THE CONFESSIONS AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
HARRY ORCHARD

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE ASSASSINATION OF GOVERNOR STEUNENBERG

JACK and I left Wallace for Spokane, about October 20th, and Jack wanted to go over to Marble Creek to his claims, and I was going with him for a litle hunt, as he said there were deer and elk up there. We got tickets to Harrison and from there to Spokane by boat and electric line. My trunk got checked wrong on this trip and I waited a few days in Spokane for it. Then finally we started for the Marble Creek country. We went up to the head of navigation on the St. Joe River. On our way up we found the trunk at Harrison. Jack and I went over twenty-five miles or so from the head of the St. Joe, over to Marble Creek; we were gone about a week. During the time we were over there Jack showed me where he and Adams and the others killed Boule, the year before, and his horse and dog, and where the other claim-jumper that was with him ran as they were shooting at him.

The last part of October we came to Spokane again and had planned to come to Caldwell, as Jack wanted to have a hand in the killing of Governor Steunenberg. Jack said he could make it as an excuse that he wanted to visit the unions at Silver City and vicinity, and then he could charge the Federation with his time and expenses. I made up my mind I would sue the railroad company for damages for holding my trunk. Jack had ordered ten pounds of No. 1 dynamite the day before at a hardware store, and after we went over and got this we went up to Robinson, Miller & Rosenthal's law office, to see about lodging a claim against the railroad for damages for holding my trunk. We met Miller on the elevator and he went up with us. This was the first time I ever saw him, and Jack introduced me to him, he being the only member of the firm there then. I told him about the trunk, and he asked me how much a day my time was worth and what my business was. I told him I was a mining promoter, and my time was worth $10 per day. I think he figured up $60 and drew up a paper, and I made an affidavit to it, and he said he would sue them right away and send me half of what he got. I gave him no money, as he was to get half of what he collected. Jack had this little box of dynamite with him, and Miller asked him what he had in the box, and he told him dynamite. I don't think Miller thought it was dynamite, as Jack said it as though it was a joke, but it was a common thing for any one that knew us fellows to call us dynamiters in a joking way, and I must say that we felt somewhat proud of the name. Miller told me some time after that he settled my claim with the railroad company for $25, and sent me a check for $12.50. He sent this check to Denver to Pettibone's store, as I had my mail go there, and then Pettibone would forward it to me wherever I was, but I never got this check.

Jack and I got ready in a few days and came to Caldwell, Idaho, and stopped at the Pacific Hotel. It was now about the 1st of November. We looked around to see if we could see Mr. Steunenberg for three or four days, and as we did not see him, we thought we would take a run up to Nampa, and telephone to his residence from there—as he had a phone in his house—and make some excuse to find out where he was. I telephoned to his residence at Caldwell, and they said he was home, but was down-town. I told them I would call him later.

We then left Nampa and went back to Caldwell; this was on a Saturday evening. We registered both at Caldwell and at the Commercial Hotel, Nampa; I as Thomas Hogan and Jack as Simmons. We went around Mr. Steunenberg's residence that night, but did not go close to the window and, as his house stood back quite a little from the street, and it being bright moonlight, we could not tell him for sure, although the window shades were clear up and we had a good pair of French opera-glasses. The next day we fixed a bomb and thought, if we caught Mr. Steunenberg down-town we would watch him, and, if he stayed until after dark, we would place this along the pathway leading to his residence and tie a cord or fine wire across the pathway so that when he walked into it he would explode the bomb.

We did locate him on Sunday afternoon sitting in the office of the Saratoga Hotel, and we watched him, and he remained until after dark, and as soon as it was dark we took the bomb up on the street leading to his residence and placed it close to the path where he would be most apt to pass, and laid it close to the path, and put some weeds over it, and stretched a fine wire across the path, and fastened it on the opposite side. Mr. Steunenberg's residence was the only one up this street and we thought he would be the only one likely to be going up there that night, or would be apt to be going home and be the first one along. This bomb was just the ten-pound box of dynamite we bought at Spokane, with some giantcaps in it, and a little vial of sulphuric acid in a windlass that would turn over and spill the acid on the caps.

After we placed this, we hurried back to the Pacific Hotel so we could prove where we were if necessary. We waited an hour or two, and as we did not hear any explosion, we went down by the Saratoga Hotel to see if he had gone from there. He had gone and we went up where we had placed the bomb, and found he or some one had passed and broken the fine wire across the path, and had turned the little windlass with the bottle of acid in it over so quick that none of the acid had spilled out, though the bottle had turned clear over, and was nearly right side up again. It was turned over enough so that the acid was about dripping out, and it was very ticklish business to handle it, and I thought at first I would leave it where it was, but finally I put my finger over the mouth of the vial, and took it out, and took the bomb up and carried it over by the railroad track, and covered it up with some weeds, and went back to the hotel. We looked for Mr. Steunenberg again the next day, but could not see him, nor did we see him for some days after.

Jack got afraid to stay there, and began to think it would look bad for him, and make it worse for me if we did kill Mr. Steunenberg, and he was found there and known—and he had seen some people there that he knew, so he decided to go over to Silver City and Delamar and visit the unions there, and he wanted me to stay and see if I could not get a chance to finish the job.

When Jack went, I left the Pacific Hotel and rented a room over on the Boulevard at W. H. Schenck's— a private house. This was on a street that Mr. Steunenberg would be apt to go up and down to and from his residence when he came down-town, and I had a front room and could see up and down the sidewalk. I stayed there two weeks, but Mr. Steunenberg was away most of the time. I think he usually came home Saturdays and stayed over Sunday. I noticed in the papers that Governor Gooding had appointed Mr. Steunenberg on some committee to meet in Boise about this time, and I thought I would go to Boise again, and see if I could not catch him at the hotel. I went out and got the bomb where I had it cached by the railroad track.

I had two letters from Jack, and he told me Moyer had been up to Silver City, and Easterly had told him we were at Caldwell, as I had written to Easterly, and Jack said that Moyer flew right away from there.

Jack went up to Hailey from Silver City. I was in Nampa the night he came back from Hailey, and he stopped off at Nampa, too. But he got up and left the next morning for Caldwell before I was up and I did not see him. He went up to the house where I was, and they told him I went away the day before, and did not come back that night, but my things were there. I went back to Caldwell that afternoon and met Jack at the depot, as he was going to take the train, and he said he had left a letter for me. I told him he had better wait and take the midnight train, and he did. We went over to my room, and in going over he said he had a good saddle spotted, and that he would get it now that he had waited and take it home with him. It was hanging up on the outside of a little outbuilding by a house. We had picked up a light lap-robe some time before, and wrapped it around our bomb. We got this lap-robe and Jack went to a hardware store and got a ball of twine and a sack needle, and we made a sack out of the lap-robe in my room and, about half an hour before train time, we went down and got this saddle and put it in the sack and I helped Jack carry it nearly over to the depot. I had a railroad ticket good from Spokane to Denver and I gave this to Jack, as he was going to Denver to attend a meeting of the executive board of the Western Federation of Miners, of which he was a member.

Simpkins said for me to be sure and not get discouraged and leave until I got the governor, and if I got broke to let him know and he would see that I got money, and he would fix it so that after the job I would get a good bunch of money—enough to buy a ranch and quit this work and let somebody else do it, as I had done my share. He wanted me to buy a ranch up on the St. Joe River, and I got several letters from him—some of them after he went to Denver—and he told me in one of these that he had everything all fixed, and Pettibone would send me the money as soon as the job was done.

As I have before stated, I thought I might find Mr. Steunenberg in Boise, and I left Caldwell for there a day or two after Jack left. I stayed a few days in Boise, but saw nothing of Mr. Steunenberg, and I thought I would like to have some one to help me, and I was lonesome and disgusted to have to wait so long. I telephoned to Silver City to Easterly and asked him if he wanted to take part in the contract, and he said he could not leave there just then, and I made up my mind to go to Salt Lake City and get Charlie Shoddy, the man I met in Salt Lake City when on my way out to Caldwell the first time.

I left Boise for Salt Lake City about November 20th, and went up to Siegel Brothers' store there, as they owned this mine where Shoddy was working, and I asked if Charlie was still out at their mine. They said they thought he was, and I wrote him and addressed the letter to Siegel post-office, but never got an answer from it.

I stayed in Salt Lake City about three weeks, and while there I got a letter from Pettibone stating that my friend Johnnie Neville had died quite suddenly in Goldfield, Nev., and a little later I saw the account of it in the papers. Now I had written Moyer a letter some time before this and told him to send me $100, or to send it to Jack for me, and also told him in this letter that I had sent Shoddy to Goldfield, Nev., to do that job. This was a lie, of course, but when I saw the account of Johnnie's death, I thought I would take advantage of it, and make Moyer believe this man had done this, and I wrote him to this effect, and also wrote Simpkins at Denver and told him to tell Moyer. He answered me that he did, and would get some money for Charlie. I also told them that Charlie was there in Salt Lake City with me now, and we were going to Caldwell and that I had money to take us there, but that they had better send me $500 or so for Charlie to Nampa, as I told them Charlie was to stop there while I was looking after things in Caldwell. When I did not hear anything from Charlie, and as my money was getting low again, I left for Caldwell. This was about the middle of December, 1905.

I went to the Saratoga Hotel at Caldwell, and got an answer to my letter that I sent Pettibone before leaving Salt Lake City, and he said he had sent my letter to Jack, and I supposed they had given him the money for me to give Charlie. A while after I got a letter from Jack, and he said he had stopped off at Salt Lake City on his way home from Denver to see me, but could not find me and did not know where I had gone. He sent me a piece of a typewritten letter that he had received from Haywood, which stated that he thought if there were any more remittances for assessment work that they had better be sent through him. This was the work they referred to that I was doing. But before he sent me any money I was arrested. I told them I was looking to buy a ranch, and I saw a number of real estate men about this. I had stayed at the Saratoga Hotel all the time.

On Christmas Day—which was Monday—I saw Mr. Steunenberg going to his brother's about noon —as I supposed, for a Christmas dinner—and I watched for him to come home after dark, and had a pump shot-gun and was going to shoot him with buck-shot. I had not been up by his residence long before I heard him coming, and started to put my gun together, as I had it down and one piece hung on each side of me with a cord around my neck under my overcoat, but I had some trouble getting it together, as this cord bothered me, and they got into the house before I got it together. I went around the house and waited to see if I could get a chance to see him through the window, but I think he went into the bath-room shortly after coming home, and went from there to bed and had no light. I stood behind a tree close to the house and could see some one in the bath-room, but the steam was so thick I could not be sure it was him. I waited there until they went to bed, but did not see him, and then went back to the hotel. I buried some shot-gun shells under the sidewalk loaded with buck-shot on my way up, as I had too many, and did not want any left in my room if I should use them.

There was a mask ball at the Saratoga that night, and I had thought if I shot Governor Steunenberg, I could easily go up-stairs and not be noticed, as they could not tell me from anybody else in the crowd.

I did not see Mr. Steunenberg again until the next Thursday. I did not know where he went when he was away, and I saw his son on the street one day, i and I spoke to him and asked him if they had any sheep to sell. I thought I would find out this way where his father went. He told me that he knew nothing about it, as his father attended to that, but he said I could find out by telephoning to his father at the company ranch at Bliss. But he said he would be home the next day, and I could see him if I was there. I told him I just wanted to find out where some sheep could be bought, as a friend of mine wanted them to feed.

The next day, Friday, I went to Nampa and thought I might get a chance to put the bomb under Governor Steunenberg's seat, if I found him on the train, as the train usually stops fifteen to twenty minutes at Nampa. I had taken the powder out of the wooden box, and packed it in a little, light, sheet-iron box with a lock on, and I had a hole cut in the top of this and a little clock on one side. Both this and the bottle of acid were set in plaster-Paris on the other side of the hole from the clock with a wire from the key which winds the alarm to the cork in the bottle. The giant-caps were put in the powder underneath this hole, and all I had to do was to wind up the alarm and set it and, when it went off, it would wind up the fine wire on the key, and pull out the cork, and spill the acid on the caps. I had this fitted in a little grip and was going to set it, grip and all, under his seat in the coach, if I got a chance. I went through the train when it arrived at Nampa, but did not see Mr. Steunenberg, and the train was crowded, so I would not have had any chance, anyway. I saw Mr. Steunenberg get off the train at Caldwell, but missed him on the train.

I saw him again around Caldwell Saturday afternoon. I was playing cards in the saloon at the Saratoga, and came out in the hotel lobby at just dusk, and Mr. Steunenberg was sitting there talking. I went over to the post-office and came right back, and he was still there. I went up to my room and took this bomb out of my grip and wrapped it up in a newspaper and put it under my arm and went down-stairs, and Mr. Steunenberg was still there. I hurried as fast as I could up to his residence, and laid this bomb close to the gate-post, and tied a cord into a screw-eye in the cork and around a picket of the gate, so when the gate was opened, it would jerk the cork out of the bottle and let the acid run out and set off the bomb. This was set in such a way, that if he did not open the gate wide enough to pull it out, he would strike the cord with his feet, as he went to pass in. I pulled some snow over the bomb after laying the paper over it, and hurried back as fast as I could.

I met Mr. Steunenberg about two and a half blocks from his residence. I then ran as fast as I could, to get back to the hotel if possible before he got to the gate. I was about a block and a half from the hotel on the foot-bridge when the explosion of the bomb occurred, and I hurried to the hotel as fast as I could. I went into the bar-room, and the bartender was alone, and asked me to help him tie up a little package, and I did, and then went on up to my room, intending to come right down to dinner, as nearly every one was in at dinner.

FRANK STEUNENBERG

Ex-Governor of Idaho, for whose murder by a bomb Secretary-Treasurer Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners was tried.

I was going to take some things out of my room and throw them away, and I emptied some acid I had in a bottle into the sink, and put the bottle in my coat pocket, intending to take it down and throw it away, and a moment after doing this, there was a flash like a pistol-shot rang out. It almost unnerved me for a moment, but I soon understood what it was. I had taken a giant-cap out of a box I had in my grip a few days before, to try it to see if they were all right, as I had had them a good while, and I did not try this and forgot to take it out of my pocket, and there must have been a little acid left in the bottle I put in my pocket, and this got into the cap and exploded it. This tore my coat all up, but did not hurt me a bit, but it unnerved me, and I thought everybody in the house would hear it, as my room was directly over the dining-room and everybody was in there to dinner. I had another coat there and I slipped that on and hurried down to dinner. Everybody was talking about Mr. Steunenberg being blown to pieces, but I never heard a word about the explosion of the giant-cap in my room. I think everybody was excited about the explosion and did not hear it, or did not pay any attention to it.

Now, I cannot tell what came across me. I had some plaster-Paris and some chloride of potash and some sugar in my room, also some little bottles, and screw-eyes, and an electric flashlight, and I knew there might be some little crumbs of dynamite scattered around on the floor. I intended to clean the carpet, and throw this stuff that might look suspicious all away, and I had plenty of time. But after this cap exploded in my pocket, something came across me that I cannot explain, and I seemed to lose my reasoning power for the time, and left everything there just as they were, and at that time I had some letters and papers in my pockets that would have looked bad and been hard for me to explain.

I stood around there until about ten o'clock, as the hotel was jammed full, and in the mean time a special had come down from Boise, and they were sending out men to surround the town and telephoning to the surrounding towns. About twelve o'clock I went up to Mr. Steunenberg's residence with the hotel clerk and came back and went to bed, and did not get up until about eleven o'clock the next day—Sunday. I went down and read the papers, and was sure one of the suspects referred to was me. Then I destroyed some letters and papers I had, and began to pull myself together, but I thought they were watching me and I was afraid to start to clean my room or throw those things away, and thought what a fool I had been not to have cleaned every suspicious-looking thing out of my room the night before. I cannot account for what made me so stupid, as I well knew these things would look suspicious, and it would be hard for me to explain what I had them for, if I was called upon to do so.

I just began to realize this and come to myself, and would have gotten rid of them then had I had a chance. I did go up to my room and took a fish-line off a reel I had there and threw it in the water-closet, as I noticed in the papers that they referred to a fishline or cord on the gate at Governor Steunenberg's, and I had used a piece of this fish-line. I would have cleaned the room then if I had had time. I could not throw all this other stuff in the toilet, and was excited and left it all there, and even left the gun in my grip which I usually carried. I had always said that I would not be taken alive, but did not value my life much anyway, and would sell it as dearly as I could, if ever suspected of anything and they tried to arrest me. I am sure they suspected me and I took a walk up to Mr. Steunenberg's residence with a Caldwell man, and he said every stranger in town would have to give an account of himself.

I was sitting in the saloon of the hotel in the afternoon and a stranger asked me to take a little walk, and pretended to be acquainted with me. I afterward learned this was Sheriff Brown, of Baker City, Ore. I told him he was mistaken, and he told me that they suspected me of having something to do with the assassination, and he said he told them that he thought he knew me. I told him I would go and see the sheriff at once, which I did and asked him if he wanted to see me, and he asked me if I was going away, and I told him I was not at the present, and he said we would have a talk after a while. I went over to the hotel and sat down and in a few minutes the sheriff came over and said he would have to arrest me. I told him all right, and he went off and came back in a few minutes, and told me the governor had ordered him to take charge of my things that were in my room, and he said he would parole me and I was not to leave town or the hotel. I have forgotten which.

Then I thought what a fool I had been to leave all those things in the room, when I had all kinds of chances to take them out, and had even let them get away with my gun. I would have made an attempt to get away that night, but I knew they were watching me, and again if I had succeeded in getting away from the hotel, it was bitter cold and the ground was covered with snow, and therefore I made no attempt to get away. I knew that they had organized a committee to investigate, and thought they might take me before this committee, and ask me to explain what I had such stuff for, and I was thinking how I would answer them if they did.

But they said nothing to me until the next day— Monday—about four o'clock, when the deputy sheriff asked me to go over to the district attorney's office, and when I went over there they said they would have to search me. This is the time I would have used my gun had I had it. They searched me and the sheriff read the warrant to me, and they said they wanted me to go to Boise with them. We went over to the depot and waited for a while, and then they took me up to the county jail at Caldwell.

NEXT: My Experience In Jail And Penitentiary