Clemency Rather
Than Risk Another Jury Trial-
After Sentence Had Been Pronounced,
Court Adjourned Until September.
—–
Wallace, Idaho, July 27.-Paul Corcoran was this morning found guilty of murder in the second degree by a jury in the district court, for the killing of James Cheyne at Wardner on April 29 last, during the riots, when a mob of 1,000 miners blew up the Bunker Hill and Sullivan concentrator.
Judge Stewart this afternoon sentenced Corcoran to serve 17 years in the penitentiary. Corcoran’s case was considered a test one, and had he been acquitted it is not probable that any of the other 300 men who are under arrest would have been tried for participation in the riots and murders at Wardner. This afternoon, however, Judge Stewart set the trials of Graddock and Inman, on a charge of murdering Smith and Cheyne, for September 4.
The trial of Corcoran consumed about one month, and attracted wide attention in the United States, especially among union laborers. The jurymen were from a distant portion of the county, and consisted of farmers and miners. Hundreds of witnesses were examined and both the state and the defense were represented by able counsel. The jury retired about 10 o’clock last night, after listening to the charge of Judge Stewart, and at 4 o’clock this morning [July 27th] a verdict of murder in the second degree was agreed upon. Within 20 minutes after the jury retired last night 11 of them favored the verdict finally rendered, but one man held out six hours for murder in the first degree. Under the Idaho laws murder in the second degree is punishable by imprisonment from 10 years to life.
Many prominent members of the Miners’ Union here today express great surprise at the verdict, and stated that they confidently expected an acquittal. Although the union men consider the sentence of 17 years sever, no move has yet been made by Corcoran’s attorneys for a new trial, and it is stated that none will be made.
The crime for which Paul Corcoran was today found guilty and sentenced to 17 years in the penitentiary was committed at Wardner in April 29 last, when a mob of 1,000 miners captured a Northern Pacific train and rode to Wardner and blew up the Bunker Hill and Sullivan concentrator with dynamite. During the riot hundreds of shots were fired, and two men, Smith and Cheyne, were killed. The trouble was of long standing and grew out of the refusal of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan company to recognize the Miners’ union. The Miners’ union demanded that all non-union men be discharged by the Bunker Hill company, and that only union miners be employed. The company declined to accede to the demand and the result was that their concentrator at Wardner, valued at a quarter of a million, dollars, was brown up with dynamite. About 300 miners are now under arrest charged with riot, conspiracy, murder, stopping a mail train and other offenses. Their trials will not occur until the next term of court in September.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Ed Boyce re Manly Blood per Gaboury 1967
“From Statehouse to Bull Pen
Idaho Populism and The Coeur d’Alene Troubles of the 1890’s”
-by William J. Gaboury
(Source: William J. Gaboury, “From Statehouse to Bull Pen: Idaho Populism and the Coeur d’Alene Troubles of the l890’s,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly, LVIII (January. 1967, 1422.)
https://digitalatlas.cose.isu.edu/geog/mining/minewars.htm
The Butte Miner
(Butte, Montana)
-July 28, 1899
https://www.newspapers.com/image/348418515/
IMAGE
Paul Corcoran, Sec Burke ID Miners WFM, Hutton p186, pubd 1900
https://archive.org/details/coeurdalenesorta00hutt/page/186
See also:
Tag: Paul Corcoran
https://weneverforget.org/tag/paul-corcoran/
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Working Man (The Miners Song) – David Alexander
Lyrics by Rita McNeil