A Shooting at the State House (episode 209)

Transcript

Music

Jake:
[0:05] Welcome To Hub history, where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston. The Hub of the universe.
This is Episode 209 A shooting at the State House Hi, I’m Jake.
This week I’m talking about an incident that happened on December 5th 1907 That’s hard to make sense of,
from our viewpoint in modern Massachusetts, with stringent gun licensing and background check laws, it’s hard to imagine how a young man with an extensive criminal record who’d been involuntarily committed to multiple mental health institutions,
could walk into a store and walk back out with a shiny new handgun.
And from a post 9 11 point of view, with security at the forefront of every public space, it’s hard to imagine how an uninvited visitor could walk right into the Governor State House office and opened fire.
So let’s stretch our imaginations and talk about this brutal and nonsensical shooting in our seat of government.
But before we do, I just want to pause for a moment and thank our latest sponsors.
John just signed up to support the show on patryan. That means that he’ll give a small contribution each month toward the cost of making hub history,
costs like Web hosting and security podcast media hosting, audio processing, storage and backup and more.

[1:23] We also recently got generous one time contributions from Rose and Terry via PayPal.
I want to give an extra special thanks to everyone who sponsors the show as we go through changes to the format and schedule.
If you’d like to join them, just go to patryan dot com slash hub history or visit hub history dot com and click on the Support US link.
And now it’s time to learn about what happened at the State House on December 5th 1907 A quick content note. Before we do that, our turn of the 20th century sources don’t use the same language about mental illness that we would today.
In this episode, I’ll repeat their period terminology unchanged.

[2:03] On the morning of December 5th, 1907 James A. Steele of Everett came into Boston for the day.
He was 38 years old. The reports say that his prematurely gray hair made him look significantly older.
He wore a fashionably bushy mustache in a bowler hat, Press reports said that he was a very intellectual looking man.

[2:24] Steele was an Army veteran who enlisted during the Spanish American War in 18 98 and he was a former machinist and insurance agent.
Most recently, though, he’d been confined against his will in a series of mental hospitals, first for two months.
Then, for almost two years, he was released either on parole or a leave of absence. The exact details aren’t clear. On November 13th, his mother later said that he was going into town to find work.
She said that he was studious and well read, being able to speak at length on nearly any subject.
According to her, James plan to visit some newspaper offices to see if you could get a job as a reporter, though when Steele was interviewed later, the reasons for his visit to Boston that day weren’t so cut and dry, he said.
I came into Boston this morning, but I do not remember what time it waas.
I thought I would buy a revolver first. I went to a pawnshop and I picked out a pistol, but the pawnbroker would not show me how to use it.
I didn’t like this, so I went out. Then I went into a sporting goods store on Washington Street and found a revolver that I liked.
The clerk showed me how to use it and sold me a box of cartridges.

[3:37] In another story in the Boston Globe. Be elaborated. I came into Boston, this four noon on an errand for my mother, and when I got to the store of William Reading Sons on Washington Street, I went in to get a revolver to protect myself from the people who’ve been persecuting me.
William Reading Sons was a sporting goods store at 107 Washington Street, where he paid $2.60 for a 32 caliber revolver, he continued.
I also bought a box of cartridges and went up in the park to try them.
When I got up there, I saw some signs on the trees, which said. No shooting allowed, and so I went away because I was afraid of the police.

[4:16] William reads. Shop was between today’s old State House in Boston City Hall, so there’s a pretty good chance that the party walked to was Boston Common.
It’s a bit disturbing to think that there had to be signs at the time warning people not to shoot guns on Boston Common.
Nevertheless, he did find a way to test the gun, and in his mind it came up short.
Then I wanted around until I came to our house, which had just been built.
I did not see anyone around the house, so I went in and picked up a piece of wood and holding the revolver up close to it. I fired, but the bullet did not go through.
After Steele statements at his later arraignment, the Globe was able to pinpoint this test shot is happening at Castle Island.

[4:58] After the purchase, he said, he went to Castle Island to test it.
He found a piece of Joyce near an unoccupied house in South Boston and took it along.
When he got to the island, he tested the revolver with the cartridges that he had purchased.
He fired into the side of the piece of wood. The shot made a large black mark where the burning powder struck, but the bullet only entered a short distance.
He thought, therefore, that the pistol was of little value and that he had been cheated by the clerk who sold it to him.

[5:29] From his later comments. It seems like he believed that since the gun hadn’t shot a hole all the way through the block of wood, it was actually shooting blanks if it was shooting blanks, the gun wasn’t any good for protecting himself against his enemies, real or imagined.
So he wanted his money back then I went back down on Washington Street to make them give back my money because they cheated me on the revolver.
It was a bum gun I went into. I’ve, er Johnson’s and asked them what they thought of it. But they told me it was all right.
I looked at some of their revolvers and told them that I would buy one if they would guarantee that it would penetrate.
But they wouldn’t do it. So I went up to read store.

[6:09] Ivor Johnson’s store was just a few steps up. Washington That number 1 55 Ivor Johnson became famous for manufacturing revolvers with a safer design, which avoided accidental discharges when the gun was bumped or dropped.
However, Johnson’s will be used to assassinate President William McKinley and candidate Robert Kennedy, and one was used in an attempt on the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, so even a safer design apparently couldn’t avoid deliberate discharges.
After Ivor Johnson sent Steele on his way, he returned to William Reid store.
I went in there and showed them the stick of wood and told them that the gun was no good and demanded my money back, the man said. He wouldn’t give it to me, and I told him if he didn’t, I would go to headquarters and see ah, higher authority.
So I came to the State House to see the governor.

[6:59] Before he found his way to the governor’s office, Steele stopped at the offices of The Boston Globe.
But unlike what he told his mother, he didn’t seem to be there to apply for a job.
Instead, he was looking for an expert to help him with a sudden obsession with the penetrating power of his $2 revolver.
With the globe itself reporting, Steele made a visit to the Globe offices. A few minutes after two o’clock, he went to Room 85 inquired for J. Harry Hartley, the military editor, the latter being absent.
He asked if any of the three reporters present could inform him what caliber revolver the police carried and also the Army officers.
Fred H. Alden, the Randolph correspondent, explained the calibers used in both services.
But this did not satisfy the man he wanted, particularly to know the penetrating power through a piece of board of the various bullets.
He was told that it would depend on the distance the man was from the object when he fired.

[7:55] Meanwhile, three prominent leaders of the powerful Massachusetts labor movement were making their way to Beacon Hill to meet with Governor Curtis Guild.
Guilt was a progressive Republican in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt. He just started the first of his 31 year terms, having been elected on a reform platform.
He had a reputation is being union friendly, helping to pass a number of reform bills during his administration for everything from regulating gas companies to safety inspections of factories.

[8:23] Reports of why the three union men were at the State House that day or mixed, with some believing that they’d come to lobby the government to support a strong unemployment insurance bill.
While other accounts, like this wire service story, say that the three men had come to ask for clemency for someone falsely accused of murder,
the three labor leaders came to the State House today to meet the governor by appointment in regard to a pardon for AM Kennedy of Salem, who’s serving a sentence in the Essex House of Correction.
They reached the State House shortly after three o’clock and found that the governor was receiving a delegation from Rhode Island.
The three labor men were asked to wait in one of the anti rooms until the Rhode Island men should leave.

[9:04] Of the three, Edward Cohen was probably the most widely known figure.
An immigrant from England, he arrived in Massachusetts in 18 80 at the age of 22.
He’d worked as a cigar roller in London before emigrating, and he continued that line of work. After settling in Lynn while working in a local factory, he discovered a pension for labor organizing.
First is a member of the cigar Makers Mutual Association, then later as the president of the Lin Central Labor Union before being elected president of the Massachusetts branch of the American Federation of Labor.
Even with this prominent position is a leader. He continued to pull down a daily shift at a West End cigar factory.

[9:44] Cohen was accompanied by another high level union leader, Dennis Driscoll, was a failure by trade making and fitting iron shoes for horses.
At just 36 years old, he was a rising star in the labor movement, having served as the president of the Boston Central Labor Union and represented the U. S and International Labor Conference in London before being elected secretary treasurer of the Massachusetts A FL.

[10:09] The third member of the party was Arthur Huddle, who had less statewide profile, is a union boss.
He was a 38 year old steam engineer. He was mostly known as an organizer within the field of steam engineering.
He’d served as the president of the Steam Engineer’s Union, and he was the current president of the Boston Central Labor Union.
While he was overshadowed by Cohen and Driscoll at the time, Huddell would come into his own in later years.
Here’s how he described their appointment at the State House teddy meaning Mr Cohen,
Denny, meaning Mr Driscoll and myself with the governor’s office by appointment, regard to the consideration of a pardon for a man whose name, of course, it would be improper to state Denny and myself.
It arrived prior to Cohen, and as it was not quite time for our appointment, we sat in the outer office directly in front of the famous painting of Abraham Lincoln and our backs toward the wall.
We’ve been sitting there in conversation, but a short time when Cohen arrived, he drew up a chair and sat facing us with his back to the entrance to the governor’s office and also halfback in sideways to the entrance from the main corridor.
We were all intently engaged in conversation regarding labor matters in our mission with the governor, while awaiting our turn to be called into the governor’s office.

[11:22] That mission was probably some combination of taking up the cause of A.
M. Kennedy, who they believe to be falsely accused, as well as also lobbying the governor not to allow exceptions to the unemployment bill to undermine the protections that provided the bill had passed in 1906 and the governor’s predecessor, John Bates, had vetoed it.

[11:41] When another version passed later in the same session, it was guilds promised to sign over time legislation that helped him gain the support of labor, and when the election,
now business interests were busy trying to carve out exceptions for their employees, so they couldn’t be forced to give them one day off out of every seven or pay extra wages.
Steele, on the other hand, thought the labor leaders were in on a grand conspiracy against him, had been sent to keep him from delivering his message, although by this time he was pretty confused about what that message waas,
was he there to complain about being sold a trick gun that wouldn’t fire through a board?
Was he there to confront the governor about the abuses he believed he had suffered while being treated at a state mental hospital?
I don’t think that James steals mind was, well enough organized at that moment to have told us why he was there.
No matter why, though he was sure that Cohen, Driscoll and Huddell were plotting against him.

[12:35] When I stepped through the door, I saw those three men sitting together and talking in low tones that I couldn’t hear.
They look to me as if they were going to tell the governor all about it, and we’re up there toe head me off.

[12:47] Far from lying in wait to head him off. The three lay Berman barely even noticed when James Steele walked into governor guilds out her office.
As Huddell related, this man, Steele, whom none of us knew ever saw or heard of before, came into the room.
I noticed him enter the door, but paid no attention to him, as when his eyes rested on secretary groves. He walked into his direction.
I supposed to have some person calling to see Mr Groves as he passed in front of us. In walking down the narrow room, he stopped suddenly, quickly wheeled so as to face us and drawing a revolver from one pocket inability of wood from the other.
He fired four shots in rapid succession.
The first shot was evidently aimed directly at the back of Cohen.
Steele was within five or 6 ft of him and his hand as he extended. It was within 2 ft of him.

[13:36] Starting when Steele entered the outer office of 3 20 Governor Guild related how events had unfolded from the perspective of his personal secretary, Charles Groves, who at the time was at the far end of the anteroom, giving dictation to a stenographer.
Steele entered the room from the State House corridor, the room being open and accessible to the public secretary.
Groves noticed him is he entered Steele without stopping or slackening. The brisk gait at which he entered seemed to have caught secretary Groves I and started down the room toward him, as if to talk with him.
Secretary Groves thought likewise, and, although continuing his dictation, was ready to receive the visitor, who was a stranger to him.
As Steele, still with his eyes fixed on secretary Groves, reached a point opposite to Messers Cohen, Driscoll and Huddle.
He stopped and drawing his hand from his pocket, extended it in the direction of the three labor leaders, and three shots followed in quick succession.

[14:32] The initial reports couldn’t agree on whether there were three shots or four, but in seconds all three of the union men were wounded.
Wire service story describes in graphic detail how the first two shots hit Mr Cohen in the head.
Steele turned around and drawing a revolver, fired it Cohen, who was about 6 ft away.
Cohen’s back was turned in. The bullet struck the back of his head, passed directly through and came out the forehead, driving a great splash of blood to the wall opposite.
Beside the picture of Abraham Lincoln, the wounded man turned only to receive another bullet in the head, which also passed completely through.
Cohen sank unconscious to the floor.

[15:13] The third shot was aimed at Dennis Driscoll, but a Steele fired Arthur Huddell leapt from his chair.
Huddell had been the only one of the three men to be seated fully facing the direction Steele approached from that gave him a split second in which to jump up and grab the gun.
With the Globe reporting, Dennis D. Driscoll of Boston, secretary treasurer of the Massachusetts state branch, was wounded by a ball, which struck him above the left temple and took a lateral course along the skull, lodging in the bony structure at the back of his head.
Arthur M. Huddle of Chelsea, ex president of the Boston Central Labor Union and New England, organizer of the Steam Engineer’s union, the third member of the party, saved himself by his own presence of mind and courage,
and unquestionably prevented the infliction of a fatal wound upon Mr Driscoll by seizing the arm of the maniac as he pulled the trigger,
the insane man would have added to the list of victims had it not been for the courage of Mr Huddle, who first pounced upon him.
Charles S. Groves, private secretary to the governor, who random, Mr Huddles Assistance General Joe Fanis H.
Whitney, chief of the state police, who sees Steele from behind and Governor Guild, who rushed upon the scene in time to assistant wrenching the revolver from the maniacs hand.
Mr Huddell had a long flesh wound on the left cheek received either by the ball, which struck Mr Driscoll or by the revolver.
During the struggle, which followed the seizure of Steele by the heroic Mr Huddle.

[16:38] Governor Guild heard the shots but didn’t realize what was happening for a few moments.
By the time he ran out to join the fray, all three union organizer’s were bleeding from head wounds.
Two of them are unconscious on the floor, and one of them appeared to be dead, he told the press.
I was in my executive office with an official delegation from Providence.
We heard two or three noises that sounded like heavy books falling, but paid no attention to them until my door burst open and someone shouted that murder was being committed.
I rushed into Mr Hamlin’s room As I passed through the door, I saw the struggle and confused massive men in the outer waiting room.
I ran there and saw Mr Huddled, General Whitney and Secretary Groves struggling with a man masters huddling, groves holding him while General Whitney was handcuffing him.
I saw Mr Cohen and Mr Driscoll prostate on the floor, bleeding from wounds in their heads, even as he was wrestled to the grisly floor next to the two men he had just shot.
Steele continued to believe that the gun he bought that morning was faulty in some way.
It hadn’t shot through a solid block of wood, and now he insisted.
Then I shot at them, and the last shot I fired didn’t even penetrate the man’s head but fell to the floor. That shows what kind of a gun they sold me.

[17:53] The shot, which Steele referred to, was aimed at Mr Huddle but merely grazed his cheek and striking the wall about 10 ft away from where he was struggling with. Steele rebounded across the room and was later picked up on the floor, fully 20 ft from the spot where Steele stood.

[18:09] Even as he was dragged away, Steele insisted that the block of wood would exonerate him.
Just as he was being led away. Steele cried out for his defense and for his hat, which he had lost during the encounter.
You’ll find a stick of wooden there, he said. That’s my defense. That will show that I shot in self defense.
He referred to a short piece of wood into which he had evidently fired one bullet, for there was a blackened hole in the steak that would have fallen from his overcoat pocket during the struggle.
Get that piece of wood! That’s my defense. That will show that they fired the first shot. I only fired in self defense.

[18:48] But just as quickly as he brought up the trick gun, Steele story shifted to his crotch against the governor for being kept in a state hospital against his will.
I tell you that I have a grievance. They were keeping me in that asylum when I was not insane.
I wanted to get square, and I came to the State House to shoot the governor.

[19:07] A state police officer who questioned him later that day confirmed that Steele story shifted with the winds.
There was nothing definite about the man’s grievance, as he called it, said Deputy Neil.
Part of the time. He asserted that it was his unjust confinement in the insane hospital, and another times it appeared that he was enraged because he believed he had been sold inferior weapon by a dealer.
I cannot tell whether he thought he was being persecuted had merely been defrauded anyway.
He is insane and could not make a rational statement.

[19:40] As soon as James Steele was handcuffed, Governor Guild turned his attention to the wounded men on his office floor.
Guilt told the Globe how he summoned State House physicians who administer first aid to the wounded men, then arranged for them to be whisked off to MGH immediately.
I had every available person running to the offices in the State House where there are doctors on duty and that no time might be lost in securing the services of physicians. Several doctors in the vicinity of the State House were summoned by telephone.
Ambulances were also sent for while the surgeons were giving first aid, the Massachusetts General Hospital, which is the nearest to the State House, was telephone, too.
And his major Washburn, formerly of the sixth Massachusetts Regiment, who had great experience in gunshot in bullet wounds, was on duty at that hospital.
We decided to send the wounded down there.
Major Washburn made all the preparations for their reception before they arrived.

[20:34] Mr. Cohen, it was immediately seen, was the more seriously injured and was attended to by Dr Cop, who was the first physician to arrive almost within a minute after the shooting.
Mr. Huddle, Secretary Groves, Mr. Southworth Messenger. McDonald and I endeavored to do what we could for Mr Driscoll doctors. Green and Harrington arrived soon, and then the physicians assumed full charge of the cases until the first ambulance arrived.
When Mr Cohen was taken to the hospital in it, accompanied by doctors, cop and green, Mr Driscoll went in the second ambulance with the other physicians.
Mr. Driscoll was fully conscious at the hospital. He talked rationally and gave me a message to convey to his wife and Children just prior to being ether rise for the examination and operation at the hospital.

[21:22] While they are waiting for the ambulances to arrive, Governor Guild placed pillows under the wounded men’s heads and attempted to wipe the blood away from Cohen’s face and keep his wounds clean.
Driscoll regained consciousness at some point, began asking to be taken to his mother’s house, So Guild also attempted to keep him calm.
The governor got in the ambulance with Cohen and remained at the hospital until both men were out of surgery.
He then comforted Cohen’s wife and eight Children and invited them all to spend the night with his family.
When the governor returned to his office the next morning, it must have come as a shock to see little in the way of evidence that it had been a charnel house.
Just 18 hours before the day after the shooting, the Globe reported little visible evidence of the shooting and struggle remained when the executive department was open to the public. As usual yesterday morning.
At the head of the private stairway leading to the governor’s apartments was the mark left by the wild bullet in the painted wall.
The green carpet on the floor of the outside chamber showed the marks of the scrubbing it have received to remove the bloodstains.
And vigorous though the efforts evidently were, they proved not perfectly effective that next morning Steele was taken before the municipal court for arraignment.
Edward Cohen was still clinging to life, and doctors were only giving Dennis Driscoll a 50 50 chance of surviving.
Given the circumstances, he was charged with assault with intent to kill. He asked if he could speak, and Judge Eli allowed it.

[22:49] Well, there are extenuating circumstances in this case. Are the witnesses here? I want to see them.
I do not know. The men named in this complaint am guilty, Your Honor, with extenuating circumstances.
I do not know the names of them and I shot. If there is any lawyer present or any honest man, I would like to have him defending.

[23:10] When word came in that Cohen had died at 10 20 that morning, bail was set at $100,000 at the time the largest set municipal court.
The case was continued for a week to give the prosecution time to file murder charges.

[23:24] On December 13, James Steele was back in court, this time to be arraigned for the murder of Edward Cohen.
Without much ado, the judge moved the entire case to the Superior Court.

[23:37] Everyone agreed that James A. Steele, it’s shot Edward Cohen and Dennis Driscoll.
Not even Steele himself denied that the case would hinge on his mental health and whether he was considered competent to stand trial.
Certainly there was reason for doubt based on his past history, one of the wire service stories says. Danvers, Mass.
John A. Steele was an inmate in the state insane hospital in this town for three months up to November 13th last.
On that day, he was released on parole, the institutions officials believing that he had shown almost positive signs of recovery.
He was transferred to this hospital from the State Insane Hospital at Westboro.
Officials of the local institutions stated tonight that Steele never showed any signs of violence while he was here.
He was transferred here at his own request, being dissatisfied with his treatment at Westboro, where he was committed several years ago.

[24:31] Before his commitment, he had worked in a machine shop and as an insurance agent. He is 37 years old.
Here is a released on parole at the request of his mother, Mrs Jane Steele of Everett.
During his confinement at Westboro, he was released on parole several times on such occasions, working for various persons in giving no trouble.
While here, Steele always denied that he was insane.
But he told the officials of certain thoughts he had which might be called delusions and said that if they thought these really were delusions, he would guard against them in the future and not think of them as facts.
His insanity, as Faras known here, did not take the form of believing he had enemies.

[25:12] A different wire service report contradicts the conclusion that Steele didn’t believe he had enemies with an extensive letter writing campaign, revealing that he blamed the Commonwealth’s executive for his unjust incarceration between September of last year.
In July of the present year Steele wrote nine letters and postal is to Attorney General Malone and nearly all of which he complained that he’d been committed to the Westboro hospital without a trial and requesting Mr Malone to secure his release.
In one of the letters, he told Mr Malone that he should hold him personally responsible for any failure to get his rights.
A reference to Governor Guild was also made in one of the letters, but Mr Malone said it was of no importance.

[25:52] Upon further investigation. It also turned out that steals history of mental health crises stretched much further.
Back in time, a reporter for The Boston Globe discovered that he’d been treated after a violent outburst in 18 98 while he was on active duty with the Massachusetts National Guard.

[26:09] When the Spanish American War broke out, Steele was a member of the fifth Regiment and company L. Of Maldon.
Under captain Cutting, and with his company, he was sent to Pennsylvania to await orders to go to the front.
It was while the company was at Camp Meade that he developed his first symptoms of insanity while on guard duty. One night, he had delusions that one of the century’s was talking about him.
He thereupon assaulted this century and attended to shoot him.
He was prevented from doing this, however, and was immediately sent to Washington, where he was placed in an insane asylum.
After spending some time there, he was considered cured and was given an honorable discharge from the service and went home alone.
About five years ago, he suddenly developed suicidal tendencies, and it was found necessary to place him in an insane hospital, he was sent the Westboro.
We remained for some time, and he outgrew his suicidal mania.
The doctors at Westboro State that at different periods during his confinement at that institution, Steele was irritable and at times violent, although he never inflicted serious injury on anyone.
While there, he suffered from the delusion that he was being persecuted. On several occasions, he was permitted to return home on probation, but each time it was found necessary to send him back to the institution.

[27:29] A brief court blotter report in the Globe in August 1905 notes that a John A. Steele was appealing a charge of receiving stolen property.
So perhaps those psychotic episodes weren’t the only issue Steele had with the law.

[27:44] A report ordered by the governor was published in February 1908,
Concluding that steals doctors hadn’t investigated the circumstances of his 18 98 discharged from the Army thoroughly enough, and they had relied too heavily on his mother’s ability to control him when recommending his release into her care.

[28:02] While the investigation of James Steele proceeded, so did the funeral planning for Edward Cohen.
Mayor Honey Fitz Fitzgerald offered a Have Cohen’s body lie in state in the alderman’s chambers in City Hall, the Old City Hall on School Street that ISS.
But the family in the union politely declined.
Instead, he would lie in state at Wells Memorial Hall in Washington Street, the center of Boston’s labor movement, On December 8th, over 12,000 people, including the mayor and the governor, braved in all day line to pay their tributes to the fallen leader.
After a full day of lying in state, the coffin was closed and accompanied by an honor guard of union members to South Station, where was loaded onto a New York bound train.
The burial was overseen by the sons of Benjamin at Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn.

[28:52] As soon as the news of Cohen’s death became public, messages of support rolled in from labor organizations around the state and around the country.
Samuel Gompers, the world famous organizer and president of the American Federation of Labor, sent his condolences to the widow, Mrs Edward Cohen, 15 Ingle Street Lynn.
I am in expressively shocked at the cutting down of your dear husband, my lifelong friend,
I am conscious of how far short is any expression of condolence to assuage your great loss and deep sufferings, and yet permit me to offer my sincerest expression of sympathy to you and your fatherless Children.
Labor and humanity have been bereft of a staunch and faithful advocate sincerely, Samuel Gompers.

[29:39] Meanwhile, every labor and trade union in the Commonwealth put out a statement of support.
So the statement of the mass chapter of the NFL can stand in for all of therm,
whereas Edward Cohen, president of the Massachusetts State branch of the A F of L and an ex delegate of this body, has passed away to the great beyond at the hands of an irresponsible individual and dynasty.
Driscoll, secretary of the branch and an officer of this organization, lies at present in a critical condition at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
It behooves us, their associates and co laborers in the labor movement at this time to convey to the family of our deceased brother and the wife of Comrade Driscoll our sorrow for the loss of one and our hopes for the recovery of the other,
brother, Cohen was a good trades unionist, hence a good husband, father and citizen as men and officers.
They were a credit to organized labor and the community in which they lived honest, sincere and devoted to the uplifting of humanity.
We miss them, therefore be it resolved by the representatives of labor, that while we bow to the will of an almighty father and while we deplore the loss of one, we pray for the recovery of the other and thank God for sparing the life of brother Huddle.

[30:54] Even as the city mourned the death of Edward Cohen, good news came in regarding the state of Dennis Driscoll’s recovery.
The December 10th Globe reported that Driscoll’s injuries have been worse than originally reported, requiring multiple surgeries to remove all the bullet fragments from his head.
However, he was conscious he could speak and write, and he knew that it was Election Day and was sorry that he was unable to vote.
Finally, about six weeks after Cohen’s funeral, James steals trial commenced.
A crucial part of the trial was steals examination by two alien ists, the term then for a forensic psychologist.
Dr. George Jelly and Dr Henry Stedman both spoke with the prisoner while he was confined first of Bridgewater State Hospital and then at the Charles Street Jail.
Their findings were announced on January 16th.
Steadman concluded. I have examined John A. Steele as to a sanity and find he is suffering from pronounced delusional insanity of a chronic form with homicidal manifestations.

[31:57] Dr. Jelly concurred. But when it’s Farrah speculating that the prisoners condition might be incurable,
Steele manifested a great deal of excitement and as a result of my examination, I am clearly of the opinion that he is insane and subject to delusions that make him dangerous to others.
I believe that he was so at the time of the homicide that he is suffering from a form of mental disease which, while it may have periods of amelioration, is incurable.

[32:24] Jelly also included a long passage from Steele indicating a state of mind in my mind, this is a conspiracy to send me to the insane asylum.
I had been badgered and tantalized there I was the victim of telepathy in mind transference.
I was subject to medicine. Put in my food wherever I waas. There were people whom I had met before who were put their toe Watch me.
If I have a chance, I can prove it. I think the institution is a private hospital run by actors.
I think this is a conspiracy to send me off without a trial to Bridgewater for life.

[32:58] All I have against the governor is that he would not investigate the complaint I made.
I went to the State House to demonstrate the worthlessness of the revolver. I never saw Cohen before.
I wanted to make a sensation and have my case taken into court.
The shots wouldn’t penetrate the wood 1/8 of an inch. I shot it three men, but I do not admit they were seriously injured.
I claim I am the greatest experiment in Boston. The merest novice can influence me. Everyone can read my mind.
I believe when the pistol was bought, people could read my thoughts.
I went back to the store with the evidence that it was worthless. I got no address and I made up my mind to make a sensation.
I did not think I would make much of one. I thought it was a farce.
I had nothing against these men except that it would bring me within the pale of the law.
I would have a hearing hoof before the end of the day. Steele would be ordered to be confined in Bridgewater until he could be proven competent to stand trial, which was essentially a life sentence.

[34:00] From that moment, he essentially disappears from the record, with his life being summed up in the 1908 annual report of the Board of Prison Commissioners.
In one sentence on January 15th, 1908 the defendant was adjudged insane and was committed to the state asylum for insane criminals.

[34:19] 12 weeks after James Steele shot him in the head, Dennis Driscoll made his first public appearance despite still suffering damage to his vision and significant hearing loss.
In the afternoon of February 28th, he made his way to the State House unannounced.
Upon presenting himself with the door. He was quickly ushered into the governor’s ante chamber, where he past the spot where he and Cohen had been shot.
Hearing of his arrival, Governor Guild came out to greet him, and Driscoll said, Well, I’m not dead yet governor.
The two men went into the governor’s private office to talk for a few minutes, and while they did, word spread through the State House that the wounded leader was back.
When he turned to leave, Driscoll found that the corridors were lined with well wishers had come out of every department to meet him, and before leaving, he sang their bosses praises.

[35:10] Three weeks ago, my physician told me I could go out, but I waited until I felt stronger.
I determined that when I did go out, my first visit would be the Governor Guild, whom I never can and never will forget.

[35:24] Driscoll would live another 18 years spending much of that time is the city’s deputy institutions commissioner Ah position. He was originally appointed to buy Honey Fitz after attending the theater one evening in March 1925.
He felt indigestion the next morning over breakfast and died soon after, probably of a heart attack.
Arthur Huddle, whose quick thinking saved his own life, and Driscoll when he grabbed steals gun hand in 1907 was the victim of another shooting.
In 1931 while serving as president of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Huddell took a lunch meeting with two other officials in his union and May of that year at a restaurant, 1/10 and K Street in Washington, D. C.
Man, perhaps a disgruntled union member, walked up to them and opened fire with a handgun.
Frank Langdon, editor of the union newspaper, was killed.
Arthur Huddell was miraculously spared when a notebook he was carrying this breast pocket stopped the bullet that otherwise would have struck him in the heart.
In a cruel twist of fate, he died two weeks later of pneumonia, which was brought on by a stroke, which was in turn, his doctors believed, triggered by the stress of the shooting.

[36:38] As each of the men had been involved in. The State House shooting eventually passed away.
The event was mentioned as a point of interest in their obituaries, but otherwise it quickly faded from memory.
The walls were patched up, the bloodstains were scrubbed out of the carpets, and a state police bodyguard was added to the governor’s outer office.
And soon the shooting was mostly for gotten.

[37:00] Labor leaders remembered, however, on by the turn of the millennium, they were advocating for a commemoration of Edward Cohen and has worked to implement factory safety standards, restrict child labor and enact an early form of workers.
Comp and August 29th 1999 Article in the Boston Globe described the shooting for a new generation of readers, and it detailed the efforts of the Massachusetts chapter of the A, F, L, C.
I. O, and labor historians at U Mass. Amherst, to get legislation passed that would place a plaque at the State House in Cohen Zahner.
A decade later, the monument was finally unveiled in a ceremony on September 21st 2000 and nine.
The large bronze plaque traces the history of the labor movement in Massachusetts, showing marchers representing different labor struggles, including the bread and roses strike.
The Massachusetts governor, or at least a figure representing an amalgam of several of them, is pictured at his desk signing three bills.
I’m 1911 Act Relating to Employees Injuries. A 1913 act regulating the labor of miners in a 2006 act.
Increasing the minimum wage in the bottom corner of the Placa figures shown holding a newspaper.
And the front page has a portrait of Edward Cohen and a story about his life and death.

[38:16] At the unveiling, representative Stephen Walsh of Lin spoke along with Secretary of State Bill Galvin and Robert Haynes, the president of the Massachusetts A F L C I o. Who said.
We’re constantly in that anti room. It’s pretty powerful to me that the guy who had my job was murdered right there 100 years ago for every state rep to see this as they walk by to remind them of working families and labor.
What a powerful, powerful statement.

[38:46] Toe. Learn more about the State House shooting. Check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 209 I’ll have plenty of articles about the incident from the Boston Globe and the national press, perhaps too many articles.
I’ll also have a Boston Globe diagram of the shooting scene, as well as Portrait’s of most of the main players this week.
I also a hat tip to James Hourigan, whose 2007 article Cold case in Commonwealth magazine first brought this shooting to my attention.
I’ll link to that article is well, before I let you go, I have some recent listener feedback to share.
First up is a post Halloween thread we got tagged into on Twitter by the Boston Preservation Alliance. Young Advisors didn’t get enough Halloween.
We sure didn’t hold on to your broomsticks and pointy hats is you read how young adviser Amanda Sanders found this mysterious shoe in her 18 sixties Victorian Mansour’s house.
Just wait until you hear why it was put there.

[39:48] We bought the house in 2015, and it was in desperate need of repair.
We started working on demo, assumes we closed with the help of friends and family.
In the process, we removed one of two chimneys, the one that had served the original stove in the kitchen, which had been removed.
When we opened up the walls, we found holes where the stove a connected to the chimney to vent out the roof. In one of the holes, we found several items, but the most peculiar was a single men’s shoe.
This is always struck me as odd. It wasn’t until I heard the Hub history podcast episode on Puritan counter magic that I learned the shoe might have had some other purpose.
It turns out that well worn shoes were often placed in chimneys and near fireplaces to ward off. Which is the premise was that a woman made could not get into a house building to Steele your essence through a locked door window.
But chimneys allow easy access, apparently, which is can’t fly backwards.
So the idea was that they would be attracted to the essence of the man’s shoo fly down into it and get trapped for eternity.

[40:50] New listener Lisa heard our show about Dr Rebecca Crumpler, the first black woman to earn a medical degree in the us and commented.
I am so impressed with Hub history, the message in the content.
Currently, I’m trying to establish similar efforts with black lives in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where I was born and raised.
I want to take more ownership of my rich history that I walk by every day and use it to create a deep discussion about how black lives and other marginalized communities lived in the Lower East Side.
If you’re in NYC or the El Es, keep an eye out for Lisa.
She has ideas for podcasts, tour school programs and a whole lot more.

[41:32] After we mentioned a ghost that haunted the Boston Athenaeum in our Halloween episode, Tracy V. Wilson of Stuff You Missed in History commented.
What? Well, now I simultaneously wish I could go to the Athenaeum because maybe there’s a ghost in there and I’m relieved I can’t go to the Athenaeum because maybe there’s a ghost in there.
And the Athenaeum responded to point out that the haunting took place in their former building on Pearl Street, not in their current location abutting the granary burying ground on Beacon Hill.

[42:02] When I announced changes to the format and frequency of this podcast, Tim tweeted at us to say, excited for the changes you’ve announced.
I think you’ve thought things out quite well.
Firm believer that Shorter is better.
Glad to know that it will allow you more balance in your life.
Thanks, Tim. I need it.

[42:22] Listener Terri recently discovered this show and emailed I wanted a break from all the politics and drama something easy to listen to, but still informative. And you do a good job with it.
I wish you the best is you move the show forward and I’ll keep listening.
Longtime friend of the show. Rose also wrote into comment on our format changes, saying, I’m pleased that you’ve made the transition.
I enjoyed you North and Tunnels Talk at Old North The talk was great, fun and full of information. New to me.
Take care and thank you for all you’ve done for public history in Boston, a big thank you to everyone who wrote in and wasn’t mad about the move to twice monthly My sanity needs.

[43:05] We love getting listener feedback, whether it’s because you think you’ve found evidence of counter magic or just to tell us that we’re not spoiling the show by changing the schedule, I’m always open to hearing your episode suggestions, factual corrections and alternate sources that I might have missed.
If you’d like to leave us some feedback on this episode or any other, you can email us at podcast that Hub history.
Com We’re hub history on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Or you could go toe hub history dot com and click on the Contact US link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode.
If you subscribe on apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do, drop us a line and we’ll send you a hub history stickers, a token of appreciation, that’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.

Music