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Monday February 26, 1906
The Appeal to Reason on the "Kidnappers' Special"

This week's edition of the Appeal features an article which describes the special train, the "Kidnappers' Special," which spirited Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone away from Denver and over the state line to Boise, Idaho:

Officers of Western Federation Kidnapped.
-----

Under the Thin Disguise of the Law, President Moyer and
Secretary Haywood of Colorado Are Taken to Idaho-
Another Chapter in the Colorado Labor War.
-----
Special Telegram to the Appeal to Reason.

Pueblo, Colo., Feb. 20.-Saturday night in Denver, between the hours of nine o'clock and midnight, a set of Pinkerton detectives, armed with a requisition from the Governor of Idaho, which requisition was honored by Gov. McDonald, of Colorado, on Saturday morning, arrested Chas. P. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners; Wm D. Haywood, Secretary, and G. A. Pettibone, a business man of Denver, on the charge of conspiracy in the assassination of Steunenberg, who was governor of Idaho at the time of the big strike in that state.

The Colorado governor honored the requisition before the men were arrested, which is in direct violation of the law. As soon as the men were arrested they were hustled to the county jail and held for four hours, then placed on board of a special train on the Union Pacific bound for Idaho. The Idaho detectives were reinforced by a squad of Colorado militia in charge of Adjt.-Gen. Buckley [Bulkeley] Wells and Col. W. D. Strickland of Gov. McDonald's Staff. Both are ex-convicts of most unsavory reputations in Colorado. This guard left the state with the manacled prisoners. The accused men were not permitted to send word to their families of friends, nor to communicate with their lawyers. They were literally kidnapped by the officials. The most prominent men in Colorado denounce this as a most unheard of outrage on law and order.

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Sunday February 25, 1906
From the San Francisco Call: W. F. of M. Men Refuse to Enter Pleas

From the Call of February 22, 1906:

MINERS REFUSE TO ENTER PLEAS
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Special Dispatch to The Call.
------

BOISE, Idaho, Feb. 21.-Charles E. [H.] Moyer, William D. Haywood and G. A. Pettibone, leaders of the Western Federation of Miners, today were taken to Caldwell, where they were arraigned before the Probate Judge on information charging them with the murder of former Governor Frank Steunenberg. Each of the prisoners stood mute, refusing to plead.

Attorney E. F. Richardson, representing the prisoners demanded an immediate preliminary hearing, but it finally was agreed that the case should go over until next Tuesday, when a further continuance may be ordered.

Attorney Richardson maintained that the information filed against the prisoners was not sufficient, as the affidavit charged the commission of a crime in Caldwell, whereas Moyer had not been in the State of Idaho since October last, and the two other prisoners had not been in Idaho in years. There was in the information no word of conspiracy, he said. The court overruled his objection to the information and his motion for the dismissal of the prisoners. They were committed without bail.

The three prisoners were brought back to Boise this afternoon and were again taken to the State Penitentiary, where they will be kept in close confinement. They will be permitted to read books.

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Friday February 23, 1906
From the Appeal to Reason: Report on Mine Owners' Hired Gunthugs

The Appeal of February 17th offers this account of the results of the "law and order" campaign made by the Mine Owners' Association and the prominent gentlemen who supported that organization in its endeavors to make criminals of the metal miners of Colorado during the recent strikes in that state:

NO COLORADO MINERS CONVICTED.
-----

Readers of the APPEAL will remember that this paper repeatedly called attention to the fact that the mine owners of Colorado during the labor war is that state in 1904 employed thugs and criminals to carry out their nefarious ends. Since that time five prominent "law and order" gentlemen who fought under the flag of the Mine Owners' association and who were paid by the mine operators and railroads, have been sentenced to the penitentiary and are now serving behind the bars for various crimes. Three more of the delectable gang are in the toils of the law with chances good for their being sent to join their companions.

It is also a significant fact that with all the charges that have been made against the members of the Western Federation of Miners, not a single conviction has been made. And, mind you, the law is in the hands of the mine operators and they have been moving heaven and earth to convict some member of the miners' organization. These are facts which show on which side of the fence the real criminals operated and who were in reality the law-abiding citizens of Colorado. Gradually the inside history of that momentous struggle is being written, and when all the truth is known there will be disclosed the mangled reputations of a number of highly respected politicians.

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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.
-----

Journal Special Service.

The Day of the Rope, Black Thursday, June 21, 1877.
``````````

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Wednesday February 21, 1906
Denver, Colorado - Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone Kidnapped by State of Idaho

The San Francisco Call of February 19th reported on the arrest, in Denver, of Big Bill Haywood and Charles Moyer, officers of the Western Federation of Miners. George Pettibone, whom The Call describes as a former member of the W. F. of M., was also arrested. The next morning, the men were transported by special train from Denver to Boise, apparently without extradition hearings, nor an opportunity to challenge extradition. The three men will be charged in connection with the murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg of Idaho.

The Call appears to approve of what amounts to a kidnapping, arranged by the authorities of Colorado and Idaho:

PRISONERS RUSHED TO BOISE CITY
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Taken on Special Train From Denver.
-----
Miners' Union Officials Involved in
Steunenberg Murder Case.
-----
Three Men Spirited Away Under Guard
in the Early Morning.
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Sunday February 6, 1916
From the United Mine Workers Journal: John M. O'Neil on Colorado Justice

From the Journal of February 3rd:

The Triumph of Law and Order"
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IT WAS NO CRIME TO KILL AN ORGANIZER.
(By John M. O'Neil.)
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Gerald Lippiatt (Center), Union Organizer & Martyr
``````````

Nearly all the daily journals of the State of Colorado have frequently attempted to defend the fair name of the State and have declared that it was only the pen of the muck-raker that has traduced the reputation of a commonwealth whose people believed in the majesty of the law. The "kept press" has howled with indignation when men, permeated with the spirit of justice, have raised their voice in denunciation of wrong garbed in the veneer of law and order.

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Saturday February 5, 1916
From the United Mine Workers Journal: Imported Gunthug Walter Belk Acquitted

From the Journal of February 3rd:

Justice Ravished
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Organizer Gerald Lippiatt, Center
``````````

In our last issue, commenting on the action of the miners' convention in pledging moral and financial support to the miners whom the men in power in the State of Colorado are attempting to condemn to felons' cells for daring to resist the oppression of the economic masters and their henchmen, their hired armies, we remarked that the counties of that State where the coal mines are located "were not ruled, but terrorized."

In the last week we have had further proof of the truth of that statement.

Walter Belk, imported from West Virginia to Colorado and there employed because of his reputation as a mankiller who could be depended upon to use his ready gun any time in the service of those who would pay him his price, was acquitted, on the instruction of the judge on the bench to the jury, of the charge of killing Gerald Lippiatt, union organizer, on the streets of Trinidad just before the opening of the strike in Southern Colorado in the fall of 1913.

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Monday January 15, 1906
Boise, Idaho - Pinkerton Detective James McParland Meets with Gov. Gooding

James McParland, the Pinkerton Detective who assisted in the frame-up and judicial murders of the Martyred Miners of Pennsylvania (1877-1879), is now active in the investigation of the Steunenberg murder case.

From The Salt Lake Tribune of January 13, 1906:

ORCHARD HEARING WILL BE SECRET
-----

[...]

Special to the Tribune.
BOISE, Ida. Jan. 12-Fred Miller, attorney for Orchard in the Steunenberg murder case at Caldwell, will take advantage of statutory right and ask that the preliminary examination be held behind closed doors, which he stated he thought would be to the public interest to do.....

Pinkertons Are Engaged

A five-hour conference between Chief Detective McFarland [James McParland] of Pinkerton's Denver agency and Gov. Gooding was held at the Idaho hotel here last night. They went over all circumstances surrounding the assassination. As a result the Pinkertons will now take an active part in solving the mystery, although Pinkerton men have been on the scene since a few hours after the assassination.

McFarland will direct the operations of his men from this city. Next Tuesday he will go to Denver, returning to Idaho in a short time. McFarland says he has little doubt of Orchard's guilt and in his opinion others aided him and he is sorry that more arrests were not made immediately after the assassination....

[Photograph of James McParland added.]

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Monday December 20, 1915
From The Labor World: The Inside Story of How Rockefeller Won the Miners' Vote for a Company Union