Was the
Swedish Minister to the United States. After researching
the case, he concluded that Hill was not fairly tried and,
thus, his execution should be postponed. Many Swedish-American
immigrants who were in no other way related to Hill's case
telegraphed Eckengren in regards to their countryman. Eckengren
corresponded with Governor Spry (link here to Governor Spry),
President Wilson (link here to President Wilson, and other
figures involved in the case. He also appealed to Joe Hill
directly to tell authorities the origin of his gunshot wound.
He was encouraged to tralvel to Salt Lake personally to
investigate, but never followed through.
Widely
acclaimed for her accomplishments as a blind and deaf woman,
appealed to President Wilson as Hill's execution date approached.
She felt that a "new trial will give the man justice to
which the laws of the land entitle him." The president responded
sympathetically and graciously, informing her that he was
"balked of all opportunity regarding her request."
Twenty-eighth
president of the United States, and winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize for his efforts toward world peace, became involved
in the Joe Hill controversy when hundreds of people contacted
him and asked him to intervene. It was not his responsibility
to do this, but the national outcry was so great, he asked
Governor Spry (link to Governor Spry) to postpone Hill's
execution until a more thorough investigation of the trial
could be completed.
Sometimes
portrayed as a one-sided villain in the case, was actually
widely popular within the state of Utah. He felt he was
acting on behalf of the citizens of Utah when he authorized
Hill's execution. He was upset that President Wilson (link
to President Wilson) intervened, feeling it was out of his
jurisdiction. In a letter to Wilson after Hill's death,
he states, "your interference in this case may have elevated
it to undue importance."
Elizabeth
was the foremost woman organizer in the I.W.W. and an influential
leader and activist in that organization. She developed
a warm friendship with Joe Hill through numerous letters
while he was in jail and eventually visited his jail cell
in Spring, 1915. In a letter she published in Solidarity,
an IWW journal, Elizabeth described her experience with
"the inimitable songster and poet" Joe Hill, in an effort
to generate funds for his defense. She was convinced after
reviewing the evidence against Joe Hill that he was an innocent
victim of conspiracy. She said if Joe Hill had not been
known as a prominent figure in the I.W.W. he would not have
been convicted. She also charged that the Mormon church
controlled the judge, jury and police in Salt Lake City.
Elizabeth even traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with
President Woodrow Wilson to ask him to intervene and obtain
a reprieve for Hill. Miss Flynn received three letters from
Hill the day before his execution. In them he told her goodbye
and thanked her for being his inspiration for his song "The
Rebel Girl." He told her "he would like to kiss her Good-bye,
not because she was a girl but because she was the original
Rebel Girl." He closed the letter "Yours as Ever Joe Hill."
Elizabeth Gurley later joined the American Communist Party
and served as an officer until her death.
Virginia
was an instructor of art at the University of Utah in Salt
Lake City and the daughter of former Mormon church President
Lorenzo Snow. She became involved with Joe Hill through
her friendship with Ed Rowan, her opposition to capital
punishment, her sympathy for the working class and her exposure
to Hill's songs. Mrs. Stephen, a socialist, visited Hill's
cell during Spring, 1914, and came away convinced that a
man who could write songs like "Oh Please Let Me Dance With
You" was incapable of committing murder. She stopped in
Denver on her way to Colombia University, where she was
attending summer school, to ask O.N. Hilton to join Hill's
defense. Mrs. Stephen's participation in the affair heightened
local interest, and the press reflected its surprise at
the involvement of a member of such a prominent Utah family.
Virginia also sent a plea to the Swedish minister to the
United States, W.A. Eckengren, asking him to aid Joe Hill,
because she was convinced Joe Hill was not being given a
fair trial. She was later dismissed from her University
teaching position for her involvement in Joe Hill's case.
Dr. McHugh
received a visit from a wounded Joe Hill after 11:30 p.m.
Saturday night January 10, 1914, at his home office Fourteenth
South and State Street in Salt Lake City. Joe Hill told
Dr. McHugh he and another fellow had a quarrel over a woman
and he struck the man who then retaliated by shooting him.
Dr. McHugh dressed Hill's wound and then noticed Joe had
a gun and that his jacket did not have a bullet hole in
it. Joe Hill later allegedly confessed to Dr. McHugh that
he killed the Morrisons. Dr. McHugh made the details of
the confession public in 1946, more than 30 years after
the murder, in an interview with Vernon Jensen, a student
of the Hill case. McHugh told Jensen he was out of town
on Sunday the day after he treated Hill. He first heard
of the Morrison murders from the Monday morning newspaper.
Dr. McHugh surmised Hill might have been involved and went
to the Eselius' home where Hill said, "I shot in self defense.
The older man reached for the gun and I shot him and the
younger boy grabbed the gun and shot me and I shot him to
save my own life. I wanted some money to get out of town."
There is no other evidence to support this. Dr. McHugh went
immediately to the police and told of treating Hill. He
did not tell of the confession. He also told the police
chief that he was going to give Hill a shot of morphine
as part of treatment and suggested they apprehend Hill then.
As a witness for the prosecution at Hill's trial Dr. McHugh
testified only about his treatment of Joe and Joe's story
with the woman. Dr. McHugh said he could not say whether
or not the guns shown to him by the prosecution resembled
the one Hill had the night of the murder. Vernon Jensen
says of McHugh, "As a socialist and disbeliever in capital
punishment he did not want to see Hill executed. Since he
was never asked if he had received any other explanation
of Hill's wound, McHugh chose not to tell all he knew."
On the
night of the Morrison murders, Dr. Bird noticed Dr. McHugh's
light on in his office window and stopped for a visit. Dr.
McHugh asked Dr. Bird to drive Hill to the Eselius Home
as it was on his way. As he approached the Eselius house
Hill threw his gun out the window on the side of the street,
asked Dr. Bird to turn off his headlamps, and gave two short
whistles. These actions were of considerable controversy
at the trial and aided in Hill's conviction. The Salt Lake
City Press named Dr. Bird, not Dr. McHugh, as the man who
told the police of Joe Hill. Dr. Bird appeared for the state
at Hill's trial and testified that the gun he noticed Joe
Hill had looked like the 38-Caliber Colt shown to him by
the prosecution; Morrison was killed with a 38-Caliber automatic.
Edward
and John Eselius were friends of Joe Hill, whom they had
met while working on the San Pedro waterfront in 1913. When
Joe arrived in Utah, the Eselius brothers welcomed him into
their home and allowed him to stay
with them as needed. On January 10, 1914, (the night of
the Morrison murders) (LINK TO MURDER STORY?) Joe left the
Eselius house around 6 p.m. and returned with a gunshot
wound to his chest.
John
G. Morrison was the owner of Morrison
Grocery located on West Temple and Eighth South streets
in Salt Lake City. John's oldest son Arling was in his late
teens when he and his Father were shot by burglars robbing
the family store. Thirteen-year-old Merlin Morrison witnessed
the murders that interrupted their nightly closing routine
and changed his life forever. During the trial of Joe Hill,
Merlin was unable to testify against the accused because
he could not identify Hill as the trigger man who killed
his father and brother.
Judge
Orrin N. Hilton became Joe Hill's attorney after being retained
by the IWW's Salt Lake branch. Hilton
advised Hill not to worry about being found guilty and that
his case would be won on appeal before the Utah Supreme
Court. After losing each trial, Hilton vocally defamed the
court system and the people of Utah. At Joe Hill's funeral
in Chicago, Hilton made slanderous remarks about the trial,
the judges, and the Utah government. (LINK TO MORMOM CONSPIRACY)
He was disbarred in Utah for the words he uttered in Chicago.
However, Hilton apologized to the victims of his criticisms
and regained his judicial license.
District
Attorney E.O. Leatherwood was the prosecutor for the State
of Utah in the murder trial of Joe Hill. He explicitly told
the jury that he would be presenting circumstantial evidence,
which would construct a string of instances that would infer
the guilt of Joe Hill. He successfully convinced the jury,
and Joe Hill was executed. (LINK TO HILL EXECUTION)
Upon
arriving in Utah, Joe Hill began work in Park City as a
miner with his friend Otto Applequist. Hill and Applequist
had most likely been friends prior to their employment at
the mine, and when Hill became ill and lost his job, it
was Applequist who, also out of work, took Hill to Sandy,
Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake. Here, Applequist introduced
Hill to a number of Swedish families who delighted in Hill's
singing and piano-playing abilities.
In early
January 1914, Hill and Applequist stayed at the home of
Edward and John Eselius (Link to Eselius Bros.), brothers
who lived in Murray, Utah. The pair had known the Eselius
brothers from previous work in California. Both men were
living at the Eselius residence on the night of the Morrison
murders on January 10.
Applequist's
whereabouts the night of the murder are unknown. One of
the Eselius brothers claimed that Applequist was in bed
but not asleep when Hill was brought home with a gunshot
wound by Dr. Bird. Applequist spoke
briefly with Hill after the doctor left, and departed from
the house a short while later, never to be seen again. His
explanation for leaving was to get an early start looking
for a job. Whether or not Applequist was at the Eselius
house all evening is uncertain. What is certain is that
subsequent police searches for him were fruitless: Otto
Applequist vanished that night, never to be seen again.
Rumors of Applequist's presence in several western Utah
towns were investigated but proved fruitless.
Former
police officer John G. Morrison (Link to Morrison) search
for the killers, Salt Lake Police officers followed several
leads and rounded up a number of suspects. Surprisingly,
all of these suspects were released despite incriminating
evidence after Joe Hill was apprehended. Those who claim
Hill was an inviting scapegoat due to his I.W.W.
affiliation point to the fact that Salt Lake police put
all their effort into proving Hill's guilt after releasing
many other shady suspects. A brief look at those who "got
away" lends support to the notion of Hill's innocence.
As police
searched the vicinity of the grocery store for suspects
the night of the murders, they ran across two men trying
to board a departing train at a railroad station near the
store. Officers Crosby and Hendrickson had to "empty their
guns" to prevent the two men from escaping. The duo were
taken into custody and identified as C.E. Christensen and
Joe Woods, two men with arrest warrants in Prescott, Arizona
for robbery. Oddly, the two were not held as suspects in
the Morrison murders despite the fact that eyewitnesses
reported that there had been two men running from the store
after the killings.
Multiple
eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a pair of men exiting
Morrison's grocery store the night of the murder. One of
the men, witnesses said, seemed to be wounded in the chest.
W.J. Williams was arrested shortly after the murders as
he was walking near the grocery store. He had a bloody handkerchief
in his pocket. Local newspapers surmised that Williams was
one of the killers and was looking for his wounded friend
when he was arrested. Williams claimed that he was living
at the Salvation Army House in Salt Lake, but police investigation
proved that he was not known there. Despite the uncertainty
as to his residence and the bloody handkerchief in his pocket,
Williams' proclamation of innocence was enough for the police,
who eventually released him.
After
arriving at the police station with a .38-caliber bullet
wound in the arm, nineteen-year-old Oran Anderson became
a suspect in the Morrison killings. As mentioned previously,
witnesses claimed that one of the men leaving the grocery
store appeared wounded. Questioned by the police, Anderson
said that he, too, had been held up by two gunmen that Saturday
night. During this robbery he had been shot in the arm,
he claimed. The police apparently believed Anderson, as
he was released shortly thereafter.
Two days
after the Morrison killings, a streetcar conductor named
J.R. Usher (Link to JR Usher) told police he had a suspicious-looking
man get on his car at 11:26 the night of the murders. Usher,
who at the time did not yet know of the killings, later
identified the mysterious man from police photos as ex-convict
Frank Z. Wilson. Usher described Wilson as wearing a dark
suit and black hat, similar to reports given to the police
as to the appearance of the men leaving the shooting. The
streetcar driver remembered Wilson because he seemed disoriented
while getting on the car through the exit step, and because
he asked other passengers which cars led downtown, and sat
hunched over the duration of his ride. Usher recalled that
the man rang the bell as the car approached the Second West
and Second South intersection but did not get off until
Main Street. Though he acted drunk when he boarded, Usher
said he appeared normal when he got off. More incriminating
evidence followed: During his five-year stint as a Salt
Lake police officer, Morrison had arrested Wilson. Morrison
had told family and friends that he feared reprisal from
those he had dealt with as an officer of the law; former
police officer John Hemple told authorities that "Morrison
was in constant dread of men he had arrested when he was
a policeman." Moreover, retribution seemed to be the motive
of the killers. The men who entered the store made no effort
to rob the business but rather burst in yelling, "We have
got you now!" Such a report led police to believe the motive
for Morrison's death was revenge. Police even told the press
that Joe Hill was actually Frank Z. Wilson, as they continued
to investigate under the premise of revenge as the motive
for murder. But as officials learned more and more of Hill's
identity, their focus on Wilson as the prime suspect dwindled.
The Salt Lake Tribune (Link to News article) stated that
"The police are elated over the capture of Hill," and went
on to detail how the investigators were "certain" Hill was
in the grocery store that night. Soon, all attention was
focused on Hill, and the investigation into Wilson activity
on that Saturday night ceased.
Mr. Peter
Rhengren saw a man lying in a ditch at Eighth West and Eight
South at about 11:30 the night of the murders. As Rhengren
approached to offer help, the man got up and ran to an approaching
streetcar. This may or may not have been Frank Z. Wilson.
John
G. Morrison had been the target of two robbery attempts
prior to his murder in 1914. He told neighbors and colleagues
that he was "reasonably sure" he knew the men who had tried
to rob him the second time. One of them, he said, "is living
right here in this neighborhood and posing as a normal citizen.
He even comes in this store." Morrison refused to publicly
name the man he suspected until he was more positive of
his theory, but he did confide in his wife.* Should anything
happen, Morrison wanted his wife to have police question
a certain neighbor of his. Though never publicly named,
the police did interrogate this neighbor at the behest of
Mrs. Morrison, but he was dismissed as a suspect after Hill
was captured.
The Home of the Eselius brothers
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