Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-06-13
AWFUL CRIME STORY
HARRY ORCHARD RELATES A
GREWSOME TALE.
Assassin. on the Witness Stand.
Calmly Tells the Details of a Sc
rics of Atroeieus Murders-Swears
He Killed Nearly a Score

Boise, Idaho, correspondence
The trial of Haywood at Boise
brought to the witness stand one of the
most remarkable assassirs in the his
tory of modern crime He calmly re-
lated the details of a series of afro
cious murders deliberately planned and
carried out in cold blood. Persons who
heard him say that his story gave the
impression of truthfulnesS. However,
mary claim that this man was as ready
to commit perjury as he says he was
TO STAY with giant powder, dynamite
bomb. poison, revolver or Sawed-off
shotgun.
According to his own story. Harry
Orchard-who says he is a Canadian
of the name Of Alfred Horsley-kiIled
men and destroyed property as a regu-
lar business and only for money. No
idea of loyalty for any cause or any
person seems to have inspired him.
Having wrecked mine with a powder
blast and having failed to get his pay
for the work, he FASTENED to betray his
fellow conspirators who were about to
destroy a railroad train. Being mere
hired bravo it is not surprising that
he made full confessional his story
be the truth-when caught after the
murder of Ex-Governor Steunenberg.
Meyer. Haywood and Pettibone lead
ing officials of the Western Federation
Of Miners, appear in Orchards story as
his patrons and paymasters. They, he
says told him what to do, paid him
for his murders and helped him to es-
cape capture when brought under sus-
picion. The whole nation takes the
keenest interest in the developments of
this great trial.
Orchard swore that he had person
ally committed a full score of murders,
nearly all of them at the instigation
and with the approval of Haywood and
his fellow officials at the Denver head
quarters Of the Western Federation of
Miners.
His career of crime began in the
Occur d'Alene strikes Of $780, where
he helped blow up the Wardner mill.
The leader in this was W. f. Davis, af-
terward president of the Cripple Creek
branch of the union. 1t was at Davis
instigation, Orchard swore, that he also
made and placed in the indicator
mine the bomb whose explosion killed
Superintendent Mccormick and Fore
man Beck.
This crime brought him directly to
the notice Of Haywood, Meyer and Pet
tibone, the leading officials at the union
headquarters in Denver. They praised
his work, he testified, gave him money,
and told him he could not go too fierce
to suit them" Later they employed
him and Steve Adams to murder Gov
ernor Peabody. An attempt by shoot
ing failed, and Haywood called off one
with bombs because the executive board
of the union was meeting and he did
not want anything to occur at that
time" X
Then Orchard was directed by, Petit
bone to kill Lyle Gregory, a deputy
sheriff who had incurred the unions
hatred. He and Adams laylih wait for
Gregory and shot him Down. They re-
ported to Haywood, who approved and |
called it a good job"
Then Haywood and the others told
him that there was trouble and a split |
threatened in the union convention, |
and that 'if something was pulled off |
at Cripple Greek" the opposition would |
quiet down. So Orchard and Adams |
went to Cripple Creek and blew up the |
Independence station, killing fourteen |
men. On the return of these men to
Denver, Haywood and the other leaders |
and Haywood said that at |
was a good thing; that things had gone
all right in the convention"
1t was thought expedient that Or
chard should leave Colorado for a
while, so he was supplied with money
by Haywood and Pettibone, and went |
first to Wyoming and then to San |
Francisco, where he was to look I'D
one Bradley, who had been a mine man.
ager in the Occur dAlene. Apparently
the idea was that the assassin might
as well do some work on his vacation.
He looked up Bradley, and, after failing
to poison him by putting strychnine in
milk left at his door, fixed bomb
which blew out the front of the house,
but did not quite kill Bradley. When
ne told Pettibone that Bradley was not
lead but merely deprived Of hearing
md sight Pettibone said it was better
80, as it made "a living example,"
At the close Of his direct testimony
Orchard was Immediately turned over
% the defense for cross-examination.
During the time the witness was under
he fire Of Attorney Richardson's ques-
ions a few more black spots in bis
,heckered career were held up to the
light. 1t was shown that he Is big
lmist as well as a murderer; that he
las one wife living in Canada and an
Dther in Cripple Creek, and that for a
ime he travelled through the country
With the wife of another man.
TeIeoran