You cannot go at it with kid gloves; you have to get results.
-Lieutenant Karl E. Linderfelt
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Monday April 26, 1915
Trinidad, Colorado - The Butcher of Ludlow Testifies Against John R. Lawson
From yesterday's Oakland Tribune:
SAYS GUARDS CARRIED THOUSAND BULLETS
Lieutenant Karl E Linderfelt,
Butcher of Ludlow
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TRINIDAD, Colo., April 24.-Echoes of the anarchy that prevailed during Colorado's recent industrial war were heard at today's session of John R. Lawson's trial on indictments charging murder of a coal mine guard in October 1913. Lawson is a member of the United Mine Workers' International Executive committee.
K. E. Linderfelt of Ludlow was a witness for the prosecution. He and 33 armed guards were at the Ludlow section house on the afternoon the guard Nimmo was killed, Linderfelt testified. His men were supplied with 1000 rounds of ammunition each and there was considerable firing between the strikers in the tent colony and Linderfelt's men and guards scattered along the railroad embankment. A snow storm came up and the firing ceased at dark. Linderfelt had a pair or field glasses, he testified, but could not recognize any strikers, nor would he swear which side fired the first shot.
[Photograph added.]
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From the Chicago Day Book of April 24, 1915:
From yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle:
MINERS BEGAN LUDLOW BATTLE
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Testimony at Trial Yesterday Shows That
the Strikers Fired First Shot.
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TRINIDAD (Col.), April 24.-Testimony that the battle between deputy sheriffs and striking coal miners on October 25, 1913, in which John Nimmo was killed, was begun when a party of deputies was fired upon by a crowd of armed men near the Ludlow depot, was given today in the trial of John R. Lawson on a charge of murder. Lawson is accused of being in command of the strikers on the day of the battle. The defendant is the District No. 15 member of the international executive committee of the United Mine Workers of America.
Charles L Fanning, a young cowpuncher, was the witness who told of the beginning of the battle. He said that he was a deputy sheriff, stationed at the Ludlow section house, in the early days of the recent strike of the miners. With other deputies, he started on horseback to go to the Ludlow station to meet the afternoon Colorado and Southern train from Trinidad as was customary. He was about 100 yards ahead to his companions.
"What did you see as you approached the station?" asked Norton Montgomery, Assistant Attorney General.
"I saw 100 or more men around a long string of box cars. About fifty men were armed with guns. They began shooting at me and I turned around and went back. I went pretty fast. I ran my horses."
TELLS OF FIGHT.
Fanning detailed his part in the battle which followed the alleged retreat of the party which had started for the station. He told of seeing the body of John Nimmo.
The Butcher of Ludlow
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Before Fanning took the stand, the cross-examination of E.[K.] E. Linderfelt was completed. Linderfelt said he had served six months in Mexico under Madero, and had seen military experiences in China and the Philippines. He said he was a first lieutenant in the Colorado National Guard at the time he was commissioned a deputy sheriff in October, 1913.
Asked on cross - examination whether he saw which side fired the first shot in the battle between strikers and deputy sheriffs, he replied, "No, I did not."
The question was asked by Horace N. Hawkins, chief counsel for the defense. Linderfelt previously had testified that he was in command of the deputy sheriffs, but that he was not present when the battle started.
James H. Wilson testified that he was commissary and paymaster for the party of deputy sheriffs stationed at Ludlow under command of Linderfelt. He said he stayed in the section house throughout the fight in which Nimmo was killed.
SAW NIMMO SLAIN.
W. F. Badger, another member of the force of deputies stationed at the Ludlow section-house, described his part in the battle. He said he saw the shooting of Nimmo. He did not know who fired the shot.
Ralph Tafoya, another deputy, told of participating in the battle and of firing repeatedly at a party of men who were firing at the officers from the shelter of a steel railway bridge.
Charles Tafoya, a brother of the preceding witness, also took part in the fight. He said he saw Nimmo fall. He also told of seeing men coming from the Ludlow tent colony of the strikers toward the scene of the battle.
Lt Linderfelt and his Cavalrymen
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[Photographs added.]
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DENY MINERS RETRIAL.
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Robb and Richardson Sentenced
to Prison for Manslaughter.
CANON CITY (Col.), April 24.-A new trial was denied David Robb and Ben Richardson, members of the United Mine Workers of America, in the District Court here today. The men were convicted January 2d of voluntary manslaughter after a seven weeks' trial in connection with an attack by striking miners upon the Chandler mine of the Victor-American Fuel Company in April, 1914, in which William King, a non-union employe of the coal company, was killed. Judge Charles Cavender of Leadville, who overruled the motion, then sentenced Richardson to a term of from one to three years in State prison, and Robb to a term of from two to five years. Sixty days was granted the defense in which to prepare a bill of exceptions and apply for a supersedeas upon which to take the case to the Supreme Court. Robb and Richardson, who had been at liberty on bond, were committed to jail.
Robb is an organizer of the United Mine Workers of America, and came to Colorado from Terre Haute, Ind., soon after the Colorado coal strike was called in September, 1913.
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SOURCES
Oakland Tribune
(Oakland, California)
-Apr 25, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
San Francisco Chronicle
(San Francisco, California)
-Apr 25, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Lieutenant Karl E Linderfelt, Butcher of Ludlow
http://www.csindy.com/...
John Lawson at Ludlow followed by mine guard,
Day Book, Apr 24, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Officers of Colorado National Guard
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Lieutenant Karl E Linderfelt, Butcher of Ludlow
http://www.du.edu/...
Lt Linderfelt and his Cavalrymen
http://margolis.faculty.asu.edu/...
See also:
"Hellraisers Journal: Walsenburg, Colorado-Mine Guards
and Deputies Kill Three More Strikers" by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
"Hellraisers Journal: Deputized Gunthugs Attack Ludlow Tent Colony,
Two Die as Miners Defend Colony" by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Deputized Company Gunthugs
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Industrial relations: final report and testimony
United States. Commission on Industrial Relations
-ed by Francis Patrick Walsh, Basil Maxwell Manly
D.C. Gov. Print. Office, 1916
Volume 7: 6001-6998
https://books.google.com/...
6509-Testimony of John McLennan, President District 15, UMW
and also President of the Colorado State Federation of Labor.
https://books.google.com/...
6519-Testimony of McLennan re: Deputized Company Gunthugs.
https://books.google.com/...
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More on Deputized Company Gunthugs:
"Oh, it's you, you God-damned lousy redneck."
-Lieutenant Karl E Linderfelt to Louie Tikas,
just before Tikas was murdered.
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An important facet of a [coal] company's security system was employment of no-nonsense personnel. But to assure that security employees were lawfully ordained, the company found it necessary to gain such employees incontestable deputy commissions. The closed camp system needed security that at any level couldn't be questioned. In the eyes of turn-of-the-century law, the local sheriff could do little wrong. Whomever he deputized, gained authority both within and beyond the confines of the law.
Companies were quick to take advantage of such a liberal system. The deputy commissions afforded to company employees allowed CFI [Rockefeller's Colorado Fuel and Iron Company], for instance, to employ the services of Bob Lee, who prior to his death, was considered one of the company's most incompassionate bullies. The same system allowed for the services of Billy Reno, and eventually, those of Baldwin-Felts agents George Belcher and Walter Belk, who like Lee and Reno, were well known for their willingness to employ unsolicited roughhouse tactics.
Many observers hoped and believed Ammons' decision to send the militia into the strike zone would negate the effectiveness of such hardened characters, and simultaneously, discourage local sheriffs from handing out large numbers of commissions. Others correctly surmised this wouldn't be the case, knowing beyond doubt that Ammons' decision would have little effect on the privileges the law afforded the local sheriff and his commissioned deputies.
SOURCE
A Rendezvous with Shame
-by Patrick L Donachy
CO, 1989
IMAGE
Bodies of Tikas and Fyler at Ludlow
https://archive.org/...
See also:
"Hellraisers Journal: Governor Orders Entire Colorado National Guard
into Southern Coalfields" by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall-Bob Dylan
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my songs well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
-Bob Dylan
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