The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-12-21
SCARED MEN
AT HERRIN TRIAL
Three Survivors of Massa-
ere Testify at Trials
of Miners.
THE MARCH TO DEATH
Men Who Faced Terror of En-
ragged Miners Tell Story
Without FIinching.
(By Associated Press Leased wire)


Marion, 1ll.-With the scars of bullet
and knife wounds on their bodies, three
survivors Of the Herrin riots testified
today at the trial of Ave men in con-
nection with the killing of twenty non
union men last June. They were Jo-
seph O'Rourke, William Cairns and
Robert Officer. William Cairns, the
second survivor Of the Herrin riots to
testify, took the witness stand today.
He followed Robert Officer, the first
survivor to take the stand, and testified
that after the defenders of the mine
surrendered under white flag that the
prisoners were marched out of the pit
with their arms above their heads,
After the march started" he said,
"sosne men took me back to the mine
to point out where we had kept our
arms. They let me look in my locker
for some keepsakes l priced highly and
then we Joined the mob without finding
guns" The witness then pointed out
Otis Clark as one of the two men he
had seen with c. X. Mcdowell, super
intendent of the mine, and that Clark
had gun in his hand.
"Then We marched on and l heard
someone shout, Hugh Willis is COM
ing!'," the witness continued. Willis
is an officer of a miners union.
The March of Death.
"We marched on until we came to a
barbed-wire fence with four or FIVE
strands, and someone shouted, AL men
with guns line up to the right and
se7aeone Use shouted, No Asfeyou fell
lows run!' and the firing started. I
tried to climb through the fence, but
fell with a load Of buckshot in my
body. A rifle bullet grazed my scalp.
While was lying there, l saw blood
covered wounded man leaning against q
tree. A big man with a gun came up
and said to the wounded man, You
great big -. can't we kill your and
he fired into his body"
The witness then pointed to Peter
Hitler, one of the defendants, as the
man who fred the shot.
"Then / saw another man fire shot
into the body of John Shoemaker, as
sistant superintendent of the mine, as
he lay wounded on the ground" the
witness continued. '"Three men with
guns came up to Shoemaker and one
said, Here's that -. machine gunner
and putting a gun to his head blew
it off,"
Cairns said that a crowd had then
found he was alive and subjected him
to all kinds of abuse for an hour when
Sheriff Thaxton of Williamson county
came up with some other men and re-
moved him to a hospital. The witness
said he was one of the guards at the
mine.
Points Out Defendant as Slayer.
Cairns pointed out Peter Hitler, one
Of the defendants, as a man he had
seen shoot down wounded man after
the prisoners marched from the mine
had been lined up before barbed-wire
fence and told to run for their lives
and the mob began firing. at them.
O'Rourke said he had been shot twice
at the barbed-wire fence, had fed thru
the woods, been recaptured and march
ed with five other wounded prisoners
bAIO0SA AC4XAA w q CG1AGISIyJ WttS1E
they were all shot down. The witness
declared he remembered pleading for
water and crying in the name Of his
mother for someone to notify her of
his death He testified that after he
had been shot five times here, man
knelt over him with a pocketknife and
slashed his throat and that he was then
left for dead on the sun-baked road
O'Rourke, a brawney Irishman, who
spoke with strong brogue, displayed
to the jury the scar left by the knife
wound on his thoat. Besides he was
shot through the leg, elbow, groin and
four times through the body. He re-
covered after being taken to the Her
rim hospital.
On brief cross examination both
Cairns and O'Rourke testified that they
had been armed guards at the mine.