Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-06-13
THE TRIAL AT BOISE
REMARKABLE STORY TOLD BY
HARRY ORCHARD.
ADMITS KILLING EIGHTEEN MEN
Defense Hopes to Break Down Story
Haywood Has Six Attorneys
and State Four.

DOlSe, 1uduO-1u6
ton of Harry Orchard, by his own con-
fession the slayer of is men by bullet
and bomb. is likely to last through an
entire week.
Orchard has been on the stand in
the trial of w. D. Haywood for IA
hours in direct and cross-examination.
The state had him in hand seven and
a half hours. In that time he told
what appeared to be an incredible
story, spread over the Al years Of his
life.
Beginning with the year 1895, he
unfolded a career in which, to us the
language of the leading counsel for
the state, assassination was a trade
and murder a means of livelihood"
Is States Trump Card.
The state led out with its trump
card by calling to the stand Harry
Orchard, who says his real name is
Albert Horsley, but who passed under
various aliases, and who c~onfesses
that he laid the bomb that killed
Steunenberg. With some leading ques-
tons he was led to tell in detail a
long story of various murders and at
tempted murders, which nefarious
work he says he performed at the in
stigation and in the pay of the off.
GERS of the federation of miners who
are now under Indictment in connec-
ton with the Steunenberg murder. He
said he was a Canadian by birth, and
after moving into the mining region of
the northwest became a member of the
miners union and achieved a reputa-
ton by executing sentence of death
and destruction upon those who OPP
posed the purposes Of the union. He
recounted attaching the fuse which
blew up the Bunker Hill mill in 1899,
of attempting the assassination of Gov.
Peabody, and recited in detail how he
and his assistant, Steve Adams. blew
up the station at independence, Col,
where fourteen n~on-union miners were
killed. The elimination of his bloody
recital came when he told of the mur-
der of Steunenberg.
Tells Story Calmly.
At the outset Orchard showed signs
of embarrassment and had to be en-
couraged to make his answers audible,
but he told his awful story with re-
markable calmness and self-possession,
while the man he sought to impli-
cate, Haywood, listened intently to
every word and looked directly at him,
evidently trying to catch his eye,
which the witness avoided. The de-
Tense objected to the early parts of
the story on the ground that they did
not appear to be connected with Hay
wood in any way, but the court over
ruled this objection, saying that such
parts would be stricken out if not
proved germane. Orchard told of meet
ing Haywood, Meyer and rettibone at
different times, when, he says, they
paid him money for the various crimes
he had committed, and praised him
for what he had done. The whole case
then appeared to turn upon the ability
of the prosecution to establish and cor
roborate this testimony.
Hopes to Break Down story.
Slowly but surely the defense is de-
veloping the lines by which it hopes
to break down the story of Harry Or
chard, so far as it affects Haywood,
nov on trial, or Meyer and Pettibone,
who are yet to be tried on the same
charge. If it is possible to heap fur
Their obloquy on the witness they have
done SO by proving him capable Of
petty crimes.
BY his own admission Orchard is a
bigamist, a thief, a liar and an incen-
diary. He has played the traitor to his
employers. He has deseRed two wives
and his children.
All of these offenses he has been
forced to confess, but under a Cruel
ling examination by Richardson he has
stuck to his story and given chapter
and verse.
By their questions they have plainly
Indicated their intention to prove that
Orchard was mi hired agent of the
mine owners. who, harassed by the
Western Federation of Miners, deter
mined to wipe union labor from the
mines of Idaho and Colorado, planned
assassination, train wrecks and mine
explosions that could be laid to the
door Of the Western Federation Of Min
ers and keep militia on the ground
while non-union men worked the