The Ludlow Massacre - April 20, 1914
This section tells the story of two massacres. One in 1914 in Ludlow, Colorado and the next in Herrin, Illinois in 1922. If ever there was an opportunity to examine human nature and value clarifications these two stories may be the perfect events.
THINK IN TIME
What do you think the people involved (on either side) at the beginning of the conflict thought the end result would be?
What fears might you have that would make you be able to rationalize and justify killing strikers or strikebreakers?
What other times in history has the mob vigilante mentality caused the deaths of a large group of people?
THINK IN TIME
What do you think the people involved (on either side) at the beginning of the conflict thought the end result would be?
What fears might you have that would make you be able to rationalize and justify killing strikers or strikebreakers?
What other times in history has the mob vigilante mentality caused the deaths of a large group of people?
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“The first thing we saw when we got off the train in Ludlow, Colorado, was a steel-covered car with a machine-gun mounted on it. ‘They call it the Death Special,’ a man in a Colorado National Guard uniform told us. ‘Why don’t you good folks just get back on that train and keep moving?’ He said, but we weren’t about to be bullied by the likes him.”
“Mother Jones was there but they put her in jail for a time. When she got out her union friends kept her in hiding.”
“Our boys were armed with rifles—some of which were almost a hundred years old. They were no match for the high powered rifles of the militia. Then the Gurdsmen brought in machine guns and set’em up on the hill above the camp.”
“When the smoke cleared at the end of the day the tent city was in ruins. Dead bodies and the wounded lay there for hours until a few guardsmen defied orders and went out to help.”
“Mother Jones was there but they put her in jail for a time. When she got out her union friends kept her in hiding.”
“Our boys were armed with rifles—some of which were almost a hundred years old. They were no match for the high powered rifles of the militia. Then the Gurdsmen brought in machine guns and set’em up on the hill above the camp.”
“When the smoke cleared at the end of the day the tent city was in ruins. Dead bodies and the wounded lay there for hours until a few guardsmen defied orders and went out to help.”
The Herrin Massacre
June 21&22, 1922
THINKING IN TIME
What events in these people’s lives could have made them commit these murders? Were mothers who let their children watch the murders brainwashing them or were they teaching them survival skills? The vigilante citizen’s viewed the strikebreakers as Chicago thugs. How did this effect what happened?Led by Scott Doody, a team searched for four years for the bodies of those slain at the Herrin Massacre. The bodies were found in November of 2013. Doody’s team included SIU forensic anthropologist Robert Corruccini; historian Helen Lind, former president and current trustee of the historical society; friend Roy Musse; and two geologists from Eastern Illinois University, professor emeritus Vincent Gutowski and Steven DiNaso, co-director of the university’s GiSci Center.
What events in these people’s lives could have made them commit these murders? Were mothers who let their children watch the murders brainwashing them or were they teaching them survival skills? The vigilante citizen’s viewed the strikebreakers as Chicago thugs. How did this effect what happened?Led by Scott Doody, a team searched for four years for the bodies of those slain at the Herrin Massacre. The bodies were found in November of 2013. Doody’s team included SIU forensic anthropologist Robert Corruccini; historian Helen Lind, former president and current trustee of the historical society; friend Roy Musse; and two geologists from Eastern Illinois University, professor emeritus Vincent Gutowski and Steven DiNaso, co-director of the university’s GiSci Center.
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