Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-05

an alleged elmer oircls" of the West
ern Federation Of Miners planned and
executed a long series of murders and
acts of violence, medieval in concep-
tion and nihilistic in execution.
1t is charged that Harry Orchard and
Steve Adams, now under arrest and
charged with the commission of other
murders, were the hired agents and
actual executors of many of these ma
levolent plots.
These crimes, it is alleged, can be
traced down through the last hfteen
years, through the days of the bull
pen,' a stockade in which several hun
dred union miners were imprisoned in
1899 under guard of United States
troops, against the great Cripple Creek
strike and the more recent prolonged
struggle in Colorado.
Geographically the action is confined
chiefly to Colorado and Idaho. but Mon
tana, Utah, Nevad' and California were
also stages on whit were enacted por-
tions of the tragedy,
Orchards Confession
Orchard has made confession, it Is
stated, and is in the Idaho penitentiary
ready to take the stand against Hay
wood 1t is alleged that Orchard will
repeat his confession upon the stand,
will relate story filled with plot and
counter-plot, startling in development
and execution.
Steve Adams also made a confession,
and it is expected will be one of the
witnesses for the prosecution, although
Adams later under pressure of rela-
tives, it is said, repudiated portions of
his statement.
Frank Steunenberg, who came from
humble but masterful stock, began life
as a printer, Joined the typographical
union, and throughout the greater part
of his life was in strong sympathy with
the cause and struggle of union labor.
This circumstance gives ground for
an important contention of the case.
Upon the one hand it was argued that
because Steunenberg refused to counte-
nance or as governor permit violence
in behalf of union labor, he was strick-
en- down as a traitor to his fellows by
q mind that never forgets and an arm
that can reach through years to strike
when least expected.
Upon the other hand 1t is contended
that his well known advocacy of union
principles made it at once improbable
that his death was produced by union
men.
The murder of Steunenberg is a pivot
al point in the history of this, the most
remarkable case in American juris-
prudence, for the events develop back
ward and forward from his aSSaSS1na-
tion.
Stenuenberg was blown to death on
the evening of December 80, 1905. In
the gathering gloom of a stormy even
ing he entered the side gate of his res
idence at Caldwell where, retired from
politics, he lived the simple life of a
sheep farmer. A bomb of peculiar man
ufacture, with string attached, was
sunk in the snow beside the gate, the
string-a piece of fishing line-being
fastened to the gate. AS Steunenberg
the opening of the gate sprung
the trigger of the bomb.
He was terribly mangled, being
blown nearly fifteen feet from the gate
He lived nearly an hour, was conscious
spoke, but his ruptured eardrums were
dead to sound and he died without
knowing what had killed him. He
asked his wife who had shot him, and
the mystifcation of his eyes showed
that he could not hear her reply.
Whole State Aroused
The explosion of the bomb aroused
not only the little town of Caldwell,
but the whole state of Idaho. Orchard
had murdered Steunenberg, and before
the day was over he was suspected.
He had gone to Caldwell from Denver
as Thomas Hogan, and variously
claimed to be an insurance man, a
buyer of sheep and a semi professional
gambler.
A search of his room in the hotel re-
vealed the first definite evidence, and
on January 1, 1906, he was placed under
Orchards trunk revealed more