1886 - May 5 - Mayor Harrison declares martial law in Chicago, which makes all public gatherings illegal. No more than two people can stand on a street corner to talk. Homes of labor activists are entered without search warrants. Union newpapers are closed down. Labor leaders are jailed. The tragedy is used to paint labor organizers with the same brush as Anarchists.

August Spies, Henry Spies, Lizzie Holmes and Michael Schwab are arrested at the office of the paper Arbeiter-Zeitung. Also arrested are Adolph Fischer, Gerhard Lizius, Herman Pudewa, Lucy Parsons, Sarah Ames and Samuel Fielden. A search is underway for the arrest of Albert Parsons.

1886 - May 7 - Rudolph Schaubelt is arrested - Parsons travels over the next three days to Waukesha, Wisconsin.

1886 - May 14 - Louis Lingg is arrested after intensely resisting arrest.

1886 - May 17 - Grand Jury is called, and begins to examine witnesses

1886 - May 27 - Indictments are returned for the murder of Police Officer Degan for Albert Parsons, August Spies, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden, George Engle, Adolph Fischer, Oscare Neebe, Louis Lingg, William Seliger and Rudolph Schaubelt.

The accused: Albert Parsons

Parsons had been a Confederate Soldier. After coming to Chicago, he worked as a typesetter for the Tribune until he was fired for speaking against Capitalism. At the last minute Spies arranged for Parsons to speak at the rally. Parsons spoke for about an hour, and had left before the bomb was exploded. He fled after learning of the violence, but returned to stand with his comrades. His final words: "Let the voice of the people be heard!" August Spies

Spies emigrated from Germany, and was the editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung. On May 1, Spies led a parade of 80,000 workers striking for 8-hour days on a parade along Michigan Avenue. He was the first speaker at Haymarket. He left the rally before the violence. His final words: "The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today." Michael Schwab

Schwab emigrated from Germany. He believed in the use of violence only as a last resort. From his writings: "Violence is one thing and Anarchy is another... we advocated the use of violence against violence, but against violence only, as a necessary means of defense." He attended the start of the rally, but left to speak at another event. Samuel Fielden

Fielden emigrated from England. He was the final speaker at the rally. He was stepping down from the speaker's wagon when the bomb went off. He was wounded in the knee. George Engel

Engel emigrated from Germany. He lost faith in politics and once wrote, "Can anyone feel any respect for a government that accords rights only to the privileged classes, and none to the workers?" He was home, playing cards when the bomb went off. Adolph Fischer

Fischer emigrated from Germany. He was a typesetter for the Arbeiter-Zeitung and an editor. He supervised the printing of the sheet advertising the rally and added the line, "Workingmen Arm Yourselves and Appear in Full Force." Spies convinced him to remove it before many copies were printed. He attended Haymarket, but left before violence began. His final words: "Hurray for Anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life!" Oscar Neebe

Neebe was born in New York, raised in Germany and moved to Chicago. He was a communist, and arranged labor demonstrations. He once wrote, "We socialists are great believers that the laboring men should educate themselves." He did not attend the Haymarket Rally. He suspected that a brewing company arranged for his conviction because he'd organized their workers. Louis Lingg

Lingg emigrated from Germany. He was an organizer for the Carpenters' Union. He believed in fighting police violence with citizen violence, once writing, "if they use cannons against us, we shall use dynamite against them." William Seliger

Lingg's landlord. He, Lingg and others manufactured bombs in his home. Escaped prosecution after he and his wife agreed to testify for the prosecution. Rudolph Schaubelt

Schwab's brother in law. Was in police custody & released. The indictment accused Schaubelt of being the bomb thrower: "unlawfully, wilfully, feloniously, and of his malice aforethought, made an assault upon the body of Matthias J. Degan with a certain deadly and destructive instrument, charged with diverse dangerous and explosive substances..." He had left the country before they came looking for him again, and was never located.

1886 - June 5 - The Grand Jury reports its findings: that the bombthrowing was the result of a conspiracy.

Cook County Courthouse and Jail at the time of the trial

A very skewed attempt at creating a panorama of the "new" County Courthouse (built 1892-1893, on the same site as the old building).

Entrance, (old) County Courthouse

Detail, over the doorway arch (left side)

Detail, over the doorway arch (right side)

1886 - June 21 - Jury selection begins; Parsons surrenders by walking in on the proceedings. The bailiff is told to 'go out and find jurors' - the jury pool is deeply tainted with prejudice against the defendants.

Only two of the "anarchists" were at the scene at the time of the bombing, and both were on the wagon (podium) during the speech making, in public view.

There has been more than one suggestion that the bomb was thrown by someone in the employ of Pinkerton.

1886 - August 20 - All 8 defendants are found guilty - All except Neebe are to be put to death by hanging. Neebe is sentenced to 15 years hard labor.

Those condemned

Henry Demarest Lloyd, a former editor editor of the Tribune, begins a national campaign for clemency. Governor Oglesby agrees to support this, if the businessmen are shown to support it. Lyman Gage (a banker) gathers 50 businessmen to convince them that it would improve labor relations. They seemed to agree, but would not cross Marshall Field, who stood against clemency. In the words of Studs Turkel, it was as if Field said, "Kill the bastards."

1887 - Nov 9 - 41,000 signatures from Chicago residents supporting clemency are present by the Amnesty Association. Letters from George Bernard Shaw and Tolstoy calling for clemency are said to have been received.

1887 - Nov 10 - Oglesby commutes the sentences for Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab to life sentences. Lingg commits suicide by biting on a dynamite cap. He lives for many agonizing hours after the explosion.

1887 - Nov 11 - Spies, Parson, Fielden and Engle sing La Marseillaise - the song of the French Revolution - before they are hanged.

La Marseillaise - English lyrics (final verse)

Drive on sacred patriotism

Support our avenging arms

Liberty, cherished liberty

Join the struggle with your defenders

Under our flags, let victory

Hurry to your manly tone

So that in death your enemies

See your triumph and our glory!

Their bodies are released to their families. A diary about their funeral and follow up on the martyrs' stories, tomorrow.

1889 - In a huge public relations blunder, the City of Chicago, erects a 9 foot bronze statue at the site of the riot - as a tribute to the policemen who lost their lives.

It became a traffic hazard. (It was possibly at this original location that it was struck by a streetcar.)

1900 - Statue is moved near Union Park.

1928 - Statue is moved into Union Park by the Park District.

1957 - Statue is moved to the northeast corner of the bridge over the Kennedy Expressway, on Randolph.

1969 - October - Statue is blown off its pedestal in an explosion (unsolved.)

1970 - October - Statue is blown off its pedestal in a second explosion (unsolved.)

1972 - January - Statue is moved to lobby of Police Headquarters (address at that time not known)

Later - Statue is moved to Police Academy at 1300 W Jackson.

Recently - Statue is relocated and rededicated at Police Headquarters at 3510 S Michigan - located by the building's entrance, off of the guarded parking lot.

You can see the statue from the L platform at Bronzeville/35th Street.

A nice inscription on the front, and some flowers left (by someone else) in memorial.

This was irritating, and shows more of the spin that we saw at the Haymarket Square Memorial - failure to recognize that the majority of the deaths and the injuries were caused by other police officers. It isn't a lie - but it is a half-truth, and a bitter disappointment.

If it was surrounded by such drivel in 1969 and 1970, I can understand why someone would have wanted to knock it off its pedestal.

Please join me tomorrow for a diary about the Haymarket Martyrs' Memorial.