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Thursday February 22, 1906
From The Minneapolis Journal: Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone Will Die!

Charles Moyer and Big Bill Haywood, President and Secretary of the Western Federation of Miners, along with the Denver business man who is an ex-miner and now friend of the organization, George Pettibone, have been tried, convicted, and declared "doomed to die" in the pages of The Minneapolis Journal of February 20th:

WESTERN DYNAMITERS RIVAL MOLLY MAGUIRES
OF THE EAST
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COLORADO JUDGES MARKED FOR DEATH
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Orchard's Confession Reveals Plots to
Kill Supreme Court Justices.
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SIX MEN DOOMED, SAYS A DETECTIVE
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Man Who Broke Up Molly Maguires Says
Labor Leaders Will Die.
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Journal Special Service.

The Day of the Rope, Black Thursday, June 21, 1877.
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Boise, Idaho,-Feb. 20.-The confession of Harry Orchard, implicating officials of the Western Federation of Miners in the murder of former Governor Frank Steunenberg, rivals the most sensational conspiracy at wholesale assassination brought to light since the exposure of the "Molly Maguires" in 1877.

Orchard's confession, it is stated, has been verified in important details by detectives.

The confession has not been made public, but it is admitted that Orchard confesses that it was he who fired the bomb and blew up former Governor Steunenberg at his home in Caldwell, Idaho, on the evening of Dec, 30. He says he tried to assassinate the governor on Christmas Day, intending to shoot him with a shotgun. He found he could not effect his purpose without also killing members of the Steunenberg family, and decided to spare them, postponing the crime until a later time. He hid the gun and cartridges. They have since been found by the detectives working on the case at the place indicated by Orchard.

Tried to Kill Judge.

Orchard also declares that he attempted, at the behest of the men now under arrest, together with two others, to assassinate Judge Luther M. Godard, who, as a member of the Colorado supreme court, had ruled against the miners. The bomb failed to explode as it should, and was hidden in a spot where it has since been found by detectives.

This confession, it is asserted, disclosed a plot to kill Former Governor James Peabody of Colorado; William H. Gabbert, chief justice of Colorado supreme court, and John Campbell, former chief justice.

Assassination by Wholesale.

Orchard is said to have confessed that wholesale assassinations were planned at the headquarters of the Western Federation of Miners in Denver, chiefly by refugees from the camps at Cripple Creek and Telluride. It is also said that Orchard's confession gives a history of the explosion at the Independence station near Cripple Creek on June 6, 1904, which killed fourteen men and injured many others.

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SIX DOOMED, HE SAYS
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Detective Says He Has Proof of Murder Plots.

Denver, Feb. 20.-Detective James McParland denies the report that he secured a confession from Harry Orchard, who is charged with the murder of former Governor Frank Steunenberg at Caldwell, Idaho, Dec. 30 last, implicating the officers of the Western Federation of Miners and many others in the crime, tho he claims to have ample evidence of their guilt.

[Said Officer McParland:]

There have been statements made by various persons...but I know of none made by Orchard, and as I have been the only man at work on the case I think I would have known of it had there been one.

I undertook the investigation of Governor Steunenberg's death at the request of his personal friend, Governor Gooding, and Governor Gooding has personally paid what expenses have been incidental on my investigation.

Sees Doom of Six.

I felt it my duty as a citizen of Colorado to uproot the gang, and as such I undertook the work. These fellows thought that it was so long ago that I had broken up the Molly Maguires that I must now be in my dotage. They were not afraid of me. But there is a weak spot in every wall, especially such a one as that upon which the Western Federation was founded, and that weak spot I found. It will cost Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone and as many more their lives.

Other Assassinations.

McParland claims to have positive evidence that members of the Western Federation planned and carried out the assassination of Detective Lytle Gregory, killed mysteriously in West Denver two years ago; of Martin Gleason, superintendent of the Wild Horse mine at Cripple Creek, who was thrown down a shaft; of Arthur Collins, superintendent of the Smuggler-Union mine at Telluride, who was shot from ambush; of the killing of fourteen men in the explosion at the Independence depot, near Cripple Creek, June 6, 1904; of the murder of Martin B. Walley, who was killed last summer by an explosion in this city, and of other murders.

The killing of Walley is said to have been accidental, the nitroglycerin with which he was killed having been placed on a vacant lot thru which Chief Justice Gabbert of the supreme court was accustomed to pass, with the intention of killing him.

No Kidnapping.

McParland denied the charge that he had kidnapped the federation officers out of Denver.

[He said:]

The papers were regular...and were served regularly. I could not be expected to notify their lawyers that Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were in jail and about to be taken to Idaho.

They knew that if they were captured they would never be able to clear themselves, and were about to leave the country when arrested. They had planned to blow up the train if any attempt were made to remove them to Idaho, and for this reason I insisted on having a special train to take them to Idaho.

[Photographs added.]

SOURCES

The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917
-by Philip Sheldon Foner
International Publishers, 1965
https://books.google.com/books?id=e-KlAAAAMAAJ

The Minneapolis Journal
(Minneapolis, Minnesota)
-Feb 20, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/76304513/

IMAGES
Black Thursday (June 21, 1877): "The March to Death"
from Frank Leslies's Illustrated Newspaper, Jul 7, 1877
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/maguires/imagesmollies.html
Harry Orchard, alias Tom Hogan, Jan 1906
http://idahoptv.org/productions/specials/trial/resources/manyfaces.cfm
James McParland, Spartacus Ed
http://spartacus-educational.com/USAmcparlan.htm

See also:

C99 Tag: Martyred Miners of Pennsylvania 1877-79
http://caucus99percent.com/tags/martyred-miners-pennsylvania-1877-79-0

The Molly Maguires
--from Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, Labor's Untold Story.
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America,
Pittsburgh, PA, 1955, pp. 43-58.
https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/i2l/mollymaguires.html

"The Day of the Rope" by Peter Linebaugh
Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/06/21/the-day-of-the-rope/

For more on George Pettibone:
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=yV8wAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

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Note: the attempted frame-up of the leaders of the WFM in 1906-07, came straight out of the same play book used to frame up the Martyred Miners of Pennsylvania, 1877-79.

WE NEVER FORGET
John Kehoe
Alex Campbell
Mickey Doyle
Edward Kelly
Hugh McGeehan
Thomas Munley
James Carroll
James Roarity
James Boyle
Thomas Duffy
John Donahue
Thomas Fisher
Patrick Hester
Peter McHugh
Patrick Tully
Peter McManus
Charles Sharpe
Denis Donnelly
Martin Bergan
James McDonald
WE NEVER FORGET