Herrin Massacre

By Scott Doody

Twenty three men killed in Williamson County and the streets of Herrin, Illinois over a two day killing spree on June 21st and 22nd, 1922. The largest mass murder of non-union labor in the history of America. The event would become known around the world as The Herrin Massacre. Read about the toughest (deadliest) little city in America and the modern day hunt for the massacre victim's lost graves in the potter's field of the Herrin city cemetery. Written by Scott Doody, this four year adventure uncovers the ugly secret of what happens when a town buries their past so deep, it changes their future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312744455

Book preview

Herrin Massacre

Herrin Massacre

by Scott Doody

Copyright © 2013 by Scott Doody

All Rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

Dick's Chicken Shack Productions

240 Something subsidiary

www.herrinmassacre.com

ISBN: 978-1-300-89792-7

ID: 13754515

If this book offends anyone.... Well, into every life a little rain must fall... The author....

For my granddaughter Zoey Lynn

Take time out of your busy day and spend a quiet moment thinking about the 40 million men and women who have worn the uniform of the greatest nation on Earth.... And the one million men and women who gave their lives to keep us free.... Never forget, freedom is not free....

Contents

(Top photo) Oldest picture (that I know of) of the Herrin city cemetery taken in 1912. (Bottom photo) Eastern Il. University  Professor Steven DiNaso posing in front of same marker almost one hundred years later. His tireless efforts to find Molkovich made this book possible....

Prologue

Let the dead rest in peace.... So many things in the American lexicon are taken for granted. Let the dead rest in peace seems to be a pretty straight forward phrase that many of us have said or heard in our lifetimes....

When someone dies in our society, as a general rule we bury their earthly remains in the ground. When towns or cities are organized, one of the first things we do as a civilized people, is set aside a part of our community as a place for the dead. When I started out four years ago (winter of 2009) on a simple road trip to take a picture of a veteran's grave, I never realized what the next four years would bring.... Sometimes the final resting place of the dead, is not so final.... Who will speak for those who have left this world, so that they may rest in peace.... only the living.

The massacre victims buried in the potter's field in unmarked graves on June 25th, 1922. The list of the dead contains fifteen names. The sixteenth man's name is lost to time....known only to Almighty God....

Antonio Molkovich:  Erie Pennsylvania. 305th Signal Corp. World War One Veteran.

Robert Marsh: Chicago Illinois. Sgt. First Class. 354th Aero Squadron. World War One Veteran.

Robert Anderson: Kent county, Michigan. 72nd Aero Squadron. World War One Veteran.

Raymond Jacobs: Allentown Pennsylvania.

John Emil: Chicago Illinois.

Fred Lang: Chicago Illinois.

James Sayghizo: Chicago Illinois. United States Army Veteran.

Horitio Gosman: New York City. New York.

Arthur B. Miller: New York City. New York.

John C. Smith: Chicago Illinois. United States Army Veteran.

Edward Miller: Chicago Illinois.

William Davis: Chicago Illinois.

John Casper: Chicago Illinois.

Allen C. Norine: Chicago Illinois.

G. Ward: Chicago Illinois. Company C, 1st Infantry. World War One Veteran.

Forward

I was watching television on a Sunday night and channel  surfing, when I came across a program on the History Channel. I don't recall the title of the show, but it had something to do with bootleggers and gang violence of the roaring 20's. Most of the broadcast was talking about Al Capone and Chicago, but they made a brief mention of a man named Charlie Birger. They went on to say that Birger was a gangster and bootlegger from Williamson County, deep in southern Illinois. For a moment I sat stunned in my recliner thinking my goodness, southern Illinois made the History Channel (albeit briefly) and I remembered I had a book about Williamson County. The book was called Bloody Williamson and it was written by Paul Angle, the famous Lincoln historian. The book had been written in 1951 and I had bought a copy sometime in the late 90's thinking that it would be a good read some cold winter night. Well, that cold winter night had yet to arrive, as it had laid on my book shelf in utter neglect for almost ten years! As strange as this may seem, I would still be neglecting my own local history if it were not for the brief mention that night on the History Channel. I smile to myself as I write this, realizing this whole book came together as a simple twist of fate from a television show! I got up from my recliner and started thumbing thru my bookcase looking for my gangster tome that had the name Charlie Birger in it. The book was just where I had placed it all those years ago, patiently waiting for me to pour over its pages about the rich and infamous history of southern Illinois. I sat down to read thru Paul Angle's work and this time, instead of skipping to the part about the bootleggers and gangsters.... I decided to start with the (I know) first page. Mr. Angle had begun his best seller with the story of the Herrin massacre. At the time my day job (so to speak) was hosting a two-hour talk show on a small station just outside Murphysboro Il.  Reading page after page about the massacre, I realized what the topic of my radio show would be the next day when I got on the air. Thru the duration of the broadcast the  response I got from the callers about the topic of the Herrin massacre peaked my curiosity.... So after my talk show ended, I made my way over to Bloody Williamson to see what all the fuss was about....

Driving around the streets of Herrin, I ultimately found myself out at the city cemetery. I had read in Angle's book about sixteen of the massacre victims buried in the potter's field. One of the victims of the mass murder was a soldier named Antonio Molkovich. The man was a decorated war hero from World War One. The Herrin American Legion had erected a marker over his grave back in 1922. I was going to take a picture of it (so I thought) and talk about my little road trip over to Herrin the next day on my radio show.

Not knowing where he was buried in the cemetery, I parked my automobile on one end of the graveyard and started walking along the rows of tombstones. Knowing what Molkovich's marker looked like and the fact that he was buried with the rest of the victims, I thought to myself, how tough can it be? The exercise and the adventure of looking for him would be fun (or so I thought) at the time. But, after an hour of this fun, I began to grow frustrated with my lack of progress.  Heading back to my truck admitting defeat for now, I told myself that this adventure would continue another day. Now, would I have come back to the cemetery some other day and continued my search for Antonio Molkovich and the rest of the massacre victims.... probably not.... But a simple innocent conversation with a stranger in the cemetery would change the next four years of my life and be the driving force behind this book being written....

As I had mentioned, the massacre story had been the topic of my radio show earlier in the day. I had told the audience that I would make a trip over to Herrin and visit the cemetery. I would take some pictures and we would discuss it on the show the next day. As it turns out, one of the listeners of my broadcast had driven out to the cemetery on the off chance that he might run into me. He pulled up in a Ford pick-up truck, rolled down his window and made a very terse simple statement.... if you're looking for them scabs, you ain't gonna find em.... nobody knows where they are.... I reflected on that for a moment, took a look around the cemetery and then glanced back to the gentleman in the truck. Well, I responded, how do you lose track of sixteen murder victims all buried at the same time in a cemetery no bigger than this one? Been thousands of people over the years ask the same question, he said. I assumed our conversation was over at this point, because he rolled up his window and drove off.  Now what, I thought to myself as I fired up my automobile and made my way out of the cemetery. Do what the other thousands before me had done, simply forget about it. Many thoughts ran thru my mind on my half-hour drive home. Is this something to pursue.... Does anyone care.... Does Antonio Molkovich, the decorated combat veteran of the Great War deserve to lie in an unknown unmarked grave? What decision did I arrive at? You're holding it in your hands....

Front half of Molkovich's registration card for service in the United States Armed Forces.

Back half of his card. Notice he is listed as medium in height and he is described as "stout'. In just over five years after signing this card,

he would be murdered in Herrin, after surviving the horrors of the Great War....

Molkovich's honorable discharge papers.

80th Division 305th Signal Corps Battalion. Molkovich served in this unit and was awarded Metals and Battle Clasps shown in picture

Herrin In The Roaring 20's

On June 21st and 22nd some ninety years ago back in 1922, twenty-one men were murdered. Three more would die of their wounds just a few days later. They were killed in Williamson County on the outskirts of Herrin, Illinois. The event would become known around the country as the Herrin massacre. Forty-eight men were lined up against a barbed wire fence at eight o'clock on a sunny Thursday morning. They were shot with pistols, rifles and shotguns. The event still stands to this day as the largest mass murder in American history of union versus non-union labor. The United Mine Workers of America had one hundred percent control of all things in Williamson County (public and private) in those days. This book explores and describes the massacre and the modern day scientific investigation into solving the mystery of what became of the sixteen murder victims that were buried in the potter's field in the Herrin cemetery on Sunday June 25th, 1922. Before I get into the story of the mass murders over that two day killing spree and the modern day investigation into the infamous cemetery, I must tell you a little of the history of Bloody Williamson located almost at the tip of southern Illinois. I use the term southern Illinois because when people hear the word Illinois, they immediately think Chicago. Williamson County and southern Illinois in general have two things in common with Chicago.... the automobiles down state have Illinois plates on them like the cars in the windy city and the people at the opposite ends of the state both breathe oxygen.... and that's about it. Williamson County actually lies below (south) St. Louis Missouri or Louisville Kentucky to put things into

perspective as far as the word southern goes when we refer to that particular part of the land of Lincoln. I'm not going to get to far into the weeds about the history of Herrin and Williamson County, but you should be aware of some of the events that took place around the same time frame as the massacre. When you get this brief glance at some of the history of Herrin, it will help you wrap your mind around the atrocities that were committed that summer morning some ninety years ago and the secrets we uncovered in today's time at the  cemetery involving the massacre victims graves.

When the United Mine Workers of America murdered the twenty one men, it was not a new experience for them. Not in Williamson County anyway. Coal mine owner Samuel T. Brush was a man who had several dealings  with the U.M.W.A. .... all of them bad. He started a mining venture called the St. Louis and Big Muddy Coal Company. The mine was north of a small town called Carterville located just a couple of miles from Herrin. After repeated strikes and trouble with the union, Brush decided to replace the union and imported new labor into Williamson County. Brush made arrangements with outsiders and brought the men and their families to Carterville by passenger train. The union of course got word of this plan and fired at the train as it pulled into the station killing one of the miner's wives. The year was 1899 and the union was just getting started with Samuel T. Brush. The old adage pouring gas on a fire would apply to the mine owner.... You see, not only was he using replacement (scab) workers, but to add insult to injury.... they were African Americans! Now let us reflect on southern Illinois and race relations (or a lack of) at the dawn of the 20th century. Most of southern Illinois would have sun down towns well into the 50's. Sun down town was a phrase that simply meant when the sun goes down and you are black, you better not still be in town. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but later in this chapter I will tell you about the largest Ku Klux Klan funeral in American history. Want to guess where it took place.... So ole Sam Brush has not only taken on the union, but he has used black labor to replace the U.M.W. A. The strife and chaos continued off and on for months and reached a murderous climax in the summer of 1899. Governor Tanner had veterans from the Spanish-American War (National Guard) from nearby Carbondale stationed in Carterville all summer after the (scab) coal miner's wife had been murdered on the train earlier in the spring. With the troops stationed in Williamson County most of the summer, the violence was mitigated. Thinking that peace had been restored, Governor Tanner ordered the troops back to Carbondale on September 11th. Unlike other parts of the country, the union coal miners in Williamson County never got into a confrontation with the National Guard units when they were called into service. However the miners never respected or had any fear of local law enforcement, from the Chiefs of Police (there were no Wyatt Earp's) of the towns in the county, or the Sheriff and his deputies. That lack of fear or respect also extended to Judges and the States Attorney's office. Simply stated, in Herrin and the other towns that made up the county, when the military was absent the coal miners and bootleggers along with the Ku Klux Klan simply did as they pleased.... the laws of Illinois and the United States Constitution be dammed! On September 17th, less than a week after the troops had returned to Carbondale, violence again broke out in Carterville. A group of black coal miners left Brush's mine property and went downtown to the train station. They never arrived at their destination. The union coal miners confronted their non-union brethren and a gunfight erupted. When the smoke cleared and the guns had fallen silent, seven black men were dead and several more wounded.... there were no causalities on the union side. I'll quote a newspaper account of the events of that day.... One Negro was wounded and had escaped the angry crowd. One man caught up to him immediately in front of the Mayor's house. In full view of several ladies on the porch, the wounded man was shot thru the head with a Winchester rifle. When I read that account in the newspaper my first thought was, not a big deal to the newsman to shoot a negro when he is already down.... but to do it in front of the ladies on the Mayor's porch.... Well now.... that type of behavior is simply unacceptable! Samuel T. Brush never won his fight against the U.M.W.A. He sold his interest in the mine in 1906. He died in 1922.... ironically the same year as the Herrin massacre. Troops again had to be called out to Bloody Williamson to restore order. One final thought before we fast forward two decades into the 20's... soldiers stopped a covered wagon loaded with weapons leaving Carterville after the shoot-out. The wagon was headed back to (hard to believe) Herrin, where the arms had

been gathered for the fight in Carterville. When first confronted by the soldiers, the miners in the wagon protested. They were quickly arrested and locked up in the county jail located in Marion about five miles from Herrin. Three days later they were released by local authorities.... no charges were filed. There were other men who were arrested and tried for the murders of Brush's miners, but of course.... no convictions. So as you read about the massacre in the next chapter, understand the precedent had already been set some twenty years earlier as far as murdering men who worked in a mine without a union card. The Herrin massacre was simply an expansion of the violence that took place in Carterville, the only difference between the killing in 1899 versus 1922.... they murdered a hell of a lot more people....

Now one would think after you read the story of the massacre in the following chapters, that the streets of Herrin would have grown quiet and peaceful... one would think. However (as I'm about to tell you) nothing could be further from the truth. Over the next four years (1923-26) the city of Herrin would witness gunfights between the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the Flaming Circle. The Mayor and Chief of Police would be arrested by the Klan and thrown in jail.... Even the city hospital itself would become the scene of violent gun play that was not broken up until troops (again) were called out from Carbondale.

After the Sam Brush mine riots (and before the massacre) Williamson County did enjoy some semblance of normalcy. Mines in the area were all operated with union labor and no individual or company was fool hardy enough to try and take on the U.M.W.A. World War One broke out in 1914 and when America entered the conflict in 1917 the citizens of Williamson County did their part, and then some. During the early teens and throughout the war years Herrin and the surrounding areas enjoyed great prosperity. The demand for coal was (with America at war) never greater and the people of southern Illinois were happy to meet this new found need for the black diamond. The boys were coming home from the western front and the future appeared to be as bright as the noonday sun.... so what could go wrong? Well for starters, religious fanatics managed to get the Volstead Act passed thru Congress. President Harding vetoed the act, but was over ridden by the House and Senate and prohibition became the law of the land in January of 1921. Many books have been written on that subject, so I will simply add this.... That social experiment turned out to be a catastrophic failure across the entire country.... So what do we have in Bloody Williamson county  in 1921?  Veterans who have seen the most horrific combat in the planet's history. Coal miners (and others) who want a cold beer after a hard day's work and a county that has shown in the past a propensity to break the law.

What transpires next.... City and county officials immediately start accepting bribes from bootleggers who step in to supply the alcohol.  More taverns and gambling houses spring up in Williamson County than had existed before prohibition. All the city of Herrin and the surrounding counties needed to happen then was.... oh I don't know.... maybe a national coal strike and then a mine owner who tries to operate with non-union labor imported from Chicago. Of course this owner won't make the mistake that Sam Brush made, oh no.... This man will use white labor instead of Negro labor, because that tends to stir up the indigenous population. On the off chance that using white labor instead of black labor won't keep the locals calm.... Maybe it would be a good idea to also hire thirty armed guards from the Hargrave Secret Service agency based out of Chicago.... just in case. Think of the Hargrave agency as a junior version (if you will) of the infamous Pinkerton Detective agency. The Pinkerton agency of course was well known for killing union workers around the country in strikes involving all types of labor, not just the coal mining industry. William J. Lester was the mastermind of this ingenious plan to operate a non-union mine in a county (and all of southern IL. for that matter) that was one hundred percent union when it came to coal mining. Union membership that numbered in the tens of thousands and had proven in the fairly recent past that they would murder anyone who attempted to break their union.... and do it with the subtle and sometimes not so subtle help of elected officials and law enforcement. So what was the mindset, or the lay of the land if you will that Lester faced in 1922 when he decided he would operate a non-union mine protected by armed guards. Well the mindset was this.... the U.M.W.A. simply did not allow non-union mines to operate.... period. Southern Illinois government officials and law enforcement saw eye to eye with the coal miners and would cover up anything the union did. And if somehow.... someway....

there were arrests and trials.... Well, locals sat on the jury  and no matter what evidence was presented in the courtroom the verdict was always the same. Not guilty. Now let me give you a brief glimpse of what the streets of Herrin were like in the next few years after the mass murder of Lester's workers in the summer of 1922.

There were two trials for the killers of the non-union men murdered during the Herrin massacre. There were no convictions despite overwhelming evidence presented in the court by the Attorney General of the state. The second trial concluded in the spring of 1923. Across the nation every major newspaper in the country was outraged and headlines used every description you could think of to describe Bloody Williamson.... none flattering by the way. One of the cruel ironies (and there were many) of the massacre trials was the rise in power and standing of the Ku Klux Klan. The lack of convictions in the trials sent out a rallying cry throughout the community for a restoration of law and order. Now I don't think anyone in the community was losing sleep over the massacre victims, however the perpetrators of the crime were union coal miners. The U.M.W.A. had people of color holding union cards and working in the mines.  The Klan saw the Herrin massacre as an opportunity to put the union in a bad light. Herrin's population of 13,000 people included a strong percentage of Italians and about one third of the people in the city had migrated from Italy to mine coal. The town of Colp located just a few miles from Herrin was a black community and many of the men were union members working in the mines as well. Mix in Russians, Polish folks and other non-English speaking people and there is only so much an God fearing America loving Klansman can take.... oh and don't forget about the evil bootleggers pushing alcohol on the unwashed masses. There was much work to be done in Herrin by the Klan to restore that city back to what real America should look like. You know, folks that are white and can trace their roots back to England. After all, real Americans spoke English as a first language and practiced the Protestant religion (any Klan member worth his salt knows Catholics are going to Hell) and never drank liquor or dared to associate and work with people of color. Herrin now had two factions ready to do battle for control of the city. The U.M.W.A. and the Klan. All that was missing.... the men each side would need to lead them into battle.

Seth Glenn Young would fill that void in leadership for the Ku Klux Klan and Ora Thomas would lead a group called the Knights of the Flaming Circle. Young hailed from Kansas and at one time had worked for the Federal government as a prohibition agent. During a liquor raid he shot and killed a man and although he was cleared in the investigation that followed, he was fired by the government.

Unemployed and looking for work, Young was approached by a group of leaders from Williamson County in 1923. They made a plea for his help to restore law and order to their beloved county.... he would do neither. Young brought organization the

Klan was lacking and they began to make liquor raids in the winter of 1923. Immediately it was clear that Young was going to be a problem. Locals (Italians for the most part) complained bitterly about the raids that he led. People were beaten in their homes and had their belongings stolen. Often they were robbed of cash and if no evidence of bootlegging could be found, then Young simply supplied the evidence needed. After several raids and hundreds of arrests, Herrin was at the boiling point by the spring of 1924. The opposition to the Klan began to make plans to strike back....

Ora Thomas's leadership style stood in stark contrast to that shown by Young. Thomas, unlike Young, was a local born in the village of Wolf Creek just south of Herrin. Thomas (in his early thirties) was a small man who let his actions speak for him, rather than his words. The two groups would battle on the streets of Herrin the first time in February of 1924. At the Rome club in downtown Herrin, the Knights of the Flaming Circle were having a  meeting. Three Herrin police officers loyal to the Klan tried to break up their gathering. One of the Knights,  a man by the name of John Layman was wounded in the altercation. At the same time the gunfight at the Rome club was taking place, another police officer by the name of Caesar Cagle ( a Klan member ) was shot in the street in front of the Jefferson hotel a short distance from the Rome club. Cagle was on his way to investigate what was happening at the Rome club when he was killed by ambush from a local bootlegger outfit known as the Shelton gang. Ora Thomas and Mayor C. E. Anderson made their way to the Herrin hospital with the badly wounded John Layman. What happens next is a story for the ages....

Glenn Young was in Marion at the time the multiple shootings were taking place on the streets of Herrin. He receives word via a phone call and makes his way to Herrin to get in on the fray so to speak. Young orders the roads into Herrin sealed off. The Klan sets up roadblocks and stops anyone trying to enter or leave the city. To gain access into Herrin (or leave) you must show the secret Klan sign. Before I continue with the story, stop and think a minute about what