The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-12-22
ATTACK AT HERR|N
|STORIES ON STAND
Men With Buckshot In
Bodies Tell Tales
sCENE OF CARNAGE
Wholesale Killings Described By
| Witnesses Who Came From
Death Camp.
ASSOCIATED Press Dispatch. I

4 NS~NA%NSA
Marion. ILL.,, December 20.--Rober RI
officer, University of Pennsylvania
raduate and survivor OF the Herrir
bots in which twenty nom union
miners were killed, today faced an
Ikther period on the witness stand
Ifubject TO additional cross examina
ZION by attorneys defending five men
I'm trial for murder in connection
with the slayings.
i Officer, employed as a bookkeeper
ht the strip mine where the prin-
lcipal riot occurred, was on the stand
most OF yesterday, describing the
Imobs attack on the mine. He told
of the surrender. OF the mine defen-
lders and the subsequent death oil
fourteen OF the forty eight men
when they were lined up before q
Ibarbed wire fence and fired upon.
Other Survivors In Court.
On cross examination OFFICER ties
Titled he was at present employed
I'm Kentucky as a mine official by W.
u. Lester, who owned the strip mine
lat the time of the riots. The wit
ness said there were about twenty
and ammunition had been dealt out
the mine was attacked.
Three other survivors were in
court and the state has announced
the cross examination of Officer
They are Joseph O'Rourke, William
earns and Bernard Jones, all OF
whom were guards at the mine. The
trial will be recessed over the holt
days from December 90 to January 2
the court announced yesterday.
With the scars of bullet and knife
wounds on their bodies, three sur
vivors of the Herrin riots testified
today at the trial of five men in
connection with the killing of TWEEN
ty non union men last June. They
were Joseph O'Rourke, William
Cairns and Robert Officer.
Cairns Tells Story.
Cairns testified that after the de-
tenders of the mine surrendered I'M
der a white flag that the prisoners
were marched out of the pit with
their arms above their heads.
after the march started some
men took me back to the mine to
point out where We had kept our
arms. They let me look in my lock-
er for some keepsakes priced high
ly and then we rejoined the mob
without finding guns"
The witness then pointed out Otis
Clark as one of two men he had seen
with C. K. Mcdowell, superinten-
dent of the mine, and that Clark
had gun in his hand.
"Then we marched on until we
came to a barbed wire fence and
some one shouted: All men with
guns line up to the right, and some
one else shouted: Now, you fellows,
run, and the firing started. / tried
to climb through the fence, but fell
with load of buckshot in my body.
While l was lying there, | saw a
blood covered man leaning against
a tree. A big man with a gun came
up and said to the wounded man:
You great big-can't we kill your
and fired into mis- body.
Saw Men Shoot
The witness then pointed to Peter
Hitler, one of the defendants, as the
man who fired the shot.
"Then | saw another man flre a
shot into the body of John Shoemak-
ker, assistant 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 put
ting a gun to- his head blew it on"
Cairns said tina: a crowd had then
found he was alive and subjected
him to all KINDS of abuse for an hour
when Sheriff Thaxton OF William
SON county came up with some other
men and removed him to hospital.
The witness said he was one OF the
o,.o.de OF the mine