The Everett massacre Part 16

"It may be force."

When asked where he had obtained information about sabotage, this witness said that he had looked up the word in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, a work in which the term is strangely absent.

Clapp was the first witness to admit the armed character of the deputy body and also to state that deputies with guns were stationed on all of Everett's docks.

After excusing this witness, Cooley brought in copies of two city ordinances covering street speaking in Everett. One of them which allowed the holding of meetings at the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore Avenues was admitted without question, but the other which purported to have been pa.s.sed on September 19, 1916, was objected to on the ground that it had not been pa.s.sed, was never put upon pa.s.sage and never moved for pa.s.sage in the Everett City Council.

Richard Brennan, chauffeur of the patrol wagon, A. H. Briggs, city dog catcher, and Floyd Wildey, police officer, all of Everett, then testified regarding the arrest of I. W. W. members during August and September. Wildey stated that on the night of August 30 four or five members of the I. W. W. came away from their street meeting carrying sections of gaspipe in their hands. This was thought to be quite a blow against the peaceful character of the meeting until it was discovered on cross-examination that the weapons were the removable legs of the street speaking platform.

David Daniels, Arthur S. Johnson, Garland Queen, J. R. Steik, M. J. Fox and, later on, Earl Shaver, all of whom were police officers in Everett, gave testimony along somewhat the same lines as the other witnesses from Everett who owed their jobs to the lumber trust. They stated that the I.

W. W. men deported on August 23rd, had made threats against McRae and several police officers.

Ed. M. Hawes, proprietor of a scab printing and stationery company, member of the Commercial Club and citizen deputy, gave testimony similar to that of other vigilantes as to the trouble on November 5th.

When asked if he had ever known any I. W. W. men offering resistance, Hawes replied that one had tried to start a fight with him at Beverly Park. Having thus established his connection with this infamous outrage, further questioning of this witness developed much of the story of the brutal gauntlet and deportation. Hawes told of one of his prisoners making an endeavor to escape, and when asked whether he blamed the man for trying to get away, answered that he thought the prisoner was a pretty big baby.

"You thought he was a pretty big baby?" queried Vanderveer.

"Yes, sir."

"Or do you think the men were pretty big babies and cowards who were doing the beating?"

The witness had no answer to this question.

"How much do you weigh?" demanded Vanderveer sharply.

"I weigh 260 pounds," replied Hawes.

Frank Goff and Henry Krieg, two young lads who were severely beaten at Beverly Park, were suddenly produced in court and the big bully was made to stand alongside of them. He outweighed the two of them. It was plainly evident who the pretty big baby was!

Howard Hathaway, law student and a.s.sistant to the state secretary of the Democratic Central Committee, was forced to admit his connection with the raid upon the launch "Wanderer" and also upon the men peacefully camping at Maltby. His testimony was mainly for the purpose of making it appear that James P. Thompson had advocated that the s.h.i.+ngle weavers set fire to the mills and win their strikes by methods of terrorism.

Two newspaper reporters, William E. Jones of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and J. J. Underwood of the Seattle Times, were placed upon the stand in order to lay the foundation for an introduction of an article appearing in the P-I on Sunday morning, November 5th.

Jones testified that he was present at the Seattle police station when Philip K. Ahern, manager of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, requested the release of Smith and Reese, two of his operatives who had been on the Verona. Underwood stated that upon hearing of the treatment given the I. W. W. men at Beverly Park he had exclaimed, "I would like to see anybody do that to me and get away with it."

"You meant that, did you?" asked Vanderveer.

"You bet I meant it!" a.s.serted the witness positively.

The two reporters proved to be better witnesses for the defense than for the prosecution.

Sanford Asbury, T. N. Henry, Ronald Johnson, John S. Donlan, and J. E.

Gleason, then testified regarding the movements of the men who left Seattle on the Verona and Calista on the morning of November 5th. They uniformly agreed that the crowd was in no way disorderly, nor were their actions at all suspicious. The defense admitted that the Verona had been chartered but stated that there were pa.s.sengers other than I. W. W.

members on board.

The first witness from the Verona was Ernest Sh.e.l.lgren, the boat's engineer, who testified that he was in the engine pit when the boat landed and heard crackling sounds telegraphed down the smoke stack that he knew an instant later were bullets. He was struck by a spent bullet and ran to various places on the boat seeking shelter from the hail of lead that appeared to come from all directions, finally returning to the boiler as the safest place on the boat. He stated that he saw one man firing a blue steel revolver from the boat, only the hand and revolver being in his line of vision. The only other gun he saw was one in the hands of the man who asked him to back the boat away from the dock during the firing. He also stated that the I. W. W. men on the way over to Everett comported themselves as was usual with any body of pa.s.sengers.

Sh.e.l.lgren was asked if he could identify John Downs or Thomas H. Tracy as being connected with the firing in any way and he stated that he could not do so. The defense objected to the use of Downs' picture, as it did on every occasion where a picture of one of the prisoners was used, on the grounds that the photographs were obtained by force and in defiance of the const.i.tutional rights of the imprisoned free speech fighters.

Seattle police detectives, Theodore Montgomery and James...o...b..ien, who made a search of the Verona upon its return to Seattle, testified to having found a little loose red pepper, two stones the size of a goose egg tied up in a cloth, and a few empty cartridges. These two witnesses also developed the fact that in no case were regular bandages used on the wounded men, thus establis.h.i.+ng the fact that no serious trouble was antic.i.p.ated.

James Meagher, occupation "home owner," member of the Commercial Club and citizen deputy, testified that a hundred shots were fired from the Verona before a gun was pulled on the dock, one of the first shots striking him in the leg. This witness was asked:

"Did you see a single gun on the boat?"

"No sir," was his mumbled response.

The prosecution witnesses disagreed as to the number of lines of deputies stretched across the back and sides of the open s.p.a.ce on the dock, the statements varying from one to four files.

Chad Ballard, Harry Gray, and J. D. Landis, of the Seattle police detective bureau, and J. G. McConnell, Everett Interurban conductor, testified to the return and arrest of Mrs. Frenette, Mrs. Mahler and Mrs. Peters, after the trouble on November 5th. The police officers also told of a further searching of the Verona on its return. The defense admitted that some of the members had red pepper in their possession and stated that they would ask the judge to instruct the jury that red pepper is a weapon of defense and not of offense and that murder cannot be committed with red pepper.

Elmer Buehrer, engineer at the Everett High School, and citizen deputy, gave testimony that was halting, confused and relatively unimportant. He was prompted by the prosecution to such an extent that Attorney Vanderveer at the close of one question said, "Look at me and not at counsel."

"Look where you please," cried Cooley angrily.

"Well, look where you please," rejoined Vanderveer. "He can't help you."

It was apparent that the only reason for putting on this witness and former witness Meagher was because of a desire to create sympathy thru the fact that they had been wounded on the dock.

Edward Armstrong, master mariner on the Verona, testified that he had thrown out the spring line and lifted out the gate when the firing started. He fell to the deck behind a little jog, against the bulkhead, and while in that position two bullets went thru his cap. Altho this witness stated that he judged from the sound that the first shot came from some place to the rear of him, his testimony as to the att.i.tude of McRae was as follows:

"I seen him with his right hand hanging on the b.u.t.t of the gun."

"And that was before there was any shooting?"

"Yes sir."

As to the condition of the boat after the trouble he gave an affirmative answer to the question:

"You know that the whole front of the pilot house and the whole front of this bulkhead front of the forward deck leading to the hurricane deck is full of B. B. shot, don't you?"

James Broadbent, manager of the Clark-Nickerson Mill, and a citizen deputy, followed Armstrong with some unimportant testimony.

L. S. Davis, steward on the Verona, also stated that McRae committed the first overt act in taking hold of his gun. He was asked:

"He had his hand on his gun while he was still facing you?"

"Yes sir. I could see it plainly," answered Davis.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pilot house of the "Verona" riddled with rifle bullets at Everett]

"That was before he started to turn, before he was. .h.i.t?"

"Yes sir."

Davis was wounded in the arm as he was on the pilot house steps.

He was asked about the general disposition, manner and appearance of the men on the Verona on the way over to Everett, and answered: