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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday, August 29, 1914
John Lawson, Colorado Union Leader: Colorado Militia Verdict is a Whitewash
From the Trenton Evening News of August 27, 1914:
COLORADO MILITIA GIVEN WHITEWASH
DENVER, Col., Aug. 27.-After a delay of eighty-eight days, Governor Ammons has made public the findings of the court-martial that tried twenty-one officers and enlisted men of the Colorado national guard on charges of murder, manslaughter, arson, robbery and assault, growing out of the destruction, April 20, of the Ludlow tent colony, in which three miners, thirteen women and children and two militiamen were killed.
The verdict, a whitewash of the accused men, is approved in full by the Governor. The miners, who refused to testify on the ground that it would bar civil action against the militiamen, will go into the civil courts and ask that the entire proceedings be declared illegal and that the soldiers be brought to trial on charges of murder and arson.
John McLennan, president of district 15, United Mine Workers , and John Lawson, international board member of the union, declared they would take steps immediately to bring the militiamen, especially Lieutenant K. E. Linderfelt, nicknamed “the Butcher of Ludlow,” before juries. He was exonerated of the charge of breaking his rifle over the head of Louis Tikas, the strike leader, who was later shot to death.
“This verdict,” said Lawson, “and the approval given it by the Governor are no more than we expected. A whitewash for the militia was the only thing possible.”
“The court feels that the miners were given every opportunity to present evidence bearing on the insurrection in which thirty-four men in uniforms were compelled to defend themselves against 300 armed strikers,” said Captain E. A. Smith, judge advocate, following the announcement of the findings.
“Tikas was shot late at night while attempting to escape from the ranks of the militia, where he was a prisoner. He had reached the boundary marking the tent colony and had successfully evaded the fire of the handful of guardsmen, who shot to intercept Tikas in his flight, which is in accordance with rules of war. As he crossed the tent colony line, a bullet from the tent colony pierced his breast.”
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
The Murder of Louie Tikas
Readers of Hellraisers might remember the description of the murder of Louis Tikas given by Godfrey Irwin, an electrical engineer employed by the the Electrical Transportation and Railroad Company of Trinidad:
Then came the killing of Louis Tikas, the Greek leader of the strikers. We saw the militiamen parley outside the tent city, and, a few minutes later, Tikas came out to meet them. We watched them talking. Suddenly an officer raised his rifle, gripping the barrel, and felled Tikas with the butt.
Tikas fell face downward. As he lay there we saw the militiamen fall back. Then they aimed their rifles and deliberately fired them into the unconscious man’s body. It was the first murder I had ever seen, for it was a murder and nothing less.
[Emphasis added.]
John Lawson and Louie Tikas (with star):
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Colorado Strikers’ Policy Committee, United Mine Workers of America
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