Podcast: Criminal (LS 84 · TOP 0.01% what is this?)
Episode: Herrin Massacre
Pub date: 2020-01-24

Notes from The Listener:

Disturbing yet compelling tale of a massacre in southern Illinois in 1922. The town of Herrin was dominated by coal mining and the mineworkers’ union held sway. When a new industrialist imported workers to keep mining during a major strike, local people turned violent and a mass killing took place. This is an extraordinary story about labour relations and human savagery, made all the more gripping here by the inclusion of archive interviews with residents who not only remember what took place during those dark days, but still think the killing was justified

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In the spring of 1922, the United Mine Workers of America announced a national strike. And then, that summer in Herrin, Illinois, 23 people were murdered over two days. Men, women, and children came out of their houses to watch, and in some cases, to take part in the violence.

Scott Doody’s book is Herrin Massacre. Special thanks to the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and Matt Gorzalski, and to John Griswold, who wrote Herrin: The Brief History of an Infamous American City.

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