Saturday May 26, 1906
Report from Boise: Third of Five Part Series by Jacob Waldeck

MURDER
OF EX-GOV. STEUNENBERG
AND THE CONFESSION
OF HARRY ORCHARD
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The Culmination of a Long Labor War In Northern
Idaho-Killing of the Ex-Governor a Shocking Affair-
Orchard, a Confessed Assassin of Many,
Worked on by Pinkertons, "Confesses" that
Miners' Officials Are Accomplices.

(This is the third article in the series of five which Correspondent Waldeck has written for this newspaper [The Spokane Press] after a careful investigation of the facts in the great Idaho murder case.-Editor.)

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By Jacob Waldeck.

BOISE, Idaho, May 18.-Former Governor Frank Steunenberg's assassination and the arrest of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone are the outcome of war that has been waged by the miners and mine owners since 1892.

The scene of the struggle in Idaho has been in the Coeur d'Alene mountains, in the northern part of the state. From 1892 to 1899 when the miners were in control, it is said, many nonunion men were run out of the country. Since 1899, when the mlneowners gained the ascendency, there has been an organized effort to make the country unbearable for union men. It is the boast of the mlneowners that a man cannot get work except through two employment bureaus maintained by them. The system of inspection is Pinkerton like.

Men have been killed on both sides. The miners observe a formal annual decoration day, when they place flowers on the graves of their dead.

While Steunenberg was governor in 1899 miners to the number of 1000 blew up a big mill at the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mine and killed two men. The governor called In the federal troops. The latter established the stockade, held 600 miners without right of trial, and rode roughshod over the country. Congress investigated, but upheld the military.

Because he had called in the federal troops the feeling against Steunenberg was intensely bitter. Threats were made, but he was not molested.

Steunenberg retired from office six years ago. Since then there has been quiet in the Coeur d'Alenes, the mlneowners with their private detectives being in complete control. A friend of the governor's, however is authority for the statement that he always felt that his life was in danger. He made it a rule before taking a seat to look about him, and he never told even his best friends of his movements.

Steunenberg's home was at Caldwell, Canyon county, in the southwestern part of the state. It is an agricultural section. He engaged in sheep raising and other enterprises after leaving office and amassed about $30,000.

The assassination occurred in the evening of December 30, of last year. A bomb had been planted at the gate leading to the Steunenberg home. It was contrived so as to be exploded by the opening of the gate.

When the late governor sought to enter there was a terrific explosion.

His body was blown 15 feet.

His right side was fearfully mangled, his right arm and both legs were broken, and death came in a few minutes. Part of the fence was blown down and the windows of the house were shattered. The trees were peppered with bits of metal.

Governor Gooding, with a party of prominent citizens, traveled from this city to Caldwell in a special train. They found that Sheriff Nichols had placed a cordon of deputies around the town.

On the next day Captain W. S. Swain of the Thiel detective agency, who has for years had charge of detective work for the Coeur d'Alene mlneowners, arrived and took charge.

On January 1 a man who had said he was Thomas Hogan of Denver was charged with the crime. Explosives were found in his room and in his trunk at the depot. He had spent several weeks in Boise and Caldwell variously representing himself as an agent for the sale of a high explosive, an insurance agent and a real estate man.

On January 3 the sheriff of Teller county, Colorado, identified Hogan as Harry Orchard, who had been suspected of blowing up the depot at Independence, Col., during the strike there, when 13 men were killed.

James McParland, head of the Pinkerton agency at Denver, who has done the work of the Colorado mlneowners, came into the case.

The detectives announced that they had evidence that L. J. Simpkins, a prominent member of the Western Federation of Miners, had been seen with Orchard in Caldwell. A heavy reward is offered for Simpkins, but he has not been found.

On February 17 Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, on information given by McParland, were secretly arrested in Denver and brought to Boise on a train.

About the middle of February Orchard began to confess to McParland and kept it up for most of a week. He said that, acting for the "inner circle" of the Western Federation of Miners, he had killed 30 men and that he was to be paid $3800 for the killing of Steunenberg. He directly implicated the federation officials.

Steve Adams was arrested February 20, at Haines, Ore., and brought to the penitentiary. He made a confession that in 1903 the federation had commissioned him to throw Greek fire into a train loaded with nonunion men. He failed, he said, because the train traveled over another route. Adams told other things that the detectives are keeping secret. No formal charge has been placed against him.

Habeas corpus proceedings were begun by the attorneys for Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone on the ground that their clients had been brought illegally from Colorado. The state courts decided against them and they appealed to the United States supreme court.

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(In the next article Correspondent Waldeck will give in detail the claims made by the prosecution on the eve of the great trial. The closing article will be the story of the defense.)

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SOURCE
The Spokane Press
(Spokane, Washington)
-May 18, 1906
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1906-05-18/ed-1/seq-1/

IMAGES
See source above:
-HMP, Steunenberg's Home, Waldeck 3, Spokane Press, May 18, 1906
-HMP, Steunenberg, Waldeck 3, Spokane Press, May 18, 1906
-HMP, McParland, Waldeck 3, Spokane Press, May 18, 1906
-HMP, Simpkins, Waldeck 3, Spokane Press, May 18, 1906
-HMP, Swain, Waldeck 3, Spokane Press, May 18, 1906

See also:

C99 Tag: Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case
http://caucus99percent.com/tags/haywood-moyer-pettibone-case

The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma Florence Langdon
Denver, 1904-05
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon00.html
Appendix, April 1908
(Coverage of Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case)
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon29.html#dedication

The Darrow Collection, Haywood Trial
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/trials.php?tid=3

Carry It On - Joan Baez