Tag: Centralia Trial of 1920

Hellraisers Journal: From The One Big Union Monthly: “The Background of Centralia” by Ralph Chaplin

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, IWW Centralia n Lumber Barons, OBU Mly p19, May 1920 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 4, 1920
Ralph Chaplin on the Truth Behind the Centralia Conspiracy

From The One Big Union Monthly of May 1920:

THE BACKGROUND OF CENTRALIA

By RALPH CHAPLIN

Centralia Defendants, OBU Mly p11, May 1920—–

IN ORDER to get the truth of the Centralia conspiracy it is necessary to understand the circumstances leading up to the tragedy on Armistice Day, 1919. There are two distinct viewpoints from which this unfortunate affair may be observed: That of the lumber interests, which is to isolate the incident from its anteceeding circumstances and make it a “plain murder case”; and that of working people of the Northwest generally to consider all the facts in the case in order to find out, not only how the tragedy occurred, but what brought it about as well.

It is well to state here that the lumber interests, with the aid of the trial judge, the prosecuting attorneys and the press, succeeded in keeping from the consideration of the jury, all but the actual happenings on November 11th. The long and unbroken chain of threats, raids, deportations and murders perpetrated against the I. W. W. boys before they made a last stand for their lives in their union hall, was objected to by the lumber trust’s attorneys and ruled out by the lumber trust’s lackey on the judicial bench. In this manner men who were simply defending their lives and property from a mob were shown to be deliberate and wanton assassins, while their tormentors were held up to the world as splendid examples of unquestioned and persecuted patriotism.

The efforts of the defense to prove the existence of a conspiracy on the part of the lumber interests to raid and demolish union halls and to murder their occupants were painstakingly ignored by the press.

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Hellraisers Journal: Centralia Defendants Mike Sheehan and Elmer Smith, Found Not Guilty, Now Back in Chehalis Jail

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 28, 1920
Chehalis, Washington – Mike Sheehan and Elmer Smith Back Behind Bars

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 23, 1920:

CHEHALIS JAILOR CHARY ABOUT RECEIVING VISITS
———-
Correspondent Tells of Conditions in Prison Where
Victims of Centralia Lumber Barons Were Confined
—–

(By John Nicholas Beffel.)

IWW Centralia, Sheehan n Smith, Stt Str p11, Jan 24, 1920

Centralia, Wash.-It’s difficult to get into the decrepit old jail at Chehalis unless you are a Wobbly. I wanted to get inside, but Sheriff John Berry wouldn’t let me. He was firm about it, and a bit peevish. Sanitary conditions within were a delicate subject, a cause for official sensitiveness.

That jail has an important relation to the Centralia tragedy story. Some of the I. W. W. defendants consented to make statements while confined there. Mrs. Mary McAllister, one of the vital witnesses for the defense, who testified that Eugene Barnett was in the Roderick hotel during the rioting and not in the Avalon hotel, was held in the Chehalis jail twenty days without warrant or charge, and then released.

And now Mike Sheehan and Elmer Smith, acquitted at Montesano, were back at Chehalis, imprisoned in a little cell, suffering for lack of proper ventilation, fighting live rats and enduring the odor of dead ones. Sheehan and Smith had been found innocent of connection with the death of Warren O. Grim, and then were immediately rearrested charged with conspiring to murder Arthur McElfresh, another slain Armistice Day parader.

I asked Sheriff Berry if I could see the interior of the jail.

“Who are you investigatin’ jails for?” he demanded suspiciously.

“For the labor press,” I said.

“It won’t be necessary for you to see the inside of this jail,” he decreed. “It ain’t the kind of place it ought to be, but I can’t help that. I’ve tried to get the county commissioners to fix things, but they won’t loosen up.”

Already I knew that Berry would not permit the prisoners to receive any copies of the Seattle Union Record or any other labor paper.

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Hellraisers Journal: IWWs Get Heavy Sentences; “Centralia: An Unfinished Story” by Anna Louise Strong

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 21, 1920
Centralia Defendants Get Heavy Sentences; Anna Louise Strong Reports on Trial

From the Washington Standard of April 6, 1920:

HEAVY SENTENCES GIVEN I. I. W.’S
———-

TWENTY-FIVE TO FORY YEARS GIVEN MEN CONVICTED OF
SECOND DEGREE MURDER; PRACTICALLY MEANS LIFE
TO MOST OF THEM; CASE TO BE APPEALED.
———-

Centralia Trial, IWW Defendants Names, Spk Chc p1, Feb 7, 1920—–

The seven men convicted at Montesano March 13 of second degree murder for the slaying of Warren O. Grimm, Centralia Armistice Day parade victim, were sentenced to not less than 25 years in state’s prison and not more than 40 years, by Judge John M. Wilson Monday afternoon.

Defense Attorney Vanderveer took exception to the sentences and gave notice of appeal.

Judge Wilson said that he could not pay any attention to the jury’s plea for leniency in the case of John Lamb and Ray Becker in the light of the evidence submitted. He said he regarded the case against all of the men as identical. Loren Roberts, whom the jury found insane, was ordered sent to the criminal insane ward at Walla Walla penitentiary.

The seven men sentenced to 25 to 40 years were O. C. Bland, Bert Bland, John Lamb, Eugene Barnett, James McInerney, Ray Becker and Britt Smith.

Motion for a new trial was made by Vanderveer, and argued at length but was denied by Judge Wilson before the sentence was passed.

The minimum sentence for second degree murder is 10 years, the maximum life imprisonment. The defense has 90 days in which, to carry the case to the supreme court.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

From The Nation of April 17, 1920:

Centralia: An Unfinished Story

By ANNA LOUISE STRONG

Anna Louise Strong, Stt Str p 5, Mar 4, 1918

NEITHER side was satisfied with the compromise verdict rendered by the jury at Montesano in the trial of the eleven members of the I. W. W. charged with the murder of Warren 0. Grimm in connection with the Centralia tragedy on Armistice Day. The prosecution asked that all eleven be convicted of murder in the first degree, as having conspired to commit murder. The defense asked that all be acquitted, as men who had planned only to defend themselves and their hall against a threatened raid. One of the defendants was freed on a directed verdict. Of the ten considered by the jury, two were acquitted, one adjudged insane, and seven convicted of murder in the second degree. Even to the jury itself this verdict was not satisfactory. It brought in first a verdict of murder in the third degree for two of the defendants, but was informed by the judge that this was inadmissible, and upon further consideration changed the verdict to that of murder in the second degree. It is generally conceded that three of the jurors held out for some time for absolute acquittal of all defendants.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: John Nicholas Beffel on the Centralia Trial and the Lynching of Wesley Everest

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 6, 1920
Montesano, Washington – John Nicholas Beffel Observes Centralia Trial

From The Liberator of April 1920:

Fear in the Jury Box

[-by John Nicholas Beffel]

IWW Centralia, Eugene Barnett, Spk Chc p1, Feb 7, 1920
Eugene Barnett

A NERVOUS little man is on the witness stand in Montesano. He is James T. McAllister, whose wife owns the Roderick Hotel next door to the raided I. W. W. hall in Centralia. He testifies that one of the defendants, Eugene Barnett, was in the Roderick lobby all during the Armistice Day shooting and not in the Avalon Hotel, as the prosecution asserts.

“But when you were arrested you said there was nobody in the lobby,” says a prosecutor for the lumber trust. “Why did you say that?”

“I wasn’t sworn then,” replies the little man. “I didn’t want to be drawed into no trouble.”

He cowers in his chair, remembering the mob. There was a list of people to be hung that night beside Wesley Everest.

“What’s the matter?” demands Vanderveer, counsel for the defense. “Are you afraid now?”

“N-no.” The little man shakes as with a chill.

Ten men sit facing the judge and jury and gallows. They are accused of killing Warren O. Grimm, service man, in the Armistice Day parade. But it is not a murder trial; it is a trial of organized labor; the lumber interests seek to crush their most dangerous enemy, the uncrushable I. W. W. The main legal issue is whether men still have a right to defend their lives and property against violence. If these ten workers get a fair trial and are judged solely by the evidence, they will without any doubt go free. But will the jury dare to acquit? A verdict of acquittal would mean ruin for the twelve. Each man’s history is known to the lumber trust; it knows how to break men; it has broken men before.

Centralia Trial, IWW Defendants Names, Spk Chc p1, Feb 7, 1920—–

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: “Labor Jury Finds I. W. W. Trial Unfair” -Asserts Grimm Was Conspirator

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 17, 1920
Tacoma, Washington – Labor Jury Finds Centralia Defendants Not Guilty

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of March 16, 1920:

IWW Centralia, Trial Unfair per Labor Jury, BDB p1, Mar 16, 1920

ASSERT EVIDENCE SHOWS GRIMM HAD CONSPIRED
TO ATTACK CENTRALIA HALL
———-

(Special to The Bulletin.)

IWW Centralia, Labor Jury, Chaplin p79, 1920

Tacoma, Wash., March 16.-The “labor jury” composed of six representatives of various labor organizations on the coast who attended the trial of the 10 I. W. W. W. charged with the Centralia Armistice day killings, today announced the result of their deliberation. The “jury” found that:

There had been a conspiracy on the part of Centralia business men to raid the I. W. W. hall at Centralia.

That Warren O. Grimm was a party to the conspiracy.

That the defendants failed to get an impartial trial.

The members of the labor jury were appointed by labor organizations to sit at the trial as spectators and to place themselves in the attitude of fair and impartial jurors and to return a verdict of their findings as the result of the testimony offered at the trial. The jurors, now that they have made their decision, will report to their respective bodies. It can be stated the decision of the “labor jury” represents the official attitude of organized labor, whose accredited representatives the jurors were.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: “Seven of Centralia Defendants Found Guilty in Second Degree”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 16, 1920
Montesano, Washington – Seven Centralia I. W. W. Defendants Found Guilty

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of March 15, 1920:

BDB, in Interest of WC, p1, Mar 15, 1920IWW Centralia Trial, Seven Found Guilty, BDB p1, Mar 15, 1920

(Special to the Bulletin.)

Montesano, Wash., March 15.-Ignoring Judge Wilson’s instructions that their verdict must be either acquittal or first degree murder, the jurors in the trials of the 10 I. W. W. charged with killing Warren O. Grimm during the rioting which resulted from the attack of a group of legionnaire paraders on the I. W. W. hall at Centralia last Armistice day, late Saturday night brought in verdicts of acquittal for Elmer Smith, Mike Sheehan and Loren Roberts and second degree murder in the cases of Britt Smith, Ray Becker, James McInerney, Bert Bland, Eugene Barnett, John Lamb and O. C. Bland. Robert’s acquittal was based on the grounds of insanity.

Centralia Trial, IWW Defendants Names, Spk Chc p1, Feb 7, 1920

The verdict was the second returned by the jury in the case, the jurors having come in earlier in the evening with the announcement that they had found McInerney, Becker, O. C. Bland and Bert Bland and Britt Smith guilty of second degree murder, and Eugene Barnett and John Lamb guilty of third degree murder. On this occasion Judge Wilson refused to accept the verdict and ordered them to return and deliberate in accordance with his instructions, holding that a verdict of third degree murder was not permissable under his instructions.

Immediately after the last verdict was read to the prisoners and the court, Sheriff John Berry of Lewis county immediately rearrested all of them on charges of having murdered Arthur McElfresh, who also was killed during the Armistice day rioting.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Murder at Centralia” by Fellow Worker J. T. “Red” Doran for The Liberator, Lumber Barons Exposed

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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 3, 1920
Centralia, Washington – Lumber Barons Plot Murder, Never Charged

From the New York Liberator of February 1920:

Murder in Centralia

By J. T. Doran of the I. W. W.

ON Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1919, a mob broke into the I. W. W. hall at Centralia, Washington, and five of them were killed. The attackers came from a passing parade of ex-service men. The same day an ex-serviceman, Wesley Everetts [Everest] by name, was seized by a mob, dragged through the streets and lynched.

Truth ab Centralia n Lumber Baron by Maurice Becker, Liberator p17, Feb 1920
The Truth About Centralia by Maurice Becker
—–

The lynchers of Wesley Everetts are known. They have not been indicted. They will never be tried for their crime. That is because Wesley Everetts was a member of the I. W. W.

But ten members of the I. W. W. (including five ex-servicemen) have been arrested and charged with conspiring to fire upon and kill the men in the parade as it passed their hall; they are charged with having plotted and planned to do this thing for two weeks in advance of the act; they are charged with doing this as an attack upon the Government. They are going to be tried for murder.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Murder at Centralia” by Fellow Worker J. T. “Red” Doran for The Liberator, Lumber Barons Exposed” →