Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 14, 1921 Dedham, Massachusetts – Attorneys Argue for New Trial for Sacco and Vanzetti
From the Appeal to Reason of November 12, 1921:
Guard All Roads During New Trial
of Sacco-Vanzetti
BY EUGENE LYONS.
Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Nicola Sacco, Rosina Sacco
Boston, Nov. 4-The courthouse in Dedham, Mass., and all the roads leading to it are in a state of siege, with mounted state constabulary, riot squads, and the rest of the terror brigades patrolling the neighborhood, as counsel for Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the two workingmen whose conviction on a far-fetched charge of murder has roused the proletariat of all nations, argue for a new trial before Judge Webster Thayer.
The hysterical precautions against dangers which do not exist except in the imaginations of alarmist newspaper editors have transformed the court so that it looks like a military camp prepared for battle, rather than a hall of justice. The presiding judge, although he has denied the fake stories of threats against his life, is heavily guarded. Among those who were searched for hidden weapons as they entered the room were many prominent New Englanders, among them John Codman, chairman of local Civil Liberties Union, Mrs. Elizabeth Glendower Evans and Mrs. William James, the widow of the great psychologist and philosopher.
It is in such an atmosphere that the appeal for a new trial was made by attorneys Fred H. Moore and J. J. McAnarney, on the ground that the evidence introduced against their clients did not warrant the verdict. They berated the court for its refusal to grant separate trials for the two defendants, the evidence against them being of a different nature. Mr. McAnarney asserted that the jury was undoubtedly influenced by the halo of terror thrown around the prisoners. Mr. Moore analyzed in detail the testimony against the men, showing how flimsy and untenable it is…..
Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 28, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Trial of Gurley Flynn and Filigno, Part II
From The Workingman’s Paper of February 26, 1910:
[Part II of II.]
The Jury
The first two days of the trial were taken up with impaneling the jury. It fell to Mr. Don Kiser’s lot to have charge of the prosecution’s side of this part of the performance.
About forty men were called before it was possible to get twelve men who were satisfactory. The vast majority were prejudiced against the I. W. W.; in fact, it was a surprise when a man would make the statement that he had formed no opinion concerning the case, or even when one would say he considered labor had a right to organize in order to better its conditions, etc.
Finally, however, by Friday afternoon the jury began to look like a jury and things were ready for taking up the testimony.
[The Prosecution’s Case.]
[Main witness for the prosecution were:
-Detective Martin J. Burns who testified that 20% of those arrested said no more than “Fellow Worker.”
-Chief Sullivan, witness for the prosecution, was unable to explain why foreigners who said no more than “Fellow-Workers” could draw such big crowds.
-“Floor-Spitter” Detective McDonald testified that the men he arrested were all foreigners whose names he could not remember nor pronounce.]
Defense Opens
At 3:30 [Tuesday February 15th] Mr. Symmes addressed the jury, and on request of defense court adjourned at about 4, to take up defense testimony in the morning.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 27, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Trial of Gurley Flynn and Filigno, Part I
From The Workingman’s Paper of February 26, 1910:
The Flynn-Filigno Trial
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(Reported for “The Workingman’s Paper” by its
Editorial Correspondent, Bessy Fiset.)
[Part I of II.
Wednesday, the 9th of February, 1910, saw the opening of the case of the State against C. L. Filigno and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn-Jones for criminal conspiracy.
The fact is that this trial is bringing to light the greatest conspiracy on the part of the MASTER CLASS AGAINST FREEDOM OF SPEECH, PRESS AND ASSEMBLAGE that has yet been revealed in this country, making it rank with the foremost cases that have had direct bearing, or been the direct outcome of the Revolutionary movement in America.
* * *
To any one looking on at this trial the spectacle was certainly a representative in miniature of conditions as they exist in society today. On entering the large courtroom-seating approximately three hundred-one faced the court with the jury box on the left, counsel’s table immediately in front of judge, clerk’s desk just to right, and at extreme right along the wall a row of seats reserved for women spectators.
Between the right wall and the court was a door opening into an anteroom, which in turn let into a corridor leading to the county jail. Between the court and the jury box on the left was the door leading into court chambers.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 5, 1909
Spokane, Washington – “Free Speech Fight Is On”
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 3, 1909:
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[From page 1:]
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FREE SPEECH FIGHT IS ON IN SPOKANE
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With the end of the trial of James P. Thompson held in the Municipal court of Spokane Tuesday morning, November 2, the fight for free speech or the right to speak on the streets has started in earnest by the members of the union here in the city and many others that have arrived from all over the northwest.
Meetings were started in different parts of the city at about 1 o’clock in the afternoon and kept up till 5 o’clock in the evening; as one speaker was pulled off the box by the police another would take the stand for the purpose of being arrested. All told there were about 100 men arrested on Monday, including James Wilson, James P. Thompson, C. L. Filigno, A. C. Cousins, who were arrested on a warrant charged with criminal conspiracy. Also Mrs. Fernette was taken for street speaking, and Mrs. Arquette and Miss Huxtable were arrested in the raid made on the hall at 3 o’clock Monday afternoon.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 4, 1909
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Determined to Carry on Free Speech Fight
From The Spokane Press of November 3, 1909:
[…..]
That 75 socialists are mingled with the scores of revolutionists arrested here yesterday and this morning for speaking on the streets in violation of the city’s ordinance, is an assertion made to The Press this morning by leading members of the Industrial Workers of the World.
[…..]
In Court
Profound interest settles about the trials of the revolutionists in the police court this afternoon. Judge Mann’s decision of these cases means mush. Should he decide the men guilty and uphold the city ordinance, which is almost identical to the one that he declared invalid yesterday morning, the fight will continue with renewed vigor and determination; while, should his decision be a dismissal of the cases, the street meetings will be continued under the regulation of the police.
In a statement made yesterday in the police court, Attorney Fred H. Moore, for the Industrial Workers of the World, said that that order was willing that the street meetings should be regulated by the police after a reasonable manner, but that the city could not prohibit them.
War against Spokane’s street speaking prohibition has begun today with renewed vigor and with more determination than ever by the Industrial Workers of the World. The revolutionists’ fight was cheeked for a few hours last night because of the arrest of their executive committee, which, from the seclusion of headquarters, was directing the fight outside.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 16, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary – Report on Brutal Treatment of Prisoners, Part II
From The New Appeal of January 11, 1919:
[Part 2 of 2.]
Summing up the results of his inquiry, Mr. Moore [Attorney for the Industrial Workers of the World] says:
Extremely fragmentary as is the above, I believe that the following points may be considered as fully established:
1. That negro convicts armed with clubs were used under the direction of Mr. Fletcher [Deputy Warden] to beat up white men. That among those so beaten up were Stratton, Murphy and Floyd Ramp.
2. That many prisoners, whose physical condition was extremely bad, were placed on bread and water diet and deprived of their blankets and compelled to sleep on the cement floor at a time when this would seriously endanger their health.
3. That many prisoners were chained by their wrists to the sides of their cells and so compelled to stand for a period in excess of twenty-four hours.
Visits Husband in Cell.
In an affidavit, of which The New Appeal has been furnished a copy, Mrs. Floyd Ramp, wife of one of the solitary prisoners, states that she was allowed a brief visit with her husband on December 15, having come to Leavenworth in response to a report from friends that her husband had been seriously injured. Mrs. Ramp states that she was not permitted to question her husband regarding his injuries, but that his right eye was badly discolored and he was in an emaciated condition. Owing to the presence of the guard she could elicit no information of what had occurred beyond the most vague and unsatisfactory references. Ramp did say that Stratton was “pretty badly hurt.” Mrs. Ramp states “that Jack Phelan, who was released from the Leavenworth prison on December 18 because declared by the Appellate Court to have been illegally incarcerated on a charge of violating the Espionage Act, told her he had seen Floyd Ramp’s body and that it was a mass of bruises which led him to believe that he had been beaten, kicked and trampled upon.”
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 15, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas – Brutal Treatment of Prisoners Reported
From The New Appeal of January 11, 1919:
[Part 1 of 2.]
In its issue of last week The New Appeal reproduced a report of conscientious objectors at Camp Funston, Kans., detailing the brutal treatment to which they were subjected at the command of certain officers, contrary to the express directions of the war department in Washington. This report was published primarily as a matter of record, the guilty officers having been dismissed from the service and the conditions complained of corrected.
We are now in the way of making a more important exposure-an exposure of brutalities committed upon Socialists, I. W. W.s. and others imprisoned in the Federal penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., brutalities that we have reason to believe have not been brought to the notice of the higher authorities since the efforts of interested persons to investigate these brutalities have been baffled at every turn by prison officials. Enough evidence has been dragged into the light, however, to make it shamefully plain, to use the words of Mrs. Floyd Ramp, wife of a Socialist prisoner, “that things are occurring in this penitentiary which citizens of a democracy should not knowingly countenance.”
Could Not Question Prisoners.
On December 12, F. H. Moore, a Chicago attorney, went to Leavenworth to discuss certain legal steps with the group of prisoners sentenced under the Chicago indictment of the I. W. W. alleged anti-war agitators. He also desired to make personal inquiry of the treatment the prisoners were receiving, disquieting reports of which had reached him through “underground” channels. In company with Miss Caroline A. Lowe, who assisted in the defense of the prisoners at the trial, Mr. Moore called upon the warden. They were told by the warden that they could talk over legal matters connected with the case, but they were absolutely forbidden to question the prisoners as to conditions in the penitentiary.
Mr. Moore, in a somewhat lengthy communication sent to The New Appeal, repeatedly emphasizes this autocratic censorship of the warden. As they interviewed, separately, each one of twenty-two prisoners held in solitary confinement with unusual punishment, the deputy warden, who was present during the interviews, sternly suppressed every attempt to question the prisoners as to the manner in which they had been handled and as to their physical condition at the time. Nor were Mr. Moore and Miss Lowe, when they met and conferred with the majority of the prisoners in a body permitted to refer to the condition of their fellow prisoners who were “in solitary.”
You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 7, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Victory for Everett Defense!
From The Seattle Star of May 5, 1917:
From the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee:
SEATTLE, Wash., May 5th.-Thomas H. Tracy after a trial lasting exactly two months, has been acquitted. It is also exactly six months since the red outrage of Bloody Sunday on November 5. The fifth seems to be a significant date in this case and on November 5th was the trouble; on March 5th Tracy’s trial started and on May 5th he secured his acquittal.
JURY DELIBERATES 21 HOURS.
The case went to the jury yesterday, Friday, at 11:30 a. m. and the verdict was handed to the clerk of the court at 8:30 this morning. The Los Angeles sleuth, Malcolm McLaren, was rushing up to the courtroom to hear the verdict when he met Tracy himself returning in freedom! The famous “defective” did not look very happy at that moment!
You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday March 27, 1917
Seattle, Washington – The Trial of Tom Tracy Continues
SEATTLE, WASH., March 23rd,-Slowly the history of the foul attacks on Free Speech and the right of Labor to organize is emerging in the course of the trial of Thomas Tracy, the first of 74 workingmen charged with the killing of Deputy Jeff Beard on the waterfront of Everett, Wash, on Bloody Sunday, Nov. 5th. These 74 men are tried for the killing of one deputy. Nobody, however, is being tried for the death of five workingmen on that red day. The trial of Tracy is, in reality, the trial of Labor.
EVERETT MAYOR TAKES STAND.
One of the star witnesses for the Prosecution was Mayor Merrill of Everett. He didn’t turn out quite such a star as they thought he would. Under the rigid cross-examination of Attorneys Moore and Vanderveer for the Defense Merrill showed that he was either a rotten Mayor and a good witness or a good Mayor and a very prevaricating witness. A dramatic moment in court was when he was confronted with Louis Scaroff [also Skaroff], a boy who has sworn that the Mayor beat him up brutally in a bedroom in the City Jail and that his fingers were placed, one by one, under the leg of a bed upon which the Mayor and two other men then sat. Even the capitalistic press of Seattle remarked that the Mayor’s face whitened and his voice thickened when faced with the victim of his beastlike brutality.
THE SORDID STORY OF BEVERLY PARK.
On October 30th, 41 men, coming from Seattle to Everett to hold a meeting were met at the Everett Dock, loaded into automobiles and taken to Beverly Park, a lonely spot on the outskirts of Everett. There they were severely beaten up and made to run the gauntlet. The story of Beverly Park is gradually emerging under the insistent pressure of the Defense’s cross-examination. One Hawes, who keeps a scab stationery and printing establishment in Everett, admitted that he was one of the guards on that occasion. He also was forced to admit that the deputies were strung out on either side of the road and that the workingmen were made to proceed on foot towards Seattle, which means they had to pass down between the two lines. This is virtually admitting the gauntlet. He stated that some of the men “got a swat or two” which is the most definite admission of violence so far. Hawes stated that he ran after one man who tried to get away off the road into the woods. When asked why he did that he said the man was a “big baby.” Hawes, himself, stands about six feet two inches and says he weighs 250 pounds. At this moment, Fred Moore brought in two lads who were among the Beverly victims.
“Stand up!” commanded Attorney Vanderveer, and the hulking fellow stood up. Then the two boys were placed next to him, reaching about to his armpits.
“Are these the big babies you talked about?” thundered Vanderveer.
There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday March 20, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Charles Ashleigh Reports on Tracy Trial
SEATTLE, Wash., March 16th.-In a courtroom the battle for the life of Thomas H. Tracy, the workingman charged with the murder of Jefferson Beard at Everett, Wash., on November 5th, is now proceeding. Thousands of workers are awaiting eagerly the news of this, one of the greatest labor trials in history.
CITIZEN DEPUTIES AS WITNESSES.
The Prosecution has already introduced several “citizen deputies,” as are styled the vigilantes recruited by the Commercial Club, as witnesses. The first was one H. W. Shaw who was on the dock when the “Verona” came in, and who participated in that red tragedy. There followed one Owen Clay, an employee of the Weyerhauser mills and a Mr. Booth, ex-saloon keeper and real estate agent of Everett. Then came Charles Tucker, a workingman who admitted that he had served as guard in a struck mill. Of such are the witnesses of the state.
WHERE DID THE FIRST SHOT COME FROM?
Of course, the witnesses for the state have all stated that the first shot came from the boat. But there their unanimity ceases. As to where it came from,-what portion of the vessel,-and the moment when it came, they contradict each other most satisfactorily. Also, none of them have seen the shot or the shooter, they have only heard it! The grilling of the Defense attorneys, Moore and Vanderveer, sadly confused some of the witnesses. One of them, Tucker, flatly contradicted his former testimony in the important matter of where he thought the first shot came from! When faced with his earlier statement, he denied it, thus discrediting the Court Stenographer!
LIGHT BEGINS TO SHINE ON BEVERLY PARK!
On the evening of October 30th, 41 workingmen coming to Everett with the object of holding a street meeting were met at the dock by a mob of vigilantes, armed and with automobiles. The workers were loaded into the autos and taken out to Beverly Park, on the outskirts of Everett where they were made to run the gauntlet and were severely beaten up.
This outrage the Prosecution had no desire to see revealed and the cross-questioning of the first few witnesses elicited no information. Mr. Booth, however, caused a thrill to run through the court when he stated that he had taken part in the “procession” of autos loaded with men through Everett. He said that he had taken no part in the gauntlet-running because “he would not participate in beating up” a virtual admission that the others had done the beating up.
WHAT ABOUT THE RIFLES AND SHOT-GUNS?
The Defense had also quite a fight before the fact began to emerge that the citizen deputies were armed, not only with revolvers, but with rifles and shot-guns. The first State witness to acknowledge that he had even seen such things on November 5th was Judge Bell, of Everett, who was a deputy. He said first that he had seen men with long-barrelled guns,-he didn’t know whether they were rifles or shot-guns,-down at the dock. Later, he denied this same fact, although the stenographic report showed plainly that he had so stated, but still admitted that he had seen them at the Commercial Club. To have gone so far, with only the first half-dozen witnesses out of a couple of hundred which the Prosecution has on its list, is to be counted as definite progress for the Defense.
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That 75 socialists are mingled with the scores of revolutionists arrested here yesterday and this morning for speaking on the streets in violation of the city’s ordinance, is an assertion made to The Press this morning by leading members of the Industrial Workers of the World.
