Frank Steunenberg was killed by a bomb on Dec. 30, 1905, when he opened a gate to enter his yard at Caldwell, Idaho. Under interrogation, Harry Orchard confessed to the murder, saying that he acted for the Western Federation of Miners Union. He implicated William Haywood, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone, officials of the Miners Union, in arranging the murder. Clarence Darrow defended the men. Harry Orchard was convicted, but the others were found not guilty. Harry Orchard was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Idaho State Penitentiary at Boise, where he proved to be a model prisoner. He was later eligable for parole, but refused to leave the prison, and died there on April 13, 1954, at the age of 88.
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BALLAD OF HARRY ORCHARD Harry Orchard is in prison, He set his bomb out carefully, Harry says he has killed others, Harry blamed the Wobblies, The chiefs were brought from Denver, Clarence Darrow stood to shield them; Now listen, all you young the tune Mr. Hardy used was similar to that Pacific Nothwest Folklore Society
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Emma Langdon, a union supporter and author, wrote of an 1899 confrontation between miners and mine owners, "Frank Steunenberg was then serving his second term as governor. His first term being satisfactory as far as the writer knows. In 1899 he proved a willing tool of the mine owners and allowed outrages perpetrated which were a disgrace to any civilized community. It is significant that within one week after the decisive step, which showed him to be subservient to the mine owners, it is said, he deposited in the bank $35,000, yet up to this time he was considered a poor man."
William Dudley Haywood (February 4, 1869 – May 18, 1928), better known as Big Bill Haywood, was a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America.
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