Strangle the I. W. W.’s.
Kill them, just as you would kill
any other kind of a snake.
Don’t scotch ’em; kill ’em.
And kill ’em dead.
–The Tulsa Daily World
Hellraisers Journal, Monday November 12, 1917
Tulsa, Oklahoma – Fellow Workers Face Night of Terror
From The Tulsa Daily World of November 10, 1917:
Three automobile loads of I. W. W.’s, in charge of policemen, were halted on Boulder avenue, near Archer, last night at 11 o’clock by a crowd of men garbed in long black robes and wearing black masks. The officers were forced to drive their prisoners to a secluded spot west of Irving Place, where, with impressive ceremonies each of the I. W. W.’s was lashed with a cat-o’-nine-tails. Then a coat of hot tar was applied to the bleeding back and feathers applied.
With each stroke of the brush the black-robed man in charge of the ceremony uttered the words:
“In the name of the outraged women and children of Belgium.”
With nothing on but their trousers the men were started toward the Osage hills. Hundreds of rifle and revolver shots were fired in the air and they sped into the inky darkness of the night.
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