The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-12-21
WEATHER
WITNESSES TELL
OF HERRIN RIOTING

Gated PressJ.--Peter Hitler and Otis
Clark, two of the five defendants on
trial charged with murder in connec.
ton with the Herrin riots, were point.
Cd out as members of the mob by two
OF the four survivors, who took the
Witness stand today.
The survivors, who occupied the
stand most of the day, were William
C''irns, p. j. ORourke, Bernard Jones
and Robert Officer, the latter a Uni
versity Of Pennsylvania graduate, was
bookkeeper at the strip mine, where
the riots started, and which resulted
In the death Of 20 non-union men. The
first three were guards at the mine.
Cairns testified that the 48 men In
tie mine surrendered under a white
flag between $50 and 6 O'Clock. the
morning of June 22 and were marched
cut of the pit with their hands above
their heads, after being told that they
would not be harmed. He said he had
seen G. X. Mcdowell, the crippled
superintendent of the mine, led away
b! Otis Clarke, who had q gun, and
another man.
we were marched on until we
came to barbed wire fence" he
said, and some one shouted, All men
with guns line up to the right and
then some one else cried: Now, you
fellows rum
Then the firing started, he said.
When he was wounded and lying be-
side the fence, with two bullets in his
body, Cairns said he saw Peter Hitler
come up to another wounded man.
"hc who leaning against a tree, and
tle into his body after shouting,
you great big -, can't we kill
you?"
The witness said he saw another
man approach John Shoemaker, as.
sistant superintendent at the mine,
"ho was leaning against tree, and
fire, and say: Here's that - ma
chine gunner" Cairns declared the
speaker then drew a pistol and blew
Shoemaker's head of.
The witness said he was picked up
aud taken to q hospital by Sheriff
Thaxton about an hour later.
O'Rourke told Of being shot twice
Tat the fence, Of Reeing through tAe
ha6i lsSnfi II seSap tnrsda M
marched with five other bleeding
pleading victims through Herrin to a
cemetery outside the city, where all
six were shot down in the road.
| The witness said he remembered
praying for any Christian in the
crowd to bring him water and, in the
rame Of his mother, for some one to
notify her Of his fate. He said some
one knelt over him and slashed his
throat with pocket knife. O'Rourke
was picked up with seven bullet
wounds in his body.
Jones testified that he had raised q
white flag at the mine on the order of
Mcdowell and was told by the leader
of the attackers that those in the mine
would be taken safely out of the
county. He told of the march from
the mine while some one in the crowd
shouted "kill them," chang them," but
hat others cried: mo, we are going
TO put them on a train and get them
,ut of here. They've had enough"
He quoted Otis Clark as saying:
Were going through with this if I
nave to shoot them all myself"
Jones said when the firing at the
fence started he ran through the fields
and after being given refuge by
farmer boarded train for Chicago.
Another witness, DR.. J. w. Bihots
# Marion, testified that after the
riots he had heard Bert Grace, an
other of the defendants, boast that
,c had prevented some one from Civ
ng one of the men wounded at the
cemetery drink of water.
Donald M. Ewing, Chicago news
paper man, had previously testified
hat Grace had prevented him from
giving a drink to one of the wonded
and another witness had said he had
seen Grace shooting in the cemetery.