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Tuesday, July 12, 2022

"I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night . . . . . " the story behind the song

Bruce Springsteen - Joe Hill (live)

 JOE HILL

More on Joe Hill after ZeroGsounds posted the album and these were explored by comment contributor Feilimid O'Broin 

Joe Hill


"According to Gibb Smith's book "Joe Hill", two people were shot and killed, a grocer who was a former policeman and his son, on January 20, 1914. The grocer, John G. Morrison, and two of his sons, Merlin and Arling, were in the process of closing Morrison's store at 10 p.m. when two armed, masked men entered, "We have got you now." His son Arling was also killed. The police believed that after his father was shot in the back, his son Arling took his father’s gun and shot one of the robbers.

At 11:30 p.m., Hill appeared at a doctor's office with a gunshot wound. Reportedly he told the doctor, "Doctor, I've been shot. I got in a stew with a friend of mine who thought I insulted his wife. When he told me I insulted his wife, I knocked him down, but he got up and pulled a gun and shot me. I have walked a way up here so I guess it ain't serious because this fellow that shot me didn't really know what he was doing, I want to have nothing said about it. If there's a chance to get over it, it will be O.K. with my friend."

Hill was armed according to the doctor but denied it and subsequently offered no explanation for why he was armed. However, according to Hill, when Merlin Morrison, the sole survivor of the gunfight, was brought to confirm Hill's identity as one of the men in the store, he said, "No, that's not the man at all. The ones I saw were shorter and heavier set."

When arraigned, Hill entered a plea of Not Guilty and rejected counsel on the grounds that he couldn't afford it. In all likelihood he didn't want a public defender because public defenders were employed by the same judicial system that was trying to convict him. Hill wanted to present a Pro Se defense. Hill was to be charged for only one of the murders, that of the grocer. Shortly after the preliminary hearing, an attorney visited Hill and informed Hill that he was a stranger in town who was interested in the case. Hill accepted his offer to handle Hills case free of charge. The attorney became a partner in Hill’s defense with another attorney. 


Hill’s behavior in court was unusual. He discharged his attorneys in open court and stated that they were in league with the district attorney and he could present a pro defense that was better than anything they could do. However, the judge instructed them to remain and assist Hill in his defense and Hill subsequently stated that they could remain but he would represent himself. According to one of Hill’s attorneys in a statement in August 1915, the jury’s foreman and some members of the jury informed him that they though the defense counsel convincing and leaned towards finding Hill innocent, but decided that his outburst and charge that his attorneys were working for the state were signs of his guilt. Moreover, when the Wobblies offered to assist Hill, he told them he did not want the union involved and thought he would be found not guilty and released. Notwithstanding, the Wobblies did organized a defense fund for hill.

The district attorney had stated outright that the state's evidence against Hill was only circumstantial and he would not prove directly that Hill had killed Morrison, but would instead submit a chain of circumstances from which guilt would be inferred.

Virginia Snow Stephen, the daughter of late Latter Day Saints (LDS) Church President Lorenzo Snow and an art professor at the University of Utah, was convinced that Hill was innocent and contacted a well-known labor attorney in Denver, who had been representing union members in high-profile cases for years. Hilton wasn't able to join Hill's team and recruited a local attorney sit in on the trial and handle an appeal, if one was needed.

Critics of Hill's conviction and execution note that Hill had no motive for the killing, the prosecution was based nearly solely on the fact he was shot that same night, and there was no reliable identification of him as one of the killers although Arling Morrison disputed Hill’s statement that he, Morrison, had failed to identify him as one of the killers. Under cross-examination, Arling admitted that the two men were masked and he could not identify Hill. Critics also contend that Hill's attorneys were incompetent. However, Hill did not testify and disclose any details of his alibi and was uncooperative with his counsel. 



One of the policeman who was at the scene of the crime testified that the police could not prove that Arling had in fact fired Morrison’s gun. Obviously if no shot was fired then Hill could not have been wounded by that gun. Yet the defense abruptly concluded its presentation and did not put Hill on the stand. Specifically the attorney recruited by the labor attorney advised Hill not to testify even though Hill has previously stated he would do so. The jury may have assumed that Hill’s failure to testify after saying he would was also a sign of his guilt.

Hill was undoubtedly innocent; however, he received poor advice from counsel and did not testify on his own behalf to explain the circumstances of his being shot. They also inexplicably concluded their presentation at a point in the trial when Hills testimony and further cross-examination of the witnesses might have been persuasive to the jury. Also, Hill’s outburst and accusations against his counsel probably swayed the jury to convict him even though no witness could definitively identify him. At best they could say that one of the gunmen was of similar height. Clearly, the governor acted unfairly and based on political bias. In fact, the Salt Lake Herald-Republican reported that the "Governor turns deaf ear to Wilson's appeal; Hillstrom to be shot to death this morning." The Salt Lake Telegram's headline read: "I.W.W.'s must leave Utah, says … [governor]."

Whether Hill could have received a fair trial is questionable because he was a transient and a Wobbly. However, despite the lyrics of a famous song about him, there’s no evidence that the copper bosses or state government officials conspired to have him tried and convicted. What is clear is that the governor was obdurate in the face of domestic and international protest and wanted a Wobbly-free Utah. As you note, with hours to go before Hill's scheduled execution, President Woodrow Wilson sent a telegram to Utah’s governor asking for a postponement so the Swedish minister; that is, the minister of Hill’s native country, could have time to examine the case. The governor reluctantly agreed, but when the stay expired shortly after Hill's 36th birthday, he refused Wilson's second request, and Hill was executed.

In brief, like the songs about Sacco and Vanzetti, the songs about Joe Hill ignore some of the actual facts concerning the defendants, such as carrying guns at the approximate time of the crime or when apprehended, in order to present a sanitized martyr. All three should be remembered as victims of unfair verdicts who were executed despite international outcry and the pleas of prominent citizens in the United States. Above all, all three should be remembered for being human beings with the virtues and flaws we all have who believed strongly in anarchism and were executed in large part because of their radical political beliefs. As political prisoners, they died with dignity under brutal circumstances and their executions exposed the gross inequities and need for change of the U. S. justice system. That justice system is still problematic as reflected in the disparities between sentences for white Americans and those of blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians. "


Feilimid O'Broin 


I Dreamed I saw Joe Hill Last Night - Joan Baez



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