Tag: Death Special

Hellraisers Journal: “Two days following the Ludlow massacre I came upon the ruins of the tent colony.”-Clara Ruth Mozzor

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Quote KE Linderfelt re Damn Red Neck Bitches of Ludlow Massacre, Apr 20, 1914, CIR p7378—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 6, 1914
Clara Ruth Mozzor Describes Ruins of Ludlow Two Days After Massacre

From the International Socialist Review of June 1914:

The following article is written with deep feeling by Clara Ruth Mozzor who was present at the death-pit as the bodies of the women and children were recovered from the Black Hole of Ludlow:

Ludlow How About It Rockefellers by R Kirby, ISR p722, June 1914

“LUDLOW”

By Clara Ruth Mozzor

TWO days following the Ludlow massacre I came upon the ruins of the tent colony. Ludlow was still a smoldering, smoking mass of ashes. What was once the homes of these men who had come across the seas to build for their wives and babies was now an aching desolation. I came to get at the bottom of the trouble that caused a colony in which there were women and children to be fired on by machine guns and soldiers’ rifles.

Waste and ruin, death and misery were the harvest of this war that was waged on helpless people. The ruthlessness of the steady fusillade of bullets from the machine guns turned against these people by the terrific force of capital in the human form of the inhuman octopus John D. Rockefeller, wiped out whole families, separated husbands and wives, mothers and babies and sent into the beyond little ones whose day of life was but a short time off.

Only a few weeks ago Ludlow was a colony of life. Eight American flags waved gladly in the air over its tents. Here was going on the making of Americans in this great western melting pot in the southern coal fields of Colorado.

And on these self-same ruins was enacted the most awful tragedy, the darkest chapter of American history, the Ludlow massacre when sleeping families were made the targets with which to break the backs of the strikers.

The very region of Ludlow is one of nature’s hell holes, full of its dark canyons and deep arroyos, its hills and mountains. And in these mountains, in these Black Hills are scattered the men. Many of them do not know where their families are. Some of the women and children are still in the friendly ranch houses, while most of them are in the shelter of Trinidad homes and refuges thrown open to them.

The entire southern district is in the throes of war. Not civil, but industrial warfare, that has made such a reign of terror as must forever remain a black spot in the history of the state and nation. Ludlow is not the beginning of this war of desolation and sorrow. Seven months ago the union men went on strike. They demanded many things, but they were willing to waive them all should they only be given the recognition of their union.

Today in Ludlow stalks the spirit of the dead, the massacred and the slaughtered. Mothers with babies at their breasts and babies at their skirts and mothers with babies yet unborn were the targets of this modern warfare. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Two days following the Ludlow massacre I came upon the ruins of the tent colony.”-Clara Ruth Mozzor” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Testimony of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Monday April 6, 1914, Before the House Committee Investigating Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado

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Quote John D Rockefeller Jr, Great Principle, WDC Apr 6, 1914, US House Com p2874—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 12, 1914
Washington D. C. – John D. Rockefeller Jr. Testifies Before House Committee

John D. Rockefeller Jr. made his appearance on Monday, April 6th, in Washington D. C., before the Subcommittee of the House Committee on Mines and Mining which is investigating conditions in the coal mines of Colorado. During his four hours of sworn testimony, Mr. Rockefeller stated that the “Open Shop” is a “Great Principle” worth the loss of all of his property in the state of Colorado and the lives of all of his employes. 

During his four hours of sworn testimony, Mr. Rockefeller had this exchange with Chairman Foster:

THE DEATH SPECIAL, MACHINE GUNS, AND MINE GUARDS

Baldwin-Felts Death Special

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know about an automobile being armored-built of armor plate being built in your company?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. It sounds interesting, but I have not heard of it.
The CHAIRMAN. It was built in the shops of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I did not know they produced automobiles as well.
The CHAIRMAN. They put on it machine guns, going around through that country.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I thought the idea referred to by Mr. Bowers, of having a number of searchlights was an excellent one, helping to prevent disorder. They could see the country all around.
The CHAIRMAN. Do you know this, that it was testified during the disturbances before the militia was called into the field, the mine guards were then in existence, and trouble took place between the striking miners and the mine guards or deputy sheriffs? Were you informed of that?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I did not know that was so, but it is usual where a strike occurs for the company to undertake to protect its men with the local officials, and add to that number before the the militia is called out. I think that is customary.
The CHAIRMAN. Now, then, when the militia was called out, a great many of these mine guards or deputy sheriffs, it was said, were sworn into the service of the State, and they were kept on the pay rolls of the company; for instance, the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. What is your idea of that? Do you think that makes the militia a nonpartisan preserver of the peace?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I should simply say that if the local authorities in any community were unable to or did not render adequate protection to the workers of that district it was the duty of the employers of the labor to supplement that protection in any way they could.
The CHAIRMAN. Well, but if the militia had been called into the field and then the mine guards and deputy sheriffs who had been sworn into the militia were still on the pay roll of the company, drawing their pay from the State and from the company, too, is it your opinion that they would be a nonpartisan protector of the peace of the community?
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Of course, that is a very extensive country. There are mines in many different places. I do not know that in any case the militia has been sent there in sufficient numbers to cover the entire country.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Testimony of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Monday April 6, 1914, Before the House Committee Investigating Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado” →

Hellraisers Journal: Rockefeller Jr. Testifies Before House Investigating Committee, States He Is Willing to Lose All in Colorado, Including Lives of His Employes, in Pursuit of the “Great Principle” of Open Shop

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Quote John D Rockefeller Jr, Great Principle, WDC Apr 6, 1914, US House Com p2874—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 11, 1914
Washington, D. C. – John D. Rockefeller Jr. Testifies Before Federal Investigators

From The New York Times of April 7, 1914:

Lives to be Sacrificed for Rockefeller’s
“Great Principle”

The Times featured Rockefeller’s testimony in a long article which began with a full column on the front page and continued with two and a half columns on the second page. The headlines reveal that The Times considered Rockefeller’s stand for the open-shop to be a just stand against “union rule”:

ROCKEFELLER, JR., DEFIES UNION RULE
———–
Will Sacrifice All in Colorado Rather Than
Subject Miners to Union Dictation.
———-

FIRM FOR “OPEN SHOP”
———-
Americans, He Tells Congressmen, Must Have
Right to Work Where They Please.
———-
SAYS HE DOES HIS DUTY
———-
Is a Director, but Must Trust Details to Trained Officers
-Testifies for Four Hours.
———-

Special to the New York Times.

John D Rockefeller Jr, Brk Dly Egl p1, Apr 6, 1914

WASHINGTON, April 6.-John D. Rockefeller, Jr., testifying to-day as a Director of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in the inquiry which the House Committee on Mines is conducting into the Colorado coal strike, declared unequivocally for the principle of the “open shop,” and assented that he and his associates would prefer that they should “lose all of their millions invested in the coal fields than that the American workingmen should be deprived of the right under the Constitution to work for whom they pleased.”

Mr. Rockefeller said that he thought his chief duty as a Director was to place honest and capable officers in control of the business. He said he would rather relinquish his interests in Colorado and close down the mines than to recognize the unions under the circumstances. He was not opposed to unions as such, he said, but he did object to unions which tried to force men to join them and which deprived men of the liberty of working for whom they pleased. He said that a recognition of the mine workers’ union would mean the repudiation of the employes who had been faithful enough to remain with company during the strike…..

[Emphasis added]

Thus, Rockefeller was portrayed as a great hero willing to sacrifice the family fortune in order to “protect” the working men and women of America from the evils of collective bargaining!

How Rockefeller Maintains Absolute Control in Colorado:
-The Death Special, Constructed at CF&I plant in Pueblo, Colorado.

Baldwin-Felts Death Special

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Rockefeller Jr. Testifies Before House Investigating Committee, States He Is Willing to Lose All in Colorado, Including Lives of His Employes, in Pursuit of the “Great Principle” of Open Shop” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners Fight to Win in Colorado by Robert M. Knight, Part II

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 4, 1913
Coal Miners of Southern Colorado Are Fighting to Win, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of December 1913:

Miners, Women, Children Parade at Trinidad, ISR p333, Dec 1913

[Part II of II]

Some one has said, “A fool in revolt is infinitely wiser than a learned philosopher apologizing for his chains.” Believing this, fully 95 per cent of the miners answered the call to strike [September 23, 1913]. Men with families within three days of starvation and without clothes enough to protect their frail bodies from the biting winds of mountain winters came out fully determined to win or die in the attempt. And who will blame them? Work such as the miner does is no longer honorable but has come to mean “drunkenness, vice and superstition.” It makes men and women unscrupulous, hard and restless. It destroys for others the treasure of life-a home. All the noble sentiments of liberty and the joy of labor mean in reality to the miner slavery of the worst type.

With thoughtless hymns of praise of this massacreing of labor, society allows one wholesale slaughter after another without a protest. While I am writing this the news arrived of the Dawson, New Mexico, disaster, in which the lives of 261 miners were lost and the operators refused to allow Secretary Doyle of the miners’ union to give the widows and orphans $1,000 donated by the union because the camp was non-union. And just as certain as that nothing becomes better without the desire to improve it so it is a healthy sign of the times that starvation wages for conscientious drudgery no longer fills the miner with heartfelt gratitude toward the master class.

The mine slaves were so cowed that the operators were sure that not more than 25 per cent would quit and when practically every miner laid down his tools, completely tying up the coal industry of Colorado, the wrath of the masters knew no bounds. They immediately got busy and sent a deputation of their lackeys, consisting of a lawyer, banker and a Catholic priest (Father Malone), to Washington to repeat the lies of the operators that the miners were satisfied with conditions but forced to strike by eastern agitators like Frank Hayes and Mother Jones. Their thugs began to terrorize the country, shoot up the tented camps of the strikers, insult the women and abuse the children and the operators began to call for the militia that the state might pay the cost of breaking the strike and thus save John D. a few paltry dollars with which to build a few more churches and start more Sunday schools where they sing and PREY-“servants obey your masters.”

Failing to get the militia as soon as they called, the operators had to content themselves with filling the jails of Colorado with strikers who dared to exercise their constitutional rights of peacefully asking imported strikebreakers to not work. In the city of Boulder and within the shadow of Colorado’s greatest educational institution, the state university, thirty-six were confined in the county jail until the court permitted the prisoners to bail each other out. Forty-nine others were arrested in Las Animas county and marched seven miles to the Trinidad jail between two rows of armed guards with Belk and Beltcher (out on bond for murder of Lippiatt), following up the rear with a Gatling gun mounted on an armored automobile.

Frank Hayes says, “The operators have several machine guns mounted on autos. They also have what is known as the ‘steel battle ship [Death Special].‘ This is an automobile with a high body of solid sheet steel built up so as to almost conceal the guard inside. The steel furnishes resistance to the bullets and is so arranged that the assassins on the inside may shoot their rifles in perfect safety. It is a splendid refuge for a coward. The body of the machine is shaped like a torpedo and was designed and built for mine guards. It carried a rapid fire machine gun with a range of more than two miles. As bad as West Virginia was there was nothing down there to compare with this latest instrument of murder that the operators of Colorado are using.”

As this procession neared town, G. E. Jones, a member of Western Federation of Miners, attempted to get a picture of the armored car. A. C. Felt beat him insensible and destroyed his camera and had him arrested for disturbing the peace.

Gun men patrol the public roads in armored autos, shooting up first one camp and then another. The first resistance the strikers offered was at Forbes, October 17, one striker was killed, two wounded and a deputy shot in the hip. One hundred and forty-seven bullets from a machine gun passed through a tent occupied by an aged Scotchman, who saved his life by lying flat on the floor. After this battle the miners made preparations to defend themselves from further attacks of the guards.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners Fight to Win in Colorado by Robert M. Knight, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Machine Guns and the Striking Coal Miners of Southern Colorado

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 2, 1913
Machine Guns Used to Wage War Against Striking Miners of Southern Colorado

From the International Socialist Review of December 1913:

Machine Guns n Coal Miners of So Colorado, ISR p327, Dec 1913

MILITARISM is the heavy fist of the Capitalist class to beat the worker into abject submission. So well do they know the value of machine guns and soldiers that the utmost endeavor is constantly put forth by the Government-the ever-ready Servant of Vested interests, to seduce boys into the ranks of patriotic hirelings. Militiamen and soldiers are working men, hired for a consideration, to shoot and kill other workingmen in the name· of “law and order.”

Brute force, it is evident, is never entirely discarded by the capitalist robber class in their self-assumed right to exploit the worker of the product of his toil. Behind the courts, judges and injunctions, political machinery, class education and superstition, there always lurks the shadow of the big mit and the heavy club-the Military.

The velvet glove only covets the mailed hand.

Where the barons of the middle ages hired his knights and handmen to prey upon and keep in suppression the serfs of the surrounding territory, the coal barons of Colorado, New York and West Virginia maintain their teachers and editors, their preachers and professors, their lawyers, judges and political heelers for the same identical purpose-the robbing of the working class. When these forces fail to work expeditiously then-the honorable Governor is beseeched to call out the National Guard to preserve “law and order.”

The difference between the first exploiter of labor-the man with the knotted club-and John D. Rockefeller the holy, oily Christian philanthropist, is one of degree only. The robbery of the worker is equally complete. The spoils of the idle robber of today is greater than ever. Only the methods have changed.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Machine Guns and the Striking Coal Miners of Southern Colorado” →

Hellraisers Journal: Baldwin-Felts Gunthug Shot and Killed on Streets of Trinidad; Striking Miner Louis Zancanelli Arrested

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Quote Coming Colorado Strike Song, Dnv ULB p1, Sept 27, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 22, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Baldwin-Felts Gunthug Belcher Shot and Killed

Headline from the Trinidad Chronicle News of November 21, 1913:

HdLn BF Gunthug Belcher Killed, TCN p1, Nov 21, 1913

Friday November 21, 1913-Trinidad, Colorado
-Baldwin-Felts Gunthug George W. Belcher Shot and Killed

At about 7:30 last evening the notorious Baldwin-Felts gunthug, George W. Belcher, 26, of West Virginia, was shot and killed as he left the Hausman Drugstore across from the Columbian Hotel in Trinidad. Belcher died at the scene. A striking miner, Louis Zancanelli, was arrested shortly after the shooting by city policemen. Belcher was well known throughout the strike zone for his role in the killing of Brother Gerald Lippiatt in Trinidad in August. He was deputized by Huerfano Sheriff Jefferson Farr in June. He played a part in the attack on the Ludlow Tent Colony in October in which Brother Mack Powell was shot off his horse and killed. Later in October, he was found in the Death Special, lurking about Forbes, by John Lawson and Louie Tikas the morning after the attack on the Forbes Tent Colony which left Brother Luca Varhernick dead. At that time, Belcher was found in the Death Special along with his fellow gunthug Walter Beck and Judge Northcutt [publisher of the Trinidad Chronicle News], attorney for the mine operators.

Along with Belcher, Belk was also sworn in as a Huerfano County deputy which gave them both a license to kill striking miners. Northcutt signed on as defense attorney for Belcher and Belk soon after the murder of Brother Lippiatt. Northcutt is also the attorney for the mine operators, and works with District Attorney Hendrick in the prosecution of striking miners.

Any chance of a fair trial for Louis Zancanelli seems slim.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Baldwin-Felts Gunthug Shot and Killed on Streets of Trinidad; Striking Miner Louis Zancanelli Arrested” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Louie the Greek”-According to Judge Jesse Northcutt, Coal Operators’ Attorney, Master of Public Opinion in Southern Colorado

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Louis Tikas, Song by Frank Manning—————

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

Louie the Greek re Tikas, TCN p1, Nov 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.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Louie the Greek”-According to Judge Jesse Northcutt, Coal Operators’ Attorney, Master of Public Opinion in Southern Colorado” →

Hellraisers Journal: News from Colorado Coalfield Strike: Guards/Deputies Continue Reign of Terror at Forbes and Walsenburg

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 26, 1913
News Round-Up from the Coal Miners’ Strike in Southern Colorado

From The Rocky Mountain News of October 25, 1913:

Walsenburg Massacre Oct 24, RMN p3, Oct 25, 1913

Saturday October 25, 1913
Southern Coalfield, Colorado – Mine guards and deputies continue reign of terror.

Forbes Tent Colony, October 23–At dawn today, Under-Sheriff Zeke Martin and fifty deputies, some of them deputized company gunthugs, brought the Death Special back to the small colony. They surrounded the colony with four machine guns pointed at the terrified residents. The men were rounded up and held at gunpoint. The women and children were forced from their beds. The tents were torn apart, trunks, beds, and floorboards, in a search for guns. Four of the striking miners were arrested and taken away for the death of Luca Vahernick, the striker who was murdered by the gunthugs that ambushed the colony on the 17th.

Walsenburg, October 24–Thirty heavily armed company guards and deputy sheriffs rode their horses into town today. They came to escort a scab’s wife into the stockade of the Walsen Mine. Strikers, along with their wives and children, gathered and began shouting and jeering, “Scab herders, scab herders!” Some of the children threw dirt clods. Without warning, the deputies opened fire. They fired several times, and then rode off leaving two dead strikers (Andy Auvinen and Cisto Croci) and one dying (Kris Kokich) in the street behind them. These brother-miners  join Gerald Lippiatt, Mack Powell, and Luca Vahernick as the martyrs, thus far, of the miners’ strike in the coalfields of southern Colorado.

Sheriff Farr and 50 deputies barricaded themselves in the courthouse as strikers and sympathizers in the town of Walsenburg picked up their guns and called for vengeance.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: News from Colorado Coalfield Strike: Guards/Deputies Continue Reign of Terror at Forbes and Walsenburg” →

Hellraisers Journal: William Gunn Shepherd on the Coal Strike in Colorado: “The Wrath of 25 Years Breaking Loose”

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Quote Mother Jones, Rise Up and Strike, UMW D15 Conv Sept 16 Trinidad CO, Dnv Exp Sept 17, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 25, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – William Gunn Shepherd Reports on Coalfield Strike

From The Day Book of October 23, 1913:

Mother Jones at Tent Colony, Day Bk p21, Oct 23, 193Colorado Coalfield Strike War by WG Shepherd, Day Bk p20, Oct 23, 1913Colorado Coalfield Strike War by WG Shepherd, Day Book p21 n 22, Oct 23, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: William Gunn Shepherd on the Coal Strike in Colorado: “The Wrath of 25 Years Breaking Loose”” →

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

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Let every miner wear his red bandanna
around his neck. It is our uniform.
-John Lawson
———-

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.”

Baldwin-Felts 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.

—————-

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.

—————

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.

—————

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