Bloody Williamson
Page 29
The press is not likely to agree. What happened in Herrin and Bloody Williamson is still news. Besides, there is a conviction on the part of many thoughtful persons that the story has a significance that goes beyond one limited geographical area. William L. Chenery sensed it as early as December 1924, when he wrote in the Century:
Somehow in the process of emigration from countries in which the majesty of the law was scrupulously respected, the men who made America, or a minority of them, lost the habit of enforcing the statutes without fear or favor. Herrin’s petty offenses and gross crimes are part and parcel of what is done in every large American city. The spot-light happened to turn upon this isolated community, and the people seemed peculiarly supine and sinful. They are not different from other Americans, and when they solve their difficulties, as solve them they must if Herrin is to endure, they may make a contribution of significance and value to other communities which are not yet wholly law-abiding and fully tolerant of differences in custom and in opinion.
More than twenty-five years later John Bartlow Martin groped for fundamentals when he wrote of the Sheltons, and tangentially of Williamson County:
The Shelton boys and their havoc are an American phenomenon, and one ill-understood. Why, for example, as at Herrin and Peoria, do certain forces in American life collide at a given time and point and explode? What has made Williamson County bloody so long? Perhaps if one went far enough back into the Sheltons’ childhood one would find reasons for their criminality. But this would not explain the conditions that enabled them to flourish as they did.… In searching for the ultimate meaning of the Shelton story we are reduced to windy rhetoric—unenforceable prohibitions against gambling and liquor tend to corrupt the public conscience, and evil is nurtured; evil flourishes, corrupting whole bodies politic and tempting respectable people, who very often regret yielding.†
What has made Williamson County bloody so long? We cannot explain, with assurance, why explosive forces in American life have come to the flash point not once but many times in this one small region, but we can identify the forces, and thus contribute to understanding.
The Bloody Vendetta, the Massacre, the Klan crusade, the gang war—all revealed the frailty of social restraints. Conscience, it was shown, is a monitor easily disregarded, for a man can come to kill another without losing a half-hour’s sleep. Against greed and other strong emotions the law is a weak barrier. Adamant adherence to principles can breed its own troubles: witness the conflicts between union labor, certain of its right to organize, and men like Brush and Leiter, equally certain that an owner had a right to conduct his business in his own way.
Witness, too, the presence of factors never openly admitted. In the Brush mine riots, which was more important: the fact that Brush’s imported miners were strikebreakers, or the fact that they were black? Who knows what mixture of motives impelled the participants in the Klan crusade? What part was played by the rigid moralist’s envy of the pleasures of sin? By the Protestant’s deep-seated fear of the Catholic? By the desire of the old “American” to put the newer citizen—in this instance the Italian—in his place?
And note the almost constant presence of official incompetence or official corruption.
Lack of respect for law. Venal public servants. Union labor and “free enterprise.” Black man and white man. Old-fashioned morality and lax standards of conduct. Protestant and Catholic. “American” and foreigner.
Shibboleths, trite antitheses, even windy rhetorical phrases—but they stand for conflicts that have brought violent death to one American county over more than half a century.
The same conflicts are to be found in many another community. If they persist until passion displaces reason there will be other Herrins.
* On March 27, 1952, after this book had gone to press, Earl Shelton asked a St. Louis newspaper reporter to appeal to Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois in his behalf. He told the reporter that an armed enemy patrolled his Wayne County farm, and he wanted protection from the state so that he could return and work it. Shelton’s whereabouts were not revealed.
In less than twenty-four hours after this appeal was published a tenant house on the Shelton farm and a near-by home belonging to a former Shelton gangster burned to the ground. Neighbors gathered at the scene but made no effort to save either structure.
† “The Shelton Boys,” copyright 1950 by the Curtis Publishing Company, included in Butcher’s Dozen and Other Murders, pp. 149–50. Quoted by permission.
THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS
Chapter by Chapter
1. MASSACRE
June 22, 1922. The Herrin Massacre.
2. APPROACH TO MASSACRE
September 1921. The Southern Illinois Coal Company opens a strip mine in Williamson County, Illinois.
November 1921. The company ships its first coal.
April 1, 1922. The United Mine Workers of America go on strike, but the Southern Illinois Coal Company continues to strip coal with union permission.
June 13, 1922. The company dismisses its union miners.
June 15, 1922. Fifty strikebreakers and mine guards, imported from Chicago, take over the strip mine.
June 16, 1922. The mine ships sixteen cars of coal in defiance of the strike.
June 18, 1922. Colonel Samuel N. Hunter and Major Robert W. Davis arrive in Marion.
June 19, 1922. Hunter and Davis confer with W. J. Lester, owner of the Southern Illinois Coal Company, State’s Attorney Duty, Sheriff Thaxton, and others.
June 20, 1922. John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, wires instructions that the members of the Steam Shovelmen’s Union at the mine are to be viewed as “common strikebreakers.”
June 21, 1922. Hunter, with prominent citizens of Williamson County, tries to avert violence, but striking miners surround the mine. In the ensuing gunfire, two strikers are killed, a third fatally wounded. Hunter and his group try to effect a truce and believe they have succeeded.
June 22, 1922. The strikebreakers surrender. In the massacre that follows nineteen are killed, one fatally wounded.
3. MASSACRE: THE AFTERMATH
June 25, 1922. The coroner’s jury attributes the deaths of those killed in the Herrin Massacre to “the acts direct and indirect” of the officials of the Southern Illinois Coal Company.
August 16, 1922. The Illinois Chamber of Commerce appeals for funds to aid in the prosecution of those guilty of the June 22 murders.
August 28, 1922. A special grand jury convenes at Marion to investigate the Herrin murders.
August 30, 1922. The grand jury returns its first indictment, charging Otis Clark, farmer and miner, with murder.
September 8, 1922. Illinois miners, in convention at Peoria, pledge one per cent of their total monthly earnings for the defense of the men indicted for the Herrin murders.
September 23, 1922. The grand jury recesses after having brought in 214 indictments, including forty-four for murder.
October 23, 1922. The grand jury returns forty-eight additional indictments and adjourns.
4. TWO TRIALS AND AN INVESTIGATION
November 8, 1922. Five men go on trial for the murder of Howard Hoffman, one of the victims of the Herrin Massacre.
December 8, 1922. After one month of interrogation, the trial jury is completed.
December 13, 1922. The lawyers make their opening statements and begin to offer testimony.
January 17, 1923. Delos Duty, State’s Attorney, makes the first of the closing arguments. The defense waives.
January 18, 1923. At 11.15 a.m. the case goes to the jury.
January 19, 1923. All five defendants are acquitted.
February 12, 1923. Six men, including two of the defendants in the first case, go on trial for the murder of Antonio Molkovich, also killed in the Herrin Massacre.
March 2, 1923. The attorneys make their opening statements and begin to offer testimony.
April 6, 1923. Otis Glenn, for the state, makes the first
of the closing arguments. The defense waives its right of argument, and at 4.20 p.m. the case goes to the jury. Seven hours later a verdict of not guilty is returned.
April 7, 1923. State’s Attorney Duty nol-prosses all remaining indictments.
April 11, 1923. A committee of the Illinois House of Representatives, appointed to investigate the Herrin Massacre, holds its first session at Springfield.
April 26, 1923. The House Investigating Committee begins hearings at Marion.
June 30, 1923. On this, the last day of the legislative session, the House Investigating Committee presents majority and minority reports. A House Bill providing for a new investigation fails for want of Senate action.
5. THE BLOODY VENDETTA
July 4, 1868. Several members of the Bulliner family and Felix Henderson engage in a card game that ends in a fight.
Fall 1869. A lawsuit between David Bulliner and George W. Sisney over a crop of oats is decided in Sisney’s favor.
April 26, 1870. After a violent argument, four Bulliners attack Sisney at his home. Though wounded, he repulses them.
December 25, 1872. Several members of the Crain and Sisney families engage in a brawl at the general store in Carterville.
December 30, 1872. Crains, Sisneys, Hendersons, and Bulliners come together at the trial arising from the brawl of December 25 and all take part in a riotous disturbance.
December 12, 1873. “Old George” Bulliner is murdered. The crime is never solved.
March 27, 1874. David Bulliner, a son of “Old George,” is shot from ambush and mortally wounded.
March 31, 1874. Thomas Russell, charged with the murder of David Bulliner, is tried and found not guilty.
May 15, 1874. James Henderson is shot from ambush and dies eight days later.
August 9, 1874. An attempt to murder George W. Sisney fails when the guns of the assailants miss fire.
October 4, 1874. Dr. Vincent Hinchcliff is murdered.
December 12, 1874. George W. Sisney is shot while playing dominoes. He is seriously wounded, but recovers.
January 22, 1875. A bill to appropriate $10,000 for the purpose of ending the “Bloody Vendetta” in Williamson County is introduced in the Illinois General Assembly but fails to pass.
Spring 1875. J. D. F. Jennings, State’s Attorney of Williamson County, absconds with county funds. J. W. Hartwell, an able man, is elected in his place.
July 28, 1875. George W. Sisney is murdered at his home in Carbondale.
July 31, 1875. William Spence, Crainville storekeeper, is killed.
August 2, 1875. The Williamson County Commissioners offer a reward of $1,000 each for the arrest and conviction of the murderers of David Bulliner, James Henderson, Vincent Hinchcliff, and William Spence.
August 9, 1875. Governor John L. Beveridge of Illinois offers a reward of $400 each for the murderers of Bulliner, Henderson, Hinchcliff, and Spence, and also for the killers of George Bulliner and George W. Sisney.
August 22, 1875. The Jackson County Commissioners offer to pay $400 each for the arrest and conviction of the men who murdered Sisney and George Bulliner.
September 9, 1875. B. F. Lowe apprehends Samuel Music at Cairo and brings him to Marion.
September 10, 1875. On the basis of Music’s revelations, John Bulliner and several members of the Crain family are arrested and charged with the murder of George W. Sisney and William Spence. Marshall Crain, whom Music names as the murderer of Sisney, is still at large.
September 26, 1875. Lowe arrests Marshall Crain in Arkansas.
October 13, 1875. John Bulliner and Allen Baker, on trial at Murphysboro for conspiring to kill George W. Sisney, are convicted on the testimony of Marshall Crain and sentenced to twenty-five years in the penitentiary.
October 20, 1875. At Marion, Marshall Crain pleads guilty to the murder of William Spence and is sentenced to death by hanging.
January 21, 1876. Marshall Crain is hanged in the jailyard at Marion.
6. DOCTRINAIRE VS. UNION
1890. Samuel T. Brush organizes the St. Louis and Big Muddy Coal Company and sinks a shaft near Carterville, Illinois.
April 10, 1894. The miners’ union—the United Mine Workers of America—calls a strike for April 21 in protest against sub-subsistence wages.
April 21, 1894. Though unorganized, Brush’s miners respond to the strike call.
June 16, 1894. The Brush miners return to work at the rates of pay prevailing before the strike.
1897. The St. Louis and Big Muddy tops all Illinois mines in production.
May 1, 1897. Illinois operators announce new reductions in miners’ wages.
June 1897. The United Mine Workers of America issue a strike call for July 4.
July 4, 1897. Brush’s men, unorganized, disregard the strike call.
July 15, 1897. Brush increases his pay scale, and his men promise to stay on the job for the duration of the strike.
January 1898. A U.M.W.A. local is organized at Brush’s mine without his knowledge.
March 31, 1898. Most of Brush’s miners strike when he refuses to meet a new pay-scale agreed upon by Illinois operators and the union. He continues to work the mine with a reduced force.
May 20, 1898. Brush imports a trainload of Negro miners.
May 30, 1898. Union miners surround the St. Louis and Big Muddy mine and try to dissuade the men from working. They fail.
May 15, 1899. A new local, recently organized, calls a strike at the Brush mine. Half his men walk out.
June 30, 1899. A contingent of Negro miners and their families, whom Brush is bringing in from Pana, is attacked at Lauder (now Cambria). One woman is killed, twenty persons are wounded.
July 2, 1899. Two companies of militia arrive at Carterville and restore order.
September 11, 1899. The troops are sent home.
September 12, 1899. Brush, in Murphysboro, is attacked and beaten by two unidentified assailants.
September 17, 1899. Five of Brush’s Negro miners are killed in rioting at Carterville. Two companies of militia return to the scene.
December 4, 1899. The trial of the Lauder rioters, charged with murder, begins at Vienna, Johnson County.
January 7, 1900. The trial ends with a verdict of not guilty.
January 23, 1900. The Carterville rioters, also charged with murder, go on trial at Vienna.
March 4, 1900. A jury finds the Carterville rioters not guilty.
June 11, 1906. The Madison Coal Company takes over the Brush mine. Thereafter it is operated with union labor.
7. MILLIONAIRE VS. UNION
1901–2. Joseph Leiter and his father, Levi Z. Leiter, buy extensive coal acreage in Franklin County.
June 1, 1904. The Zeigler Coal Company, owned by the Leiters, hoists its first coal.
June 9, 1904. Levi Z. Leiter dies. His will vests the management of his coal properties in his son.
July 7, 1904. Joseph Leiter announces a reduction in miners’ tonnage rates, justified, he contends, by the extensive use of mining machinery.
July 8, 1904. All Leiter’s miners go out on strike. He imports guards and begins to fortify his property.
July 27, 1904. Leiter brings in the first of many contingents of nonunion workmen.
November 25, 1904. Two Leiter officials are fired on from ambush. As a result of the attack several companies of militia are ordered to Zeigler.
February 8, 1905. The troops are withdrawn.
April 3, 1905. Fifty-four men lose their lives in an explosion at Leiter’s mine.
November 4, 1908. Fire breaks out in the mine, and the state mining-inspector orders that the shaft be closed for ninety days.
January 10, 1909. Mine officials send a clean-up crew underground. An explosion follows, and twenty-six men are killed.
January 11, 1909. The state mining-inspector orders the Zeigler mine closed until further notice.
February 1, 1909. Disregarding the closing notice, mine officials send repair crews underground to prepare for op
erations.
February 9, 1909. Another explosion kills three men.
Late February 1909. Leiter closes down for good.
8. KLANSMAN AND DICTATOR
May 20, 1923. The Ku Klux Klan makes its first public appearance at revival services in Marion.
May 26, 1923. Klansmen, 2,000 strong, initiate 200 candidates in a field near Marion.
June 24, 1923. Klansmen visit the Methodist Church of Herrin and hand a contribution to the pastor.
July 26, 1923. The Klan initiates several hundred candidates at a huge meeting near Carterville.
August 20, 1923. The Klan stages a law-and-order demonstration in Marion, and that night initiates a large class.
November 1, 1923. S. Glenn Young, hired by the Klan to take charge of its law-enforcement program, arrives in Williamson County.
December 22, 1923. Klansmen, deputized by federal prohibition-agents and led by Young, raid scores of actual and alleged bootleggers.
January 5, 1924. The raiders strike again.
January 7, 1924. The Klan conducts a third raid.
January 8, 1924. Young, acquitted of an assault charge, flashes guns in the courtroom and the sheriff wires for troops. Three companies of militia are sent in.
January 15, 1924. Most of the troops are withdrawn.
January 20, 1924. Klansmen led by Young conduct another big liquor-raid.
February 1, 1924. The Klan stages the biggest raid of all. A special train is required to take those arrested to Benton for arraignment.
February 8, 1924. Caesar Cagle is killed in Herrin. Klansmen shoot up the Herrin hospital and Young takes control of the county. The militia returns.
9. THE KLAN WAR
February 12, 1924. Young yields to the regularly constituted officers of the county.
March 3, 1924. Trials of alleged bootleggers seized in the Klan raids begin in the U.S. District Court at Danville.