Steve Adams (Western Federation of Miners)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Steve Adams, sometimes known as Stephen Adams, played a minor, but particularly revealing, role in events surrounding the murder trial of Harry Orchard, and the trials of Western Federation of Miners (WFM) leaders Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone, all charged with conspiring to murder former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg, allegedly relating to a strike in Coeur d'Alene, and in the aftermath of the Colorado Labor Wars. The investigations were led by famed Pinkerton agent James McParland. As a witness for the state who recanted, Adams is particularly notable for his comments about the methods used by agent McParland to turn defendants against each other.
Contents |
[edit] The Haywood trial
McParland had WFM member Harry Orchard in custody, and had obtained an elaborate confession. However, McParland knew that he needed more than the confession of one man to convict Bill Haywood, who was being tried first among the trio of WFM leaders.[1] Steve Adams was "a thirty-nine-year-old former Kansas City butcher and Cripple Creek miner with heavy, drooping eyelids and a booze-blotched complexion."[2] Harry Orchard had described Adams as an accomplice in several crimes. As in the cases of Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone, McParland relied upon a perjured warrant to cross state lines and grab Adams. The prisoner wasn't charged with any crime, but was held at the penitentiary in Idaho with Orchard. Orchard described his own confession, and urged Adams to also confess. McParland reportedly obtained such a confession from Adams.[3]
[edit] Clarence Darrow intervenes
However, Haywood defense attorney Clarence Darrow passed the word that he would defend Adams, and the prisoner immediately recanted. This provoked the prosecution to try Adams in an old murder case for which there was only flimsy evidence. In fact the only significant evidence against Adams was his now-repudiated confession[4] which appeared to have been coerced, as Harry Orchard's confession was coerced.[5] The difference appeared to be that there was clear evidence of Orchard's guilt in the Steunenberg murder,[6] and perhaps in a string of crimes, but little or no evidence linking the others.
[edit] Steve Adams testifies
Adams took the witness stand in his own murder trial and testified, in part,
I was taken to the office of the penitentiary and introduced to detective McParland. He told me about "Kelly the Bum" [from McParland's Molly Maguires case] and other men who had turned state's evidence and had been set free. ... McParland told me he wanted to convict [WFM leaders] Moyer, Haywood, Pettibone, St. John, and Simpkins, whom he called 'cut-throats.' If I did not help to convict them, he said, I would be taken back to Colorado and either hanged or mobbed. If I did help, I would only be taken to Colorado as a witness. ... When the confession was made, McParland led me on a step-by-step and showed me all they wanted me to say. ... He wanted the names of the officers of the Federation used as much as possible all through the confession.[7]
Adams also claimed that Orchard had colluded with McParland to rewrite his own confession because "he could not repeat it the second time anything at all like the first one."[8]
Simpkins was WFM executive board member L.J. "Jack" Simpkins, also known as J. Simmons, who accompanied Harry Orchard to Caldwell, Idaho, but left before former governor Stuenenberg was assassinated. The Pinkerton Agency produced a poster offering a two thousand dollar reward for his arrest, but "some skeptics believed that he was actually a Pinkerton agent provocateur."[9] The allegations appear to have been unfounded.
[edit] Other McParland schemes involving Steve Adams
At one point in the trial of Bill Haywood, McParland concocted a scheme that would seek to frighten Moyer into testifying against Haywood and Pettibone by alleging that Pettibone had urged Orchard and Adams to kill Moyer. The plan was not carried out because McParland came up with an alternative scheme.[10] But the alternative scheme failed when Moyer refused to accept the bait.[11]
[edit] Results of the trials
Adams was not found guilty of the murder. He was tried three times altogether, and both trials in Idaho ended in hung juries. In a Colorado trial, Adams was acquitted.[12]
Haywood and Pettibone were found not guilty in separate trials. Moyer was released.
Harry Orchard was found guilty of the murder of Frank Steunenberg and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted. Orchard spent the rest of his life in prison.
[edit] References
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 101.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 102.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 102.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 103.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, pages 89-92.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, pages 87.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, pages 103-104.
- ^ All That Glitters — Class, Conflict, and Community in Cripple Creek, Elizabeth Jameson, 1998, page 228.
- ^ Big Trouble, J. Anthony Lukas, 1997, photo caption between pages 224-225, and page 293.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, pages 107.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, page 118.
- ^ Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood, Peter Carlson, 1983, pages 141.
