Hellraisers Journal: “It is a damned pity that all of you damned red-necked bitches were not killed.”-Lt. Karl E. Linderfelt

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 6, 1914
Las Animas County, Colorado – Affidavits from Survivors of the Ludlow Massacre

Lt Karl E Linderfelt 1913, 1914, Butcher of Ludlow, CO Coal Field War Project

Over the next few days Hellraisers Journal will present affidavits from those who were in the Ludlow Tent Colony as the militiamen, Rockefeller’s gunthugs, ended their attack upon the colony by burning down the tents, the homes of 1200 men, women and children.

Mrs. Ed Tonner describes how Mrs. Costa begged for her life and the lives of the women and children (including three of her own) as the gunthugs, led by Linderfelt, prepared to set fire to tent #58:

AFFIDAVIT.

State of Colorado.
Las Animas County, ss:

Mrs. Ed Tonner, of lawful age, being first sworn, upon oath deposes and says: That her name is Mrs. Ed Tonner. When Mr. Linderfelt came into camp with his auto load of ammunition, I heard Mrs. Costa crying, and she began praying Santa Maria and begging him not to kill her and her little children, and he replied to her, “There is no use in you crying and carrying on, as we have orders to do this, and we are going to do it; no mercy on any of you.”

Mrs. Ed Tonner.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of April, A. D. 1914.
[SEAL.] Leon Griswold, Notary Public.
My commission expires September 10, 1917.

[Emphasis added.]

Mrs. Pedregone describes how she watched the “guards and militia” set fire to her tent:

AFFIDAVIT.

State of Colorado,
Las Animas County, ss:

Mrs. Alcarita Pedregon, being first duly sworn, on oath deposes and says: That her name is Mrs. Alcarita Pedregon. I got up late in the morning, and I seen the guards and militia on horseback, and they got off the horses and fell down on the ground to get away from the fire, and then I went into the hole with the children. There were 11 children and 4 women in the hole, and we stayed in that cellar from 9 in the morning until 6 the next morning. I seen a militiamen come over there and look inside the tent and strike a match and set fire to the tent. I stayed in the tent until it was all burned up. There were 11 children and 2 women suffocated with the smoke where I was. I lost 2 children in this cave when the tent was burned. I don’t know where my husband was at this time. I looked up out of the hole and saw the soldier set fire to the tent with a match. I lost everything I had in his fire.

Mrs. Alcarita (her x mark) Pedregon.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 1st day of May, A. D. 1914.
[SEAL]   Leon V. Griswold, Notary Public.
My commission expires September 10. 1917.

[Emphasis added.]

Mr. William Snyder describes how that gunthug-infested militia unit set fire to his tent while his family was still inside, how they mocked him and threatened him as he held his dead son in his arms, how Linderfelt raged at his wife as she begged for the life of her husband: “Please don’t shoot him; they have killed one of my children already,” when Linderfelt says, “It is a damned pity that all of you damned red-necked bitches were not killed.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “It is a damned pity that all of you damned red-necked bitches were not killed.”-Lt. Karl E. Linderfelt”

Hellraisers Journal: From United Mine Workers Journal: Mary Petrucci Unveils Ludlow Monument on Memorial Day

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Quote Mary Petrucci, Joe's Little Hammer, NY Tb p7, Feb 4, 1915
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 7, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado – Magnificent Monument Unveiled on Memorial Day

The unveiling described:

Mary Petrucci, on tour, May 1914

Mrs. Mary Pertucci [Petrucci], who lost three of her children in the massacre, unveiled the monument while the great crowd of miners and sympathizers paid their silent respect to the memory of the dead.

On the barren plain where once stood the humble tent colony of the Ludlow strikers, the monument towers, an impressive landmark. Down through the years that are to come it will mark the scene of a dastardly crime. More eloquently than any spoken word it will tell the tragic story of the poor murdered women and the innocent babes of Ludlow who died for democracy.

[Photograph added.]

United Mine Workers Journal of June 6, 1918:

Ludlow Memorial Dedicated, UMWJ, June 6, 1918

Details:

Ludlow Memorial Dedicated, Detail, UMWJ, June 6, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal: U. M. W. establishes fund “to build a monument to our martyred dead, on the field of Ludlow.”

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Quote re Ludlow Monument, UMWJ June 21, 1917

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 22, 1917
United Mine Workers of America to Honor Ludlow Martyrs

From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 21, 1917:

The Ludlow Monument
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Ludlow Massacre by Morris Hall Pancoast, Masses, June 1914

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While it is fully recognized that there would be only words of commendation if the International Executive Board had appropriated sufficient money to build a monument to our martyred dead, on the field of Ludlow, there is a sentimental value in the recommendation adopted instead that, no doubt, will be appreciated by the membership.

We wish to perpetuate the memory of those who died that the organization might live in Colorado and in the entire country.

Let us place that memorial upon every minute book of every local in the jurisdiction of the miners’ union. In subscribing a small sum to be expended in the erection of a fitting monument we recognize anew the bitter cost some were called upon to pay.

So many of us have fallen heir to the benefits that are derived from unionism. We have never learned to appreciate the cost of its up building and some of us may hold them lightly, and even so, the organization gained with sacrifice, struggle and pain, even unto death.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: U. M. W. establishes fund “to build a monument to our martyred dead, on the field of Ludlow.””