The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1908-03-31


fenced to be hanged on May 10. by
Judge Frcmonth Wood, the latter rec
ommended that the punishment be
modified by imprisonment This rec
ommendation that the wholesale mur.
derer be extended clemeucy was based
on the belief of Judge Wood that or.
chard had told the truth i'm the trials
of Haywood and Pettibone, officers OF
the Western Federation Of Miners. ac-
quilted of completely in the murder
of Ex-Governor Steunenberg. Tomor-
row the board of pardons will meet to
consider the Orchard case. and 10 f.
entirely likely that the recommends
ton of Judge Wood will be acted up.
on favorably.
This latest phase of the famous
case which has made Idaho center
OF international interest during the
last year has provoked a gread deal
of comment. During the progress of
the Haywood trial and since that
time labor men have openly declared
that Orchard. blood-guiltt though ne
has confessed himself % be, would
never be made to pay the penalty for
his crimes by the Idaho authorities
For months western labor leaders in
their papers and on the platform,
have asserted that the plan was to
have Orchard plead guilty, Ea sen
fenced to death, secure a commu,a-
ton of sentence form the pardon
board, and later. when the affair
blew over" be released or allowed TO
escape from the penitentiary and sent
rejoicing on his way. All but the lat
ter part of this prophesy has now
been fulfilled. 1t is declared that Or
chard has been treated with marked
fayoritism by the prison authorities,
has been supplied with all the mxu-
res he desired and has evaded the
labor and discipline imposed on other
prisoners. Governor Goodings $ pet,
he is alleged to be called by his
fellow inmates of the state prison.
These charges are denied in their en-
tirety by the state officials, from the
governor down, who declare that Or
chard has never been promised inn
munity and 1t it will never be
given him.
People of Boise are divided in .pin
ion as to whether Orchard was in
reality the tool of the officials of the
Western Federation, committing muir
ders and other crimes at the behest
of the elmer circle" or whether his
confession was wrung from him on
promise of immunity, as part OF a gi-
gantic conspiracy to railroad the labor
leaders to the gallows and disrup the
union. The prayerful, pious, psalm
singing Orchard of today, compared
with the ruthless assassin of yester-
day, is an anamoly that no psyClolog-
ical investigator has yet been able
to explain. Arch assassin or arch
hypocrite-thisi is a question that no
one has yet been able to answer. II
Orchard has told the truth about
himself, this man who Is considered
a ut subject for the clemency of
the Idaho pardon board committed or
had guilty knowledge of the follow
ing crimes in addition to the Steunen-
berg murder:
The blowing up Of the Bunker Hill
and Sullivan mill in Idaho in 1899;
the murder of Martin Gleason, man
ager of the Wild Horse mine of Grip
pie Creek, Col, in 1901, the murder
in 1901 OF j. w Barney non-union
shift boss in the Smuggler- Union mine
at Telluride, Col; the killing, the
next year, of Wesley j. Smith, an
other non-union shift boss in the same
mine, as well as the murder of Ar
thur l.. Collins, manager; the murder
Ol Oupls MNNbl lHllNh anu Ibl 'lllhil
Beck of the Vindicator mine OF Victor,
in 1908; in 1904, the blowing up OF
the railroad depot at Independence by
which fourteen men were killed. in
1905, the wrecking of the power house
of the Colorado Springs Electric com
pany; the hiring of men TO poisin 10
death his former associate, Neville
because Neville suspected that Or
chard was the man who caused the
independence explosion. Orchard also
confessed that he laid bomb in the
path OF Chief Judge Gabbart OF Colo
RADIO by which an innocent man was
killed, that he buried a bomb at the
gate to the residence OF Judge God
dard of Denver who escaped death
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