Milford chronicle., 1906-04-20
FOUR KILLED
In STRIKE RIOT
Deputies Fire on Mob StOrming Jail
at Wiedber, Pa
SEVERAL OTHERS WOUNDED

Johnstown, Pa, April IA riot oc-
Cured at Windber between striking
miners and others. and in the resulting
shooting by deputies Pictu Martini,
Paul Zills, Antonio Mazuca and Charles
Foster, IL years old, were killed. Min
ing Engineer Eugene Delaney was dan
gerously injured and several others
We're wounded. Foster was shot
through the bowels and died in the
hospital.
An eyewitness of the riot, in de-
scribing the affair, said the trouble
started when Deputy Sheriff W. w.
McMullen went to the mass meeting
held by the striking miners in a wood
at the edge Of the town Many of the
miners had been drinking and the
sight of the deputy made them furious.
The officer was quickly surrounded by
maddened miners. who threatened to
kill him. McMullen, realizing that his
situation was desperate, fed for his life,
finding refuge in the house Of Council
man Charles Davis Practically every
man who had gone to the mass meeting
Joined in the chase after the fleeing
deputy, and soon after the latter had
entered the Davis house it was sur
rounded by mob of 1000 shouting,
cursing miners, who challenged McMul-
len to come out. When McMullen |
failed to appear, the mob attacked the !
house and literally wrecked it. The |
deputy sheriff was roughly handled, but |
again managed to escape. The mem
bers of the Davis family fed to the
homes of neighbors for shelter. Other
deputies, who had been on duty guard
ing the property of the coal company,
had been notified of the trouble by this
time, and 20 of the rioters were landed
in the lookup at Windber.
The mob, headed by Paul Zills. then
planned an assault on the jail with the
purpose of releasing the prisoners. A
great crowd of the strikers, with Zills
at their head, marched to the centre of
the town and prepared to storm the
jail. The deputy sheriffs fixed the bay
oDets to their rifles and surrounded the
Jail to keep it from the mob's possess
sion, If possible. The members of the
fire department were also called out to
help restore order. The foreigners were
urged to be orderly and to leave the
town, but influenced by liquor, they re-
fused to listen, greeting the efforts to
pacify them with boots and jeers. At
a signal the mob began to close in on
the Jail, shouting to the deputies to
throw away their guns and give up the
prisoners. The officers first tried to
keep back the mob with bayonets, but
the effort was Intellectual, and when it
became certain that the little band of /
deputies and firemen could not stand {
before the bowling, infuriated mob they {
opened fire. Those of the foreigners t
who were closest to the jail had al
ready begun using knives in the at =,
tempt to disarm the deputies, while
others fiOurished revolvers. The depu-
les fred but one volley, and the for 4,
aigners broke and fed in wild disorder, .
eaving three Of their number dead in
rOnt Of the jail. The wounded who "
we're able to walk were hurried to their y
ZONES and boarding houses, while an - :,
ambulance took the more seriously hurt =
o the Windber hospital. -
At the mass meeting the men had de- u
ided to return to work on the opera
ors' terms, when Deputy McMullen o
ppeared. 1t is said that an intoxicated " "
triker made an insulting remark to u
he deputy, and that when the latter u
armed the miner to keep quiet the 81 s
rouble began. IN