Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-20
FURTHER TESTIMONY IN
 HEREIN MURDER TRIAL

Marion, Ills, Dec. 19.-(By the A. P) Robert Officers, one of the survivors of the rioting in which 20 non-union men were killed at Herrin, testified today at the trial of the five men charged with their murder. Officer, a graduate Of the University of Pennsylvania, was book keeper at the strip mine where the trouble started. He described the attack on the property the afternoon of June 21, when three union miners were shot and killed.
 Colonel Sam Hunter. Of tre adjutant generals office, at Springfield, another witness, testified there were no agree ments between the non-unlon workers at the mine and local officials of the United Mine Workers for truce and ] safe conduc. for the besIeged workers out of the district, Officer corroborated i, this.
 Colonel Hunter said that he had tried i to arrange such truce which acting in a purely personal capacity, having come down from Springfield when he heard of i the trouble. .t. Officer said that Colonel Hunter. had l talked to him over the telephone and said that W. J. Lester, the owner, had author ized the surrender Of property. | fled, those in the mine raised a white flag. but the sniping from surroundinghilis co.+- tinued all night and the flag was lowered at daybreak when the non-union men took refuge in some freight cars. Then the ierceness of the attack increased and the besieged decided to surrender, rais- ing a white flag. he said l After being assured of their safety, ac- cording to the witness, the IS non-union men were led from the mine. C. K Mo Dowell, the superintendent limping pain fully along on his artificial leg. The crowd constantly increased and Officer quoted one of its leaders. whom he could not identify as shouting: They're noth- | ing but strike-breakers and we ought to xill them all"
 About mile from the mine the witness said, McDowen was led away by two men. Other witnesses have testified that the crippler superintendent was sIaIn at this .pot.
 Then the crowd marched about two miles further where the remaining IT prisoners were lined before a barbed wire fence near a clump of woods, Officer isaid.
 1 Were going to give you chance for your lives" he quoted one of the leaders as shouting and then the firing began.
 Officer said he dropped at the first dis charge and rolled. under the fence neerng while the crowd was hunting down those who had escaped the rain of lead. He described the crowd as ~howltnE like wolves"
 "only those who have guns can enter the woods" the witness said he heard one of the mob leader cry. --- !, It was at the wire fence that othe1 witnesses have. tesiihed IA bocies vert
 found. Four others, according to the tes- timony, were found in clump of woods
 a short distance away, having been shot
 down as they fled.
 Six .tugf:Iyes were captured. wif-zses
 have said, driven through the streets oi
 Herrin and shot down at cemetery just
 outside :ne town. The distance from the
 mine through the woods to the esa.,s.si
 has been given as approximately six and
 one-haf miles
 Officer said that the only man he re
 cognlzed wss Hugh. WILLS, state boarC member of the United Mine Workers. H' said Willis drove up to the crowd befor' the shooting at the woods, asked for tn leader and then disappeared from hi view.
 Under severe croas-eamfnation, Of
 ficef said there were AS workers in tn : pit and about 25 guards, all of whom had been brought from Chicago at tn
 time of the riots. He said he was a } present employed In a Kentucky mine i , which ". J. Lester has an interest : officer said that McDowell had deal
 out arms and ammunition which tn men used in the mine at tho time of tn first attack and admitted that he himsel had a gun.
 He also told of an atrplane flying owe , the mine and said he heard eplosions be meath 1t as though 1t was droppln
 SUmbs.
 onicer was on the stand most of th lAy, and his cross examination win be rs lsumed tomorrow morning. a