Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1898-02-09
LATTIMER MASSACRE.
Trial of Sheriff Martin for Shooting Down
Miners.

Trial of Sheriff Martin for Shooting Down
Miners.
Wilkesbarre, Pa, Feb. THE trial
of Sheriff Martin and deputies for
shooting into an unarmed body of
miners last September, killing seven
and wounding about forty others, is
renewing the excitement caused by the
rash deed.
The witnesses are brought into court
only as they are required to testify.
Many of them bear reminders of the
late shooting in the shape of ghastly
wounds in legs, arms, etc. One man
with eight buckshot wounds in the
back, who is just recovering sufficient
strength to enable him to move, was
present.
Charles Guscott, the Lattimer school
teacher, pointed out those of the depu.
ties he remembered having seen at
Lattimer just previous to the shooting.
After this Guscott pointed out by maps
and photographs the scene of the shoot
ing, just where the deputies stood,
where the strikers halted, where the
sheriff met the strikers, and where the
dead and wounded had fallen.
DR.. William Keller, who viewed the
remains of the strikers and attended
many of the wounded, testified that a
number of the strikers were shot in
the back, thus bearing out the allega-
tion that the deputies fred when the
men were running. DIR. Keller men
toned in order each of the thirty-nine
patients taken to the Hazelton hos
pital, and described their wounds
minutely. 1t was evident that they
had been shot in all positions, some
while fronting the deputies, some while
running away, and some while lying
on the ground in the hope of escaping
injury. Forty-six wounds on the thirty
nine men were inflicted by 44-caliber
Winchester bullets, and only small
majority of them were caused by buck
shot. OF the patients, seven died in
the hospital, two are still there and
recovering slowly and thirty have
been discharged, all of them cured ex-
cePb one, VINO Is now III d private nos
pital.
Rev. $. e. Staffiett, pastor of the
Emanuel Reformed church of Hazelton
testified that the strikers were orderly
and apparently unarmed.
Miss Grace Coyle of the Lattimer
school said she was standing on the
porch of the school house and saw the
deputies line up along the roadside.
Then the strikers approached quickly
and orderly. The sheriff stopped them
and some of them gathered around
him, but she did not see any of them
attack him. Some of them cried, go
ahead, . and few strikers pushed past
the sheriff. At that moment a shot
was fired, then came another, and in
an instant the volley.
Il saw men fall" said Miss Coyle.
''Some of them ran toward the school
house and when they got half way they
fell. | do not know whether they were
shot just before they fell or if they
were wounded by the volley and ran SO
far before their strength failed them.
The shooting contin ued for about two
minutes, and after the first volley it
was scattered.
Il helped many of the wounded
strikers who fell near the school house,
and did not see any weapons on any of
them. While | was helping them a
deputy named Ross laughed at me as
he walked about smoking cigar. l
SAID; You ought to go to Cuba An
other deputy, Clark, laughed, and |
said to him: Do you think you have
done glorious deed today?' l called
two more of them buns
Public feeling is considerably aroused
over the recital of the events leading
up to the trouble which resulted in the
shooting.