The Steunenberg Assassination
Governor Gooding came to national attention during the trial phase of the conspiracy prosecution of three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), charged with the assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. In 1899, Steunenberg had crushed a rebellion of miners during a labor dispute in Coeur d'Alene. Steunenberg was murdered in 1905, and Harry Orchard was arrested for the crime.
Idaho's Chief Justice Stockslager drafted a telegram which invited the Pinkerton Agency to investigate. Governor Gooding was persuaded to approve the request, and Pinkerton agent James McParland soon arrived to lead the investigation. McParland announced his suspicion that Orchard was "the tool of others."
McParland's first order was to have Orchard transferred from the relatively comfortable Caldwell jail to death row in the Boise penitentiary, before any trial had occurred. The move was initially resisted by Judge Smith, who would be responsible for trying the case. The local judge anticipated a successful habeas corpus lawsuit against the tactic. McParland gave him "thirty precedents for the move." However, the sheriff in Caldwell also opposed the move.
Governor Gooding arranged a meeting between McParland and Chief Justice Stockslager, and then with Judge Smith. Before Smith arrived, McParland declared the county jail insecure, a potential target for dynamite. He also stated the purpose of the move to death row: "After three days I will attempt to get a confession." Chief Justice Stockslager approved of the move. In a pre-arranged plan, the Governor was called out of the room as soon as Judge Smith arrived, leaving McParland and the two judges alone. With the Chief Justice supporting the move to death row, Judge Smith also agreed.
McParland later threatened Orchard with immediate hanging, and said that he could avoid that fate only if he testified against leaders of the WFM. Orchard confessed, and was transferred from death row to a private bungalow in the prison yard. Governor Gooding stopped by to shake his hand and congratulate him on cooperating.
McParland then had WFM leaders Bill Haywood, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone arrested in Colorado, using extradition papers which falsely claimed that the three men had been present at Steunenberg's murder.
The investigation and trial were financed with "deficiency certificates." In his book Big Trouble, J. Anthony Lukas recorded that with the use of these certificates,
In effect, the bank acted as a mere conduit for the passage of money from the mining industry to the state for use in the Haywood prosecution.
Thousands of dollars were also provided directly from the mine owners to the prosecuting attorneys in the case. Thus, mine owners were deliberately financing the state's prosecution of leaders of the union which had been organizing their mines. Upon hearing of this circumstance, President Theodore Roosevelt issued a particularly stern rebuke to Governor Gooding, describing such a state of affairs as the "grossest impropriety." President Roosevelt wrote:
make a fatal mistake—and when I say fatal I mean literally that—if it permits itself to be identified with the operators any more than with the miners... If the Governor or the other officials of Idaho accept a cent from the operators or from any other capitalist with any reference, direct or indirect, to this prosecution, they would forfeit the respect of every good citizen and I should personally feel that they had committed a real crime.
Governor Gooding's response to the President provided a "severely distorted" account of the financial arrangements for the trial, shifted the blame to others, and promised to return money contributed by the mine owners. Gooding then:
...kept the narrowest construction of his promise to the president... dollar has been or will be supplied from any private source or organization whatsoever, went right on taking money from the mine owners.
George Pettibone, Bill Haywood, and Charles Moyer were found not guilty of conspiracy in the killing. Orchard was convicted and sentenced to death. His death sentence was commuted, and he spent the rest of his life in an Idaho prison.
Read more about this topic: Frank R. Gooding