The attack on Arnett was the opening shot
of
the 1937 terrorist drive against union organizers in Harlan, a vicious
drive which saw innocent, nineteen-year-old Bennett Musick shot down in
cold blood, and was climaxed with the willful killing of Lloyd
Clouse, in Verda, Kentucky, after the senate hearings got under
way.forty-two
State militiamen were needed to rescue stocky William Turnblazer and
ten
other union organizers when they were besieged in their rooms in the
Louellen
Hotel, Harlan, by Ben Unthank and a mob of deputies.No sooner Had the
Union
men arrived and registered than the deputies set down upon them. With
udder
disregard for the other guests of the hotel, they set off firecrackers
in the corriders, hoping the Unionists would think they were pistol
shots.
They didn't, and they turned to actual shooting. They pounded on the
doors
of the rooms housing the organizers. They fired blasphemy through the
transoms.It
was bedlam.Reports that a riot was taking place reached the Mayor and
the
county prosecutor.They hurried to the hotel to urge the oranizers to
leave
town for peace's sake.But they gave up the idea and hurried away when
they
saw the grim- faced deputies and their menacing guns.It was only after
Turnblazer had communicated with Governor Chandler by long distance
telephone
and militiamen had been dispatched to the scene that the organizers
were
able to leave Harlan without some of them being killed.All along the
line
efforts to unionize meant running the risk of death.The automobiles of
two organizers were dynamited.Several carloads of union men were fired
upon, the fusilage of shots wounding some, but fortunately killing
none.
Blackjackings and beatings were common.Women were used as decoys. One
woman,
Mrs.Martha Howard, testified before the senate committee that she was
offerd
$100 for each time she lured an organizer for an automobile ride.I'11
attend
to him then," John Hickey,the deputy ,told her. she turned it
down.Despite
the obstacles faced, the drive won converts.But every time a miner
allied
himself with the union it meant the loss of his job if the fact was
discovered
a beating or death! Lindsey Baker was one of those who joined. a few
days
later Deputy Leonard Hobbs beat him into unconsciousness with a
blackjack.
I had bent my head down
to light a cigarette," he told senator LaFollette's committie,when
Leonard
Hobbs hit me with a blackjack and knocked me out. When i came to, he
was
still beating me and three or four deputy sheriffs just looked on
without
doing anything."
Lloyd
and Jasper Clouse were brothers, on the afternoon of april the 24,1937,
the two brothers
left the latter's home and walked through
Verda, a company-owned mining camp, in search of Clyde Dosher, a
friend.Before
they started out they had been discussing the Union drive for
membership.
They stopped at a saloon to see if Dosher was there. A half dozen
deputies
were in the rear of the place, But neither brother spoke to them. They
merely looked around not finding Dosher,went out again. The
deputies,Bill
Lewis,Melvin Moore,Logan Middleton,Maynard Hobbs and two
others,followed
them. Then as they started down the street Lewis shouted at them to
stop.I
want to search you two; he bellowed. Lloyd Clouse carried a pistol,
because,
as his brother testified later in Washington, District of Columbia it
was
customary to do so in Harlan."At Lewis command,the two men stopped and
turned around. AS they did so, the company deputies opened fire upon
them
and started running toward them, Lloyd Clouse had no time to draw his
pistol
and defend himself. A bullet struck him.He fell to the ground.Jasper
Clouse
closed in and grabbed Middlton trying to keep him from shooting him.A
company
deputy came up behind him and struck him over the head with a gun
butt.everything
went black he slumped to his knees and fell over.When he came to his
brother
was dead beside him.He left a widow and
ten children. The next day, Jasper Clouse
took his brothers family to Bell county for
fear that he would be killed if they remained
in Verda, Murders-Kidnapings-Dynamitings-
Beatings-Intimidation.That was Bloody
Harlan..................................
This artical came from a Real Detective
Magazine
dated 1937 owned by Roy Green
Roy said "well that was the article hope you
can use
it my grand mother went to washinton to
testifie
in the senate
committiee.her name was minnie clouse,there
was a picture of her in the magazine.will try to
send it. also a picture of my grandfather
Lloyd Clouse. you may use this or the
pictures.
sincerly yours Roy L. Green