Pinkerton's Great Detective by Beau Riffenburgh

Author:Beau Riffenburgh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

BATTLE LINES ARE DRAWN

From the moment news of Steunenberg’s killing was made public, it was of huge national interest to a press and readership not yet fully recovered from the startling assassination of President William McKinley four years before in Buffalo, New York.1 Much of the press quickly attributed Steunenberg’s murder to a plot of the WFM, and the fact that Haywood, the union’s best-known leader, was a rabid exponent of socialism—a movement closely connected to anarchism in the public mind—made a yet stronger link to the presidential assassination, which had been carried out by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

By the beginning of February, a month after Steunenberg’s assassination, it was known that Orchard had been arrested, but the content of his confession—even that he had confessed—was limited to the prosecution team and the highest levels of Pinkerton’s. In fact, McParland had given Orchard detailed instructions about what he could even say to Miller, his lawyer.2

Although the confession was an enormous first step toward prosecuting the alleged conspirators, there was still a vast amount of work to be done: finding corroborating evidence; establishing a motive; locating witnesses; and taking into custody the men who would be tried. Normally, by this stage, the lead prosecutor would have taken charge of these operations. For that position, the State of Idaho had selected its most renowned legal figure, James H. Hawley.

Born in Iowa in 1847 Hawley moved to Idaho at the age of fifteen; within three years he had achieved such success in mining that he sold his holdings to pay for a college education in San Francisco.3 After returning to Idaho he was elected to the territorial House of Representatives when he was only twenty-three, and shortly thereafter was admitted to the bar. Four years later he was chosen for the Territory’s Senate. He twice served as a district attorney for the State’s Second Judicial District, before being named a federal district attorney. In 1892–93, Hawley represented the miners on trial in the Coeur d’Alenes, and was credited with being the man who suggested that they join with the Butte union, leading to the formation of the WFM.

In general, Hawley cared little about the way he dressed or looked. When he was mayor of Boise he would hold meetings slouched in a chair, legs crossed at the ankles, boots on a table, and a faraway look in his eye. But once in court he became a tiger, and he was said to connect with a jury better than any other lawyer in Idaho. He had already become a legend in criminal law and was reputed to have been involved in more murder cases than any lawyer in American history.4 His appointment as the prosecutor was therefore a major coup for the State.

Yet, despite the involvement of Idaho’s governor, chief justice, and most prominent attorney, there is no doubt that the true leader of the prosecution was McParland. Not only did his recent experience with the WFM in Colorado make him the most familiar of the prosecution team with the union, but his army of agents could not be equaled by the State.

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