The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-03-11

Then came the day when Mcfarland
asked him point blank if he would
talk before d notary and a stenographer
and he said he would.
Five Days Writing.
It took five days steady writing to
get from the beginning to the end and
when the confession was read to Gov
ernor Mcdonald of Colorado, it took
seven hours rapid reading to get thru
with it. While he was about it, Nc
Parland had Orchard cover, as far as
he knew, the entire history Of the in
famous s'inner circle" of the fedora
ton, and since then, point by point,
this history is being investigated and
verified.
An extraordinary feature Of this self
confessed killers career was his por-
tioning out of punishment according to
his own idea of justice.
IT told the federation folks over
and over again, that I would not stand
for numbering people who did not owe
the federation anything, especially Of
women and children, twas his comment
when MCFARLAND questioned him con-
corning things that did not come off.
''I could have got Governor Peabody
time and time again If I hadn It been
afraid of blowing up those Peabody
girls and when it come to the wrecking
of that train the night Of the military
ball, I said would not do it. And I
was the man who passed the word to
the conductor warning him to look out.
/. .. Train to Be wrecked.
The military ball which he speaks
of took place in Victor, Nov. IA, 1908.
A train of the Florence and Cripple
Creek railroad took over a crowd Of
2l8 persons from the Creek They
were to return about 2 o'clock in the
morning. Their plans were known some
time in advance and Haywood sent for
Orchard and ordered him to wreck the
train, on the usual principle of "Put-
ting the Fear of God in the Hearts of
the People, .... 49,. ..n
The military were temporarily in pos
session of the district and had driven
the federation under cover. ..
The attempt was made to wreck the
train; spikes were pulled from rail
on the curve of 300-foot embankment.
put acting upon the warning, the engi-
neer was looking out and the 218 men.
women and children were saved from
being dashed on the rocks 800 feet be-
low. Two federation men were at once
arrested in hiding near the scene of the
spike pulling, but, with the usual fed
Grafton jury, were let 60.
nr:.>~ n.y.
Seven days later Superintendent Nc
Cormick and Melville Beck, foreman Of
the Vindicator, mine employing nom
union labor, went down to sixth level
of that mine to make repairs, and were
instantly blown to pieces. Orchard SAYS
that it was mistake The bomb was
to have been placed on the seventh
level, in which case they would have
caught fifteen or twenty Of the non
union meI, but in placing they got into
the wrong tunnel and Mccormick and
Beck "got it, The bomb was at
tached to the shaft gate and was so
placed that when the. guard rail was
lifted the explosion would occur. ."
Orchard says in his confession that
he knew in a general way of other jobs
assigned and carried out by men in
other districts. His work was princi-
pally in Cripple Creek and Denver. His
confession clears up and explains al
mots everyone Of the numerous "acci-
dents' which resulted so fatally to
non-union workmen. :.
Blew Up a Station. ..s
The biggest "pull- off - tor Orchard,
from a federation point of view, was
when he blew up the Independence sta
ton. The plan to make one sweep of
two shifts in the Findlay mine was
framed up in Haywood s rooms in Den
ver.> The Findlay mine was just above
the Independence railroad station. The
second or night shift went OF, and the
third shift went on at 2 o'clock in the
morning, the train bringing up the men
Of the third and carrying down the men
of the second. The scheme was to
plant the explosive and wait, until the
car ran up flush with the platform
"Then we'd get the whole thing" .,
81 could do it all right said Or
chard, "but first had to frame up a
getaway and my alibi. There, was a
man named Neville, who had a saloon
down there. He wasn't doing very
we'll. was pretty friendly with him
and said tLet s. go to Cody, Wyo-
! ming. The papers say, things. are doing
up there.
* What would I do with this9'', said
Neville, meaning the saloon. :.
=" That g easy said I. Insure it
| and burn it down. "
I 1" tits already insured
"'Get more insurance. said [.
eve did and got the money. That
| was easy. -.
| ; How He Wrecked Station. ..--
I. "Then we got a team and wagon
stocked it up and Neville and his boy
about IL, and I, 'started away about
o'clock one afternoon l. had decided
to pull the job off thbt night. We
drove ten or twelve miles and stopped
and camped for supper and then after
supper the boy went to sleep and as
Neville was getting ready for bed,
said: by --, I left my gun in Grip
pie Creek. I'm going back and get it
! can jump on a horse and be back by
midnight . .... .s.-.:
~ got my horse and went back tt
| Independence. [ went up to the sta
ton, leaving my horse behind dump
| a couple hundred yards away. I hac
fixed my explosives the night before
and planted my gun with the wire run
I -