The Everett Massacre: A history of the class struggle in the lumber industrySmith, Walker C.
History
The Everett Massacre: A history of the class struggle in the lumber industry
Smith, Walker C.
Industrial Workers of the World; Lumbering -- Washington (State); Lumbermen -- Washington (State)
"I saw two go overboard and I didn't see them any more," said Hadley.
"Then I saw another man four feet from me and he seemed to be swimming
all right, and all of a sudden he went down and I never saw him any
more. I was looking right at him and he just closed his eyes and sank."
Mario Marino, an 18 year old member of the I. W. W., then told of the
serious wounds he had received on the boat. He was followed by Brockman
B. Armstrong, another member of the union, who was close to the rail on
the port side of the boat. He saw a puff of smoke slightly to the rear
of McRae directly after the sound of the first shot. A rifle bullet cut
a piece out of his forehead and a second went thru his cap and creased
his scalp, felling him to his knees. Owen Genty was shot thru the kidney
on the one side of him, and Gust Turnquist was hit in the knee on the
other. As he lay in the heap of wounded men a buckshot buried itself in
the side of his head near the temple. As the Verona was pulling out he
tried to crawl to shelter and was just missed by a rifle bullet from the
dock situated to the south.
Archie Collins, who had previously testified about Beverly Park, was
then called to the stand to tell of the trip to Everett and the trouble
that resulted. Prosecutor Black displayed his usual asininity by asking
in regard to preparations made by Verona passengers:
"What were they taking or not taking?"
"There might be two or three million things they were not taking," cut
in Judge Ronald chidingly.
Black's examination of the various witnesses was aptly described by
Publicity Agent Charles Ashleigh in the Industrial Worker, as follows:
"His examinations usually act as a soporific; heads are observed nodding
dully thruout the courtroom and one is led to wonder whether, if he were
allowed to continue, there would not be a sort of fairy-tale scene in
which the surprised visitor to the court would see audience, jury,
lawyers, judge, prisoner and functionaries buried in deep slumber
accompanied only by a species of hypnotic twittering which could be
traced eventually to a dignified youth who was lulled to sleep by his
own narcotic burblings but continued, mechanically, to utter the same
question over and over again."
During this dreamy questioning Black asked about the men who were
cleaning up the boat on its return trip, with a view to having the
witness state that there were empty shells all over the deck. His
question was:
"Did you pick anything up from the floor?"
Instantly the courtroom was galvanized into life by Collin's startling
answer:
"I picked up an eye, a man's eye."
The witness had lifted from the blood-stained deck a long splinter of
wood on which was impaled a human eye!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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