Hogan McNamara was not involved in the union violence.

Job Harriman (1861 - 1925) was initially the lead attorney for the McNamara defense until Clarence Darrow took over. Harriman was also the Socialist party candidate for mayor of Los Angeles and many believed he would win the election. The defense's guilty plea negotiations with the prosecution were kept secret from Harriman. The prosecution insisted that the brothers plead guilty before the mayoral election or the deal was off. The McNamara brothers pled guilty on Friday December 11, 1911 and the mayoral election was set for the following Tuesday. The guilty pleas fatally undermined Harriman's campaign and he lost the election. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-06415.

Earl Rogers was a famous attorney in Los Angeles. He led the initial investigation into the Los Angeles Times bombing. He later defended Clarence Darrow against charges that he bribed jurors.

Harrison Gray Otis was the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Times. He was staunchly anti-union and was a key player in forming the Merchants and Manufactures Association (MMA), a powerful business organization in Los Angeles.

Walter Drew was commissioner of the National Erectors' Association (NEA) from 1906 to 1957. Drew had been trying to destroy the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers (IABSIW) for years. Drew was heavily involved into the investigation of the IABSIW in Indianapolis where the union's headquarters was located. That investigation led to the Dynamite Conspiracy trial in 1912 which was the largest criminal conspiracy trial in American history up to that time. The trial was a near total victory for the prosecution with thirty-nine union defendants convicted. This included the union's president and all but two members of the IABSIW's leaders and local union leaders. Drew was also one of the most influential proponents of the Open Shop in the nation. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-06446

Olaf Tveitmoe was a powerful labor leader in San Francisco. It was believed that Tveitmoe was involved in the Los Angeles Times bombing and that he later conspired with Darrow to raise the money for bribing jurors in the McNamara trial. Tveitmoe was originally from Valdrez, Norway and he attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He was sentenced to 18 months in Stillwater prison in Minnesota for forgery committed in Goodhue County, Minnesota but he was pardoned by the governor in December 1894. His name is sometimes spelled Tvietmoe.

Lincoln Steffens (1866 - 1936) was a very well-known muckraking journalist. Steffens considered himself a pivotal player in the plea negotiations between the McNamara brothers' defense and the prosecution. He would later devote three chapters of his autobiography to the case. Steffens was vocal about his involvement in the plea negotiations but his claims contrasted sharply with the prosecution and Judge Bordwell's version of the events. The same day he sentenced the McNamara brothers to prison, Judge Bordwell took the unusual step of releasing a statement about the pleas in which he categorically refuted Steffens' claims. Judge Bordwell explained that the guilty pleas were the result of the jury bribery allegations and not Steffens' influence. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-04702.

When he was younger, Otis was not anti-union and had even been a member of the International Typographical Union. But after Otis took over the Los Angeles Times, he went through a series of labor struggles with the International Typographical Union until the union finally went on strike. In response, Otis brought in strikebreakers from Kansas City to get the L.A. Times published. Over time, Otis had become a sworn enemy of labor and he relished the role. After the struggle with the union, Otis "vowed never again to hire a union member" and the Los Angeles Times used colorful language in its paper to describe union and union members. Over time, Otis and the Los Angeles Times became increasingly well-known as staunch and vocal opponents of organized labor.

Judge Bordwell presided over the McNamara trial. The McNamara defense thought Judge Bordwell, who also presided over the grand jury that indicted the defendants, was biased against the defense. Bordwell was a Republican member of the Los Angeles establishment and he lived in the very exclusive California Club. The defense tried unsuccessfully to get him removed as the trial judge. Courtesy of University of Southern California, on behalf of the USC Special Collections.

Joseph Scott was a well-known Catholic attorney in Los Angeles. Scott, whose mother was born in Ireland, was hired by the McNamara defense in part because the McNamaras were Irish. Scott was also president of the Los Angeles School board.

General Harrison Gray Otis was the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Times. Otis, originally from Marietta, Ohio, came from a family that instilled strong loyalty to patriotic causes. His grandfather served in the Revolutionary War, and his father was an ardent abolitionist who housed runaway slaves for the Underground Railroad. Otis served valiantly in the Union Army's Twelfth Ohio Voluntary Infantry during most of the Civil War. He was called "General" because of his Civil War service and because he preferred fighting to discussion.

Ortie McManigle (sometimes spelled McManigal) was arrested with Jim McNamara on April 11, 1911 in Detroit. McManigal soon confessed to sabotaging and blowing up work sites as part of a nationwide dynamite sabotage campaign directed by J.J. McNamara on behalf of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers union.

Eugene Clancy, the leader of the Structural Iron Workers' Union in San Francisco, was believed by the prosecution to be one of the labor leaders, along with Anton Johannsen and Olaf Tveitmoe, to be behind the bombing of the Los Angeles Times. Clancy was later convicted in Indiana and sentenced to six years in prison as part of the Dynamite conspiracy trial that stemmed from the investigation into the bombing of the Los Angeles Times. The trial, which began on October 1, 1912, was considered the largest criminal conspiracy trial in American history up to that time.

Anton Johannsen was a powerful San Francisco labor leader. It was widely believed that Johannsen and Olaf Tveitmoe arranged for the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building.

When the McNamara brothers' guilty pleas became public, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was meeting at its convention in Atlanta. The meeting had been dominated by the McNamara trial with fundraising efforts being made, including asking workers to give up a whole week's wages to support the defense. The AFL leadership felt betrayed, especially its president Samuel Gompers, who put his reputation on the line by insisting that the McNamaras were innocent.
LC-USZ62-61896

Joseph Scott, a member of the McNamara defense team, was involved in trying to convince the McNamara brothers to take a plea deal. Jim "J.B." McNamara initially refused to cooperate in a plea deal in which his brother J.J. would plead guilty to save Jim from the death penalty. Scott got the jail chaplain Father Edward Brady to talk to Jim and this appeared to help persuade him to take the plea deal. Photo from "History of the Bench and Bar of Southern California" by Willoughby Rodman (1909).

Judge Bordwell presided over the McNamara trial and sentenced the McNamara brothers to prison after they agreed to plead guilty.

Oscar Lawler assisted the prosecution in the McNamara case and played a key role in the investigation of the national dynamite conspiracy perpetrated by the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers (IABSIW). Lawler had previously worked in the Taft administration and his influence helped get the federal government to intervene to safeguard evidence found in the union's headquarters in Indianapolis.

Samuel Gompers was the first and longest-serving president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Clarence Darrow explained in his autobiography "The Story of My Life" how he came to be involved in the McNamara case:

"Mr. Gompers, with several other members of the executive board of the American Federation of Labor, came to see me and asked me to assume the defense. I urged them to get some one else. Of course I realized that the men should be defended, but I felt that I had done my share of fighting. It was not easy to combat the powerful forces of society in the courts, as I had doing for many years . . . . But the representatives of the Federation of Labor were so urgent that at last I could not refuse. How many times thereafter I wished that I had insisted upon some one younger and stronger and more anxious for the task. But I could not turn back. It seemed destined that I should take that path."

LC-USZ62-19862, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington.

Clarence Darrow tried to get Emma McManigal to convince her husband Ortie to repudiate his confession. When Emma visited Ortie in the Los Angeles County jail she told him if he did not sign the note from Darrow repudiating his confession then he would never see her again. Ortie agreed but later the prosecution and Burns detectives convinced Ortie to repudiate his own repudiation and stand by his confession. The prosecution had also put great pressure on Emma to convince her husband to stand by his confession including bringing her before a grand jury and threatening her with contempt. Emma filed for divorce on October 14, 1911 alleging cruel and inhuman treatment because of the pressure being put on her by her husband, the prosecution and Burns' detectives. According to the New York Times she was being represented by Clarence Darrow in the divorce proceedings. Courtesy of University of Southern California, on behalf of the USC Special Collections.

The prosecution and Burns' detectives put so much pressure on Emma McManigal to convince her to persuade her husband Ortie to stand by his confession that she collapsed and had to be hospitalized. This turned out to be a public relations boost for the defense because it generated public sympathy. Job Harriman is on the left and Joseph Scott is on the right. Courtesy of University of Southern California, on behalf of the USC Special Collections.

John "J.J." McNamara and his brother Jim were markedly different personalities. J.J. was by far the most accomplished and charismatic. He had risked his life as an iron worker and worked his way up the union hierarchy until he was elected secretary-treasurer at age 28. He then went to night school and earned a law degree from the Indiana School of Law. J.J. was also devoutly Catholic. Jim McNamara was nearly everything his older brother was not, "an anemic, chain-smoking, ne'er-do-well" who hated church, but "loved liquor and gambling, and spent most of his time with married women and prostitutes." Geoffrey Cowan, The People v. Clarence Darrow 79 (1993).

Dec, 1911
James B. McNamara pled guilty on Friday, December 1, 1911 in the Los Angeles Superior Court to bombing the Los Angeles Times building. It was fourteen months to the day since the bombing that killed twenty employees. His brother John (J.J.) pled guilty to bombing the Llewellyn Iron works. James McNamara was sentenced to life in prison and J.J. McNamara was sentenced to fifteen years. Ortie McManigal is to the left.

Dec, 1911
McNamara brother defense team. From the Los Angeles Times, December 2, 1911.

Dec, 1911
District Attorney John Fredericks, Assistant District Attorney Joseph Ford and Chief Trial District Attorney George R. Horton. Clarence Darrow faced Fredericks and Ford during the McNamara case. Fredericks and Ford prosecuted Darrow in his first bribery trial. Ford assisted a different prosecutor in Darrow's second bribery trial. From the Los Angeles Times.

Photo from volume 45 of the American Monthly Review of Reviews (1912).

Photo from volume 45 of The American Review of Reviews (1912).

Feb, 1912
From McClure's Magazine February 1912.

Feb, 1912
Portrait of Clarence Darrow from article about the case in McClure's Magazine February 1912.

Cover from Ortie McManigal's confession of the nationwide dynamite sabotage campaign alleged orchestrated by the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers union. Full-text available above.

Nov, 1927
When he took over the investigation into the Los Angeles Times bombing, Burns was already the most famous or notorious detective in the United States. Because of his work in the San Francisco graft investigation about four years earlier, Burns became friends with Lincoln Steffens and Fremont Older but enemies with Harrison Gray Otis and Earl Rogers. LC-USZ62-101093, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

After the Los Angeles Times bombing, Jim McNamara immediately went to San Francisco. When he realized he had murdered twenty people he became very frightened and felt unsafe in San Francisco so he went to Seattle but did not feel safe there so he headed to Chicago. But he decided Chicago was dangerous also so he went to Salt Lake City to stay with John Munsey. Munsey was later sentenced to six years imprisonment after being convicted in the Dynamite conspiracy case in Indianapolis.

Ryan and nearly forty other members of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers were convicted in the dynamite trials that resulted from the investigation of the Los Angeles Times bombing.

Editorial cartoon blaming labor for the bombing of the Los Angeles Times. "Public Opinion" is written on the hand pointing to the "Union Dynamiter."

Member of the McNamara Defense team

The most famous detective in the United States.

Basil M. Manly was the Director of Research and Investigation for the Commission on Industrial Relations. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-28065.

Garretson was appointed to Commission on Industrial Relations by President Wilson as one of the representatives for labor. At the time he was president of the Order of Railway Conductors. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-02725.

Ortie McManigal claimed in his confession that Hockin directed much of the dynamiting campaign. Hockin was convicted in the great Dynamite trial in Indianapolis in 1912.

John Wigmore, Dean of Northwestern Law School, severely criticized Clarence Darrow for receiving a $200,000 fund to defend the McNamara brothers because Wigmore, and many others, believed that Darrow knew the McNamaras were guilty. Wigmore wrote in an article "Clarence Darrow, acting as counsel under the law, systematically spent one hundred and ninety thousand dollars to extricate from justice men whom he knew to be guilty of the most atrocious crime in the calendar. . . . How can he defend himself? As we figure it, he must defend himself--or be recognized no longer in the ranks of an honorable profession." The Limits of Counsel's Legitimate Defense, 17 Virginia Law Reg. 743 (1911-1912).

Abe Ruef (1864 - 1936) was a lawyer and politician. He became notorious as the political boss behind the administration of Mayor Eugene Schmitz of San Francisco. William J. Burns gained national fame during the investigation into San Francisco graft. The investigation led Ruef to confess to taking bribes. His confession led to the conviction of Mayor Schmitz and the indictment of Patrick Calhoun, the powerful president of the United Railroad. Calhoun hired Earl Rogers to defend him and was exonerated of the charges. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-05802

Cyrus McNutt was a retired Indiana judge. He was hired by the McNamara defense team because of his knowledge of Indiana law and he was pro-labor. McNutt was the only member of the McNamara defense team to serve on the defense for Darrow's bribery trial. McNutt died before the trial began which led to a short delay and he was replaced by Horace Appel. Darrow described the selection of McNutt to help defend the McNamaras: "Cyrus F. McNutt, a former member of the Supreme Court of Indiana, a man well learned in law, was also engaged. Judge McNutt was a man of unusual ability, and was thoroughly sympathetic toward the laboring class." Clarence Darrow, The Story of My Life.

Patrick Henry McCarthy (1863 - 1933) was a powerful labor leader in San Francisco and served as Mayor from 1910 to 1912. He was more commonly known as P.H. McCarthy and sometimes by the nickname "Pinhead." Olaf Tveitmoe gained power in San Francisco in part because of his close association with McCarthy. McCarthy was born in County Limerick, Ireland and came to the United States in 1880.

Clarence Darrow was a vocal critic of open shops. An open shop is a place of employment that does not require employees to join or financially support a labor union as a condition of being hired or to continue being employed. In contrast, a closed shop is a place of employment where all employees must be members of a union. Cover from pamphlet.

Fremont Older (1856 - 1935) was newspaperman and editor in San Francisco for nearly fifty years. He became well-known for his crusade against corruption. Older played a key role in the investigation of massive political graft and corruption in San Francisco. The investigation led to the confession of Abraham Ruef, a city political boss, the conviction of Mayor Eugene Schmitz, and the indictment of Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroad. Calhoun was the grandson of South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun. Patrick Calhoun hired Earl Rogers to defend him. Older became friends with detective William J. Burns because of the San Francisco investigation but he was also friends with Clarence Darrow.

Richard Aishton held the position of Assistant General Manager for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. In December 1914 he was chosen by President Wilson to fill a vacant seat on the Commission on Industrial Relations. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-26084.

The Commission on Industrial Relations was dominated by the head of the commission, Frank P. Walsh, who displayed an obvious pro-labor stance. He later became the general counsel for the Iron Workers Union, a position he held from 1918 until his death in 1939. Commission members, John R. Commons and Florence Jaffray Harriman, issued a dissenting report because they believed Walsh and the pro-labor members placed too much of the blame for industrial strife on employers and their recommendations for change were too radical. The commission's final report was not enthusiastically received and Congress was upset enough to cut off its funding. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-npcc-31779

Frank Morrison was the secretary of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) from 1897 to 1935 and secretary-treasurer from 1936 to 1939. He had exclusive control over the McNamara Defense Fund. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-hec-14759.

Jim McNamara planted a bomb at Otis's residence but the bomb did not explode until it was later removed by the police.

Henry Gage, a well respected defense attorney and former governor of California, was hired by Clarence Darrow to defend Bert Franklin against bribery charges. Later Franklin entered a plea deal with the prosecution and implicated Darrow in attempts to briber jurors. Davis served on the McNamara defense team.

William Burns, the lead investigator into the Los Angeles Times bombing, gained fame during a previous investigation that uncovered massive political graft and corruption in San Francisco. The investigation led to the confession of Abraham Ruef, a city political boss, the conviction of Mayor Eugene Schmitz, and the indictment of Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroad. Calhoun was the grandson of South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun. Patrick Calhoun hired Earl Rogers to defend him. The defense devised a strategy to prod labor unions into striking against the street railway companies and then Calhoun would gain favor by breaking the strike.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-69629.

Structural iron workers risked life and limb daily in their trade. Early structural ironworkers were not recognized as skilled workers by other building trades and it took years before they gained respect as skilled tradesmen. It also took years of struggle before they received pay commensurate with the dangers they faced on the job. The difference in skill required is demonstrated by the length of the apprenticeships found in agreements and contracts of this time, with the period of time ranging from six months to a maximum of eighteen months for ironworkers. In contrast, most of the other skilled building trades required three to five years of apprenticeship. As a union trade organizer put it in 1914, the trade takes "probably three to four months to learn how to heat and drive rivets" and after that the main learning goal was "to become accustomed to going up high and not falling off." Sidney Fine, Without Blare of Trumpets: Walter Drew, the National Erectors' Association, and the Open Shop Movement, 1903-57, 12 (1995).

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-57477

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-133611.

John Worth Kern (1849 - 1917) and William N. Harding were the main defense attorneys in the Dynamite Conspiracy trial in Indiana. At the time, Kern was also a United States senator from Indiana. About 39 members of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Ironworkers were convicted for conspiracy to commit a crime against the United States, and of transporting, aiding, and abetting the transportation of dynamite and nitroglycerin in interstate commerce in passenger trains and cars between the several states of the United States. The evidence in this case was the direct result of the investigation into the Los Angeles Times Bombing and involved substantial investigations in Indianapolis. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-82815.

Jan, 1908
Cover from the official magazine of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Iron Workers.

Aug, 1910
The Asiatic Exclusion League was a racist labor organization formed on May 14, 1905 in San Francisco to prevent Asians from competing for jobs. Among those attending the first meeting were Patrick Henry McCarthy, a labor leader and at one time mayor of San Francisco, and Olaf Tveitmoe of the Building Trades Council of San Francisco. Tveitmoe became the first president of the organization. It was widely believed that Tveitmoe and Anton Johannsen arranged for the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building. Dept. of Special Collections/UCLA Library, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library.

Oct, 1910
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-08499.

Oct, 1910
As seen from the corner of Broadway and First Street. Courtesy of University of Southern California, on behalf of the USC Special Collections.

Oct, 1910
Courtesy of University of Southern California, on behalf of the USC Special Collections.

Oct, 1910
Ink Alley, located at rear of the Los Angeles Times Building where the dynamite was planted. Courtesy of University of Southern California, on behalf of the USC Special Collections.

"Talesmen" are jurors returned from bystanders or the body of the county to complete a panel after the list of regular jurors is exhausted because of challenge or other cause, and sometimes the word "talesmen" is used synonymously with "jurors." 47 American Jurisprudence 2d Jury sec. 1. LC-DIG-ggbain-09902, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Clarence Darrow wrote in his autobiography "The Story of My Life" about picking a jury for the McNamara trial: "This was, as usual, a difficult task. The case had been given such wide publicity, and feelings were so high on both sides, that it was practically impossible to find any one who had no opinion and seemed able to offer both sides a fair consideration of the case at hand." LC-DIG-ggbain-09903, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Piano box in which union leaders hid two quart cans of nitroglycerin and fifteen sticks of dynamite packed in sawdust. Detective William J. Burns was accused of planting this evidence to which Burns replied: "They're saying I 'planted' these things before I found them. Well, if I were the most fiendish murder that ever drew the breath of life, I might have 'planted' dynamite in the piano-box in Jones' barn. But how would I persuade John J. McNamara to buy the box and have it placed there for me and have the sawdust hauled to pack it with? What sort of records does a labor union pack in sawdust in a country barn? How did I get a lock on the box to fit James McNamara's keys? How did I arrange it that McManigal's keys would duplicate them? The Dynamiters: A Great Case of Detective William J. Burns by Harvey J. O'Higgins, McClure's Magazine, vol. 37 (August 1911)

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-09156

During the investigation into the Los Angeles Times bombing, investigators raided the headquarters of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers in Indianapolis. They also searched a barn outside of town owned by a W.D. Jones who had rented it to J.J. McNamara the secretary-treasurer of the union. McNamara told Jones he needed it to store union paperwork. In the barn they discovered a piano box that contained two quart cans of nitroglycerin and fifteen sticks of dynamite. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. LC-B2- 2192-3

Part of the evidence against the J.J. McNamara and Ortie McManigal.

Part of the evidence against J.J. McNamara and Ortie McManigal.

The investigation of the Los Angeles Times bombing led to the trial of 45 union men, mostly from the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers (IABSIW), for a nationwide dynamite sabotage campaign. They were charged with transporting dynamite and nitroglycerin aboard passenger trains engaged in interstate commerce and with conspiracy "to commit an offense against the United States." The trial, which began in October 1912, was considered the largest criminal conspiracy trial in American history up to that time and consisted of 499 witnesses for the prosecution, 188 witnesses for the defense, five thousand pages of documentary exhibits, and twenty-one thousand pages of testimony. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-11740

In February 1912, a federal grand jury in Indianapolis indicted fifty-four union men of which fifty-one were members of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers (IABSIW) for a nationwide dynamite sabotage campaign which included the bombing of the Los Angeles Times. The indicted men included Frank Ryan, president of the IABSIW, its Secretary J.J. McNamara, Ortie McManigal, and other top officials and local officers of the IABSIW. Olav Tveitmoe was also indicted although he was not a member of the IABSIW. Of those indicted, forty-five actually went to trial in October 1912. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-12296

Francis Joseph Heney (1859 - 1937) was a lawyer who served as Attorney General of the Arizona Territory between 1893 and 1895. Heney, as a special prosecutor, assisted William Burns during an investigation in 1905 into extensive land and timber fraud in Oregon. Haney then worked with Burns, Fremont Older, Lincoln Steffens and several others working in secret including President Theodore Roosevelt to investigate and uncover massive political graft and corruption in San Francisco. The investigation led to the confession of Abraham Ruef, a city political boss, the conviction of Mayor Eugene Schmitz, and the indictment of Patrick Calhoun, president of the United Railroad. Calhoun was the grandson of South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun. Patrick Calhoun hired Earl Rogers to defend him. The defense devised a strategy to prod labor unions into striking against the street railway companies and then Calhoun would gain favor by breaking the strike. The situation became very contentious and Heney was shot in the face but survived. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-62636.

The Los Angeles Times bombing led to an investigation of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers in Indianapolis.

The investigation into the Los Angeles Times bombing led to the investigation, indictment and conviction of many members of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers (IABSIW) in Indianapolis.

During jury selection, Horton, a young assistant district attorney, rapidly questioned an elderly venireman and then claimed the man was hard of hearing and too weak to sit through a trial. Darrow got angry and told Horton "Old men are not the only garrulous ones" then Darrow accused the prosecution of trying to disqualify the venireman simply because he subscribed to the "Los Angeles Record" and the Socialist publication "Appeal to Reason." Judge Bordwell overruled Darrow's objection. Geoffrey Cowan, The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer, 212 (1993). Photo from the "Press Reference Library (Southwest Edition) Notables of the Southwest" (1912).

George Alexander (1839 - 1923) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was 11 years old. In 1909 he ran in a recall election against Mayor Arthur C. Harper, and won. Alexander was running for re-election in the 1911 race. Job Harriman, a well known labor lawyer and leading socialist figure, had initially been hired by the McNamara brothers as defense counsel and he remained on the team after Clarence Darrow took over. Harriman was running for mayor during the preparation for the trial of the McNamara brothers. He surprised many when he won the mayoral primary in October 1911 on the Socialist ticket. But in November Darrow and just a few defense lawyers were engaged in plea negotiations that were so secretive that Darrow did not even tell his own clients and Harriman and his mayoral campaign were also not told. The prosecution gave the defense a deadline of Friday, December 1, 1911 to agree to a plea deal or face trial. They wanted the McNamara brothers to plead guilty before the mayoral election the following Tuesday knowing that it would greatly hurt Harriman's election chances. The McNamara brothers agreed to plead guilty and did so on December 1, 1911. News of the guilty pleas greatly upset labor and Harriman's socialist supporters. Before the news hit, the mayoral race was too close to call but because of the plea deal, Harriman ended up losing by twenty thousand votes to Alexander.

WEINSTOCK; LENNON; GARRETSON; WALSH, CHAIRMAN; COMMONS; BALLARD; DELANO; MRS. HARRIMAN. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-hec-03566

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, LC-DIG-hec-03371

The Commission on Industrial Relations was a created by Congress in August 1912. During 1912 to 1915, the commission studied labor issues throughout the United States. In 1916, it published a final report (also known as the Walsh Report) consisting of eleven volumes and containing tens of thousands of pages of testimony from a wide range of witnesses including labor leaders and wealthy industrialists. Clarence Darrow testified before the commission. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-63627

Jacob Henry Schiff (1847 - 1920), born in Germany and Jewish descent, was a very prominent New York City banker and philanthropist. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-18166

Frank Walsh (1864 - 1939) was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to head the Commission on Industrial Relations created in the aftermath of the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-117861.