Tag: Linderfelt Butcher of Ludlow

Hellraisers Journal: John Lawson of the United Mine Workers: “A whitewash for the militia was the only thing possible.”

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Quote re Louis Tikas by Paul Manning, 2002—————

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

Gunthug Militia in Front of Ludlow Saloon, CO 1913 1914, Wiki

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):

John Lawson and Louie Tikas,

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Hellraisers Journal: Colorado Militiamen, Including Linderfelt, Acquitted of All Charges Arising from Ludlow Massacre

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 27, 1914
Denver, Colorado – Verdict of Court-Martial: All 21 Militiamen Are Acquitted

Militiamen on Way to CO Strike Zone, ISR p708, June 1914

Governor Ammons has approved the findings of the general court-martial of the twenty-one officers and enlisted men who were charged with various crimes such as murder, manslaughter, arson, assault and larceny in connection with the Ludlow Massacre of April 20th.

Lieutenant Karl E. Linderfelt, the Butcher of Ludlow, was also acquitted. The Lieutenant’s assault upon Louis Tikas, while in military, custody was found to have been justified.

The governor will sign a formal order today approving the verdict of the court-martial.

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Hellraisers Journal: Colorado Coalfield Strike Still On; Federal Troops Serving as Scab Herders; Butcher Linderfelt Arrested

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 26, 1914
Colorado Strike Still On; Federal Troops Serve as Scab Herders; Linderfelt Arrested

Hamrock and Linderfelt Butchers of Ludlow, 1913, 1914, CO Coal Field War Project

The Labor World this week republished a report from the United Mine Workers Journal on the Colorado Coalfield Strike. The strike zone continues to be occupied by federal troops who have, sadly, taken on the role of scab herders.

Also reported was the news that Lieut. Linderfelt, “The Butcher of Ludlow,” has recently been arrested for trying to force a young girl into a rooming house. There is, however, no amount of depravity, regarding that particular officer of the Colorado National Guard, that would in any way surprise us. Linderfelt was one of the officers who took the lead in the Ludlow massacre, and was responsible for the murder of Louis Tikas.

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Hellraisers Journal: Artists of The Masses Portray the Ludlow Massacre; Max Eastman Describes “Class War in Colorado”

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Quote Mother Jones Babes of Ludlow, Speech at Trinidad CO UMW District 15 Special Convention, ES1 p154 (176 of 360)—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 5, 1914
Excerpts from “Class War in Colorado” by Max Eastman

From The Masses of June 1914:

CLASS WAR IN COLORADO

Max Eastman

[Illustrated by M. H. Pancoast, John Sloan, and Art Young]

Ludlow Real Insult to Flag b;y MH Pancoast, Masses p6, June 1914

“FOR EIGHT DAYS it was a reign of terror. Armed miners swarmed into the city like soldiers of a revolution. They tramped the streets with rifles, and the red handkerchiefs around their necks, singing their war-songs. The Mayor and the sheriff fled, and we simply cowered in our houses waiting No one was injured here-they policed the streets day and night. But destruction swept like a flame over the mines.” These are the words of a Catholic priest of Trinidad.

“But, father” I said, “where is it all going to end?”

He sat forward with a radiant smile.”War!” he answered. “Civil war between labor and capital!” His gesture was beatific.

“And the church-will the church do nothing to save us from this?”

“Yes, this is Colorado,” he said. “Colorado is ‘disgraced in the eyes of the nation’-but soon it will be the Nation!“

I have thought often of that opinion. And I have felt that soon it will, indeed, unless men of strength and understanding, seeing this fight is to be fought, determine it shall be fought by the principals with economic and political arms, and not by professional gunmen and detectives.

Many reproaches will fall on the heads of the Rockefeller interests for acts of tyranny, exploitation, and contempt of the labor laws of Colorado-acts which are only human at human’s worst. They have gone out to drive back their cattle with a lash. For them that is natural. But I think the cool collecting for this purpose of hundreds of degenerate adventurers in blood from all the slums and vice camps of the earth, arming them with high power rifles, explosive and soft-nosed bullets, and putting them beyond the law in uniforms of the national army, is not natural. It is not human. It is lower, because colder, than the blood-lust of the gunmen themselves.

[…..]

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Class War in Colorado” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II, Call to Arms

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Quote CO Labor Leaders Call to Arms, Apr 22, ULB p1, Apr 25, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 3, 1914
“The Class War in Colorado” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of June 1914:

Black Hole of Ludlow, ISR p719, June 1914

THE CLASS WAR IN COLORADO

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part II of II]

The Massacre of the Innocents

[-from Rocky Mountain News]

The horror of the shambles at Ludlow is overwhelming. Not since the days when pitiless red men wreaked vengeance upon intruding frontiersmen and upon their women and children has this western country been stained with so foul a deed.

Ludlow Woman Crucified, ISR p716, June 1914

The details of the massacre are horrible. Mexico offers no barbarity so base as that of the murder of defenseless women and children by the mine guards in soldiers’ clothing. Like whitened sepulchres we boast of American civilization with this infamous thing at our very doors. Huerta murdered Madero, but even Huerta did not shoot an innocent little boy seeking water for his mother who lay ill. Villa is a barbarian, but in his maddest excess Villa has not turned machine guns on imprisoned women and children. Where is the outlaw so far beyond the pale of human kind as to burn the tent over the heads of nursing mothers and helpless little babies?

Out of this infamy one fact stands clear. Machine guns did the murder. The machine guns were in the hands of mine guards, most of whom were also members of the state militia. It was private war, with the wealth of the richest man in the world behind th mine guards.

Once and for all time the right to employ armed guards must be taken away from private individuals and corporations. To the state, and to the state alone, belongs the right to maintain peace. Anything else is anarchy. Private warfare is the only sort of anarchy the world has ever known, and armed forces employed by private interests have introduced the only private wars of modern times. This practice must be stopped. If the state laws are not strong enough, then the federal government must step in. At any cost, private warfare must be destroyed.

Who are these mine guards to whom is entrusted the sovereign right to massacre? Four of the fraternity were electrocuted recently in New York. They are the gunmen of the great cities, the offscourings of humanity, whom a bitter heritage has made the wastrels of the world. Warped by the wrongs of their own upbringing, they know no justice and they care not for mercy. They are hardly human in intelligence, and not as high in the scale of kindness as domestic animals.

Yet they are not the guilty ones. The blood of the innocent women and children rests on the hands of those who for the greed of dollars employed such men and bought such machines of murder. The world has not been hard upon these; theirs has been a gentle upbringing. Yet they reck not of human life when pecuniary interests are involved.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Class War in Colorado” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part I, Battle of Ludlow

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 2, 1914
“The Class War in Colorado” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of June 1914:

CO Miners Prepared to Defend Colonies, ISR p709, June 1914

THE CLASS WAR IN COLORADO

By Leslie H. Marcy

“SOCIETY AS A WHOLE IS MORE AND MORE SPLITTING UP INTO TWO
HOSTILE CAMPS, INTO TWO GREAT CLASSES DIRECTLY FACING EACH
OTHER: THE CAPITALIST CLASS AND THE WORKING CLASS.”

[Part I of II]

FOR thirty years an industrial warfare has been going on in Colorado between the coal miners and the coal owners. In fact, in every state and country where coal is mined we find an irrepressible conflict of interests. Temporary truces are signed from time to time in the way of contracts mostly CON so far as the men are concerned-and again, there is open warfare as witnessed recently in England, West Virginia and South Africa.

Time was when the coal miners of this country worked 16 hours a day, but, by combining their strength into unions they have cut the hours of their slavery to eight and improved their working conditions. No wonder that their battle cry is “The Union Forever”! No wonder that the Coal Barons cry out for the standing army to protect them when all else has failed!.

Militiamen on Way to CO Strike Zone, ISR p708, June 1914

The Battle of Ludlow was inevitable. For seven months the southern coal fields of Colorado have been divided into two hostile camps: the Owners organized into the Operators Association; the Workers organized in unions of the United Mine Workers of America, with interests diametrically opposed.

The main issue is the right of the miners to organize. The Colorado Statutes are very clear on this subject and the miners have the legal right of way, but, the “law is a dead letter in the section of Colorado 100 miles square,” or wherever the Operators own the land.

On September 23, 1913, the union miners went on strike to enforce their constitutional rights: to organize; to work an 8-hour day, to semi-monthly pay, to have their own Check-weighman, to trade where they pleased,-ALL OF WHICH WERE DEAD LAWS. Each proposition related to a law that was being violated. The whole proposal simmered down to a single statement is this: “If you coal diggers will give up your union, the operators promise to obey the state laws which have been passed for your protection.”

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Hellraisers Journal: New York City-Vivid Testimony of Pearl Jolly and Mary Thomas Counters Claim of Major Boughton That Gov. Ammons Has “Neutral Attitude”

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Quote Pearl Jolly, Ludlow Next Time, Women Will Fight, Tacoma Tx p3, May 25, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 29, 1914
New York City- Testimony of Ludlow Survivors Describe Actions of “Neutral” Militia

Judge Lindsey, M Thomas, P Jolly, M Petrucci, Thomas Girls, Tacoma Tx p3, May 25, 1914
Judge Lindsey with (left to right) Mary Thomas, Pearl Jolly,
Mary Petrucci, and daughters of Mrs. Thomas
Dear Reader: We will leave it to you decide just how neutral has been the attitude of Governor Ammons during the ongoing conflict in Colorado between the Coal Operators, led by Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, and the strikers, lead by the United Mine Workers of America. Read the following article in which Major Boughton, in his position as Judge Advocate of the Colorado National Guard, indicates the testimony that he will present today before the U. S. Commission on Industrial Relations. Then read the testimony of Pearl Jolly and Mary Thomas, both of them miners’ wives who withstood the machine-gun fire from that “neutral” militia all throughout that terrible day of the Ludlow Massacre.

We only ask that our readers remember that it is ultimately Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado, who is in command of the Colorado National Guard. And, we might add, we know of no instance when those machine guns were ever aimed at the homes of Rockefeller or of his managers in Colorado, and, to our knowledge, none of them have ever been arrested and held incommunicado in spite of having, year after year, ignored the labor and safety laws of the state of Colorado:

From the New York Sun of May 28, 1914:

WILL TELL OTHER SIDE OF
COLORADO RIOTING
———-
Major Boughton of National Guard to Appear
before Industrial Commission
———

“AMMONS WAS NEUTRAL”
———-
Judge Lindsey Leaves Without Getting
to See J. D. Rockefeller, Jr.
———-

Major Edward J. Boughton, who commanded a battalion of the Colorado National Guard during the fights with the striking miners at Trinidad, arrived yesterday to give testimony before the United States Commission on Industrial Relations now sitting here in the matter of the coal strike. His presentation of the incidents of the strike will supplement the testimony given yesterday before the commission by Mrs. Pearl Jolly arid Mrs. Mary Hannah Thomas, wives of striking miners.

While Mrs. Jolly and Mrs. Thomas denounced the militia, Major Boughton will present the situation in a new light. He would not go into details when seen at the Waldorf-Astoria, but he admitted he had come here in answer to a subpoena that he might “tell the people of New York of the real conditions In Colorado.”“I want to correct,” he said, “the erroneous impression that prevails here regarding the part taken by the State troops.”

Major Boughton was an important factor during the strike trouble. On October 28, when the troops were called out, he served as Field Major. On November 20 he was made Judge Advocate for the military district. While he was Judge Advocate there were 172 cases presented lo the military commission.

“In this controversy between capital and labor,” said the Major, “Gov. Ammons has maintained a neutral attitude toward both parties. He did all he could to avert the bloodshed. He did not leave a stone upturned in his effort to have the matter settled amicably by arbitration. He is still doing all he can in this direction.”

Mrs. Jolly and Mrs. Thomas asked to be heard by the Commission and there was some objection, Whereupon Mrs. J. Borden Harriman of the commission, said: “I believe that if there has been gross wrongs committed against these women, they ought to be heard and I represent the women and children of the country on this commission.”

There was no further demur. Mrs. Jolly told practically the same story which she gave on Sunday in the Manhattan Lyceum, as did Mrs. Thomas…

Judge Ben B. Lindsey, who has been trying to see John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in an effort to get him to use his influence toward having the Colorado difficulty submitted to a Federal arbitration board, will leave this afternoon for Colorado without having seen Mr. Rockefeller.

“Although I did not see Mr. Rockefeller personally,” said Judge Lindsey, “we have communicated. From what I have learned I have reason to hope that Mr. Rockefeller’s attitude has changed in regard to the situation and that he will help toward having the matter arbitrated.”

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Note: Mrs. Mary Petrucci, who lost her children in the Ludlow Massacre, has returned to Colorado. According to Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Petrucci has been “grieving herself to death.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Court-Martial Witness: Miners Stored Dynamite in Pits Dug for Families to Seek Shelter in Case of Attack

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 17, 1914
State of Colorado Charges Guardsmen with Arson and Larceny at Ludlow Tent Colony

Hamrock and Linderfelt Butchers of Ludlow, 1913, 1914, CO Coal Field War Project

As the Court-Martial of members of the Colorado militia commences, The New York Times continues to publish the claim, made by Colorado’s militia of gunthugs, that dynamite stored in the safety pits of the strikers exploded during the battle, and that that is what started the fire that burned the Ludlow Tent Colony to the ground, killing two women and eleven children and destroying the homes and all of the earthly possessions of the 1200 residents. This claim was made by the Times two days after the Massacre along with the claim that the battle took place on the property of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

In fact, the Ludlow Tent Colony was established on land rented by the United Mine Workers of America. The strikers had every right to be there. Their tents were their homes which they were determined to protect, just as anyone anywhere would.

To our knowledge, the Times has never corrected that wildly inaccurate reporting.

The idea that miners-knowing the dangers of dynamite-would dig pits for the safety of their wives and children, fill them with dynamite, and then tell their loved ones to hide amongst the sticks of dynamite in case of attack, is the height of absurdity.

Readers of Hellraisers are aware of the many affidavits sworn out by those men and women who were in the Colony during the attack. To our knowledge the Times has not printed even one of these affidavits, at least we have not found a single one printed within pages of The New York Times.

There is no mystery as to the cause of the fire: The soldiers entered the colony at about 7 p. m. as the strikers ran out of ammunition. They first lit a match to Mrs. Petrucci’s tent, shot at her and the children as she ran to tent #58, and then, not long after she entered that cellar, they lit tent #58 on fire also, even as Cedi Costa begged for mercy. No mercy was shown. The gunthug militiamen then moved through the colony lighting tents on fire using paper and matches or a broom dipped in oil. Wherever the soldiers moved, the fires started.

The lies told by the gunthug militia are printed for the world to see, but the affidavits of the terrorized strikers and their wives are buried in volumes of testimony, printed only in the labor and Socialist newspapers

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Hellraisers Journal: Rockefellers Are Undisturbed by “Agitators” as Colorado Miners and Families Mourn Their Loss

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Quote Mother Jones Babes of Ludlow, Speech at Trinidad CO UMW District 15 Special Convention, ES1 p154 (176 of 360)—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 15, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Former Residents of Ludlow Mourn as Rockefeller Sr. Plays Golf

While the former residents of the Ludlow Tent Colony, 1200 men, women and children, mourn their dead-including twelve children ages three months to eleven years-and suffer the loss of their homes and all of their earthly possessions, we are pleased to report that the Rockefeller Family had a nice quiet day at Pocantico yesterday, undisturbed by any reminders of the Ludlow Massacre carried out in their interests.

From the Lebanon Daily News of May 12, 1914:

Ludlow Massacre Not in Mexico But in CO by Rollin Kirby, AtR p2, May 9, 1914

QUIET DAY FOR ROCKEFELLERS
———-
Neither Mother Jones
Nor Other Agitators
Visit Pocantico.

Tarrytown, N. Y., May 12-Although the grounds were still heavily guarded no agitators appeared at the Rockefeller estate at Pocantico Hills. Mother Jones was expected to come here to try to make an appeal to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., but she did not appear. It is reported she will come today, but it is doubtful if she will get in the grounds.

John D. Rockefeller, Sr,. played golf yesterday morning, but John D., Jr, was not seen during the day.

[Drawing by Rollin Kirby and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Coroner’s Jury Blames Colorado Militia for the Ludlow Massacre

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 13, 1914
Coroner’s Jury Blames Militia for Ludlow Massacre

Hamrock and Linderfelt Butchers of Ludlow, 1913, 1914, CO Coal Field War Project

From the Appeal to Reason of May 9, 1914:

Coroner’s Jury Puts Blame on Militia

Trinidad, Colo.-The coroners jury investigating the Ludlow horror has officially placed the blame of it on the mine guards. Following is the text of the verdict relative to the fire:

Cecelia Costa, Petra Valdez, Begrata Pendregon, Clovine Pendregon, Lucy Costa, Orafrio Costa, Elvira Valdez, Mary Valdez, Elulia Valdez, Rudolfo Valdez, Frank Petrucci, Lucy Petrucci and Joe Petrucci came to their death by asphyxiation of fire, or both, caused by the burning of the tents of the Ludlow tent colony, and that fire in tents was started by militiamen under Major Hamrock and Lieutenant Linderfelt or mine guards, or both, April 20, 1914.

[Emphasis added.]

Firing of Ludlow Ordered.

R. J. McDonald, stenographer for the military commission, testified that an officer of the Colorado national guard gave the order for burning the colony, but he was not sure whether it was Major Hamrock or Captain Carson.

McDonald said he stood within a few feet of Hamrock and Carson, who were inspecting the colony from the top of a hill. It was well toward night.

“We’ve got just forty minutes to take and burn that colony.” he testified one of the two remarked, “before it gets dark.”

A few moments later the troops and mine guards, he said, swept down the tracks in the charge that meant the colony’s destruction and the death of the women and eleven children, who sought refuge in the colony’s safety pit.

Tikas Beaten to Death.

McDonald was questioned about the capture and death of Louis Tikas, Greek leader of the strikers. He said that while near the scene of the battle he heard a commotion behind some box cars and was told that Tikas was a prisoner and probably would be hanged.

A little later he met Lieutenant F. K. Linderfelt. He asked Linderfelt if Tikas had been hanged.

“No,” he testified Linderfelt replied, “I gave instructions that Tikas was not to be killed, but I spoiled a good rifles.”

The witness swore that Linderfelt was carrying his rifle over his shoulder, stock to the rear, and holding it by the barrel. The physicians’ autopsy showed that Tikas’ skull was fractured.

Open Butchery of Women.

Riley, a Colorado & Southern fireman, said he was on the engine of a freight train which pulled up at the Ludlow station in the hottest of the battle. He said that two tents already were in flames.

“I saw a man in a militia uniform touch a blaze in a third tent,” he said.

He said he saw women and children screaming on the railroad right of way apparently trying to escape from the colony.

When the train drew up at the station, he said, several militiamen put guns to the engineer’s head and ordered him to “pull out and do it damned quick.”

J.S. Harriman, conductor of the same train, testified that as the train pulled out of the station and past the tent colony he heard women and children screaming and apparently trying to escape. He said that during this time, the militia was firing into the colony.

Threat a Day in Advance.

“Have your big Sunday today, old girl,” Mrs. Pearl Jolly, leader of women at Ludlow, testified a militia man told a striker’s wife on the day before the tragedy, “tomorrow we’ll have the roast.”

G. A Hall, a chauffeur, told the jury that he had heard a militia officer give the order to “clean out” the tent colony and burn the tents.

[Emphasis added.]

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