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364.1 H55c Rave Bock
Complète
History
Southern Illinois'
Gang War
We Dare You le Rend The First Five Pages
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY
All, History Su H55c
364.1
Complete History of Southern Illinois' Gang War.
The True Story of Southern Illinois Gang War- fare. Written Entirely by E. Bishop Hill
'WE DARE YOU TO READ : THE FIRST FIVE PAGES.'
All that is written herein is actual facts that hap- pened during the Ku Klux Klan and Anti-Klan War in Little Egypt and during the time of S. Glenn Young to the trial of Charles Birger in the year 1927 A. D.
This material is carefully compiled and is given in print so the public in general may know in full the details surrounding that terrible period of bloodshed in "Bloody Williamson" from the Herrin Massacre to the end of the reign of "Machine Gun Charlie" Birger.
E. BISHOP HILL, Eldorado, Illinois.
CHAPTER 1.
S. GLENN YOUNG, Raider.
There is hardly a nook or corner of the entire United States where the name of S. Glenn Young is not known.
Many are the tales told of marvelous gun plays, and his ability to always come out with a new notch on his gun. There is hardly a household the country over where stories have not been told of his deeds of daring. His ability to draw first has been illustrated, maybe magnified, by many hundreds of verified and unverified stories.
Ever since S. Glenn Young made his advent in Williamson County, Illinois, there has hardly been a gathering of any sort where his activities did not furnish the chief topic of conversation. Each time the name was mentioned some one always had a new story to tell of something he had said or done.
One interesting story comes to mind regarding the raider's ability to draw his gun first. It is told that one time while the City of Herrin, Illinois, was re- covering from the shock of an outbreak, during which the state troops were called out that Young was walk- ing down the street, clad in common civilian clothes. There was nothing about his appearance that would lead one to believe he carried any of the traditional artillery that has made him famous. One of the guardsmen met and asked him if he did not feel a bit uneasy, going about the streets, among enemies, un- armed.
"Start for your gun, sonny," the raider said, and the guardsman reached quickly for his gun. Before
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the soldier could bring the weapon from its holster at his side Young had him covered with two guns.
And such were the stories of the life of S. Glenn Young until the time he "bit the dust" as he had seen so many do who had failed to beat him to the draw.
The writer knows Young to have been a fearless man and one who could draw a gun in the time it would take one to wink an eye.
S. Glenn Young to his admirers was a dauntless crusader who feared neither man nor the devil in fighting sin such as he found it in and around Herrin. To those who hated him, he was a swashbuckling inter- loper whose own violences were greater than the crimes he attempted to correct.
Chapter 2 Deals with the Manner in Which Young
Came Into Prominence By His Daring Work in the Employment of the Government.
CHAPTER 2.
Glenn Young came into prominence in 1917 when he was employed in running down desperate draft evaders for the Federal government, his work taking him into the most dangerous districts of the Kentucky foothills. He is credited with capturing hundreds of desperate characters, and many was the time he used his gun and shot to kill in carrying out the orders of nis superiors.
After the war he was given a place on the Federal prohibition enforcement forces, and again he was as- signed to one of the most dangerous districts in the country. For some two years he kept up his warfare
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on illicit liquor, and up until he was dismissed, when he was charged with the murder of a foreigner whose home he raided near East St. Louis, he was feared by law-breakers in an almost unimaginable way.
Following this Young dropped out of prominence until the time he was employed by the Ku Klux Klan to conduct the raids in Williamson county. He started his work there in January, 1924, and ever since there has been a vendetta that has been a sensation to all America.
The writer will say here, that the Klan-Anti Klan warfare was a war between two factions, one taking the name of the Klan and the other Anti-Klan so they were distinguishable.
The Klan forces had the enmity of Sheriff George Galligan of Williamson county and former State's At- torney Delos Duty from the start of their raiding activities, and it was between these two factions, the constituted authorities on one side and the citizens who wanted a cleanup of vice on the other, that the relentless warfare was carried on.
One of the regrettable occurrences in connection with the whole affair, outside the actual killings that took place from day to day, was when the automobile driven by Young was fired upon by members of the anti-Klan forces as it passed through the Okaw bot- toms near Belleville, Illinois, and Mrs. Young who was accompanying her husband, was wounded for life.
It is said that there are nearly thirty notches on Young's gun, indicating that he has killed that many persons.
Ora Thomas was the greatest enemy Young ever was known to have had. Thomas was appointed as a
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CHARLIE BIRGER
deputy sheriff under Sheriff Galligan and had been one of Young's most bitter foes since the noted raider entered Williamson county.
Ora Thomas first came into prominence when he was made one of the principal defendants in the Herrin mine war suits, he having been charged with having taken a leading part in the wholesale killings of the men employed at the Lester strip mine. A jury, how- ever, exonerated him of these charges. Thomas was always prominently mentioned in all the encounters between the sheriff's forces and Young's raiders since the advent of the notorious raiding forces in William- son county.
Chapter 3 Deals with the Death of S. Glenn Young. Much was Kept Hidden But the Main Details are Given in the Description Following. CHAPTER 3.
On the night of January 24, 1925, people all over the United States talked of the terrible war then going on in Williamson county and on that night one of the most terrible battles was fought in the main street of Herrin. The fight in which S. Glenn Young died was incomparable to the fights told in story books of the wild west and the frontier.
It was near 10 o'clock on that fatal night and the war of the Klan and its enemies had been going on about a year. S. Glenn Young and two of his hench- men, Ed Forbes and Homer Warren, and Ora Thomas, a Williamson county deputy sheriff, were killed.
The shooting which was in the form of a free-for- all gun battle, took place in front of the European
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Hotel where Ora Thomas is said to have taken refuge after a shot had been fired that he thought had been directed for him.
The writer will mention here that many conflict- ing stories were given out and those in the best position to give out information of value, claimed they knew nothing of the affair. However, the following story was drawn out at the inquest following the killing :
Ora Thomas, Judge E. N. Bowen and others were leaving a night session of the Herrin City Court and it was then that the first shot was fired. This was about 9:20 p. m., and the shot took no toll nor was the man with the gun found. A stray shot now and then was a common occurrence.
About thirty minutes later as Thomas was stand- ing in front of the European Hotel some two blocks south and across the street from the city hall, Young and some of his followers started across the street to- ward where Thomas was standing and as they did a shot rang out. Near one dozen men were with Young.
It is recalled to the writer at this moment that Young and Thomas had each sworn to "get" the other and that he would not leave the county until the other was dead.
As Young and his men crossed the street Thomas ran into the hotel and took refuge behind a cigar stand. He drew two guns and began firing at the advancing crowd which was led by Young. The no- torious raider returned the fire with the speed of lightning, firing from his hip without drawing a gun, the fire spurting in streaks through the hole in the bottom of the holster in which a Colt's .45 caliber automatic revolver stayed.
Young dropped soon after the first shots from
Thomas' gun barked from behind the cigar stand. Two shots had struck him in the right side, causing almost instant death. Thomas also fell.
Warner and Forbes dropped in turn, although the former was not killed instantly. He died a few hours later in the Herrin Hospital. Forbes' death was in- stant.
Ora Thomas had been shot three times through the head, the three bullet holes through his skull not being more than an inch apart.
Things went on peaceful in Herrin for a few hours following the battle. Then as the news spread and crowds began pouring into the city from surrounding cities, there was every indication of a re- newal of the disorder.
Klansmen and others soon filled the streets and many who came into the city were searched for weapons for fear they might be part of an avenging force that would start a new war. Feeling was again at fever heat and the business of keeping a closed mouth and going one's way seemed to be the most sensible thing to do.
So great was this feeling of bitterness that it was thought necessary to ask for state troops and the Headquarters Company at Carbondale was soon on its way to again restore peace and quiet in the neigh- boring city. This made the third time within a period of twelve months that this company had been called for duty in Herrin.
S. Glenn Young died almost instantly, but in the short time he lived before bridging the gap into Eter- nity, he asked if Ora Thomas was dead. Those around him said that Thomas had died. The famous raider gasped, grinned, and as he died said : "I die in peace."
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Ora Thomas was supported by friends on the floor of the European Hotel. Life had been sweet to him and he knew it was leaving him rapidly and that the end was near. With an almost super-human effort he said : "Did I get Young ?" When he was assured that S. Glenn Young had passed into the great beyond, he said: "I am willing to die." The two men known for thousands of miles as the most bitter of foes, died at almost the same moment and was happy that the other was dead. Their oaths were fulfilled. Thus passed another epic or drama in the life of the people of southern Illinois.
Ora Thomas was buried with much pomp by his many friends and great was the ceremony for the fallen deputy sheriff but it was incomparable to that of S. Glenn Young. Thousands of people from miles away came for one glimpse at the famous raider or for a peep at his tomb in the Herrin cemetery. Not until the end of the world will the scene of the funeral of S. Glenn Young fade from history. Neither will the deeds of this man be forgotten. Nor will the war which was carried on by this man be forgotten.
In cities many miles away people who took no side in the affair expressed their opinions and many believed that the warfare was over. Yet it grew in proportion and the name of Herrin and Williamson county was heard in foreign countries.
Charter 4 Deals with Sheriff Galligan and Happenings
in Williamson County.
CHAPTER 4.
February 8th and 9th, Friday and Saturday, 1924,
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were busy days for officers in both Herrin and Marion, Williamson County, Illinois.
On Friday evening at 6:30 o'clock persons living in towns around Herrin who had been there on busi- ness reported everything quiet. But the Herrin of three hours later was a city of lurking death and mur- der. Crowds stormed down through the business dis- trict and pistol shots, some scattered and some in vol- ume were heard from every precinct.
The cold-blooded shooting of Ceasar Cagle, a con- stable and justice of the peace of Herrin, was the be- ginning of the fracas which resulted in the entire county being practically under military restriction.
Cagle had played an important part in the raids made in the county under the leadership of S. Glenn Young, had incurred the enmity of a number of men who had suffered arrest as a result of warrants being served out of Cagle's office. These men, it seems planned to "get" Cagle and dispatched the dead man's son to the Masonic Temple at Herrin to inform his father that he was wanted on important business at the Jefferson Hotel.
Cagle started down the street and had proceeded as far as a corner near the Jefferson Hotel when he was struck down by a man who had been hiding in the shadows. Several persons said they saw a bunch of men fire shots into Cagle's body, killing him in- stantly. Immediately following the death of Cagle warrants were issued for George Galligan, sheriff, Ora Thomas, deputy sheriff, Hugh Willis, United Mine Workers' official, John Layman, deputy sheriff and several others.
Chief of Police John Ford, of Herrin, together with several other officers set out to arrest the men
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for whom the warrants were issued. It was reported at the time that the men had taken refuge in the Her- rin hospital. A Dr. Black was said to have taken the men in and when officers demanded they be admitted a fusillade of shots greeted them. The fire was return- ed by the officers and the windows were shot out of the hospital. The patients were said to have suffered much from the smoke and excitement. The officers drew away from the hospital without making any arrests.
The officers then went to a club hall and when they were refused admittance started a fight and John Layman, deputy sheriff, was shot. The Herrin police officers were later taken to a Perry county jail as a result of the shooting at the club house. S. Glenn Young assumed charge of police activities in Herrin then because Chief of Police John Ford was one of the men locked in the Perry county jail.
When the uniformed soldiers stepped off the train in Herrin citizens breathed a sigh of relief as wild reports about the Flaming Circle, Ku Klux Klan and raids on homes where liquor was stored were con- current.
S. Glenn Young made the remark at that time that eye-witnesses said Ora Thomas and John Layman killed Cagle.
Sheriff George Galligan was arrested the next day and held on a charge of being an accessory to the murder of Ceaser Cagle. He was lodged in jail but was soon released.
At this time cities in Williamson county organized corps of men armed with machine guns and rifles to help preserve order.
At this time, the 12th of February, 1924, a man
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charged with complicity with the murder of Ceasar Cagle was reported to be on the jury at the coroner's inquest into Cagle's death. No one was held following the inquest.
Chapter 5 Deals with Peaceful Herrin and the Sheriff Who Took the Place of Galligan. ALSO LESTER STRIP MINE MASSACRE.
CHAPTER 5.
In December, 1925, Herrin stood a purged city. Evangelist Howard S. Williams had just finished his campaign. He had preached of brotherly love. Where men had used pistols before, they now used Bibles. Weapons were traded for working tools and books such as hymn books and Bibles.
There were two outstanding reasons for peace coming to Herrin. One was the death of S. Glenn Young and the other the religious revival held in June 1925 by Howard S. Williams. Of course, the death of Ora Thomas aided in bringing peace but not as that of Young. Young, in dying, did what he could not do when he was living.
After the death of Young and Thomas, although a nominal truce was declared, the old enmities snarled at each other, more to keep up appearances than because they really hated. And then came the Williams revival. For six weeks he thrust the picture of peace and har- mony before his hearers. Men and women of all creeds came to hear him. There were a few conver- sions and then the idea permeated that there on the mourner's bench was the place to lay down all the bitterness of the past. Those who had hated, or
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thought they had hated, sought mutual refuge in re- ligion. One confessed the error of his ways and others followed. In short, the revival offered the solution of the whole problem. With all confessing their guilt there could be no loss of pride to anyone-and so in the Williams tabernacle was reared again the substant- ial structure of good citizenship that promises to re- main to the end of time.
No attempt is made by anyone to belittle the ef- forts of the evangelist. He was the medium through which too much good was accomplished for anyone to say that it was not his powers of eloquence but the opportuneness of his visit that led to such far-reaching results. He will always be kindly remembered in Herrin, especially that dramatic night when he in- duced Sheriff George Galligan, arch enemy of the klansmen, to ride boldly into Herrin and sit on the platform surrounded by hundreds of men who had sworn to kill him on sight. Indeed the situation was a dramatic one. Hundreds were converted that memor- able night and thus passed the Ku Klux Klan warfare in Herrin. Southern Illinois again came to light in the news columns when Charlie Birger's gang and the Shelton brothers gang became enemies after being friends and fighting side by side in the Klan war. They were enemies of the Klan together and gambled, raided and killed for a living. Bootlegging was their main occupation for several years in southern Illinois. The havoc they wrought is even greater than the Klan war or the Lester strip mine massacre which is de- scribed in the following paragraph.
Over a score of men were killed in July near Her- rin at the Lester strip mine in the year of 1922. When the mines in general closed as a result of a strike
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ART NEWMAN
union miners continued to work on condition that no coal be shipped away from the mine. When coal was shipped from the mine the union men quit and "scab" miners were brought in from all parts of the country. They were men who roamed about looking for any- thing to do where they could pick up money in an easy way. A large number of guards were placed around the mine while the miners worked, and for a time a'l went well.
One morning some union miners started toward the mine and the superintendent of the mine is said to have picked up a rifle and killed one of the leading men. The union miners then left. Before this all kinds of trouble had been stirred up and many out- rageous acts had been committed by both sides. After the killing at the mine a crowd of men, armed to the teeth, set out to the mine, ran some of the guards away, killed some of them, and caught about 22 or 23 men. These prisoners they took away and slaughtered as if they had been sheep. Several trials were held follow- ing that but no one was convicted of anything as every witness swore that the defendant could not have been near the mine that day as he saw him some where else. The officers of Williamson county were then elected upon the strength of their promises to defend the union men. Taking advantage of promises many men started bootlegging and running road houses knowing they would not be harmed. Then came the Ku Klux and the terrible war which ended with the death of Young and Thomas and the revival of Howard S. Wil- liams. All was then quiet in southern Illinois until the rival gangs of Cahrlie Birger and the Shelton brothers got busy.
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Chapter 6 Deals with the Early Life of Charlie Birger.
His First Killing.
CHAPTER 6.
Charlie Birger was born in Russia in 1882, and immigrated with his family when but a child to Amer- ica where the Birger family settled in St. Louis. While Birger was still a small boy, the family moved from St. Louis to Harrisburg, Illinois, where Birger grew up. At one time during his youth he lived in Hell's Half Acre, New York City, and there learned the life of the underworld. He also spent much time in East St. Louis, Illinois, when a boy, it is said. He escaped the bloodshed of red Russia which was unrivaled for its bloodshed but he did his part in spreading the tinge of red over southern Illinois and personally caused the taking of many lives and the shedding of much blood.
Before reaching manhood, young Birger manifest- ed an interest in adventure and enlisted in the United States Cavalry, serving, he says, during the Spanish- American war, and for several years afterwards.
Coming out of the army, Birger returned to Har -. risburg, and took up farming, and judging from his own assertions he became quite a successful farmer. At one time, according to his own statement, he owned 400 acres of land and a home in Harrisburg, although it is doubtful if all these properties came into his possession as rewards for the honest tilling of the soil.
The early years of the twentieth century found Birger operating a small coal mine between Edgemont and St. Louis, and in 1912 he lived in Christopher. A year later he was back at Harrisburg.
It was about this time that persons who have
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known Birger for a great many years remember him as the proprietor of a restaurant with a shady reputa- tion at Ledford, near Harrisburg.
There was little semblance in Birger then to the gunman and gang-leader that he later became. He operated his lunch room, ran a gambling game and sold whiskey, but that was in the days before national or even state-wide prohibition and there were many such places. Birger's place attracted no more atten- tion than simply being one among many places outside the dry areas here and there where a man could buy whiskey. Birger himself attracted little attention other than for being a little different from most proprietors of such places in that he had certain at- tributes of a gentleman.
He was kind-hearted and considerate to the unfor- tunate and the idol of those whom he employed. One Harrisburg girl who was employed in the Birger Res- taurant, who had since married and moved away from southern Illinois would not believe that the Charlie Birger whom she worked for at Ledford was the same Charlie Birger of Gangland fame when she returned to southern Illinois on a visit.
During the years from 1913 to 1923 Birger oper- ated various places in Saline county and just across the county line in Williamson county. He did not give the law enforcement authorities much trouble, nor was he troubled by them to any extent until after the eighteenth amendment was passed. It was during the prevalence of local option as to the liquor traffic when Birger was in his heydey. In both Saline and William- son counties, Birger coud usually be found as the cen- ter of an oasis just on the outer edge of some area which had gone dry by the voters' choice. Such was
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Ledford, and such was Halfway in Williamson county to which Birger was attracted because of the apparent permanency of the dry rule in Marion.
It was at Halfway on November 15, 1923 that Birger killed his first man in Williamson county, although it was said at that time that Cecil Knighton whom he killed at Halfway on that date was his fifth victim.
Knighton was a boy about 24 years old and an employe of Birger, having come to Saline county to Birger's employ from Alabama. At that time Birger's place which was the building that formerly stood on the west side of the road at Halfway was not operating and Birger was associated with Charles, alias Chink Schafer, Nathan Riddle and Ralph Hill in the opera- tion of a place across the road on the east. Knighton was employed there as a bartender. Birger and Knight- on slept in Birger's building across the road.
On the night of the killing, witnesses testified at the inquest, Birger and Knighton were in a bad humor. They had been having trouble for three or four days. Their associates professed not to know what the trouble was about. It was said, however, that as Birger left the place that was open to cross the road to where he had been sleeping, Knighton followed him with a gun. Inmates of the former place soon afterwards heard three shots. The first ,a revolver shot, was said to have been fired by Knighton, and the next two in rapid succession came from a shotgun in the hands of Charlie Birger. Knighton was dead, lying face down in the road, when the men rushed out of the road house. Birger surrendered and spent the rest of the night in the Williamson county jail. He was exoner- ated by a coroner's jury the next day.
Three nights later, Birger, himself, was shot and
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seriously wounded in a shooting fray at Halfway in which W. G. (Whitey) Doering, Eagen gangster, was killed. At the time it was generally believed Birger killed Doering although no testimony before the cor- oner's jury indicated such to be true. No eye witnesses of the shooting testified. The two men were outside of the Halfway road house alone at the time of the shoot- ing, according to Birger.
Birger was in the Herrin hospital at the time the coroner's jury convened at Herrin and although the jury did not interrogate him, he submitted a written statement to the jury. In the statement Birger said that Doering came to the place and called him outside saying that he wanted to talk to him. He said that shortly after they got out on the porch, Doering drew a gun and shot him, and that immediately afterwards a fusilade of twenty or twenty-five shots were fired. Birger said that he fell to the ground when Doering shot him, and that fact saved him from being caught in the volley that followed, but Doering who was stand- ing erect was caught in the fire and mortally wounded. He died shortly afterward on the operating table in the Herrin hospital.
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