UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 
 AT URBANACHAMPAIGN 
 
 ^^^J^i2roia 
 
 HISTORICAL SURVEY 
 
 t^mm
 
 I 
 
 Life and Exploits 
 
 of 
 
 S. Glenn Young 
 
 WORLD-FAMOUS LAW 
 ENFORCEMENT OFFICER 
 
 Compiled by a friend and admirer from 
 data furnished by the hero, with the 
 exception of the last chapter which was 
 completed by another of the hero's inti- 
 mate friends. Dedicated to his beloved 
 and martyred wife, Mrs. S. Glenn Young. 
 
 Published by 
 MRS. S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 HERRIN, ILLINOIS
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Foreword _ 5 
 
 The Man from Kansas _ 9 
 
 Texas Thrills with the Rangers 19 
 
 Muskogee and the Little "Traveling Salssman" 25 
 
 The Tale of Three Du Quoin Bandits 29 
 
 The Famous Crawley Coup 32 
 
 Glenn Attacks the "Bad Jim" Rosa Gang 39 
 
 The Carnahans _ 45 
 
 Hunting Uncle Sam's Deserters with "Pal" 47 
 
 A Mountaineer's Word is Good 58 
 
 The Luke Vukovic Affair 62 
 
 The Gregorys of Pope County 67 
 
 Williamson County 77 
 
 The Herrin Massacre _ 88 
 
 Raid Conditions in Williamson County 91 
 
 The Misrepresentative Press 98 
 
 The Story of the Raids 107 
 
 Another Big Saturday Night Raid 117 
 
 February the Eighth — Act 1 — The Kidnapping 137 
 
 Act 2— The Murder of Caesar Cagle 146 
 
 Act 3 — The Herrin Hospital Barracks 157 
 
 Bowen and the Bonds 163 
 
 The Tragedy of the Okaw Bottoms 177 
 
 Closing Tributes 191 
 
 Basic Causes of Lawlessness _ 196 
 
 Klan Principles Are American and Christian 206 
 
 The Last Chapter 213 
 
 Leaders of Opposing Factions Meat 229 
 
 Order of Funeral Service of S. Glenn Young 239 
 
 F\ineral Rites for S. Glenn Young 240 
 
 More Details of Funeral 24i 
 
 Obituary 251 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Page 
 
 S. Glenn Young as a Governmsnt S=?cret Service Agent 3 
 
 The Slain Officer a Few Weeks Before His Death 8 
 
 Williamson County Court House, Marion, 111 14 
 
 S. Glenn Young as a College Student 24 
 
 "Pal," Companion of S. Glenn Young 48 
 
 "Pal" as a Pack Animal _ 51 
 
 Park Avenue, Herrin, Looking North 76 
 
 Herrin City Hall 80 
 
 Giant Steam Shovel 89 
 
 Funeral of Three Union Minei-s 90 
 
 S. Glenn Young Armed anJ Equipped 108 
 
 Black Hospital, Henin _ 138 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Youn-^ and Their Lincoln Car 176 
 
 Son of S. Glenn Young _ 179 
 
 Maude Simcox Young. "Taken Since Blinded 181 
 
 Herrin Street Scene, Showing European Hotel 225 
 
 Soldiers Guarding Canary Cigar Store 230 
 
 First Baptist Church, Herrin 238 
 
 Body of Young, Lyi.ng in State 244 
 
 Mrs. S. Glenn Young Sitting at Head of Casket 248 
 
 La.st Resting Place of S. Glenn Young 253
 
 Glenn Yoong, 1918, as He Appeared when Operating: as a Government 
 Secret Service Agent in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
 
 MAY every red blooded man 
 and woman who loves Amer- 
 ica above every land, and is willing 
 to pay upon the fields of war or 
 peace the price required for the 
 maintenance of her liberty, her 
 institutions, and her glory, find in 
 the self-sacrificing efforts of S. 
 Glenn Young new inspiration to 
 carry on.
 
 ^ 
 
 13 
 
 Y76 
 
 ^ FOREWORD 
 
 ^ <<^ IKE chapters from the wildest tales of frontier 
 
 •S I days when life was cheap and handling a shoot- 
 
 ^ ■'^^ ing iron was the first law of preservation ; like 
 
 ^ stories of the Wild West, where a sheriff held his job 
 
 • because he was quicker on a trigger than the outlaws 
 
 ^ with whom he had to deal, and where nerve and a stiff 
 
 f^ spine were the first requisites in the triumph of jus- 
 tice — such is the history of S. Glenn Young." 
 
 Thus wrote a contributor to the Washington Post, 
 and the author of this volume believes that his readers 
 will agree completely with the quotation when they 
 have read the story of him whom I shall memorialize 
 in the chapters which follow. The exploits of the hero 
 have been so thrilling that they do not require the 
 embellishment of literary art. Their interest could 
 scarcely be enhanced by the garnishment of fiction, so 
 I have set them down as they actually occurred. 
 
 In launching this volume upon the sea of public 
 opinion, the writer seeks to acquaint the American 
 people with the work of some of their undecorated 
 heroes, undecorated except for scars such as S. Glenn 
 Young bears upon his person as life tokens of bravery 
 and fidelity to duty. My chief puiT)ose, however, is to 
 make known the ungarbled facts about Young and the 
 Ku Klux Klan through whom Williamson County, Illi-
 
 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 nois, has become a vastly different and better place in 
 which to live. I am hopeful that through the media of 
 these pages I may succeed in removing many false 
 ideas, and that the citizenship of this county will be 
 seen in a better and truer light than the press of 
 America has ever permitted the public to see them. 
 
 I AM NOT A MEMBER OF THE KU KLUX KLAN. 
 A few months ago I was strongly opposed to that 
 organization. Fed very largely by infomiation chan- 
 neled through newspapers and periodicals strongly 
 tinged with prejudice against the secret organization, 
 I naturally partook of that prejudice, and had much to 
 say about "race hatred", ''religious intolerance", and 
 "the orderly process of law". 
 
 Today I am entirely disillusioned in regard to the 
 alleged teaching of the great American organization. 
 I have come to know that "race hatred" and "religious 
 intolerance" have no place in the hearts of true Klans- 
 men, and that they are sincerely anxious and willing to 
 work through the orderly processes of law wherever 
 they exist. I am fully persuaded that the principles 
 espoused by the Klan are of the highest, and that con- 
 ditions which have developed in our American life have 
 demanded just such an organization of red blooded men 
 to bring about those drastic changes which must be 
 effected. America must be saved and saved today from 
 those malign and subtle influences which threaten to 
 rob her of much of the strength and glory which have 
 characterized her in former years, and I believe she 
 will be saved, for we are seeing today a new birth of 
 patriotism. 
 
 Certain am I of this, that in spite of all which a sub- 
 sidized press can say to the contrary, the work in
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 Williamson County under the leadership of Young and 
 the Klan, has been greatly worth while, and that if the 
 great and growing organization can produce elsewhere 
 such healthy changes as have been and ^vill be secured 
 in this Illinois county, it will go down to history as one 
 of the very greatest organizations of patriotism and 
 reform that has ever exercised itself in our American 
 commonwealth. 
 
 That no mistakes have been made, I do not affirm. 
 They were made in France even by the Y. M. C. A. That 
 some unworthy men hide and operate behind the Klan 
 paraphernalia I do not deny. But as I am hardly simple 
 enough to repudiate the American Army, or to dis- 
 credit its work because there were some crooks in that 
 army, neither am I willing to repudiate the Klan or to 
 discredit its work in Williamson County because all 
 men in the organization are not 100 per cent. 
 Williamson County, Illinois, July 17, 1924. 
 
 VERITAS.
 
 The slain oflBcer as he appeared a few weeks before his death, showing the 
 pearl-handled automatic which S. Glenn Young used to avenge his own death! 
 
 Men Wanted! 
 
 "God give us men. A time like this demands 
 
 Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands : 
 
 Men whom the lust of office does not kill ; 
 
 Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy ; 
 
 Men who possess opinions and a will ; 
 
 Men who have honor — men who will not lie; 
 
 Men who can stand before a demagogue 
 
 And scorn his treacherous flatteries without winking; 
 
 Tall men sun-crowned, who live above the fog 
 
 In public duty, and in private thinking." 
 
 xA.non.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 THE MAN FROM KANSAS 
 
 I FEEL like introducing the hero of my story some- 
 thing in the manner of the colored gentleman over 
 in Hoboken, N. Y., who was introducing to a negi'o 
 audience the white speaker of the evening, and gar- 
 nished his introductory remarks with that eloquence 
 of which colored speakers are so often capable. It was 
 somewhat in this fashion that the amused pale face 
 was presented to the cloud of witnesses and auditors : — 
 
 ''Ladies and gentlemen, this heah man that's come 
 to speak to youse is a great man; he's a won'erful 
 orator. This heah man that's about t'arise and address 
 you niggers is known all de way frum the horizon to 
 the hosettin' an' from Hoboken to hosannah on high." 
 
 There is a mystic something in the human heart 
 which calls for adventure, something that will not be 
 satisfied with the tame, the safe, the commonplace or 
 the humdrum; there is something that longs for the 
 difficult, that which is full of risk and absorbing. 
 
 Perhaps it was this ''call of the wild" that led 
 George B. Young, father of the hero of this record, to 
 the plains of Northwestern Kansas over a half century 
 ago, there to engage in the adventurous life of a ranch- 
 man in the days when the western frontier was still, 
 "wild and w^ooly", officers of the law few and far be- 
 tween, and each ranch a miniature arsenal. In addition 
 to his ranch activities the elder Young was a United
 
 10 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 States Marshal, in which branch of service he won 
 considerable distinction for bravery and achievement. 
 
 In speaking of his father, now a resident of Oregon, 
 S. Glenn Young pays high and tender tribute to his 
 character. **My father's reputation for honesty and 
 fair dealing with his fellow men w^as perfect. Although 
 he did not attend church regularly, he endeavored al- 
 ways to practice the golden rule, and though a ranch- 
 man and thrown in contact with men who were very 
 rough, a profane word was not in his vocabulary. He 
 did not know the taste of liquor or tobacco, and his 
 morals were of the highest. My mother was the first 
 and only sweetheart he had, and to her he was loyalty 
 itself until she passed away in eighteen ninety-two. In 
 ninety-four he married again, and his life with this 
 splendid woman was a joy until she died something 
 over a year ago. I do not believe that one hundred 
 years v;ill wipe out in Western Kansas my father's 
 reputation for honesty and square dealing with every 
 one with v/hom he came into contact." To that fine 
 tribute to a worthy sire he adds these words; "In 
 every task that I have undertaken I have always car- 
 ried uppermost in my mind his teachings — honesty, 
 loyalty, morality, sobriety, and when in the right 
 never to give up; and I am proud to say that I have 
 never seen the time when I have violated any of his 
 teaching along those lines". 
 
 It was at Long Island in the ''sunflower state" just 
 a trifle under forty years ago that Glenn Young first 
 looked out upon life — life destined to be so full for him 
 of the spirit, the dangers and the tragedies of the early 
 plains. Here amidst the risk, the charm and the wild- 
 ness of the shimmering prairies, surrounded perpet-
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 11 
 
 ually by the innumerable sights and sounds of the 
 prairie vastness, and by the silences that brood in its 
 depths, he spent the first nineteen years of his spectac- 
 ular career. 
 
 There, like all other boys reared on the ranch, it 
 was his duty to feed and herd cattle. The family owned 
 and fed each year from five hundred to one thousand 
 head of Texas steers, driven in or shipped from the 
 Panhandle country. At eight years of age Glenn 
 herded several hundred head of cattle for a neighbor 
 rancher and received the munificent sum of thirty 
 cents a day for twelve hours work. Sometimes these 
 cattle would stampede, and all the lad could do was to 
 ride as fast as his pony could run and get aw^ay from 
 in front of them. From the age of seven to twenty- 
 one he almost lived in a saddle, and reports have it 
 that he could ride a bronk or steer as well as any one 
 in that country. 
 
 Oflficers being few on those Kansas prairies, men 
 very frequently settled matters with guns or fists. 
 When men held a grudge against each other, if it was 
 not a shooting matter, the men walked to the middle 
 of the street and there fought until one or the other 
 was exhausted, but seldom if ever did a man admit 
 that he was whipped. Glenn says, "I remember well, 
 and carry still, many scars from such a fight I had 
 with a boy at Long Island. I w^as seventeen years old 
 and he nineteen. He weighed about twenty pounds 
 more than I. We had been carrying a grudge for some 
 time, and we decided to fight it out in the street. We 
 met about eight o'clock and were fighting after ten. 
 We would fight until we were exhausted and the men 
 would pull us away. After resting for ten minutes we
 
 12 LIFE AX D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 would start again. We fought this way for over two 
 hours. My opponent grew his nails long and sharp 
 for several weeks purposely, and at every opportunity 
 he dug them into my face until there was not an un- 
 marred place on it. Every inch of my body was bat- 
 tered and blue. My father had always taught his 
 boys that when one is in the wrong, to admit defeat 
 promptly, but when in the right to admit it never and 
 to fight until the end. We fought until the end, and 
 when in the right, I have tried to do so ever since." 
 
 That heredity and environment are potent factors 
 in moulding and shaping the life all are agreed. That 
 they exercised great influence in detemiining the life 
 work of S. Glenn Young as a law enforcement officer 
 there can be no question. His expert use of firearms 
 is an inherent qualification, he, in a sense, having been 
 born with a pistol in his hand instead of the proverbial 
 ^'silver spoon" in his mouth. There on the Kansas 
 prairies the boy had ample opportunity to develop skill 
 with those weapons which have since saved his own 
 life many times, and served well in the protection of 
 society against the depredations of desperate men who 
 feared nothing in earth, heaven or hell, and kept their 
 communities in constant terror by day and night. 
 
 Back there on the rolling plains of Northwestern 
 Kansas, Glenn laid well the necessary physical founda- 
 tion for his future exacting sei'vice, and learned much 
 about the life and methods of the outlaw, so many of 
 whom were to later know the superiority of his mind, 
 alacrity and skill. 
 
 If there is one thing in particular that a man learns 
 in the Ranch University it is to dominate the environ- 
 ment with its natural difficulties, to adapt himself to
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 circumstances with instant decision and fearless action. 
 Glenn Young learned those lessons well, and that bit 
 of schooling has been a great asset in a host of thrill- 
 ing expediences since those days down among the cat- 
 tlemen of Kansas, the tang of which has ever been with 
 him. 
 
 If you think that these rough experiences in the 
 school of nature was the only schooling Young received 
 you have never talked with him, for his speech and 
 knowledge not only indicate a good schooling, but prove 
 that since the days of graduation from high school 
 Glenn has read more than the newspapers. His con- 
 versation indicates a wide range of reading. In a 
 pleasing way he is able to converse thoughtfully on 
 many subjects of human interest, and is capable of 
 devoting his life to lines of activity demanding intelli- 
 gence of a high order. 
 
 Within the last few months I have heard a great 
 many people express the wish to meet S. Glenn Young, 
 and it was with keen anticipation that several months 
 ago I looked forward to meeting this law enforcement 
 officer who had become known all over the nation for 
 his daring and efficient work. Like thousands of others 
 I had been mindful of the work of Uncle Sam's boys 
 **Over There", but was largely ignorant of the gigantic 
 amount of important and courageous work accom- 
 plished by his skillful and daring sleuths here in 
 America. It is because we too frequently take their 
 work as a matter of course, failing to accord to them 
 that m.eed of praise which is their due, that I take 
 added pleasure in recording something of the thrilling 
 and magnificent work of Glenn Young in West Virginia, 
 Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas, and to tell the
 
 14 
 
 LIFE A X D E X FLOI T S O F 
 
 Williamson County Court House, Marion, III. 
 
 unadulterated facts about his recent service in William- 
 son County where his name and record have inspired 
 terror in the hearts of evil doers. 
 
 It was in John Whiteside's Garage, in Marion, that 
 I first met Glenn. Sam Stearns, the highest officer in 
 the Klan organization at Williamson County's seat of 
 government, being the one to introduce me to the man 
 whose life story I hoped it might be my privilege to 
 give to the world before which his enemies and an un- 
 friendly press were always traducing him. 
 
 His Williamson County enemies were eager for his 
 life. To "get Young" was the ambition of many a gun-
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 15 
 
 man both inside and outside of the county. A reward 
 had indeed been offered to the one who succeeded in 
 finishing the career of the man who threatened to finish 
 the career of the bootlegger, gambler and corrupt offi- 
 cial in the county which had become notorious through 
 their activities. Little wonder that I expected to find 
 guards standing at the door of the garage, and to be 
 seai*ched for concealed weapons. Little wonder that 
 T expected to see the famous Glenn fully armed and 
 watchful of strangers. 
 
 There were no armed guards without, and, upon 
 entering, my first impression was that there was no 
 Glenn Young within, for the only strangers there were 
 a winsome looking little woman of about twenty-five, 
 and a quiet, inoffensive looking man of forty who sat 
 next to her and perused the columns of a local news- 
 paper. I was surprised when Mr. Stearns introduced 
 me to him as the man who had come to make William- 
 son County "a safe place for democracy". Was this the 
 man whom Collier's Weekly had classed with Alvin 
 York, America's greatest hero over in France, and 
 whose great work at home during the war they had 
 compared favorably with the spectacular and heroic 
 work of Alvin York in the battle zone? Was this the 
 man whose photo has appeared so frequently in the 
 nev/spapers of some states where he has worked that 
 the people there are as familiar with it as they are with 
 those of their owti governors? 
 
 The man whom I shook hands with that afternoon 
 and have since come to know is 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 
 •weighs approximately 145 pounds, thus classifying 
 with the insurance companies as an ''average" man. 
 He is strongly built, and has slightly bowed legs, the
 
 16 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 result of much riding in the saddle. His arms are long 
 and hands well kept, with very long fingers. His eyes 
 are full orbed and of a peculiar shade of bluish gi'ay. 
 
 As you talk to him you are impressed with the 
 quality of his voice as well as the courtesy and straight- 
 forwardness of his manner. His voice is very pleasing, 
 being manly and yet tender in quality, though it can be 
 harsh on occasion with a very positive influence upon 
 law violators. His speech is delightfully free from 
 the slightest evidence of egotism or big headedness. 
 His fame as an officer of the law has had no more effect 
 upon him, it would seem, than bouquets thrown at the 
 Egyptian Sphinx. Glenn's middle name is *'Modesty". 
 The spirit of "How me an' Bill won the battle of Water- 
 loo" is foreign to him, as many a reporter has dis- 
 covered when wresting from him the story of some of 
 the exploits which have earned for him the reputation 
 of "the greatest law enforcement officer in America". 
 
 "How did j^ou do it Young?" 
 
 "Well, I just did it, that's all." 
 
 This reluctance to talk about his achievements is 
 evidenced by an excerpt from a story about him printed 
 in the Atlanta Constitution, one of the great news- 
 papers of the South, some time ago. 
 
 "How did you get that scar?" asked the reporter. 
 
 The officer grinned as he replied, "I don't like to 
 talk about such things — I didn't get it by shaving". 
 
 "Were you ever shot?" 
 
 "Yes, I think so but never fatally". 
 
 "How many men have you been forced to shoot?" 
 
 "I could not swear that I ever shot anyone. I never 
 saw a bullet hit".
 
 RAIDER B. GLEXX YOUXG 17 
 
 **How did you feel when you went to the cabin after 
 the Crawley feudists and Blaine Stewart?" 
 
 "I felt hungry", said Young, "I hadn't had a bite 
 to eat for several days." 
 
 Who can wonder that the reporter gave up, conclud- 
 ing that he had found one man who had never known 
 fear and was incapable of feeling it? 
 
 The Knoxville Times, Knoxville, Tenn., writes as fol- 
 lows: — *'The officer does not admit that he is a good 
 shot, but when he fought a revolver duel with 'Bad 
 Jim' Rose and won he confronted the best shot among 
 the mountaineers of the Blue Ridge. Rose was a sure 
 shot, and his neighbors say that Young is the only 
 man who ever made him bite the dust." 
 
 Added to the magnificent courage and splendid 
 modesty of S. Glenn Young are other qualities which 
 have deeply impressed men of high office and reputa- 
 tion in American life, as well as the host of friends in 
 humbler w^alks who have come to know^ him. 
 
 Here is a paragraph received just a day or so ago 
 from the oldest, and by many regarded as the most 
 famous secret service man in the United States, Henry 
 E. Thomas, of Charlotte, N. C. After speaking in the 
 most glowing terms of Glenn Young's work down in 
 that section during the w^ar, Mr. Thomas adds these 
 words out of years of intimate acquaintanceship, 'In 
 all the dealings that I had personally with Mr. Young 
 I found him square and honest, and unafraid. He 
 never defaulted in anything that he thought was right 
 or his duty". 
 
 Congressman W. C. Hammer, of Asheville, N. C, 
 says of him, "He is not only a man of high character
 
 18 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 and integrity, but a man of courage, absolutely fear- 
 less, yet has the necessary discretion and prudence". 
 
 C. H. Haynes, of the Department of Justice, writing 
 in the "Home Sector", pays high tribute when he says, 
 '*I have watched Young's work with interest. He is a 
 courageous man, fearless yet discreet, and the best 
 officer that I have ever known". 
 
 Many other high government officials have endorsed 
 S. Glenn Young and his work in similar statements, 
 and it is of this man, who during the war exploded 
 several plots against the United States, and brought 
 in over 1,700 army deserters who sought shelter in the 
 mountains of the South, that I will now try to tell you. 
 If you are not thrilled, as I have been, with the story 
 of his daring deeds, your pulse is a slower pulse than 
 mine. If you do not recognize in him **a real man", 
 then you are a poorer appraiser of manhood than the 
 Muskogee bully of whom I will tell you shortly, and of 
 the thousands of friends in every state of the Union 
 who have come to know him.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 19 
 
 TEXAS THRILLS WITH THE RANGERS 
 
 Well schooled in the life of the plains, strong in 
 body, an expert in the use of guns and thoroughly at 
 home in the saddle, Glenn was no tenderfoot, when at 
 the age of twenty-one, he went to the "Lone Star 
 State", and, through United States Congressman Shal- 
 lenberger, of Nebraska, secured a position on the 
 Rangers. Here he spent nearly a year, during which 
 time, he says, ''My work was a series of thrills". 
 
 In those days Texas was not as tame as it is today. 
 "Wild and Wooly" was a mild way of expressing the 
 character of the life along the border to which Young 
 was assigned. It was infested with cattle rustlers, 
 mostly greasers, and American cowpunchers who had 
 gotten in bad on this side of the line, and made their 
 headquarters south of the river. With them life was 
 an exciting game in which dodging State Rangers, 
 robbing, pillaging and killing were all in a day's work. 
 
 Glenn soon became known as "lightnin' on the 
 draw", and it was said of him that when he cut loose 
 with a gun, why "the figger on the ace of spades would 
 cover his cluster of bullet holes". Such a reputation 
 traveled rapidly ahead of a man down in that country, 
 and it was one of the safest reputations to have, for, as 
 Zane Grey has said of Texas in those days, it was "the 
 land of the draw", where among hunted men, there 
 isn't anything calculated to arouse respect like a slick 
 hand with a gun. 
 
 During the months spent in Texas there was 
 scarcely a day when Young was not in the saddle, chas- 
 ing some gang of cattle rustlers, and hardly a week
 
 20 LIFE AND EXPLOITS O F 
 
 that he did not have a run-in with some outlaws, many 
 of them hardened, coarse, ignorant and bestial men 
 who killed for the love of killing, and who stole largely 
 because they craved money to gamble and drink, men 
 who w-ere defiant of death, having no thought of a 
 world to come. 
 
 Here too, in this rendezvous of outlawed criminals, 
 he ran up against more than one defaulter, forger and 
 promoter, who had slipped in from the North, hoping 
 for safety in the Texas wilds, for which, however, many 
 of them were constitutionally unprepared. 
 
 One night, not long after becoming a "Lone Star 
 Ranger'' Young received orders, just after he had 
 ridden into the border town of Laredo, to proceed to 
 a certain place about thirty miles up the river, there 
 meet two other rangers and report with them to the 
 foreman of a certain ranch. This man was to furnish 
 them with information in regard to the whereabouts of 
 a notorious gang of cattle thieves, who had been operat- 
 ing in the district, and who but a short time before 
 had driven off about thirty head of his cattle. 
 
 Glenn says, in describing this enterprise; — ''I left 
 Loredo about dusk. Traveling steadily for three 
 hours, I came within a short distance of the place 
 where I was to meet the other officers, when suddenly 
 shots rang out. I had been fired upon by three mounted 
 men. Not being able to see who the newly met 
 strangers were I thought possibly they were officers, 
 for at that time most of us working along the border 
 were, when meeting up with rustlers, shooting first 
 and asking questions second. 
 
 "As soon as the two men took a couple of shots my 
 way they rode off to my right about one hundred yards
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 21 
 
 and pulled up. One of them hollered ^Amigo', and of 
 course I knew immediately that they were 'greasers'. 
 Having only been in the country for a short time I was 
 only acquainted with a few words of Mexican, but 
 *Amigo' happened to be one of them, so I hollered 
 'Amigo' back at them and they started to ride toward 
 me. 
 
 *'When they had covered half of the intervenmg 
 space I called, 'Halt, who are you ?' For reply they im- 
 mediately fired upon me and started away on the run. 
 I had taken my carbine from my holster and just as 
 they fired I cut loose at them. The first shot missed, 
 and I fired again. The man nearest to me fell from his 
 horse. Riding after the others as fast as my horse 
 could carry me I almost rode over the man who lay 
 stretched upon the ground. It took fully a half mile 
 of fast riding to get within range of the fleeing grea- 
 sers who were on fast mounts and were expert horse- 
 men. When I came within shooting distance I fired 
 two or three shots at the swiftly moving figures before 
 I lost them. 
 
 "Going to the appointed meeting place I met the 
 other officers and told them all that had happened. Like 
 myself they too were confident that the desperadoes 
 were the very men that we were sent to get. We im- 
 mediately proceeded to the ranch and told them what 
 had happened, and after telling the foreman about 
 my *run-in' with the greasers he and four of his cow- 
 punchers accompanied we officers to the scene of the 
 shooting. We arrived there just at daybreak and found 
 the dead greaser just where he had fallen. Upon him 
 we found two Bisley six-guns that had been stolen 
 from the ranch foreman about a year before.
 
 22 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 **From that spot we went on over a small hill in the 
 direction which the other two men had taken in their 
 flight. About half a mile beyond the place where I 
 had lost sight of them we found another greaser shot 
 through the body. He was what the boys used to call 
 a 'good greaser'. This one proved to be the ring- 
 leader of the gang we were sent to get, and had a 
 reward on his head, 'dead or alive'. 
 
 "Dividing our number we now started in every 
 direction looking for the greaser's horses. These we 
 found about a mile away. One of them was shot 
 through the rump and we killed it. The fellows all 
 had fine saddles. One of these I kept and gave another 
 to one of the cowpunchers. They all had Winchester 
 riflles 45-70's, and each two Bisley six-guns. We tied 
 one of the greasers across the front of my saddle, his 
 feet to the saddle girth on one side, and a rope around 
 his neck to the saddle girth on the other side. One of 
 the other officers did the same with the other man and 
 we took them to a rancher's abode and left them there 
 as his guests until the coroner came, and after looking 
 upon them pronounced them 'good greasers'. The 
 last I saw of them was when they were lying on the 
 ground near a couple of shovels in the hands of a couple 
 of cowpunchers. They went the way that most of the 
 cattle rustlers ultimately went in those days. 
 
 "A few days after this episode I was sent to San 
 Antonio and wasn't there two hours before a greaser 
 tried to stick a knife in me. He made a lunge at my 
 body, but I succeeded in catching his aiTn in time, 
 though not before he had tickled me with about a 
 quarter of an inch of the point. The blade struck my 
 breast bone and he then jei'ked it out and tried to re-
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 23 
 
 peat the trick, but I beat him to it. This happened in 
 front of the Buck Horn saloon, and the bartender came 
 out and invited me in to wash up. This greaser who 
 had thus attempted my life, we found later was the 
 third member of the gang that I had run in with near 
 the border a few days before. He had followed me the 
 entire distance without me once getting a sight of him. 
 
 ''From this time on to when I got a place as Deputy 
 Marshal in Oklahoma, I had about a dozen run-ins 
 with cattle thieves and the results were never fatal — 
 to me. 
 
 "I will always remember with appreciation the cow- 
 punchers whom I met while in Texas. If they were 
 
 your friend, they would go to h for you and chisel 
 
 in the door to get in. They would give a friend the 
 last cent they had in their pockets or the last drop of 
 blood in their veins. They were one hundred per cent 
 loyal to the ranch for which they were riding and would 
 fight until they died for their boss. But if you were 
 their enemy, the best thing you could do was to pull 
 stakes for you would certainly have to show your speed 
 on the draw."
 
 Photograph of S. Glenn Young, taken while a student at Marquette Medical 
 
 ColleKe.
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXN YOUNG 25 
 
 MUSKOGEE AND THE LITTLE 
 "TRAVELING SALESMAN" 
 
 ONE MORNING over in the peaceful and prosper- 
 ous town of Muskogee, an inoffensive looking 
 little traveling salesman might have been seen. 
 Other inoffensive looking little traveling salesmen had 
 come to this Oklahoma town, in fact they have been 
 making it every day for years. But this particular 
 salesman was rather unusual. He left quite an im- 
 pression in the community, especially upon one, Spec 
 Hamlin by name, who listed as a cab driver, and inci- 
 dentally a "town bully". 
 
 I don't know whether Hamlin was given the appel- 
 lation of "Spec" before or after meeting the quiet, 
 modest looking little salesman, but I have no doubt 
 that when S. Glenn Young had finished his sales talk 
 with Hamlin, the said gentleman felt more in keeping 
 with the nickname which he bore. 
 
 Behold the conqueror as he marches in triumph 
 upon his conquering way, until at an unexpected hour 
 a fledgling David appears and knocks Goliath into a 
 cocked hat. Not that this little salesman was a fledg- 
 ling. Far from it. He had been well seasoned in the 
 mountains. He was a regular dynamo of activity and 
 as strong and agile as the mountaineers with whom 
 he had tested physical prowess time and time again, 
 never failing to register a win. 
 
 On this occasion it was a deputy marshal disguised 
 as an innocent and inoffensive "drummer" who roused
 
 26 LIFE ASP EXPLOITS OF 
 
 the ever ready ire of the inflammable **Spec", bringing 
 about his downfall and a host of congratulations from 
 all sides at police headquarters for the versatile Young. 
 
 Poor defeated ''Spec". His hour had struck. His 
 wild, blood splashed career was at an end. The "town 
 bully" had taken the count. It was this way: 
 
 While entering a restaurant Glenn accidentally 
 brushed against Hamlin. Of course, from childhood up, 
 ''Spec" had always considered that a "casis belli", an 
 occasion for war, and so without waiting for prolonged 
 negotiations, he whirled around vvith an oath and said, 
 "Don't you brush against me". At the same time he 
 struck Young a stinging blow, one which would have 
 sent many men down for the count. But Glenn is 
 something above the average, and the blow didn't phase 
 him. For reply he landed a good stiff wallop between 
 the bully's eyes, felling him to the ground. The 
 doughty little officer was on top of him immediately, 
 a master of the situation, though with clothes some- 
 what crimsoned by the fountain which he had opened 
 up in his fractious foe. 
 
 Letting Hamlin rise and regain his lost equilibrium, 
 the deputy-salesman thoughtfully inquired of the 
 rather dilapidated "Spec" whether or not he had had 
 enough. He then turned to walk away, but as he did 
 so "cabby" struck him again, from behind. As Glenn 
 had only used up one punch he had two or three more 
 left for use in emergency. This seemed to be just such 
 an occasion, so he landed another gingery one on the 
 bully's carcass, again laying him close to mother earth. 
 Regaining his feet quickly, however, Hamlin drew a 
 revolver and would have soon finished the argument 
 with that weapon had not the active "salesman" taken
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 27 
 
 it promptly away from him. As he disarmed the would- 
 be-assassin, one of Hamlin's friends struck Young over 
 the head with the butt of his revolver. Glenn kept 
 working on ''Spec", however, knocked him down, 
 handed his gun back to him and told him to ''beat it". 
 
 Like a whipped cur that slinks back to its kennel 
 with its ears all a-droop and its tail between its tremb- 
 ling pedestals, "Spec" Hamlin slunk away. He had 
 established a reputation for having been arrested more 
 than any other man in Muskogee for fighting and dis- 
 turbing the peace. 
 
 It is a fairly safe guess that "Spec Hamlin" has a 
 great respect for that inoffensive looking little sales- 
 man "who happened" into town that morning, even 
 though he succeeded in disturbing his dignity and rob- 
 bing him of his fistic laurels. 
 
 Perhaps this severe licking, and the first "Spec" 
 had ever received was prophetic of his future career, 
 for his picture recently appeared in the July, 1924, num- 
 ber of McClure's Magazine, and his present address was 
 given as Atlanta, Ga., care of the State Penitentiary. 
 He is serving time for swindling a Texas gentleman, 
 who ran down and apprehended Hamlin and a score of 
 other crooks who were robbing people throughout the 
 country. 
 
 It v\'as down in this same fine State of Oklahoma, 
 where Glenn served a two year term as Deputy United 
 States Marshal, that he received the marks which bear 
 convincing testimony to the dangerous occupa- 
 tion which he has pursued. It is the jagged scar 
 across his throat, inflicted when a half-breed Indian 
 attacked him in a restaurant. He had arrested a 
 counterfeiter and put him in a calaboose at Tulsa for
 
 28 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 safe keeping. From there he went to Muskogee, the 
 scene of Hamlin's humiliation, and was sitting at a 
 table in the cafe, when Joe Lopez, a brother of the 
 half-breed counterfeiter, came in, moved stealthily over 
 behind where Glenn was sitting, and di'awing out an 
 ugly razor slashed him across the throat, all but sever- 
 ing the jugular vein. The attacking party was buried 
 on the following day. Young was taken to the hospi- 
 tal where he spent three weeks waiting until the well 
 nigh fatal wound was healed.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 29 
 
 THE TALE OF THE THREE DU QUOIN BANDITS 
 
 TO HAVE three guns of large caliber look you in 
 the face at 4:00 o'clock or any other o'clock in 
 the morning, is not an enviable experience. Most 
 of us would feel just a trifle nervous under such con- 
 ditions, and would be \\illing to make most any con- 
 cession possible in order to secure a change of environ- 
 ment. But with S. Glenn Young — well, it's different, 
 that's all. Somehow or other his nervous reactions 
 are not just the same as with other folks. 
 
 It was Saturday morning, and exactly ten minutes 
 past four, when a ''traveling salesman" stepped out- 
 side of the St. Nicholas Hotel, in Du Quoin, Illinois, 
 intending to take the early morning train to Benton. 
 Three guns and three young men were at the door to 
 welcome him into the out-of-doors, and, incidentally 
 to relieve him of the $500 which he carried in his 
 pocket. But Glenn, the deputy camouflaged as a 
 modest drummer, decided that if they were to have 
 and enjoy that substantial roll they would certainly 
 have to do more work than they had done so far that 
 morning — an eight hour day for them, or no money 
 from the boss. 
 
 Bang! No, it wasn't a gun this time, but the 
 salesman's fist that cut the air and landed with pre- 
 cision upon the anatomy of the biggest of the trio, 
 bringing the whole structure to the sidewalk. Quickly 
 backing into the hotel. Young procured a big Colt 
 automatic revolver, and thus armed proceeded to chase
 
 30 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 the bandits who were now seeking safety in flight, • 
 evidently figuring that they had pushed the wrong 
 button when they put in their early morning order. 
 
 Half a mile, half a mile, half a mile onward ran the 
 ring leader and one other of the noble fraternity. It 
 was one of the most interesting races ever staged in 
 Du Quoin, where good races are frequent features. 
 It was a race in which the disguised Federal Officer, 
 the modest little salesman, demonstrated that he could 
 use his feet as well as his fists to excellent advantage, 
 and could get in on the money in either form of com- 
 petition. 
 
 Yard after yard was steadily gained, until at last, 
 realizing that the race was against them, the two 
 bandits took refuge beneath a porch, where a few mo- 
 ments later Glenn apprehended them as much out of 
 wind as they were out of luck. They were duly regis- 
 tered in the local "cooler" where they ate breakfast 
 a la bastile. 
 
 Later in the day the third young man was found 
 in meditative mood, quietly resting his wayward feet 
 in the hay of a local barn. Taking pity upon his lone- 
 liness the local officer who discovered him conducted 
 the youthful soldier of fortune to the place where his 
 two friends awaited him. 
 
 Thus, for once at least, did the ''early bird" fail to 
 get the ''early wonn". Thus did three young men 
 start the day all wrong, as they had evidently started 
 life all wrong a few years before. 
 
 Investigation revealed that the two men who were 
 caught and identified by Young had registered at two 
 hotels, the American and the St. Nicholas, evidently 
 anxious to make sure that they would not miss their
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 31 
 
 intended victim. The names which appeared upon the 
 American Hotel register were, Robert Dixon, Jack 
 Hawley, and Leroy Ray. The men were all under 
 twenty-five years of age. 
 
 When Glenn was chasing the fellows whom he ulti- 
 mately caught under the porch, he discharged two shots 
 at one of them. Just after he fired the second shot 
 the man stumbled and fell. Young's heart jumped 
 into his mouth, for he had no desire to kill the man. 
 He was relieved in no small measure when the bandit 
 scrambled to his feet and continued the race to the 
 tape. He had simply stumbled. 
 
 The prisoners were transferred to the jail at Pinck- 
 neyville, from which place they tried to saw their way 
 out. It was later found that the trio were ex-convicts. 
 States Attorney Layman sent them over the road to 
 Chester. 
 
 Perhaps this volume will find its way into the hands 
 of these three young men. They will doubtless be much 
 interested to hear more about the young "travehng 
 salesman" with whom they did business that morning 
 in Du Quoin. He sincerely hopes that they are still 
 getting dowTi to business early — but to a better line 
 of business than that of holding up innocent and in- 
 offensive salesmen.
 
 32 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 THE FAMOUS CRAWLEY COUP 
 
 IF YOU have any doubt as to there being one cor- 
 puscle floating in the blood of S. Glenn Young that 
 is not thoroughly game, or that there is one ounce 
 of his 145 pounds which is not superlatively courageous, 
 listen to the story of the snaky trail which he followed 
 through the snows of the great Smoky Mountains, 
 under a thin moon in search for the two Crawley boys 
 and Blaine Stewart, whom he captured single handed 
 at 4:30 in the morning at the foot of the Bald Peak 
 that stretches up toward the clouds fifteen miles from 
 Alcoa, Tennessee, and forty-five miles from Knoxville. 
 
 At no time in Young's spectacular career has his 
 nei*ve, resourcefulness, skill, deteiTnination and courage 
 been more remarkably displayed than in the arrest of 
 the Crawleys and the *'Bad Jim" Rose gangs. Glenn 
 himself considers these the most thrilling captures he 
 has made during twenty years of experience. 
 
 Leaders and members of both of these gangs were 
 wanted by the authorities for a long list of murders 
 and other serious depredations. High rewards were 
 offered for their capture ''dead or alive". And let me 
 digress just here long enough to tell my readers that 
 during Young's government service, he has arrested 
 men upon whose heads rewards approximating §150,- 
 000 have been placed. As a government officer is not 
 permitted to accept rewards offered by the Federal 
 authorities, however, he has not profited materially 
 by his remarkable labors, except, of course, by the 
 salary paid to him for the discharge of his official 
 duties.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 The Crawleys came into the limeHght and attracted 
 wide attention when they shot Deputy United States 
 Marshal Tom Dixon to death at Blairsville, Georgia, 
 on January 9, 1919. The conckiding chapter of their 
 notorious history was finished when Young, who at 
 that time carried two Colt .45's and a Springfield rifle 
 during his waking hours, single handed took three 
 members of the marauding band after they had eluded 
 two companies of soldiers as well as numerous deputies 
 and revenue officers for several days. Glenn brought 
 them all in alive, confiscating their guns and a large 
 stock of ammunition. 
 
 Immediately after the slaying of Dixon, a Colonel 
 and a detachment of picked soldiers from the 5th In- 
 fantry of Fort McPherson, Ga., scoured the mountain 
 fastnesses of Northwestern Carolina, the most rugged 
 section of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in an effort to 
 locate the assassins. Surrounding the mountain home 
 of the Crawleys, the soldiers captured Felix and Frank 
 Crawley and Gordon Bowers, but George and Decatur 
 Crawley and Blaine Stewart, the most dreaded of the 
 gang of feudists, escaped. 
 
 Days and nights of vain searching extended into 
 weeks. The efforts of the soldier posse to find the des- 
 perate trio were fruitless. It seemed as though the 
 mountains had opened up and swallowed them com- 
 pletely. Then it was that the United States Depart- 
 ment of Justice ordered Glenn Young to capture the 
 Crawleys, and the dauntless little officer, always eager 
 for a difficult task, took up the trail which had been 
 lost in the fastnesses of the mountains — and he took 
 it up alone.
 
 34 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 The mountaineers of that section had by this time 
 come to fear and respect Young. He had estabhshed 
 among them the reputation for being a man of his 
 word, and when the news spread through the moun- 
 tains that he had determined to capture the Crawleys, 
 the people knew that he would not return without them. 
 They knew that the sturdy ''go getter" of the Depart- 
 ment of Justice would get them, or that they would 
 get him. It was to the finish. When, just a few days 
 later, he marched the much sought and much feared 
 trio into Atlanta, there were fully 25,000 people at the 
 depot to give him an ovation, and who will say that he 
 was not worthy of it. 
 
 Dressed in the uniform of a soldier — a uniform 
 worn by all special agents and differing only from an 
 enlisted man's in the fact that he wore laced boots, a 
 leather coat with a leather vest underneath, and had 
 no cord on his campaign hat, Glenn started on the 
 trail. In telling the story he says : — 
 
 "I knew that the mother of the Crawley boys was 
 living near Bald Mountain, and that they thought a 
 great deal of her. I first went to Fontana, N. C, and 
 crossed the Yellow creek. While I was there I caught 
 two deserters named Williams and sent them back 
 under a guard. I went on by myself. I had my Spring- 
 field rifle and two pistols, a .45 Colt and a .45 automatic. 
 
 'The first day I was out I met up with a bunch of 
 surveyors and spent the day with them and started 
 out that night. I always travel at night. People up 
 there will see you if you go in the day time and moun- 
 tain news travels like telephone. 
 
 "I started out on horseback and made about seventy- 
 five miles a day. But when I got within about ten miles
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 35 
 
 of where I figured the Crawleys were, I butted into 
 Bald Mountain. I couldn't cross there so went back to 
 Asheville, then to Knoxville, then to Murrayville, and 
 finally to a point about five miles from Alcoa, Tenn. 
 
 "There I struck the trail of the Crawleys and 
 tracked them on foot through the mountains. The 
 snow was heavy, and I trailed them by their footprints 
 in the snow. 
 
 **I worked all that night, laid up the next day, and 
 came up on the Crawleys the next morning. I couldn't 
 ask anybody for information because they were all 
 friends of the Crawleys, or feared them too much to 
 keep my presence a secret. I couldn't even let my- 
 self be seen. All I could do was to follow their tracks 
 in the snow. 
 
 'Tor six nights I pushed on, often forced to follow 
 the same sort of trail as on the first night of the chase. 
 At 4:30 o'clock on the morning of the seventh day, I 
 reached a cabin where I knew they were hiding. I 
 simply pushed open the door. Blaine Stewart was 
 asleep on the floor. The other two boys were sitting 
 in front of the fireplace. Rose Crawley was there too." 
 
 ''Didn't they offer any resistance?" one naturally 
 asks. 
 
 "They couldn't, I had the drop on them. I had a 
 .45 in each hand leveled to shoot. My rifle was swung 
 over my shoulder, and I warned them that any sus- 
 picious move would prove fatal to some of us." 
 
 "Just how did you go in ?" I asked this courageous 
 man. 
 
 "I simply shoved open the door", he answered. "I 
 searched thirty or forty houses a week in looking for 
 deserters, and if you know a man's inside the only
 
 36 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 thing to do is to get in and get the drop on him before 
 he gets it on you, and if you keep your eyes open and 
 your wits about you there's no danger. 
 
 **I didn't handcuff them at once," he continued, *'but 
 made them sit down on the opposite side of the table 
 and then we had breakfast. Rose Crawley, for whose 
 capture a government reward had also been offered, 
 sat at the head of the table and acted as hostess on the 
 occasion. They were all very hospitable, though we 
 didn't have much breakfast, just sowbelly, coffee and 
 biscuits. But it tasted good, for I was desperately 
 hungry, not having had very much to eat for a week, 
 and I wasn't in the best physical shape to begin with. 
 
 "After breakfast I handcuffed the two Crawleys to- 
 gether, putting on the handcuffs myself. I then took 
 them up to see their mother. Rose stayed behind, and 
 just before we left she gave me twenty dollars with 
 which to hire a lawyer for them. I don't know what 
 sort of a lawyer she expected me to get for $20.00. All 
 three of them looked pretty badly worn. They had no 
 soles to their shoes, and they seemed used up. I bought 
 them some shoes at the first town we reached. 
 
 "Rose Crawley", he added, "is about twenty-eight 
 years old and not a bad looking woman. But she was 
 pretty rough. Their mother was seventy years old, and 
 sick in bed. When I took the boys up to the small log 
 house where the aged mother lived I stood in the door- 
 way while they knelt down and kissed the old worn 
 face. I turned my face away as the mother laid her 
 hands on the heads of her two boys and blessed them. 
 There were no tears shed, for no matter how their 
 hearts ache the mountain people are stoics. The two 
 men got to their feet, and all four started for the small
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 37 
 
 railway station from which we journeyed to Knox- 
 ville, where the prisoners were placed in the care of 
 Sheriff W. T. Gate and later transferred to Atlanta 
 penitentiary." 
 
 Oh, the wonder of mother love. What a magnet of 
 attraction it has been all down through the centuries! 
 Down in the hearts of the very worst, 
 If we'd stir to the deeper under loam. 
 We'd find e'en there the ceaseless thirst 
 For mother and home. 
 
 Glenn Young well knew that sooner or later the 
 Crawleys would seek their mother's cabin, because the 
 love of parents lies deep in the hearts of the mountain 
 people, whether they be outlaws or not. 
 
 When word of the Crawleys' capture was received 
 over the wire by United States Marshal Howard 
 Thompson, of Atlanta, he immediately sent back word, 
 "Tell Young that I want to shake his hand and hug 
 him too." He stated that he would meet the train on 
 which the prisoners were to be taken to Atlanta. "I 
 am as glad as Young himself can be", added the official. 
 
 As soon as the Crawleys and Blaine Stewart were 
 taken to the Knox County jail they were placed in the 
 cell opposite the jail office. Here they were undressed 
 by the officers in order that a thorough search of their 
 persons could be made. This was done to make sure 
 that they had no saws or other means of effecting an 
 escape. 
 
 The prisoners chatted with each other occasionally 
 and appeared to be quite unconcerned about their fate. 
 The men were small and thin, probably due to the fact 
 that they had been ^'scouting" since early in January. 
 Their faces were not those of the typical criminal class.
 
 38 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 Each man was dark of complexion, and they were 
 typical mountaineers. 
 
 When asked if he would get the reward offered for 
 the capture of the Crawley s, Young answered, — 
 
 "What reward?" adding that he had heard some- 
 thing about a reward, but that he had not been inter- 
 ested to the point of making an inquiry. "I was after 
 the men themselves and not the reward", he declared. 
 
 Duty rather than dollars has moved S. Glenn 
 Young in his work as a government officer, and that is 
 one of the reasons why his feelings against corrupt 
 officials who put dollars before duty, and gain before 
 principle, are so intense.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 39 
 
 GLENN ATTACKS THE "BAD JIM" ROSE GANG 
 
 THE closest call that Young has ever had was 
 probably that received through the Indian half- 
 breed in Muskogee, Oklahoma. But perhaps none 
 of his many experiences with moonshiners, and outlaws 
 of every variety, have been more exciting than the 
 pitched battle around the home of Tom Jones, five miles 
 Northwest of Unaka in Cherokee County. 
 
 It was early in the morning of January 24, 1919, 
 when a posse of seven officers, led by S. Glenn Young, 
 attacked "Bad Jim" Rose and his gang of outlaws who 
 had taken refuge in the mountain fastness, believing 
 themselves entirely safe from arrest. In this fight 
 Rose was shot twice and captured, and Deputy Sheriff 
 McClure, of Murphy, N. C, was badly wounded. Over 
 200 shots were fired in the battle. The bandits used 
 high powered rifles, and the officers, fearing to wound 
 women in the house, used their revolvers instead of 
 rifles. 
 
 "Bad Jim" Rose, head of the gang, and reported to 
 be the worst feudist of the South, and charged \dth 
 nine murders, most of which were committed from am- 
 bush, died some months later from wounds in the 
 stomach and shoulder received in this clash with the 
 officers of the law. 
 
 Fearing that his mountain friends might seek to 
 rescue him from the jail at Muii)hy, the outlaw was 
 taken to Asheville upon being captured. The vigor and 
 determination of the man is shown by the fact that
 
 40 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 although severely wounded he tried to saw his way 
 out of jail two days after he was shot. 
 
 When taken Rose was under indictment for the 
 murder of "Old Man Wilson". Wilson was shot down 
 in front of his home, near Unaka, while standing on 
 the front porch washing himself. Rose, from the side 
 of a mountain a half mile away, fired the shot from his 
 ai-my rifle that passed through the heart of Wilson. 
 The latter dropped before the eyes of his wife, to whom 
 Rose spoke as he descended the mountain. Rose is said 
 to have threatened to get Wilson, because the latter's 
 son shot and killed Rose's brother during a quarrel. 
 Wilson's son had been shot in the leg. The Wilson 
 murder was the last held against Rose. WTien captured 
 the outlaw was forty-five years old and had a wife and 
 five children whom he had not supported for five years. 
 He was an expert riflle shot, and numerous mysterious 
 deaths were laid at his door. He gained a reputation 
 as an outlaw and a killer, and became greatly feared 
 throughout the country for miles around. He became 
 a political issue in Cherokee County and one sheriff 
 was indicted because he would not serve a warrant 
 upon Rose charging him with murder. Thus the out- 
 law's reputation spread, and no one dared go up against 
 him. If Rose took an antipathy toward one of his 
 neighbors he would go to the man and tell him to move 
 from that section. The victim thus warned would move 
 away rather than risk a bullet from Rose's rifle. 
 
 I have seen the gun which this desperado carried. 
 There are notches in it cut in the forearm. These 
 notches on this army rifle were made by Rose and rep- 
 resent men whom he shot with that weapon. He 
 claimed to have bought the rifle and five hundred
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 41 
 
 rounds of ammunition from an army deserter who 
 came to the mountains. 
 
 Neighbors told how Rose went continually armed. 
 He even carried his rifle to church with him and leaned 
 it against a pew when he attended services occasionary- 
 •When he was shot and captured by Young and his 
 assistants, Rose wore a silver star bearing the words, 
 ^'Special Detective". It seems that he used it occasion- 
 ally when approached by suspicious looking strangers 
 to whom Rose represented himself as a government 
 officer looking for deserters. 
 
 Bennie Jones, a member of the gang, who partici- 
 pated in the battle of January 25th, afterward sur- 
 rendered himself at Murphy and was sent to Asheville. 
 From here he was sent with a party of other army 
 deserters to Camp Wadsworth, where they were turned 
 over to the military authorities for court martial. 
 Jones was slightly wounded during the battle, a glanc- 
 ing bullet having struck him in the back. The bullet 
 entered beneath the skin and dropped out after Jones 
 had gone to Murphy to surrender. 
 
 Let me go back and tell somewhat more specifically 
 about the noted capture of Rose, who had been declared 
 an outlaw by Judge Shaw of the Superior Court, and by 
 Judge James E. Boyd in Federal Court, a high price 
 being placed upon his head "dead or alive". 
 
 The section where Rose and his gang operated was 
 ideal for the perpetration of their crimes, being deep 
 in the mountains and very difficult of access to any but 
 those who had spent years in that section and were 
 acquainted w4th every inch of the ground. People liv- 
 ing in the country were in continual dread of the out-
 
 42 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 laws who pillaged whatever they wanted and took by 
 force what was held from them. 
 
 The battle which brought the gang to eaith de- 
 veloped during the search for the Crawleys. Young at 
 first thought that the two Crawley brothers and Blaine 
 Stewart had joined the Rose gang in the mountains 
 near Murphy. At that place Young organized a band 
 consisting of five men, including Deputy Marshal 
 :\Iason and Deputy Sheriff" ^McClure of MuiT>hy. 
 
 The little posse took up a trail across the moun- 
 tains just above the Tennessee boundary. On a Thurs- 
 day afternoon they came into a region known as Jef- 
 frey's Hell, the rendezvous of the Rose outlaws. It was 
 deep in the mountain fastnesses, and with indistinct 
 trails leadmg through the wooded peaks and valleys. 
 A short distance beyond Jeffrey's Hell, the posse picked 
 up the Rose gang trail. They made camp for the night, 
 prepared to advance upon the gang at daylight. 
 
 They broke camp just at dawn, and the party, 
 headed by Young, started on their quest. They had 
 not gone far before a lookout from the gang saw the 
 party, and a rifle shot rang out, followed by an alarm 
 and more shots. Members of the notorious Rose gang 
 were in view, and the battle was on. 
 
 Advancing, the members of the posse brought their 
 repeating riflles into play and poured a fusillade of 
 shots at the mountaineers. Suddenly Deputy Marshal 
 McClure fell to earth. A bullet from Jim Rose's army 
 riflle had smashed a bone in the oflftcer's right arm. A 
 second later Rose himself fell with a bullet wound in 
 the abdomen. When their leader fell other members 
 of the gang immediately scattered and were speedily 
 lost in the mountain fastnesses.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 43 
 
 Leaving one man with McClure and the wounded 
 bandit, the rest of the posse separated and took up 
 different trails in pursuit of Rose's fleeing companions. 
 Late the same day Young sui-prised four of them, and 
 the others were all apprehended within the next twenty- 
 four hours. Some of them offered serious resistance 
 and Young was forced to shoot two of them. ''Both of 
 the men whom I wounded recovered", says the hero 
 of the fray, ''and the four, along with the others 
 caught, are now sei*ving time in the Atlanta Peniten- 
 tiary." 
 
 When word spread through the mountains that 
 Rose and his gunmen had been encircled at last by the 
 strong arms of the law, and their careers brought to 
 a close, there was a great sigh of relief from law en- 
 forcement officers and mountaineers alike. Old moun- 
 taineers, when they heard rumors of the capture, came 
 down to the trail and asked : — 
 
 "Have you got him?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Thank God" they replied, and many of them wept 
 as they said it. And well might they say it, for when 
 they left home to go any distance through the moun- 
 tain timber they never knew whether they would ever 
 see again the loved ones whom they kissed good-bye. 
 
 This capture added much to the splendid reputation 
 S. Glenn Young had already achieved down in the 
 mountain country, and his name became known far 
 beyond the confines of the mountain regions as the most 
 courageous and efficient officer in the government serv- 
 ice. 
 
 When asked if it took nerve to walk into a barrage 
 of fire, Glenn replied, "You can get used to anything.
 
 44 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 and I don't mind trading shots with the boldest of all 
 bad men. I learned to shoot a rifle as soon as I could 
 carry one, living on a ranch out in Western Kansas. 
 A few years ago anyone w^ho wanted the experience 
 could get all he desired by joining a sheriff's posse, 
 almost any Saturday night, and making a run for cat- 
 tle rustlers, thieves and hold-up men."
 
 RAIDER S. GLEKX YOUNG 45 
 
 THE CARNAHANS 
 
 THE headquarters of this infamous gang which 
 Young brought in was in a section of the Blue 
 Ridge Mountains, a dense fastness about thirty 
 miles from Bluefield, West Virginia. The rendezvous 
 was practically inaccessible to any who had not spent 
 years in the territory and familiarized themselves with 
 virtually every inch of the ground. 
 
 For many miles round about the residents were in 
 constant fear of the Camahans, who had earned the 
 name of the ''Robin Hood Band" because of the con- 
 stant training to which its members subjected them- 
 selves each day. This band of ruffians robbed, pillaged 
 and killed for several months before their daring opera- 
 tions were halted. Glenn trailed them down after 
 Josephine Hadley, the daughter of a farmer residing 
 near Bluefield, had been kidnapped and held for ran- 
 som. 
 
 Accompanied only by the girl's fourteen year old 
 brother and 'Tal", he plunged into the hunt. After 
 three days, during which he and the lad lived on hard- 
 tack and water, four of the bandits were taken in their 
 lair. Handcuffing and gagging them. Young laid in 
 wait for the return to camp of other members of the 
 gang, feeling certain that there were more associated 
 with the greatly feared leader. 
 
 He was right. Just before daylight five more strag- 
 gled into the den, bringing with them the plunder se- 
 cured in their latest depredations. Before announcing 
 himself the officer lay in a place of concealment, into 
 which he had dragged his captives, and uttered no
 
 46 . LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 sound until the quintette, quite unsuspicious of danger, 
 lighted a fire and squatted about it. When the time 
 seemed most opportune the concealed officer sprang 
 fearlessly into their midst. He wouldn't peraiit the 
 boy to expose himself to danger, preferring to take all 
 chances alone. 
 
 The day on which Young and the Hadley boy 
 marched the Carnahans into the little town of Blue- 
 field has gone down into the annals of the town's his- 
 tory as its most exciting day, unless Armistice Day be 
 excepted. They gave Glenn a wonderful ovation, and 
 his fame as a government officer went far and wide. 
 Two members of the captured band were later executed, 
 and the remainder were sent to the Atlanta Peniten- 
 tiary to serve terms ranging from five to twenty years. 
 
 While the kidnapped girl was a prisoner of the out- 
 laws she was forced to submit to almost unbelievable 
 indignities. 
 
 The gang had established a well equipped fortress 
 near their camp. Over fifty guns, including two ma- 
 chine guns, a number of high powered rifles and 
 revolvers of high caliber, in addition to seven thousand 
 rounds of ammunition were found in it. 
 
 Among several murders charged to Carnahan was 
 that of a revenue officer named Mullens. He had been 
 shot and mortally wounded by the bandit chief just 
 three days before Young set out on the trail of the 
 desperadoes. 
 
 The above facts regarding the sensational capture 
 of this gang of mountain outlaws were given me by a 
 noted newspaper man, who at that time was in the 
 vicinity of Bluefield and connected with a newspaper 
 at Huntington.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 47 
 
 HUNTING UNCLE SAM'S DESERTERS 
 WITH "PAL" 
 
 THE same mountain country which produced Alvin 
 York, honored as America's greatest war hero 
 ''over there", has likewise produced some of the 
 worst and most desperate men which have ever preyed 
 upon the social body. 
 
 At the beginning of the Great World War, S. Glenn 
 Young, although several years beyond the draft age, 
 tried to enlist in the army, but was repeatedly rejected 
 on account of wounds which he had received while en- 
 forcing the law in the mountain country. Determined 
 to have his part in his country's service, he volunteered 
 to the United States Department of Justice, requesting 
 that he be detailed to apprehend deserters and federal 
 violators in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His services 
 were accepted, and in that tremendous task he suc- 
 ceeded so well that deserters were practically elimin- 
 ated from the country. In a period of two years he 
 arrested and brought into the army camps of the 
 United States, almost twice as many deserters and 
 draft dodgers as any other two officials in the United 
 States. From the mountains of Tennessee, North Caro- 
 lina, South Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky he brought 
 them in, and turned them over to the army camps, 
 from which they were either sent to the war front or 
 to one of the state penitentiaries. Groups numbering 
 as many as 25 or 30 were brought in many times by the 
 intrepid officer.
 
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 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 In all this strenuous and dangerous work Young 
 was ably assisted by his wonderful dog, 'Tal", who 
 accompanied him along many a perilous trail through 
 the mountains of the South, and without whom many 
 of his master's expeditions would not have ended suc- 
 cessfully. 
 
 'Tal", half Russian Wolf Hound and half Collie had 
 been owned by a Captain of Despatch Bearers in the 
 Belgian army, and cost approximately $750. Having 
 been trained to do work in the Belgian army, it was 
 not a difficult thing for Glenn to teach this remarkably 
 intelligent creature to assist him in the search for and 
 capture of deserters. 
 
 When "Pal" arrived in this country, after dis- 
 tinguished service overseas, he bore on his body the 
 marks of his sacrifices. He was brought over by a 
 brother of Young and sent on to him at Hoboken, from 
 which place Glenn escorted him to the army hospital 
 at Camp Jackson, where he was treated as a war hero 
 should be, and the painful mustard burns upon his body 
 properly healed. While he lay in a hospital ward, "Pal" 
 would permit none but his new master to wait upon 
 him. There in the Camp Jackson army hospital an en- 
 dearing friendship was begun, destined to continue 
 through many a trying day, and over many a rugged 
 path, until "Pal" having paid the last measure of devo- 
 tion passed out through the gates of tragedy into the 
 land where dogs have neither fleas nor fights. If this 
 noble beast had lived, instead of journeying the poison 
 route to another world, he would doubtless have found 
 his way into the movies and become a rival of "Strong- 
 heart", for, apart from the serious work of life to 
 which he was dedicated, "Pal" had other accomplish-
 
 50 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 ments, making him a center of attraction everjrvvhere 
 he went. 
 
 He was all but human, this long, slender Belgian 
 police dog, and seemed to fully comprehend every order 
 which his master gave him. He would go for anything 
 that Glenn had lost, and find it, if that was at all pos- 
 sible. He would go to the hotel office desk, bark for 
 the key to his master's room, take the key handed to 
 him, ring the elevator bell and ride to his room. Jump- 
 ing into the bath-tub he would turn the faucets and 
 wallow in the refreshing waters until he felt that he 
 was clean enough for anybody's company. 
 
 But of his remarkable instincts and work I must 
 tell you more. Glenn says of him: — *'I have refused 
 as much as $4,500 for the dog. He is a powerful ani- 
 mal, often showing keener power of perception than a 
 human. I have often left him to guard prisoners while 
 I pushed on after others. On one occasion I was en 
 route to Columbia, S. C., with eight prisoners, deserters 
 from the army. I received a tip that I could get two 
 more by dropping off at a certain point high up in the 
 great Smoky Mountains. We got off the train, pri- 
 soners, Tal' and I. Drawing a circle on the ground 
 I ordered the eight men into it. Then, with a parting 
 admonition to the dog not to allow anyone to step in or 
 out of the ring, I started out for the pair I wanted. 
 Upon my return with them I found that Tal' had 
 proven true to his trust. Not one had escaped." 
 
 Down in the Kentucky Mountains it was practically 
 impossible one day to get up where a half dozen de- 
 serters were in hiding, but "Pal" trailed the fugitives 
 and finally located them, so that his master was able
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXX YO UXG 
 
 51 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 URBANA
 
 52 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 to bring them out from their hiding place and turn 
 them over into the hands of the courts. 
 
 A noted secret service man, whose name already 
 appears in this record and who still resides in Charlotte, 
 N. C, tells of how Glenn had occasion to leave an entire 
 room full of prisoners under the guardianship of his 
 "Pal" one day down in that Ca,rolina city. Upon his 
 return a half hour later, the officer found that not a 
 single man was missing. The Belgian police dog main- 
 taining ferocious guard at the door had proven entirely 
 discouraging to their ambitions to make a get-away. 
 
 If Walter Doss is still living he will doubtless re- 
 member "Pal", who was instrumental in locating him 
 when he was a deserter from the army. This man had 
 made a subterranean hiding place under his home, 
 where he lived and made an occasional run of blockade 
 liquor whenever opportunity presented itself. He had 
 cut a hole in the kitchen floor of his little cabin in the 
 mountains. This connected with the dug-out under- 
 neath, and the opening of it was always kept covered 
 by the wood box in the kitchen. By hiding in this cave 
 Doss had succeeded in escaping detection when officers 
 looked for him, which they did on several occasions. 
 Here in his subterranean den just across the Virginia 
 line the culprit was brought to light by Glenn and "Pal" 
 one morning just as the sun slipped up over the hori- 
 zon and was peeking through the mountain timber. 
 Doss was prepared for a good stiff defense, having 
 with him when captured a 30-30 Winchester, two .45 
 automatics, a long dirk, and a pair of brass knuckles. 
 
 Down in Polk County, N. C, this famous and intel- 
 ligent dog figured large in the raiding and capture of 
 some moonshiners who were operating three illicit
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 53 
 
 stills. To "Pal" belongs the entire honor of capturing 
 one of the operators. 
 
 Surrounding the spot where the stills had been hid- 
 den, the officers sent the dog in to rout out the opera- 
 tors of the liquor mills. In a few minutes his success 
 was heralded by the exit of one of them with "Pal" at 
 his heels threatening to take a souvenir of the occa- 
 sion from the man's thoroughly scared anatomy. He 
 was saved the pain of the operation, however, and 
 taken into custody by the officers. They then rushed the 
 plant and took over 1,000 gallons of beer, several gal- 
 lons of liquor, and three complete outfits. They put up a 
 stubborn fight in a determined effort to save the plants, 
 which were of considerable value, but were finally over- 
 come by the officers — and "Pal". 
 
 In a Carolina jail a dejected prisoner might have 
 been seen one morning. He was in a meditative mood, 
 thinking very respectfully, no doubt, of a Belgian police 
 dog which he had seen and met. The prisoner also 
 thought of several gallons of good com liquor and of 
 $70 in good United States currency which he had paid 
 for the juice, wholesale. Carl Lail, for such was the 
 unfortunate gentleman's name, was a very early riser. 
 It would have been much better for Carl if he had slept 
 in till noon on this particular day. 
 
 He had been down in the South Mountains on a 
 matter of business, and started for home in the very 
 small hours of the morning, bringing with him a pre- 
 cious cargo, which he fondly hoped to retail at a good 
 profit to men who thirst. It was about 4:30 when 
 Glenn, "Pal", and a local officer of the law passed by on 
 other business bent. I say they passed by. The fact is 
 that "Pal" suspicious of the lone business man in the
 
 54 LIFE AX D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 buggy, did not pass by until he had satisfied his dog 
 mind that all was well. He had never seen the man 
 before, and did not know that he was admittedly a sly 
 old fox who could put any number of gallons over on 
 occasion, and yet he was suspicious and stopped to in- 
 vestigate. His suspicions were confirmed by scent and 
 instinct, and 'Tal" summoned his m.aster, who turned 
 his car around and came back. Alas for poor Carl and 
 liis corn juice. If this mountaineer doesn't think 
 "Pal" is some dog, he's a poorer judge of canines than 
 lie is of moonkist whiskey. 
 
 The little struggle necessary to subdue this pur- 
 veyor of liquid cheer almost caused Glenn the loss of 
 part of an ear, for Carl imbedded his molars in one of 
 the officer's receiving stations. He was persuaded to 
 desist, however, and to accompany the officers to the 
 place where there is no profit in corn juice either for 
 the manufacturer or consumer. 
 
 But I have been telling you more about the dog than 
 about his master, which indeed was exactly what the 
 modest officer did when a special effort was made by 
 a newspaper man to induce him to talk about his experi- 
 ences down in the mountains. He would talk but little 
 of himself, and spoke almost exclusively of his famous 
 dog. As this book centers around him, however, he 
 has been forced into the limelight and I must tell you 
 more about his side of the work in rounding up de- 
 serters from the army camps of Uncle Sam. 
 
 It may be of interest to you to learn that the large 
 majority of these deserters who sought seclusion in 
 the mountains of the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee 
 and Virginia, were not cowards who fled in fear to 
 avoid service over on the European battle fronts. Far
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 from that. Many of them were brave fellows who 
 would face death without a tremor. Hundreds, and 
 possibly thousands of desertions were due to homesick- 
 ness, ignorance in regard to the war, the principles 
 involved, and the danger confronting America itself. 
 This ignorance and its consequences were the result, 
 very largely at least, of the propaganda against the 
 war instituted by such men as Tom Watson of Georgia 
 and Coleman Blease of South Carolina. These men 
 preached by voice and printed page against the draft, 
 and the minds of many young men were thus swayed 
 wrongfully through these Southerners and their fol- 
 lowers, who were known as Watsonites and Bleasites. 
 A large number of these deserters to whom, upon cap- 
 ture, Mr. Young explained the real causes and puiiDOses 
 of the conflict, were willing and eager to do their full 
 duty and pay, if need be, the last full measure of devo- 
 tion. 
 
 S. Glenn Young's work in rounding up these men 
 is forever famous, especially in Charlotte, Greensboro 
 and Asheville, North Carolina, from which centers he 
 very largely carried on his government service. He 
 worked in nearly every county of North Carolina, and 
 everywhere with marked efficiency, taking all the 
 chances which any of his brothers in arms took over- 
 seas. He has hunted men from Atlanta, Knoxville, 
 Chattanooga and many other points in the South, and 
 very few men whom he started out to capture ever suc- 
 ceeded in eluding the wily officer. 
 
 Back in October, 1918, he was forced to kill a fugi- 
 tive during a battle with Butler Myers, Joe Ward and 
 Charles G. Black, three Randolph County deserters 
 whom he had set out to arrest. Young had been after
 
 56 LIFE A A' D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 the men, but three got away after he had arrested five 
 others in the vicinity. Learning that the officer was 
 on their trail, one member of the notorious trio called 
 up the officer at Ashboro and instructed him that he 
 had better not make any effort to get them as they 
 were well armed and "would shoot him on sight". 
 
 This was a dare not to be swallowed by an officer 
 of Young's caliber and spirit, and he was soon on the 
 way to Randolph (bounty, to take up the trail of the 
 three men who had thrown dowm the gauntlet of chal- 
 lenge at his feet as well as those of Uncle Sam. He 
 came upon the defiant trio in a wooded plot, and was 
 welcomed with a fusillade of shots from the weapons 
 of the deserters. Young returned the fire with his .45 
 caliber revolver. One of the fugitives was using a 
 Swiss army rifle, and during the exchange of missiles 
 a bullet nipped a portion from the officer's right ear. 
 By this time he had succeeded in sending two of his 
 shots home, one of them penetrating the lungs of Joe 
 Ward, and the other one striking Butler Myers in the 
 thigh. Ward died later from the inflicted wound. When 
 taken prisoner Myers remarked to Young, *'By — , if 
 my gun hadn't jammed I would have killed you sure". 
 Black, the third member of the band, escaped for the 
 time being, but was afterward apprehended and all 
 three men turned over to the military authorities as 
 deserters. 
 
 One of the largest single captures made by S. Glenn 
 Young in this particular section of the mountain 
 country was in Surrey County, where he trapped eight 
 deserters, all heavily amied and sleeping in a tobacco 
 bam. The men knew that they were being hunted and 
 pi-epared themselves to resist arrest. Weil provided
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 57 
 
 with rifles and revolvers, they went into a remote sec- 
 tion of the county to hide and make ready to resist 
 arrest to the limit. 
 
 Pursuing his usual tactics, Glenn traveled at night, 
 getting his bearings and locating his quarry. The fugi- 
 tives had posted guards as added means of protection, 
 but even these were surprised by the government agent, 
 and the eight men captured single handed. He then 
 called upon persons living in the neighborhood to assist 
 in carrying the guns of the deserters back to town. Not 
 having handcuffs to use on these men the versatile 
 Young took barbed wire, looped it over the neck of 
 each man and marched them into jail without further 
 trouble.
 
 58 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 A MOUNTAINEER'S WORD IS GOOD 
 
 DURING a ten days' campaign in Davidson, Ran- 
 dolph and Montgomery Counties, Young 
 rounded up twelve deserters and conducted 
 them to Camp Greene. Two of this number were cap- 
 tured red handed while operating an illicit still. 
 Glenn disarmed the men, stood them before their 
 still and snapped a picture of the outfit. In this 
 raid he also captured a farmer. Following his 
 custom the officer permitted his prisoners to go 
 back and see their families before being turned 
 over to the authorities, he placed them upon their 
 honor to return and the proverbial word of the moun- 
 taineer was kept, with the exception of one man, the 
 farmer, who failed to return. Young ran him down a 
 few days later, after he had fired upon the officer five 
 times from a mountain trail at night. 
 
 Within a period of five weeks Glenn apprehended 
 no less than seventy-five deserters and draft dodgers. 
 Most of these men came to the City of Asheville and 
 sun*endered, but others were arrested at their homes, 
 usually high up in the mountain sections of the nearby 
 counties. 
 
 Younj» Requisitions an Engine 
 
 There were three desperate men high up in the 
 mountain fastness whom Young was anxious to cap- 
 ture. They were brothers. In addition to desertion 
 one of these men was a murderer, having decapitated 
 a man with a knife.
 
 RAIDER S.GLENN YOUNG 59 
 
 Following the mountain trail up as far as Fontana, 
 he requisitioned one of the engines of the Fontana Log- 
 ging Company in the name of the government and pro- 
 ceeded ten miles further by rail. Leaving the engine 
 at this point he again followed the trail for three miles 
 and succeeded in locating the house in which these 
 three desperate men lived. 
 
 Placing Dave Robinson, a mountaineer who had ac- 
 companied him, as a guard at the back of the house, 
 Glenn w^ent to the front door. An immense woman, the 
 mother of the much wanted trio, wouldn't let him in. 
 There was not a moment's time for argument. He was 
 forced to push her over in order to gain a quick en- 
 trance. He was not a second too soon, and got in just 
 as the three were making for their guns. It was speed 
 or death, so the officer chose speed. Striking one of 
 the men over the head, he knocked him into the fire- 
 place upon which the fire was burning brightly. That 
 the man arose with alacrity goes without saying. 
 
 One of the brothers lay flat on his stomach upon a 
 bed. The mother claimed he had the flu. Glenn found 
 he had more than the flu, for upon compelling him to 
 turn over he removed a .44 Colt pistol from the man's 
 hand. He had just been waiting for the right moment 
 to shoot, and if the officer's back had been turned away 
 from him for a second he doubtless would have pre- 
 vented S. Glenn Young from ever coming to William- 
 son County to boot the bootlegger. 
 
 Leaving these captives in the cabin with the lum- 
 berman and 'Tal" to guard them. Young went to Yel- 
 low Creek for five more men. Yellow Creek was only 
 accessible by climbing a mountain between 6,000 and 
 7,000 feet high.
 
 60 LIFE AX D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 These men were wanted by the goverament for hold- 
 ing up an election board and compelling them to per- 
 mit them to vote, though, being deserters, they had no 
 right to the franchise. 
 
 Glenn did not know where these men lived and had 
 to secure infoiTnation in some manner. There seemed 
 to be no better way than to hide along the trail until 
 someone approached whom he might persuade to part 
 with the necessary intelligence. And so he hid him- 
 self and waited. 
 
 About daylight came a big fellow carrying a large 
 sack of corn to the mill to be ground for liquid purposes. 
 Glenn accosted him and demanded that he tell where 
 the five desired men lived. *'I threatened the man, who 
 happened to be an uncle of some of the deserters, that 
 if he misdirected me I would find him later and settle 
 with him. Making him point out from the mountain 
 side the three houses, located about a mile apart, where 
 the five men resided, I said, 'Get uix)n that rock and 
 wait there till I return. If I don't find you there when 
 I get back, I'll make it a point to find you wherever you 
 are.' " The big man straightw^ay perched himself upon 
 the rock. 
 
 Leaving the mountaineer stranded on the rock and 
 wishing that the corn in the sack was whiskey in the 
 jug, Young set out across the mountain for the three 
 houses and the five men. They were taken by surprise 
 and though heavily aimed were wise enough to sur- 
 render when the officer had the ''drop" on them. 
 
 About four o'clock in the afternoon he returned to 
 the rock, and there the old boy sat just as he had been 
 sitting when Glenn left him in the early hours of the 
 morning.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 61 
 
 ''Been there all the time?" asked Young. 
 
 "IVe never been off this spot" replied the big moun- 
 taineer and he doubtless told the truth. Surely it is 
 a wonderful help to have the temperament of a stoic 
 under such circumstances, but a well padded cushion 
 would doubtless have been an additional blessing. 
 
 Glenn thanked the man for the assistance he had 
 given him, took his five prisoners and returned by trail 
 and rail to Fontana where he arrived about ten o'clock. 
 Here he guarded them in a room until the morning. 
 
 It would take a volume itself to tell the full story 
 of Young's exploits down in the mountains during the 
 period of the war. The incidents which I have briefly 
 recorded will serve, however, to show something of 
 Uncle Sam's dauntless law enforcement agents, some- 
 thing of the perils faced, the difficulties overcome, and 
 the victories achieved in the very face of death itself. 
 Thus did S. Glenn Young serve his country and his 
 flag during the World War, proving himself something 
 more than the average man in courage and prowess. 
 Shame on the weakling enemies of this doughty hero 
 who ambush themselves behind editor's chairs and 
 printer's type, firing upon him abuse in the form of un- 
 just criticism and lies. I say hats off to this real Ameri- 
 can, a man of brain and a man of brawn, fearless of his 
 foes and far more honorable than the enemies who 
 assail him.
 
 62 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 THE LUKE VUKOVIC AFFAIR 
 
 DURING 1920 East St. Louis and Madison made a 
 real effort to house clean. The conditions had 
 been allowed to become unspeakably bad. Viola- 
 tions of the liquor laws were widespread, and all the 
 crimes which accompany such violations were rampant. 
 East St. Louis had become a dangerous place, a crimi- 
 nal haunt for many of the most desperate in the 
 country. 
 
 S. Glenn Young was one of the officers operating 
 there at this time, and his reputation for fearlessness 
 and ability as a law enforcement officer were greatly 
 enhanced during his service in that center of great 
 danger to those who dared to beard the criminals in 
 their den. More arrests were made there during his 
 activities than before or since in an equal period of 
 time. For this much of the credit is due to him, and 
 has been accorded by many. 
 
 Efforts to kill him were frequent on the part of the 
 criminal class, while others, more or less sympathetic 
 with them, used every possible means to discredit him 
 as an officer of the law. It was a determined purpose 
 to do this, I have no doubt, which resulted in a murder 
 charge being filed against him on June 2, 1921. He was 
 formally accused of the murder of Luke Vukovic, of 
 Madison, and pleaded not guilty to the charge. 
 
 The fatal shooting occurred on November 7, 1920. 
 Young and Walter Cowgill, a Granite City Lieutenant 
 of Police, found a still in the basement of a house oc- 
 cupied by Vukovic's brother-in-law, Michael Sever, 
 which adjoined the Vukovic home.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 63 
 
 From a window they saw Vukovic drinking liquid 
 of some kind from a milk bottle. Leaving the Sever 
 place, they crossed over to that of Vukovic and de- 
 manded an entrance in the name of the law. After 
 making several vain demands, and waiting for a rea- 
 sonable length of time without receiving a response, 
 they forced an entrance through a dooi^ay. 
 
 Vukovic and his wife were in a bedroom. Young 
 left Cowgill to guard them, and went through the house 
 in search of liquor. He found the bottle from which 
 they had been drinking. It contained some dregs of 
 "moonshine" whiskey. Descending into the basement 
 through a small trap-door in the floor of the kitchen, 
 he located a twenty-five gallon keg of liquor. 
 
 Unable, because of the bulk of the keg, to lift it 
 upstairs without aid, he called to Cowgill, instructing 
 him to bring Vukovic to the trap-door entrance, and 
 station him where he could be seen by the officers while 
 they lifted the liquor container to the floor above. This 
 was done, and Cowgill followed Young into the base- 
 ment. 
 
 A few seconds later Young glanced up and noticed 
 that Vukovic had vanished. He quickly ascended the 
 ladder. The room above was pitch dark. All that he 
 could see was a nickle-plated pistol leveled at his chest 
 by the desperado who stood just a few feet aw^ay. 
 Glenn stepped rapidly to another position in the room, 
 and as he did so drew his own weapon. 
 
 "I shoot", he heard Vukovic hiss in the darkness, 
 snapping his pistol as he gave notice. Fortunately it 
 did not explode, due, it was revealed later, to the fact 
 that there were two empty shells in the gun.
 
 64 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 When the trigger snapped Young was less than 
 three feet from his would-be assassin. He had pre- 
 viously ordered him to drop his weapon. With the snap- 
 ping of the bootlegger's gun at him Young opened fire, 
 discharging six shots in rapid succession. Vukovic fled 
 to the rear porch of the house and the officer was under 
 the impression that his aim had not been true. 
 
 The firing had attracted Cowgill, who by this time 
 had entered the room. Vukovic suddenly opened a rear 
 door, and picking up an iron bar, struck Cowgill a blow 
 over the head, at the same time pointing his gun at 
 Glenn and firing twice. Young was too quick for him, 
 however, and fired two shots from his automatic strik- 
 ing him in the forehead. Vukovic fell to the floor, still 
 clutching his gun between his fingers as he collapsed. 
 Examination of the weapon later revealed that the 
 loaded chambers had, by the second snapping of the 
 trigger, been worked into firing position, and had the 
 man not been struck down before he pulled it a third 
 time, the gun might have proven effective. 
 
 All of Young's shots struck the man. Vukovic used 
 a .38 caliber in the battle, Cowgill a .45, and Young a 
 .44 and a .32 automatic. 
 
 Young was arrested at the instigation of the widow, 
 behind whom stood the lawless element of East St. 
 Louis thirsting for revenge. He was indicted by a 
 Madison grand jury, and the case was subsequently 
 turned over to the Federal Court in Springfield. 
 
 During the trial Vukovic's wife corroborated state- 
 ments by the officers that they had shouted several 
 times that they were government men and would break 
 down the door unless they were given admittance. She 
 said she remained in the bedroom during the shooting.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENX YOUNG 65 
 
 She admitted hearing her husband say, "I shoot" be- 
 fore any shots were fired. 
 
 Vukovic was known as a desperate man, and had 
 openly made threats to kill any policeman or prohibi- 
 tion agent who attempted to interfere with him in his 
 whiskey business. 
 
 Young's superior officers commended him very 
 highly for his prudence and for the opportunity which 
 he gave the man, at the risk of his o\\n\ life, to sur- 
 render before he opened fire in self-defense. This was 
 characteristic of Young. The mountaineers are unani- 
 mous in declaring that he always gave a man a fair 
 chance, even though his own life was more or less en- 
 dangered by so doing. And all this gives the He to the 
 charge that Young kills too quickly. He is not a blood- 
 thirsty man. His frequent admonition to the men who 
 aided him at a later date in Williamson County, not to 
 shed any blood if it could possibly be avoided, is known 
 to many. He respects human life, but the desperate 
 character of the men with whom he has had to deal as 
 an officer of the law, has made the killing of quite a 
 number imperative, just as much so as the killing of 
 Germans was imperative on the part of our boys who 
 fought our battles overseas. 
 
 "Of course I regret very much having been forced 
 to shoot Vukovic, but I was only performing my duty ; 
 and had I waited a second longer for him to surrender 
 and drop his gun, he probably would have killed Cow- 
 gill or myself, were Young's words after the battle. 
 
 Following the inquest the coroner told Young that 
 ''there could have been no verdict other than 'justifi- 
 able homicide', as all the evidence showed that the
 
 66 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 officers gave the man every chance to give up before 
 a shot was fired." 
 
 Little wonder that S. Glenn Young was fully ex- 
 onerated and acquitted on his own testimony and that 
 of Lieutenant of Police Cowgill. And with his acquittal 
 there terminated another of the multiplied efforts made 
 by law violators and their sympathizers to bring to an 
 end the official career of the man whose work and skill 
 they fear more, perhaps, than that of any other law 
 enforcement officer in America today. This determined 
 effort on the part of his enemies Vv'as of a kind with 
 many other malign efforts made at a later date in Wil- 
 liamson County concerning which I shall tell you.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 67 
 
 THE GREGORYS OF POPE COUNTY 
 
 *'/^^EEING America First" should certainly include 
 ^^ the rugged beauty and diversified scenery found 
 ^^ along the winding Ohio in Pope County, Illinois. 
 Unless it is the view from Starved Rock on the Illinois 
 River, I know of no scenery anywhere in this fair state 
 which can rival the view from the hills of Golconda. 
 From these suncrowned elevations one commands a 
 view of the river for many miles of its irregular course, 
 as it hastens on its journey as if to keep appointment 
 with the great "Father of Waters" at Cairo, with which 
 it then travels to plunge at length into the Gulf of 
 Mexico hundreds of miles to the South. 
 
 From Golconda, once a very important shipping 
 point on the Ohio, one looks over into Kentucky, thickly 
 fringed with trees along the river line, with here and 
 there a farmhouse looking down from some hill-top as 
 though eager to watch the boat traffic between New 
 Orleans, Paducah and points far to the North and East, 
 a traffic now likely to be revived through the raising 
 of the average river level by means of government 
 dams, one of which is about to be constructed at Gol- 
 conda. 
 
 A few miles up the river is Cave-In-Rock, made 
 famous by the gang of outlaws who used it as their 
 rendezvous several decades ago. An addition to their 
 other numerous crimes was that of counterfeiting, in 
 which art they were as proficient as any band of coun- 
 terfeiters ever caught in America. The cave made an 
 excellent place for their mint, and as headquarters for
 
 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 their operations. The history of these outlaws has been 
 preserved in book form under the title, ''The Outlaws 
 of Cave-In-Rock", and is of more than local interest. 
 
 Pope CJounty, and especially Golconda, has produced 
 many excellent men and women, men and women who 
 have gone out into places of honored leadership in the 
 life of the state and the nation. The late Secretary 
 of State, James A. Rose, who served Illinois efficiently 
 in that office for seven years, made his home in Gol- 
 conda, and others, less in the public eye perhaps, but 
 proficient in some important branch of the world's 
 work, are proud to own this old and honored Illinois 
 town as their home. It was in Golconda that C. S. 
 Morrison wrote his "Meditation", which has come to 
 be recognized as one of the very finest musical pro- 
 ductions from an American composei\ 
 
 But, like every other county in our commonwealth, 
 Pope has its criminal history. In well nigh every com- 
 munity there are those who grow up to shame instead 
 of honor, a burden to their county and liability to the 
 state. 
 
 Something over forty years ago a happy, trustful 
 young woman stood at the marriage altar with a young 
 man who had won her heart. Before God and man he 
 promised to be to her all that she had a right to expect 
 he would, a faithful husband, provider and protector. 
 The man's name was George Gregory. 
 
 One day, about two years later, that young woman 
 had great joy in her heart as she looked down into the 
 face of her first born. As she pressed him to her 
 bosom, or looked into his wondering eyes, this mother 
 thought of the coming days when the babe, growing up 
 through childhood and youth, would come to man's es-
 
 RAIDER S.GLENN YOUNG 69 
 
 tate, and like every good mother she hoped above all 
 else that her son would grow up to be a good man, a 
 man of principle and honor. She named the boy, 
 George Jr. 
 
 "0 blindness to the future kindly given." Today 
 George Gregory Jr., and Gregory Sr., fill unhonored 
 graves, graves dug by their own sin and folly, graves 
 dug by their defiance of the laws of God and man. The 
 wife and mother now travels alone the rough road to 
 the grave, her awful burden of shame and sorrow al- 
 most too much for flesh and blood to bear. Indeed, if 
 it were not for her simple Christian faith she would 
 utterly collapse in despair. 
 
 But you are waiting for the story of the tragedy 
 which brought father and son to the dust and I will not 
 keep you longer. 
 
 Pope County had been having a hard time seeking 
 to enforce the Prohibition Amendment. Many stills 
 had been found along the river and among the hills. 
 Bootleggers plied their trade by river, rail and automo- 
 bile, and, in spite of the fearless efforts of States 
 Attorney Conley to enforce the law, violations were 
 multiplied, and the county became somewhat notorious 
 for this particular brand of lawlessness. 
 
 Among the most active agents in this illicit liquor 
 manufacturing and sales were the Gregorys, father and 
 son. 
 
 George Jr., had been lawless from boyhood. If there 
 was any meanness going on in or about Golconda, peo- 
 ple were seldom wrong in suspecting that the Gregory 
 boy had a hand in it. He knew nothing about loyalty, 
 either to parents, friends or God. Time and time again 
 he was know^n to double cross even his best friends.
 
 70 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 While still in the adolescent period he had become 
 devoted to gambling and addicted to intoxicants. The 
 spirit of lawlessness grew with the passing years, and, 
 when the Eighteenth Amendment became United 
 States law, George Gregory, aided by his own father, 
 defied and shook his fist in its face. 
 
 It was in the month of November, 1923, that the 
 career of this pair came to its tragic end, an end for 
 which none but themselves were to blame. 
 
 For days George Jr., had been drinking and driving 
 through the county heavily armed and defying the 
 county officers to arrest him. One night several shots 
 were fired from ambush into the car of Harry Steyer, 
 and there is good reason to believe that Gregory did 
 the shooting, for it was known that he had threatened 
 to **get" Steyer, who is an officer of the law and had 
 authority to arrest him. On a previous occasion Greg- 
 ory had shot a man by the name of Tom Rogers, and 
 is alleged to have shot and killed his ow^n uncle on the 
 Fair Grounds of Golconda in the fall of 1922. He was 
 not convicted of this crime largely because eye wit- 
 nesses of the shooting so feared the man that they 
 would not dare testify against him. 
 
 S. Glenn Young was in the Northern part of the 
 state when he received a wire to proceed at once to 
 Golconda if possible. He immediately responded, bring- 
 ing with him four state warrants to serve on the Greg- 
 orys, one for attempt to murder, another for the illegal 
 manufacture of liquor, a third for selling liquor, and 
 the fourth for disturbing the peace. 
 
 A few weeks prior to this Young had visited the 
 Gregory home, about four miles from Golconda. He 
 went there in the guise of a paint salesman. He proved
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 himself a good one too for he secured the contract from 
 the elder Gregory. At the same time he saw enough 
 with those well trained eyes to strongly confirm sus- 
 picions that the house was being used for the illicit 
 manufacture of "White Mule", not the kind used in 
 patching inner tubes, but the kind which has been so 
 widely and so successfully used in dispatching men. As 
 he talked with George Gregory, Sr., the son and a 
 stranger could be seen peering down cautiously from 
 an upstairs window, the window of a room in which a 
 still was found at a later date. 
 
 Young detected nervousness on the part of the old 
 man as he approached him. He noted the nervousness 
 of the wife, who, evidently fearing that her husband 
 might fire upon Glenn without asking any questions 
 called to him and said, 'Tell him what you want". The 
 senior partner in the firm of Gregory and Son, Boot- 
 leggers, was evidently considerably relieved to find that 
 all the stranger wanted was a paint contract. Doubt- 
 less this relief was no small factor in the securing of the 
 order. 
 
 Upon arriving in Golconda in response to the urgent 
 message received, Young, accompanied by two or three 
 deputized men, went out to the Gregory place and 
 waited. They lay out in the weeds not far from the 
 house watching for evidence of the father and son's 
 presence. 
 
 Some time during the night they came in. together 
 with a third man named Lewis. The mother testified 
 later that upon their entrance they accused her of tell- 
 ing on them, and that the father said to the boy, "Now 
 George, do what you said you'd do to her", and 
 that her son proceeded to beat her unmercifully with
 
 LIFE AX D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 his .45 caliber revolver, rupturing her ear drum and 
 battering her body until she was bruised from head to 
 foot. In the meantime the husband and father looked 
 on, evidently enjoying the dastardly and inhuman deed. 
 
 No cries were heard from within by the watchers 
 in the weeds, but the woman, all but dead, was found 
 later when they raided the house to arrest the men, 
 hoping to catch them red handed at their liquor fac- 
 tory. They, however, fearing perhaps that the mother 
 was dead, and possibly suspicious that someone was 
 about the place, made their get-away, leaving behind 
 them one-legged Lewis, their accomplice in the illicit 
 business. Glenn compelled Lewis to tell where the 
 Gregorys were likely to be found, and learned that he 
 would probably run on to them down at the Lewis cabin, 
 at New Liberty, about twenty miles south of Golconda. 
 
 Early on the following morning they drove down to 
 the Lewis place. The Gregorys were not there. Feel- 
 ing reasonably certain that they would come there. 
 Young and his three companions, Harry Steyer, John 
 Frothingham and Roy Paget,''' remained in the cabin 
 where they waited patiently for the coming of the men 
 whom they were now doubly anxious to apprehend and 
 bring to justice. 
 
 Slowly the hours passed, and they began to think 
 that their birds had flown to parts unknown. But at 
 four o'clock they drove up in front of the old cabin and 
 started to unload. 
 
 A young woman, boon companion and sweetheart of 
 George Jr., was the only one of the three who ever 
 entered the place. Upon her entry she was immediately 
 
 *Steyer, Frothingham and Papret later "turned bad" and all three are now 
 in the Southern Illinois Penitentiary for a Pope County bank i-obbery, com- 
 mitted in 1924.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 73 
 
 warned and placed in the custody of Roy Paget. Glenn 
 and his other companions then stepped out of doors. 
 The Gregorys immediately opened fire, the older man 
 firing the first shot. It missed its mark, striking the 
 house not far from where Glenn was standing. 
 Again he fired, this shot coming closer, and almost 
 fanning the face of Young, who, now having waited 
 long enough, took quick aim and fired. The senior Greg- 
 ory fell to earth, as he was in the act of firing his third 
 shot at the officer, whose prowess again proved his sal- 
 vation. 
 
 George Jr., who was on the other side of the car 
 also got his gun into play, firing twice before a well 
 directed shot from Glenn's automatic brought him down 
 mortally wounded to the soil. The senior Gregory died 
 immediately, but the son lived for several hours after 
 fc^eing shot. A physician was called as promptly as 
 possible, and the wounded man removed to the hospital, 
 where he died. 
 
 The Gregorys were found to have been very heavily 
 armed. They carried with them at the time they were 
 killed, two .45 Colts, two double-barreled shot guns, 
 two .38 Smith and Westons, and thirty-six shot gun 
 shells loaded with buckshot. 
 
 In the investigation that followed the killing of 
 these desperadoes, Gregory's girl companion whom I 
 shall not name for the sake of her respected parents, 
 told of their violation of the liquor laws, of their heavy 
 drinking and their threats to kill any officer who dai-ed 
 interfere with them. Gregory Jr., had declared that 
 he would never be taken alive. This testimony was 
 confirmjed by that of Ed. Threlkeld, a taxi driver and 
 close friend of the younger man.
 
 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 When the news of the death of these two men 
 leached Golconda it created a great sensation. Many 
 experienced a feeling of relief, for George Gregory, 
 Junior, had bean the ring leader among violators of law 
 in the county. Little sympathy was expressed for the 
 men who had tragically paid the final price of their 
 folly. Much sympathy was expressed, however, for 
 the aged and battered mother, lying at the point of 
 death, beaten by the boy for whom she had gone down 
 into the valley of the shadow that he might be brought 
 into the world, beaten by the boy who had once been 
 innocent and pure, the boy for whom her heart had 
 planned and for whom her hands had lovingly wrought 
 throughout the years since she first nestled him against 
 her bosom. Wasn't it just like a mother to blame the 
 boy's wild career and dishonorable end upon the hus- 
 band and father? And wasn't it just like a mother to 
 find a grain of comfort in the fact that after her boy 
 had beaten her he came back into the room where she 
 lay for a moment and asked her a qu^estion? Perhaps 
 her poor old heart felt that the fact that he did that 
 much showed that he had some concern for her and a 
 little pity. God bless such mothers with a great future 
 blessing who can find some good even in the w^orst, 
 something to love even in the vilest. 
 
 The mother still liV|es. Respected by neighbors and 
 friends, this innocent and deeply wronged woman, 
 whose life was a daily terror and who never sympa- 
 thized with the evil ways of her husband and son, is 
 an object of pity to all who know her. Her simple 
 Christian faith alone sustains her, and it is well that 
 for those of such faith Gethsemane and Calvary are 
 followed at length by the hour of glorification. What
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 that mother has failed to find in the garden of tears, 
 may she find some day in the homeland of the soul. 
 
 The death of the Gregorys will long be remembered 
 in Pope County. Possibly their lives will serve as bea- 
 cons of warning to those who follow after. There are 
 young men gi'owing up there today just as careless of 
 God and as defiant of law, as George Gregory was. 
 May his tragic and dishonorable end yet serve to turn 
 them back from the gates of shame and death, inscrib- 
 ing deep upon heart and conscience the supreme folly 
 of ignoring God and of playing fast and loose with the 
 laws which He has ordained for the safeguarding of 
 the social body. Above the history of this father and 
 son I would write large the eternal truth that, 'THE 
 WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH".
 
 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF
 
 RAIDER S. GLEN X YOUNG 
 
 WILLIAMSON COUNTY 
 
 WILLIAMSON County, the stage whereon the 
 Si3nsational events my pen will now endeavor 
 to record were enacted, is that section of Illinois 
 whose inhabitants (many people suppose) have not 
 yet discovered the ten commandments, and where 
 young men upon graduation from high school are 
 handed a thirty-two caliber revolver instead of a di- 
 ploma. It is that one of the 102 counties in the state 
 where there are supposed to be just two classes of 
 people, namely those who have a little still, and those 
 who still have a little. 
 
 Geographically, it is the heart of Southern Illinois, 
 commonly known as '"Egypt", so called because at one 
 time it was the granary of the country. It is approxi- 
 mately twenty-four miles long from East to West, and 
 eighteen from North to South. It has an area of 432 
 square miles and 276,480 acres of land. This land has 
 become famous in recent years for its bituminous coal, 
 none finer being found anywhere in the world. It has 
 produced more soft fuel than any other county in the 
 state. For a period of five years its annual production 
 was over ten million tons per year. It has been esti- 
 mated that there is coal enough beneath the surface 
 of Williamson to last for at least 150 years. 
 
 Nor is all the county's w^ealth beneath its surface, 
 for its fields are fertile, yielding good harvests of 
 wheat, oats, com, potatoes, melons and all kinds of 
 small fruits and vegetables. The Southern section of 
 the county is part of one of the richest fruit districts
 
 78 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 in the United States, and is noted particularly for its 
 luscious apples and peaches, which are more and more 
 in demand in the large distributing centers of the 
 country. The Williamson County Farm Bureau is 
 doing excellent work in the promotion of scientific 
 farming, and in the encouragement of fruit growing. 
 The Williamson County Fair Association, which cele- 
 bi-ated its 67th anniversary in 1923, is also doing much 
 toward the increase of production and the improvement 
 of methods. 
 
 The population of the county runs close to 65,000, 
 over ten thousand of whom are of foneign birth. In 
 Ilerrin, which has the largest foreign citizenship, there 
 are no less than sixteen nationalities represented, 
 including Italians, Lithuanians, Russians, Poles and 
 Greeks. About 3,000 of the number are Italian. John- 
 ston City, a town of 9,000 inhabitants is fully 30 per 
 cent foreign. Marion, the county seat, has a popula- 
 tion of approximately 12,500, less than two thousand 
 being of foreign birth, while Cartei^ville with over 4,000 
 is almost 100 per cent American, over 90 per cent of 
 whom own their own homes. 
 
 Six railroads touch the county, including the Illinois 
 Central Line from St. Louis to Paducah, Ky., Chicago 
 and Eastern Illinois, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, 
 Missouri Pacific, Marion and Eastern, and the Big Four. 
 The Coal Belt Electric Line connects Marion with Car- 
 terville and Herrin. In addition to these lines of trans- 
 portation, the county has over fifty miles of hard road, 
 exclusive of paving in the cities, n<early all of which are 
 well paved with asphalt or brick. 
 
 To those who have never lived in a coal mining 
 region, or perhaps have passed through some of the
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 unsightly towns which characl^erize some mining sec- 
 tions, the mind picture which they draw of WilHamson 
 County and its cities is a very unlovely one. But the 
 to^^^ls and cities of this county are not composed of 
 unsightly, dirty shacks spilled out in disorderly fashion 
 or grouped in an unsymmetrical horde. It is a real 
 source of amusement to watch the faces of visitors, and 
 to hear their expressions of surprise as they drive 
 through the streets of Herrin, Marion and Carterville 
 and undergo the great disillusionment. 
 
 Marion has a five story bank building which could 
 not be built today for $250,000, and another bank build- 
 ing which cost about $100,000, while a third bank has 
 its own three story bank and hotel building. This fine 
 county-seat has over twenty-five miles of well paved 
 streets and a complete sewerage system; gas, electric 
 lights and municipal waterworks system costing nearly 
 $800,000. Its township high school would be an attrac- 
 tion in any city of the land, while its Carnegie Library, 
 Elk's Building, Masonic Temple and churches are large, 
 substantial and ornate structures, such as only a well- 
 to-do high type of citizenship are likely to erect. 
 
 Herrin recently completed the laying of pavements, 
 the contract price of which ran close to the half million 
 mark. Just a week ago, in spite of the slump in the 
 coal industry, a private corporation opened a White 
 City amusement park, involving an investment of 
 $300,000. Herrin's high-class, well built brick stores, 
 with their unusually wjell dressed windows, her wdde 
 streets, beautiful homes and public buildings effect a 
 pleasant shattering of the misconceptions entertained 
 by those who view them for th^e first time.
 
 80 
 
 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 Herrin City Hall, Ly-Mar Hotel in Background. 
 It was from this building that S. Glenn Young directed many of the famous 
 liquor raids, and where he reigned supreme following the assassination of 
 Constable Caesar Cagle and kidnaping of Herrin police officers on Feb. 8, 1924. 
 
 And what has been said of Herrin and Marion, can 
 as truly be written of Johnston City and Cartei-ville, 
 which rank next in size to those centers of industry. 
 Carterville has the distinction of having a larger per- 
 centage of citizens owning their own homes than any 
 other town in the State of Illinois. In all of these 
 towns there are live, active men's organizations, such 
 as the Lions and Rotarians, which are undertaking and 
 accomplishing much toward better civic conditions. 
 They have recently formed a bi-county organization 
 with Franklin County for the maintenance of Boy 
 Scout work throughout Williamson. Largely through 
 the efforts of these organizations, a Director of Boy 
 Scout work has been secured and has his office head- 
 quarters at West Frankfort.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 81 
 
 Histoiy of The County 
 
 In 1809, when Illinois was organized into a Territory 
 proper, the United States Congress appointed a Gov- 
 ernor over the Territory. One of his first official acts 
 was to authorize the division of the Territory into 
 counties, in order that the execution of the laws might 
 be facilitated. What is now known as Williamson 
 County had hitherto been part of St. Clair County, now- 
 fell into Gallatin County, where it belonged until Illinois 
 was taken into the Union in 1818, and Franklin County 
 was taken off the West side of Gallatin. In 1839 Frank- 
 lin was divided by legislative act, and the Southern 
 half became known as Williamson County. 
 
 Mr. Milo Erwin, whose history of Williamson 
 County, in its earlier days, is a standard, tells us that, 
 "When our fathers came here they found vast, silent, 
 virgin plains unclaimed, untouched, untilled, hedgeless, 
 free to all. The county was fertile and full of charm, 
 and awaited only the coming of man to develop its 
 inherent resources. The prairies and woodlands 
 abounded with wild animals, including the buffalo, 
 which roamed over the county in herds of countless 
 hundreds. The woods and fields echoed with the enrap- 
 turing notes of feathered warblers, while cranes, 
 brants, wild geese, and eagles were seen everywhere. 
 
 "The Shawnee Indians once claimed this county as 
 their own, and every valley of our county has yielded 
 up evidence of their sojourn here, where they were 
 hated and dreaded by the whites, and finally over- 
 whelmed and obliterated. The valley of the Crab 
 Orchard is particularly associated with Indian history. 
 Here, even as late as 1828, the Kaskaskian Tribe who
 
 82 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 were friendly to the white people, would camp and hunt 
 for furs." 
 
 The first white settlers in Williamson immigrated 
 from East and South, particularly Kentucky and Ten- 
 nessee. The first settlement occurred in 1810, and by 
 1822 there were settlers in all the precincts of the 
 county, men and women who lived like the Indians, 
 mostly in the woods. From that time on the influx of 
 immigration became a strong and steady stream in 
 which was the founder of many a family since promi- 
 nent in the life and history of the county. 
 
 It is not my purpose to write the history of those 
 early settlers. That has been very ably done by 
 another. They were, for the most part, of the humbler 
 class, and consisted of all those types of character 
 which are usually found in such a group. They were 
 of unmixed blood, enterprising and courageous. Some 
 of them lacked certain of these qualities, and the base 
 qualities of fallen humanity seem to have been domi- 
 nant in their lives. Of the majority, however, it is on 
 record that they were generous and gentle, and that 
 their kindness was bounded only by their ability to 
 bestow. 
 
 The progress of the county was naturally slow, 
 partly because of the natural difficulties to be faced, 
 and partly from the fact that the early settlei^s were 
 mostly poor and illitei*ate. It is said that there was 
 no man in the county worth more than $1,000 until 
 after 1830. With the coming of the church and the 
 school, progress was accelerated. W^ith their coming, 
 industry always takes the place of idleness, and prog- 
 ress of retrogression. It was so here, and soon the 
 "cabins" **tents" and ''stockades" began to give place
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 83 
 
 to houses. The first brick house is said to have been 
 built in 1840 by James M. Campbell. This was fol- 
 lowed by the Court House in 1841 and the Western 
 Exchange in 1842. The first business house in Marion 
 was built by one John Davis, when the town was 
 located. He is said to have been in such a hurry to 
 sell whiskey that he bought a set of stable logs and 
 started shop on the square, from which place of busi- 
 ness he had to move, however, when the town was sur- 
 veyed. 
 
 Marion received its incorporation papers in 1851, 
 but made little progress until 1873, when it was organ- 
 ized into a city under the general laws of the state. 
 Carterville, eight miles West of Marion, on the Illinois 
 Central Railroad, was incorporated as a village in 1873. 
 Herrin 'and Johnston City are much more recent, and 
 were created as a result of the development of the coal 
 industry for which the county has become noted. 
 
 It is not a pleasant task to record the criminal his- 
 tory of the county, and I do so very briefly, and that 
 only to form a background for the present evolutionary, 
 or perhaps, revolutionary process, which has brought 
 the county once again before the eyes of the world, and 
 is what I regard as a civic new birth to righteousness 
 and honor. 
 
 The story of the ''Bloody Vendetta" that is respon- 
 sible in part for the painful stigma of "Bloody William- 
 son", is a gruesome one, though no worse than stories 
 which have as their stage other counties in Illinois 
 and adjoining states. Had the soil of Williamson been 
 saturated with the blood and tears of justifiable war, I 
 would hasten to my task unreluctantly. But to record 
 the dampening of its soil with the blood and tears
 
 84 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 occasioned by cold, deliberate murder, is work I engage 
 in with sorrowful hesitation. I am hesitant too because 
 descendants of some of the participants in the crimes 
 committed are still living in the county, useful citi- 
 zens and honored because of the rectitude of their lives 
 and the ideals which they maintain. In touching upon 
 the awful story but lightly, it is in charity to them to 
 whom the whole story, dripping with human blood, is 
 as awful and hateful as it is to myself. 
 
 Even w^hile I write these pages the nation is being 
 thrilled by the news of the murder of young Franks, 
 son of a Chicago millionaire, a lad of fourteen, slain 
 deliberately and in cold blood by two millionaire's sons, 
 high up in university and social circles in Chicago. The 
 Vendetta perpetrated a series of just such atrocious 
 deeds, carefully planned by men of intelligence, and 
 executed by their fiendish agents until even hell must 
 have blushed for shame, and the angels of the Most 
 High supplicated the throne for justice. 
 
 The three original causes of the ''Bloody Vendetta" 
 were; first, a game of cards in a saloon; second, jeal- 
 ousy over a woman; third, suit over a crop of oats. 
 From quarrels thus originated, bitter family feuds 
 sprouted to blossom and bear fruit very speedily in mur- 
 ders. Whenever representatives of these families met 
 there were encounters with words and fists, and some- 
 times with guns, no serious haim at first being done, 
 however, though bitterness was intensified on each oc- 
 casion. These encounters sometimes amounted to a 
 riot, for which the participants were arrested on at 
 least four occasions. The information against them, 
 however, was always quashed. On a fifth trial some 
 convictions were secured, those on the other side escap-
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 85 
 
 ing through a change of venue. Thus were the fires of 
 hell fanned into flame upon the hearts of men, and ven- 
 geance became the settled policy of their lives. 
 
 -i It was close to the Jackson County line that the 
 first fruit of hate fell in the murder of George Bulliner. 
 On December 12, 1873, he started for Carbondale never 
 to reach it, and never to return to his family alive. 
 Two men, unsoftened and unmoved by the appeals of 
 brotherhood or the demands of conscience, lay with 
 their eyes fixed upon the valley road, and listening in- 
 tently for the sound of a horse's feet as it bore toward 
 them and death — a husband and a father. Moments 
 are hours when men thirst for bloody vengeance, but 
 at last the hour strikes. George Bulliner, all unsus- 
 pecting, comes abreast of the ambushed enemy. A 
 volley is fired, two or three balls taking effect in his hip 
 and leg. His horse wheels and throws his back to the 
 assassins, who fire upon him again, felling him to the 
 earth and death with forty-four buck-shot in his back. 
 Bulliner was found shortly afterward and his sons were 
 summoned to his side. John reached his side just in 
 time to put his arms about him and hear him say, 
 "Turn me over and let me die". This foul murder has 
 never been expiated in Williamson County. 
 
 Less than four months elapsed after the perpetra- 
 tion of this crime and one which outranks it in its hein- 
 ousness. When Monroe and David Bulliner, sons of 
 the slain man, w^ere returning from church, they were 
 fired upon by two assassins concealed in nearby fence 
 corners. Amidst a hurricane of bullets from the shot 
 guns and navy revolvers of the hidden foe there was 
 one shot destined to find its billet in the body and end 
 the life of David. As they carried him to his home he
 
 86 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 murmured: *'Is it a dream? Is it a dream?" There 
 amidst his brothers and sisters who stood in hushed 
 agony about his bed and in the presence of the mother 
 whose heart w^as burdened with sorrow^ almost too 
 heavy to bear, David BulHner passed out to that great 
 beyond into which his father had been so recently and 
 tragically hurled. 
 
 Who can wonder at the feelings engendered within 
 the hearts of the hapless victims of such dastardly 
 crimes ? That the surviving members of families, thus 
 ruthlessly robbed of those greatly beloved, would have 
 deep rooted bitterness within their souls occasions no 
 surprise whatever. Who can wonder that these feel- 
 ings were intensified, when, after the expenditure of 
 much money and effort in the prosecution of the alleged 
 assassins, the so called "orderly process of law" failed 
 to convict and punish the accused, but turned them 
 loose? I am not here to justify subsequent wrongs, 
 but of this I am certain, that w^hen justice fails, it is 
 not at all surprising that men take the law into their 
 owTi hands to avenge the wrong done to those whom 
 they love. 
 
 Describing the conditions throughout the county 
 at this period, Mr Erwin says: ''Ruffianism w^as ram- 
 pant. Noted assassins were concealed in the thickets 
 of the bloody ground. The air was filled with omens of 
 disaster. Pass the street corners and the hot breath of 
 murder was whispered in your face. Bold assassins 
 stalked unbridled and unchecked. To bring these out- 
 laws to justice was the universal desire of our people, 
 but how to do it was a point to put to silence the entire 
 county".
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 87 
 
 The dawn of a better day was hastened when a 
 brave woman, Mrs. Wagoner, told a courageoujs man, 
 James H. Duncan of Marion, who were guilty of cer- 
 tain murders. Mr. Duncan was a man of nerve, discre- 
 tion and persistence. He it was who laid all the plans 
 and backed all the efforts to bring the guilty ones to 
 justice. One after another they were trapped, arrested 
 and brought to trial. One after another they were 
 found guilty and sentenced, some to death and others 
 to varying terms behind prison bars. 
 
 Oh what sorrow and tears and blood followed the 
 firing of the first fatal shot of the Vendetta I What an 
 awful harvest has been reaped from the sowing of 
 hatred in the hearts of men? How pathetic the dis- 
 tress and suffering which the guilty bring upon the 
 innocent? How supremely foolish and sinful is the 
 arbitrament of aims in the settlement of differences 
 between men and men ? How inevitable are the wages 
 of sin? 'The wages of sin is death", death to all that is 
 worth while in this life or the life to come. Happy is 
 the man who can leave vengeance with God. 
 
 Thus were written in blood the first sad pages of 
 Williamson's criminal history. The awful chapter was 
 brought to an end when judges and juries, unmoved 
 by fear or politics, took the responsibility of trying and 
 punishing the guilty. When the law fails to function 
 quickly and adequately it ceases to be a terror to evil 
 doers. When law and justice prevail in society, crimi- 
 nals are discouraged and the passions of the human 
 heart are far less likely to flame forth with destructive 
 energy. Back of the ''Vendetta" Hes the fact that the 
 ordinary agents of the law had proved insufficient.
 
 88 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 THE HERRIN MASSACRE 
 
 WITH THE intervening history of Williamson 
 County it is not the province of this book to 
 deal. Indeed that portion of its past history 
 which is recorded within these pages is given just to 
 furnish something of an historic background for recent 
 events. 
 
 With the development of the coal industry the popu- 
 lation of the county rapidly increased. Many new com- 
 munities were established, and the larger ones already 
 in existence becoming thriving centers of trade. 
 
 There have been bright spots in the history of this 
 county. It has produced many fine citizens, men and 
 women who have been thoroughly patriotic both in 
 times of war and peace, men and women who have been 
 a credit to American citizenship. In fact this type has 
 been in the majority, and the lamentable thing is this, 
 that a small percentage of unprincipled and criminal 
 people have brought upon a whole county the stigma 
 which has become attached to it, but which I am con- 
 fident will yet be removed. 
 
 June 22, 1922, saw the name of WiUiamson County, 
 written large and in letters of blood, before the eyes 
 of the world. "Bloody Williamson" became bloodier, 
 for upon that date, between eight and ten o'clock in the 
 morning, occurred the Lester strip mine assassinations, 
 which will go down to history as the Herrin Massacre. 
 
 On that date twenty-three non-union men, imported 
 to Williamson county to operate the Lester Strip Mine, 
 between Herrin and Marion, had surrendered after 
 being besieged by union miners for several days. All 
 miners of the nation were on strike at the time, and
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 89 
 
 the millionaire owner of the Strip Mine thought to 
 profit by defying the United Mine Workers of America 
 and mining and selling coal on a rising market. After 
 the imported strike-breakers had given up, they were 
 marched away from the workings in the direction of 
 HeiTin, followed by a mob consisting of men, women 
 and children. 
 
 Two trials of mine union leaders failed to reveal 
 how the affair started which resulted in the death of 
 twenty-three of the imported men, so this book cannot 
 divulge the secret. They w^ere killed, mostly by gun- 
 
 L,-'. 
 
 Giant Steam Shovel Used in "Stripping" Earth from Shallow Coal Veins.
 
 90 
 
 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 Funeral of Three Union Miners Killed by Mine Guards Preceding the 
 "Herrin Massacre." 
 
 shot wounds. Three union miners had been killed in 
 the siege by bullets fired from the enclosure in which 
 the strangers were barricaded, and this, together with 
 the fact that some members of the mob were inflamed 
 by liquor, somehow led to the death of many of the 
 strike-breakers. 
 
 It was here that the breakdown of the law and the 
 courts opened the way for conditions that finally be- 
 came unbearable and resulted in the coming of S. Glenn 
 Young to Williamson county. George Galligan, a union 
 miner, w^as elected sheriff by the union vote, and the 
 lawlessness that later made the county a by-word had 
 its inception. 
 
 Some men who had been leaders among the miners 
 became involved in lawbreaking enterprises, and as 
 their power over county ofticials grew so flourished
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXN YOUNG 91 
 
 their arrogance. Conditions went from bad to worse 
 until finally the people organized to put down evil, and 
 the final adventures of S. Glenn Young were enacted. 
 Right here let it be said once and for all, that S. Glenn 
 Young was not involved in any way in the events of 
 the Herrin Massacre. 
 
 Raid Conditions in Williamson County 
 
 "I have been gambling around these here joints for 
 over ten years, but it got too raw for me". When a 
 professional gambler makes such a confession as that, 
 surely the rottenness of conditions in the indicated 
 area is well established. Thus I heard Herrin indicted 
 one evening early in 1924. 
 
 What did that avowed law violator mean? What 
 did the candid confession of his soul imply? It meant 
 this, that during the administration of Sheriff Gal- 
 ligan and Duty, the open secret violations of law were 
 even worse than during the regime of former Sheriff 
 Thaxton. And that is saying a great deal, for during 
 the Thaxton administration things were notoriously 
 vile in Williamson County. 
 
 As recently as the autumn of 1923, Herrin, fre- 
 quently designated throughout the country as "Little 
 Hell", was a place in which the worst criminals of 
 Chicago, St. Louis and other centers felt perfectly at 
 home. It was a rendezvous for underworld talent. 
 Murder, robbery and assault were common occur- 
 rences. Innocent men were even shot down on the pub- 
 lic highway for refusing to stop their cars at the thug's 
 demand. Perpetrators of these crimes were often un- 
 touched by the hands of the law. Few were ever ade- 
 quately punished for their crimes.
 
 92 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 With scarcely more than two exceptions the hotels 
 of Herrin were houses of assignation, through means 
 of which the proprietors, and officials who protected 
 them in their nefarious business, increased their bank 
 accounts. Painted prostitutes walked the streets right 
 under the eyes of so-called policemen, leading their 
 duped victims to one of the officially protected dens of 
 vice which advertised itself as a hotel. One of these 
 institutions was located directly opposite the city hall, 
 where anyone could see ample evidence of the partic- 
 ular line of business which it was carrying on. 
 
 In addition to these corrupt hotels were numerous 
 other places of ill repute, where fallen women divided 
 their earnings with the ''lady" or with the male pro- 
 prietor of the institution. One man is knowm to have 
 practically paid for his hotel wuthin the last few years, 
 largely by the extra money brought in by the lewd 
 women whom he harbored. Though that man's place 
 of mixed business was one of the most conspicuous and 
 notorious, for some reason or other he very largely 
 escaped trouble, though his place was occasionally 
 raided, usually just before election time. 
 
 Another vice which flourished in Herrin and at 
 other points in the county was gambling, ''detestable 
 because selfishness is its sire and avarice its dam". To 
 quote John Roach Stratton, that fearless New York 
 preacher, "It has not one redeeming trait in it ; it has 
 not one generous impulse behind it, not one beneficent 
 result from it. It honeycombs the soul with the basest 
 of passions. It is a vice whose root is greed, whose 
 trunk is cruelty, and whose fruit is ruin to mind and 
 soul." This vice which diseases the mind, corrupts the 
 imagination, weakens the will, prostitutes the affec-
 
 .RAIDER S. GLEX X YO U XG 93 
 
 tions, and unfits one for the serious and noble duties of 
 life, was rampant. Gambling joints were numerous, 
 Herrin particularly being thus cursed. Gamblers from 
 far and wide gathered here for protracted meetings, 
 and nightly broke the law with the knowledge and 
 therefore the virtual consent of officials elected by the 
 people to see that society was protected from such 
 evils. 
 
 Then too there was that camouflage of prohibition 
 days called the *'soft drink parlor". Well, the pro- 
 prietors did have it rather "soft" for far too long a 
 time. Many of their patrons had it hard. I have seen 
 bottled goods carried out from these places and deliv- 
 ered to customers who waited at the door in their 
 car for the refreshing draught. I have known of offi- 
 cers of the law to patronize these joints and sample 
 the fluids there dispensed by the gentlemen who paid 
 a ''soft" license, but conducted a "hard" business. 
 That scores of these places received protection has long 
 since been established. A prominent attorney is 
 known to have held a conference with a number of 
 Herrin saloon men and to have been assured that this 
 prominent Federal Attorney legal light would "take 
 care of them". And that reminds one of the stories 
 for which the late Theodore Roosevelt was famous. 
 He told it once in a cabinet meeting in Washington. 
 
 As President, on a Western trip, an old Rough Rider 
 of his boarded the train and renewed their acquain- 
 tance. Not long afterward Mr. Roosevelt received a 
 letter from the cowboy requesting the sum of $150 to 
 aid him in defending himself against the charge of 
 stealing horses. The Colonel, always a good sport and 
 loyal friend, sent the money. About a month later
 
 94 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 he received a letter from his old acquaintance thank- 
 ing him for the money, but saying that he no longer 
 needed it, as his political party '*had elected their 
 candidate for District Attorney". Since the present 
 United States District Attorney assumed office the 
 hundreds of illegal liquor joints were never raided 
 until S. Glenn Young came. 
 
 Not only was the Eighteenth Amendment fla- 
 grantly and openly fractured in the ostensible soft 
 drink parlors of Herrin, but bootleggers there found 
 a veritable Mecca. Women as well as men engaged in 
 the modern occupation of "mule" vending, using all 
 the methods devised by fertile brains since Mr. Vol- 
 stead prepared his dry plank and had it nailed into the 
 Constitution of the United States. That these law 
 breakers were never arrested I do not say, for even 
 the sheriff sometimes disturbed the even tenor of their 
 ways and collected souvenirs in the form of stills and 
 bottles to use as evidence not so much against them 
 as to prove to the public that he sometimes did his 
 official duty. What I do affirm is this, that for the 
 most part they were treated with great leniency, that 
 the fine imposed w^as not in any wise discouraging to 
 their activities. S. Glenn Young has in his possession 
 affidavits from 19 deputy sheriffs, constables and 
 police officers in Herrin and the surrounding district, 
 to the effect that they arrested scores of violators 
 caught in the act of selling and manufacturing liquor, 
 and that practically every one of them was permitted 
 by the United States Attorney to plead guilty to a 
 charge of ^'possession" and escaped with a light fine. 
 
 That efforts were made by officials higher up to 
 corrupt other officers of the law is also established. A
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 95 
 
 bona fide affidavit from the Mayor of a Williamson 
 County town not far from Herrin, states that a well 
 known United States Attorney approached him on one 
 occasion and said: — '*You are a fool if you don't get 
 some of this easy money; the former Mayor got his 
 and you don't hear anyone raving about it". 
 
 When I was a small boy and didn't have the neces- 
 sary money to pay my way into the ball game, I could 
 always see a big field through a little hole in the fence, 
 and surely the field with all its corruption and dirt can 
 be seen through a question recently asked the United 
 States District Attorney by Mr. Young: *'Why did 
 virtually every bootlegger in Williamson County dur- 
 ing our investigation there tell George Simcox, myself, 
 and other investigators, that they had things 'fixed' 
 with Potter, Duty and Galligan, and were not afraid 
 of the government doing anything to them?" 
 
 I have written at length about conditions in Herrin. 
 But similar conditions to those found there existed in 
 varying measure throughout the whole county. Cor- 
 ruption and vice had entrenched themselves in well 
 nigh evei'y community. Marion was freer than Her- 
 rin, though by no means clean, because the Mayor, Mr. 
 Clarida, and his police tried to enforce the law. Out 
 at Half Way on the road between Marion and Herrin 
 was a gambling den and liquor dispensary w^hich had 
 long been notorious, and which county officers per- 
 mitted to operate. Murders had been committed here, 
 and there can be no doubt that it was a rendezvous 
 for the worst tj^e of criminals, and that here some 
 of their crimes were definitely planned. It was in this 
 protected hell, that Whitey Doering, of the Egan Rats 
 Gang, was killed by one Charles Berger, shortly be- 
 fore Young came to the countv.
 
 96 LIFE A\ D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 Another lawless community and the scene of fre- 
 quent shootings, was Colp, commonly known as Pistol 
 City, a town more than half negro and foreign, lying 
 about three miles due North of Carterville, and an 
 equal distance West of Herrin. Several **soft drink" 
 parlors operated here, and stills worked overtime to 
 meet the demand. Gambling and vice also cooperated 
 to make Colp notorious as a center of lawlessness. 
 County officials knew all this. Why did they permit 
 such conditions? Were they afraid of their lives if 
 they interfered? I think not. A prominent Ameri- 
 can Weekly recently said, ''Generally, where lawless- 
 ness prevails, there is weakness and cowardice, if not 
 graft and criminal connivance in the local govern- 
 ment". Truly, it is a hard thing to raid the homes 
 and business places of your friends and supporters. 
 Why expect such a breach of friendliness and such 
 acts of ingratitude on the part of the county or state 
 officials? How unreasonable decent, law abiding peo- 
 ple are becoming? How exacting upon those into 
 whose hands they trustingly place the reins of gov- 
 ernment? Surely it is reasonable that unto those who 
 render most, most shall be given? 
 
 It was such lawless nauseating conditions as these ; 
 it was these multiplied and brazen violations of law 
 right under the nose of officialdom; it was this pro- 
 tected county farm of crime that aroused the respect- 
 able citizenship of Williamson County to the point of 
 definite and determined action. If the county was 
 ever to be made a safe and desirable place in which to 
 rear their sons and daughters; if Williamson County 
 was ever to be stayed in its rapid moral declension, 
 then every decent man, every man of character and
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 97 
 
 caliber had to rise up, and uniting with those of like 
 mind' and heart, meet the challenge of corrupt condi- 
 tions with suitable action. Thousands of red blooded 
 men had come to the conclusion that the political en- 
 couragement of lawlessness must be discouraged, and 
 graft on the part of those entrusted with office termin- 
 ated. They had come to the conclusion that through 
 the enforcement of law, the foreigner within our 
 gates must be forcibly taught that America is no 
 place in which to perpetuate European evils, here 
 placed under the ban by law, that to enjoy American 
 privileges America's laws must be respected. Thou- 
 sands had come to these conclusions. What was 
 needed was cohesion, unified action. 
 
 In the latter part of July, 1923, a gathering of 
 citizens who were vitally interested in law enforce- 
 ment was held in Marion. Over two thousand men 
 and women from over the county assembled upon the 
 public square. The primary purpose of the meeting 
 was to urge the officials of the county to enforce the 
 laws, and to clean up the existing dirt which made the 
 county obnoxious to every decent citizen. Speeches 
 were made by several ministers from adjoining towns, 
 in which the moral and financial support of the best citi- 
 zens of the county was pledged to the officials in the 
 work of moral house-cleaning. The sheriff and his 
 deputies were assured that any number of men were 
 available to assist them in raiding the numerous, 
 liquor joints throughout Williamson. Rev. Glotfelty, 
 Pastor of the Herrin Methodist Church said, *'We are 
 ready to assist you in any way, even to cost of life, to 
 make a clean-up of Williamson County, and, further- 
 more, if you do not make an effort to clean-up, some- 
 one else wiir*.
 
 98 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 This meeting is particularly interesting because it 
 gives the direct lie to the whine of the sheriff at a 
 later date when he claimed that he hadn't had the 
 support of the citizens. The fact is he didn't want 
 the support of the decent citizenship — ^except at the 
 polls. 
 
 After futile efforts to secure the support of the 
 sheriff, it was found that a number of the deputies in 
 Herrin were bootleggers and gamblers, some of them 
 having been indicted on more than one charge. Ap- 
 pealing to the city and the county without results, we 
 appealed to the state, but our appeal was as vain as 
 threats to the Mummies of the Pharaohs. As a last 
 resort there was effected an organization of citizens 
 who stand for the highest ideals of Americanism. 
 
 The citizens carried their grievances to the Federal 
 authorities at Washington, and Federal Commissioner 
 Haynes sent a number of men into our county to 
 suppress the violations of law. A large number of citi- 
 zens were deputized by these authorities, and simply 
 awaited marchinof orders to raid the criminal resorts. 
 
 THE MISREPRESENTATIVE PRESS 
 
 I HAVE a friend in the ministry who tells the story 
 of a man who was called upon to address a large 
 gathering of newspaper men. Very aptly he 
 selected as his text words from the New Testament 
 connected with the healing of the paralytic who was let 
 down through the roof by his four friends into the 
 presence of the Great Healer. His text was, "They 
 would have come nigh unto Jesus but they could not 
 for the press".
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 99 
 
 The Williamson County Ministerial Union would 
 have given the public the truth concerning the clean up 
 of the county under the leadership of S. Glenn Young, 
 but, alas, they could not for the PRESS. A letter was 
 drafted by that representative Protestant body, in 
 which the facts concerning the county, its citizenship 
 and the recent liquor raids were set forth briefly and 
 clearly. This letter was sent to the Associated Pi'ess, 
 but it was evidently consigned without mass or requiem 
 to its last resting place. In so far as I know even its 
 last words were not recorded. It died "unknown, un- 
 honored and unsung". Such is the fairness of our 
 American press, which seems to prefer the second hand, 
 watered and flavored stories of its reporters to the first 
 hand, undiluted facts known to intelligent and truthful 
 witnesses upon the scene of action. 
 
 Professor Jerome Davis of Dartmouth College, Han- 
 over, N. H., has a splendid article in a cuiTent monthly 
 under the caption, 'The Adulteration and Poisoning 
 of News". Any who have merely suspected that the 
 metropolitan press has been guilty of adulteration will 
 be fully persuaded of its guilt after reading his con- 
 tribution. Certainly it was never guiltier of that sin 
 than in relationship to Williamson County, Illinois. To 
 say that the newspaper reporters sent in here during 
 the early weeks of the year to write up the story for 
 their several papers showed ''misdirected abilities for 
 fiction writing" is to exercise the grace of charity in 
 larger measure than I find it possible to do at this pres- 
 ent moment. 
 
 Many facts were deliberately suppressed and others 
 were distorted. Sensational elements, often having 
 little if any basis in truth, were magnified and exploited.
 
 100 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan and the notorious Knights of the 
 Flaming Circle were placed in the same category, and 
 portrayed as two lawless factions shooting out their 
 differences while decent citizens looked on in fear and 
 trembling. Mr. S. Glenn Young was presented to the 
 American people as a rough-neck gunman, a man with- 
 out any legal authority and a trouble maker, one who 
 was interfering with the "orderly process of law". 
 
 In speaking of this gross unfairness of the press 
 in regard to himself, Glenn Young says : ''Ninety-nine 
 per cent of the new^spaper articles criticising my activi- 
 ties and the actions of men associated with me are as 
 false as the people that manufactured them. My every 
 act in Williamson County or any other county has been 
 legal and honorable and I defy anyone to produce any 
 evidence to the contrary. If the people throughout the 
 country knew of the dirty, contemptible means certain 
 officials of this county and district, who are intimate 
 friends of the lawless element, have taken to discredit 
 the good citizens of this and Franklin County, who have 
 given their time and money to make this county a 
 decent place in which to live, they would be astonished". 
 
 Professor E. A. Ross of Wisconsin, calls the metro- 
 politan dailies "our reptile press", and some very sound 
 reasons could be further adduced to prove the justice 
 of the appellation. Certainly the decent, fair minded 
 citizens of Williamson County (and there are thousands 
 such) feel that the Chicago Tribune and other leading 
 dailies have proven themselves worthy of the indict- 
 ment. Whether it has been a case of a capitalistic 
 press injecting some of its venom into labor, or a 
 Romanized-Judaized press striking its fangs into the 
 Klan I am not fully persuaded. Perhaps it is both.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 101 
 
 Certain am I of this, however, that multitudes of 
 American people all over the nation have had their 
 minds poisoned against the whole citizenship of this 
 county, and that thousands of worthy men and women, 
 whose lives and interests happen to center here, have 
 had a thorny crown of shame pressed down upon their 
 brows. 
 
 A widely known American writer recently aflfirm.ed 
 that we are not getting the facts from our foreign cor- 
 respondents. Either they are ** violently prejudiced" 
 or they feel it necessary to warp their cables to "please 
 the editor" back home. That is quite in harmony with 
 the following statement from Mr. Young: "The true 
 facts about the Williamson County situation have never 
 been published. The newspaper men who have been 
 down there have told me that they sympathized with 
 my fight, but that they did not dare send out the true 
 story for their papers would not only refuse to publish 
 it but would discharge them. 
 
 "One reporter on a Chicago paper sent three col- 
 umns about the true situation, and when it appeared 
 in print it had been cut to a half column and changed 
 to conceal the truth. The reporters told me they had 
 to send out what their papers wanted regardless of the 
 facts". 
 
 Great guns and German gas! What a sight to 
 behold, the great American press the biggest factor in 
 moulding public opinion, stooping so low as to resort 
 to deliberate and systematic lying and propaganda. 
 
 And is not this problem of propaganda about the 
 worst enemy of truth that we have in America today ? 
 We had striking evidence of its working some weeks 
 ago when the Chicago press reported, or rather pro-
 
 102 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 fessed to report, a meeting of the Epworth League of 
 the First Methodist Church of Evanston, Illinois. It 
 seems that a discussion occurred there on the subject 
 of *The German Youth Movement". A member of the 
 American Legion replied to the speaker, who had been 
 a conscientious objector during the war. I have learned 
 on authority that there was certainly no riot there, and 
 that no revolutionary remarks were indulged in by 
 anyone present. On the following day, however, such 
 headlines as these appeared in leading Chicago dailies : 
 **Hiss Flag in Evanston Church", 'Tacifist Gibes At 
 United States Cause Wild Sabbath Service Scene", 
 "Near Riot As Allison Talks At Evanston : War Heroes 
 Booed". Shades of Washington and Lincoln! One 
 could almost imagine that when David said in his haste 
 that ''all men are liars" he was thinking of newspaper 
 reporters. If he said it in haste then, who could blame 
 him if he said it with deliberation today after reading 
 the news and comparing it, if possible, with the actual 
 facts? 
 
 Before me are several examples of manufactured 
 news. The first is from the highly unveracious pen of 
 one Tom Tippett, Federated Press staff correspondent. 
 One would suspect that when this reporter was leaving 
 his office for Williamson County the editor had said to 
 him, *'If you find the truth Tom, tip it and give us 
 something else that will sell w^ell." Tom Tippett did 
 tip it sure enough. For example, he speaks of religious 
 and racial persecution. I think there is scarcely even 
 a member of the Flaming Circle too low down to deny 
 that allegation. Religion and race have had no more 
 to do with the clean-up of Williamson County, than 
 Murphy's cow with the nomination of President Cool-
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 103 
 
 idge. He says that, ''in these raids furniture was 
 smashed, properties stolen, and women as well as men 
 were beaten. The Chief of Police of Carterville was 
 badly beaten by raiders". These charges, which Tom 
 sent to his newspaper because they wanted them, are 
 simply a part of the propaganda of the law violators. 
 ^Ir. Young has never raided a county or city where 
 similar tactics have not been employed. He has had 
 perhaps a thousand charges preferred against him and 
 his men in similar manner, but not one of them ever 
 came to trial — not because of his or other influence, 
 but because the officials knowing nothing would come 
 of the trials, dropped the cases of their own volition. 
 
 In regard to the Carterville Chief of Police. The 
 said gentleman who guarded Carterville from law vio- 
 lators by day, and a bootlegging joint east of Carter- 
 ville by night, was knocked down only when he moved 
 his hand toward his gun to resist duly deputized offi- 
 cers of the law who had evidence against the place he 
 was protecting and were authorized to act upon the 
 evidence and raid the illegal institution. Brother of 
 Ora Thomas. 
 
 Another bit of misrepresentation on the part of the 
 press, one for which the St. Louis papers had to retract, 
 is spread out before me. It is the published allegation 
 that S. Glenn Young had been requested to leave Wil- 
 liamson County. 
 
 In one comer of the St. Louis "Globe-Democrat" of 
 the issue of February, the following finds its place: — 
 
 "Deny Young Was Ordered From Williamson 
 County. 
 
 "Marion, Illinois, Feb. 24th. — Citizens of Williamson 
 County desiring to correct erroneous newspaper and
 
 104 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 press association reports that S. Glenn Young has been 
 ordered out of the county, today made the following 
 statement : 
 
 "We, the citizens of Williamson County, desire to 
 state that S. Glenn Young has not been requested to 
 leave this county and that no restrictions have been 
 placed upon his activities within the county by anyone. 
 Practically every citizen in Williamson County who 
 stands for law enforcement welcomes S. Glenn Young 
 to this city to make his future home, as we all know 
 that the man responsible for the victory in this county 
 is no less than he. 
 
 "S. Glenn Young has the support and good will of 
 every law abiding citizen of Williamson County and no 
 one has a greater place in the hearts of the people of 
 Williamson County than he, and we recommend him to 
 the world as a perfect gentleman, honest, true and up- 
 right in all his dealings, but a terror to all law violators. 
 As an officer he is in a class by himself, in his never- 
 tiring efforts to execute the enforcement of the laws." 
 
 This statement is signed by Samuel Sterns, chair- 
 man of the County Board of Supervisors, John L. 
 Whiteside and Fred Simpson, leaders in the Ku Klux 
 Klan. 
 
 Another lie deliberately propagated by the Ameri- 
 can press is of very recent date. Under the heading, 
 **Young Ousted From East St. Louis Klan", they have 
 again attacked the one whom it is not in their interest 
 to support. I am very glad that this and similar 
 articles, under the Associated Press Head in regard to 
 Young being deposed as Kleagle of the Klan, have been 
 flatly denied by Chas. D. McGehee, Grand Titan of the 
 Ku Klux Klan in the State of Illinois. I quote the words 
 of this worthy man in regard to the matter:
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 105 
 
 "I wish to state as Great Titan Province No. 1, 
 Realm of Illinois, for the Ku Klux Klan, that there is 
 not a word of truth in the statement furnished for the 
 Associated Press by a certain 'official of the United 
 States government'. 
 
 "Glenn Young was conscripted for clean-up work 
 inside the East St. Louis Klan, a number of unworthy 
 men having crept into that organization. He has done 
 his work w^ell, and now we have transferred him to the 
 publicity department at his own request. Rev. Bob 
 Evans will assume control of the East St. Louis Klan 
 as a local man, and Young will be used on the platforai 
 in lecture work." 
 
 There can be little question as to the fundamental 
 cause of the unfair attitude of the press toward S. 
 Glenn Young and his work in Williamson County. 
 Because Mr. Young has had the united support of the 
 Ku Klux Klan in his work of booting the bootlegger, 
 and because the press is dominated by other than 
 Protestant interests, vituperations have continued to 
 pour through their columns. The press of Protestant 
 America is so controlled by predatory and ecclesiastical 
 interests that it is no longer a trustworthy source of 
 information when these interests are in any measure 
 involved. I am not a Protestant bigot. I have no feel- 
 ing against any man simply because he differs in his 
 religious beliefs from myself. I repudiate religious 
 intolerance in every form, and hating it, I protest with 
 all my soul against its practice through a press largely 
 controlled by the Jew and the Roman Catholic. The 
 very thing which they whine about is the thing which 
 
 they are themselves the most guilty of unchanging 
 
 intolerance. There is a profound, widespread and grow-
 
 106 LIFE AND EXPLOI TS OF 
 
 ing dissatisfaction in America today over the news- 
 paper situation. One evidence of this is seen in the 
 increase of smaller newspapers through whose columns 
 an effort is being made to get the uncolored truth out 
 to the public. These, of course reach but a small per- 
 centage of the number reached by the big dailies and 
 constitute a very partial solution to the problem. What 
 we must have is a change of mind and heart on the 
 part of the press. 
 
 Is it too much to expect that in the days to come 
 we will see instituted on the part of great American 
 newspapers a reform movement resulting in : — 
 
 First, The collection of news in a scientific spirit, 
 with accuracy of statement placed above all other 
 considerations. 
 
 Second, That in the selection and arrangement of 
 the news collected there will be regard for real rather 
 than for sensational values, that the facts will be 
 presented in the right perspective, and that those 
 facts which it cannot benefit the public to know will 
 be excluded, or at least minimized to the utmost. 
 
 Third, That blind adherence to the shifting opin- 
 ions of party will no longer be peiTnitted to effect self- 
 stultification as it has done with more than one 
 American daily. 
 
 Fourth, That religious prejudice, or the catering 
 to any particular religious group for financial gain 
 will cease. 
 That the American people have lost well nigh all 
 confidence in the integrity and accuracy of their news- 
 papers I am certain. That a return to the idealism of 
 great newspaper men of a former day is possible even 
 in this very practical age I am also confident. "How 
 long, Lord, how long?"
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 107 
 
 THE STORY OF THE RAIDS 
 
 rY^ HAT a big job, calling for red blood, nerve, 
 I courage, wisdom and leadership was in store 
 "** for those who undertook to clean up Williamson 
 County is evident from the conditions which I have 
 described in a previous chapter. Here indeed was a 
 task worthy of men, a task demanding just as much of 
 the hero as the driving back of the Huns from the 
 frontiers of France. Here was a task calling for a 
 fearless officer, one possessing the same qualifications 
 which caused numbers of men to be decorated with 
 distinguished service badges ''over there". 
 
 Such men were available, and at least 1,000 of 
 them were pledged to "carry on" until the task was 
 completed, no matter what the cost, Such a leader, 
 wise, intrepid, experienced, was already on the job in 
 the person of S. Glenn Young, the scar decorated hero 
 of many a worthy fight against criminal and desperate 
 men. 
 
 Authority? He had plenty of it, but did not feel 
 obligated to show its source to every one who de- 
 manded it. He was not fool enough to play into the 
 hands of crooked politicians and side-stepping officials 
 and dirty bootleggers by working under false pre- 
 tenses. He was not too green to know that there were 
 plenty of laws which these gentlemen could use against 
 him if he acted without due authority. Perhaps the 
 best answer to the question, ''Did he have authority?" 
 is found in the joints closed by legal injunction and by 
 the numerous convictions secured.
 
 108 
 
 LIFE A\ D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 S. Glenn Young Armed and Equipped for RaidinR Operations
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXN YOUNG 109 
 
 To satisfy any doubting Thomas who remains, 
 however, I present herewith a deposition made by 
 Mr. Young before a Notary Public in Herrin. 
 
 **S. Glenn Young being duly sworn, deposes and 
 says that he was a Government officer during the raids 
 in Williamson County, Illinois, during the latter part 
 of nineteen twentj^-three and the early part of nine- 
 teen twenty-four, and that the arrests that were made 
 by him were made as a Government Officer, and that 
 he had full authority to act as such, notwithstanding 
 the recent statement of United States District Attor- 
 ney W. O. Potter to the contrary, and that said W. 0. 
 Potter made said statement for the purpose of dis- 
 crediting the clean-up in this county, and that Federal 
 Judge Lindley did not rule that he was not a Govern- 
 ment Officer during the above mentioned raids. He 
 further states that if he had not been a Government 
 Officer during these raids, the United States Govern- 
 ment would have prosecuted him for falsely repre- 
 senting himself to be a Government Officer, which is 
 a felony against the United States Government. 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to this 
 
 sixth day of August, 1924. S. Glenn Young 
 
 Abe Hicks, 
 Notary Public. 
 It was two days before Christmas. A goodly sup- 
 ply of hard stuff was on tap throughout Williamson 
 County with which to meet the needs of those whose 
 thirst gives them unusual trouble at Christmas time. 
 The bootleggers and "soft drink" parlor proprietors, 
 in other words the thirty-seven saloons in the City of 
 Herrin and the one-hundred-and-fifty or more through-
 
 110 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 out the county, were expecting a big business, and 
 nourished by this well founded optimism they dreamed 
 of the largely increased bank accounts which would 
 be theirs, even after the official *'rake-offs" had been 
 paid. 
 
 But, as Bobby Burns once remarked : — 
 
 "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft 
 agley", and this was tragically and pathetically true 
 for many in Williamson County, when what is believed 
 to have been one of the most spectacular and largest 
 raids on liquor joints ever made in the United States 
 was made by 600 or more members of the Ku Klux 
 Klan, under the leadership of S. Glenn Young. Over 
 150 arrests of persons alleged to have violated the 
 United States prohibitory amendment were made. The 
 captured men included Otis Clark, one of the defend- 
 ants in the Lester Mine massacre of June, 1922, Mike 
 Fortune, .a prominent farmer living south-east of 
 Marion, and many others whose names are familiar 
 throughout the county. 
 
 The raids had been thoroughly planned weeks be- 
 fore. Federal agents had been busy securing the nec- 
 essary evidence upon which arrests could be made, 
 and incidentally discovering marked evidence of 
 collusion between law violators and certain so-called 
 officers of the law. The evidence secured took in prac- 
 tically every soft drink parlor in Williamson County, 
 and several similar camouflaged saloons in Franklin 
 County. 
 
 That the movement was in prospect was well 
 known to members of the Klan, but not until the 
 Tuesday night preceding the raids, was the program
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 111 
 
 for the night's work indicated. On that evening, fol- 
 lowing a meeting of the organization, a selected num- 
 ber met in an anteroom of their meeting place and 
 completed all necessary arrangements. Six hundred 
 members of the Klan were then notified to meet at 
 Carbondale, in Jackson County, on Saturday evening, 
 ready for their part in the program to be staged in 
 Williamson and Franklin Counties. 
 
 Would anyone give the tip ? Was there a renegade 
 among that company who held the secret? Was there 
 a Benedict Arnold who would play traitor to his soul, 
 his country, his friends and his God? Not in that com- 
 pany of picked men. There may be some undesirable 
 men among Klansmen. There are in most every or- 
 ganization. But the men carefully chosen for the 
 first big raids in Williamson County were men upon 
 whom their leader could depend, men who couldn't be 
 bought or scared. 
 
 Long before the appointed hour of meeting, cars 
 from all directions might have been seen, in bunches 
 of two to five, going toward the appointed place. Most 
 of these cars hailed from Marion, Herrin, Johnston 
 City and West Frankfort. 
 
 When the chosen army had arrived, Glenn Young 
 and his assistants divided it into small groups, assign- 
 ing to each group the place which they were to raid 
 and the person or persons to be arrested. 
 
 At eight o'clock, the appointed hour, every group 
 was at its designated place of action, and simultane- 
 ously the raids were carried through, thus preventing 
 any opportunity of warning being sent out from one 
 raided place to another.
 
 112 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 In most cases the arrested persons submitted with- 
 out resistance, but in some localities they put up a fight. 
 At Freeman, a small community north-east of Herrin, 
 Federal officer Peters was shot in the leg by one of the 
 parties in the place being raided. 
 
 Otis Clark, leader among the murder defendants 
 in connection with the Lester Mine riot, and who con- 
 ducted a road house north of Herrin, slipped up on the 
 party which was raiding his place, carrying in his 
 hand a .45 automatic revolver. Fortunately he was 
 disarmed by Federal Officer Young before he had a 
 chance to shoot. Clark was immediately taken to Ben- 
 ton and placed in jail, his bond being fixed at $25,000 
 for attempted murder. 
 
 At Freeman, one named Loren Rogers, who was 
 arrested on a former occasion for manufacturing and 
 selling liquor, slipped out the back door of his place 
 while the officers were raiding it, went around to the 
 front and fired eleven shots, one of which struck one 
 of his own patrons in the head. The man's cap was 
 found later with a bullet hole in it. Rogers was also 
 taken to Benton, and thrown into jail, his bond like- 
 wise being fixed for $25,000 for attempted murder. 
 
 A brother of Hugh Willis, well known United Mine 
 Worker official, was also disarmed and arrested by 
 Young when he attempted to draw a revolver on him. 
 His bond was fixed at $15,000. 
 
 Ora Thomas, arrested at Herrin, claimed when ar- 
 rested that he was there in the capacity of an officer of 
 the law and indeed had a deputy sheriff's badge and 
 commission which is funny to anyone with a sense of 
 humor. Well, in spite of his alleged official capacity,
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 113 
 
 several hundred dollars in gambling money and para- 
 phernalia found in his place were turned over to the 
 Federal officers. 
 
 Mike Fortune, once a saloon keeper in Springfield, 
 Illinois, but now engaged, for part time, in the less 
 lucrative but far more honorable occupation of farming, 
 was also taken into custody for having liquor upon his 
 person. Fortune owns a splendid farm and fine brick 
 residence southeast of Marion. 
 
 Oyt near what is known as No. 3 mine Jake 
 Mitchey's place was raided. Jake added a touch of 
 comedy to the serious work of the night when he be- 
 lieved that the raiders were going to hang him and 
 fell upon his knees begging that he might first be per- 
 mitted to go and bid good-bye to his wife and children 
 before he died. When Jake was assured that no harm 
 would come to him as long as he behaved himself, he 
 heaved a deep sigh of relief, wiped away his flowing 
 tears, and quietly submitted. Well, Jake doesn't differ 
 much from many others in the county. He is very 
 much like corrupt officials all over the nation who pro- 
 tect the ramified liquor traffic. They love their own 
 wives and children, in many cases, but they don't give 
 a picayune for the wives and children who suffer physi- 
 cally, morally and mentally because of the dirty boot- 
 legging business to which they are a party. It would 
 be a good thing for some of the wives and children of 
 these corrupt officials, and a better thing for society 
 if dad would kiss them good-bye some day and leave 
 them the way Jake Mitchey feared he was going to 
 travel. 
 
 This concerted raid was certainly one of the most 
 efficient ever pulled off in the United States. The eight
 
 114 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 weeks' hard work of Young and his assistants, who 
 included fornier United States Marshal George Sim- 
 cox, who recently passed away, was amply repaid by 
 the wonderful success achieved, and achieved, bear in 
 mind, without the loss of life. ''Boys don't shoot 
 unless you positively have to," has been Glenn's fre- 
 quent admonition since coming to the county. Human 
 life has been respected by him and his associates in 
 the work of reform. 
 
 All the prisoners arrested in these spectacular 
 raids were taken to Benton, the county-seat of Frank- 
 lin Countj^, where they were either compelled to fur- 
 nish bond, or were placed in jail to await trial before 
 a Federal court. As they were being brought into 
 Benton a great crowd quickly gathered, believing that 
 a riot was in progress. There was intense excitement 
 as group after group of raiders brought in their con- 
 tingent of prisoners. Excited spectators filled the 
 streets of the little city, and the day of justice will not 
 soon be forgotten by those who were there. As soon 
 as it was learned that Federal officers were bringing 
 in alleged bootleggers and whiskey manufacturers, one 
 citizen was heard to remark, 'This will strike the fear 
 of God into their hearts", meaning the hearts of others 
 engaged in the same business. It probably takes more 
 than that to strike the fear of God into the hearts of 
 men, but it may be that into the hearts of some down 
 in Williamson and Franklin Counties these liquor 
 raids and subsequent convictions have served to strike 
 the fear of men, men whose manhood and lives are 
 dedicated to the cause of civic righteousness, men who 
 are determined that their sons and daughters shall no 
 longer be menaced by the vices which have too long
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 115 
 
 exercised their baneful influence in this section of Illi- 
 nois. It is devoutly hoped that into their hearts may 
 come the fear of God, for if that comes in, life will be 
 so changed that there need be no fear of men or legal 
 penalties. 
 
 The evidence secured for presentation to court was 
 uncontrovertible. ''Sales evidence" was taken by the 
 officers in every case raided, which meant a great bulk 
 of liquid, fifty-six search warrants having been issued. 
 
 Jailer A. H. Baker of Benton showed seven barrels 
 of booze, five five-gallon jugs of liquor, and several 
 cases of bottled evidence brought in from the joints 
 raided. 
 
 G. J. Simons, General Prohibition Agent at Wash- 
 ington, was called to the county by Mr. Young and 
 here he deputized all who participated in the raids, the 
 first two of which were with Federal authority. Six 
 hundred men, under the fine leadership of S. Glenn 
 Young, did the work. A far larger number of courage- 
 ous, red blooded fellows were ready to go on the same 
 adventure, for let it not be forgotten that over seventy- 
 five per cent of the citizenship of Williamson County 
 was behind the movement, and they are still behind 
 it and S. Glenn Young, determined to make the clean- 
 up permanent. 
 
 But someone who reads these lines keeps saying 
 to himself that all house cleaning should be done 
 ''legally" and by the "constituted authorities." And 
 that is true, but what are you going to do when you 
 can't? What are you going to do when your "consti- 
 tuted authority" won't exercise its authority? I am 
 heartily in agreement with Judge W. W. Duncan of the 
 Illinois Supreme Court when he says : — ^"My idea of a
 
 116 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 clean-up, gentlemen, after forty years of experience 
 as an attorney and a judge on the bench, is that it 
 takes just two men to clean up the bootleg joints — and 
 they are the State's Attorney and the County Judge." 
 
 Judge Duncan well says, 'The State's Attorney 
 could complain to the County Judge if the sheriff fails 
 in his duty, and the Judge has the authority to pick 
 any man in the county to do the work of the sheriff." 
 
 But while the genial and efficient Judge makes 
 those remarks he knows, as well as the writer and 
 thousands of others know, that if we had as servants 
 of the people here such officers, particularly such a 
 State's Attorney as he has in mind, S. Glenn Young 
 and the locally deputized officers who assisted him 
 would never have been needed. We had no other re- 
 course, after our appeal to the county and the state had 
 failed to bring about the desired result — a clean county. 
 What the ''constituted authorities" could not do be- 
 cause of paralysis produced by political promises to 
 the wrong crowd, S. Glenn Young, the Klan and other 
 decent law abiding citizens, have done, and done it 
 legally, though not through the county authorities. 
 These county officers, that is the sheriff, his assistant, 
 John Layman, and the State's Attorney, were elected 
 by the help of clean people, but the people of the 
 county who thought they were assuring clean govern- 
 ment, were double-crossed by these officers as soon as 
 they assumed office.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 117 
 
 ANOTHER BIG SATURDAY NIGHT RAID 
 
 AS if determined to make life as unendurable as 
 possible for thirsty souls in Williamson County, 
 and that the frequent visitors with wet inclina- 
 tions should find the county too dry to be fascinating, 
 another enthusiastic visit was paid alleged illicit 
 liquor joints on Saturday evening, January 5th, by S. 
 Glenn Young, deputized citizens, and several hundred 
 members of the Ku Klux Klan. They were deputized 
 by Victor Armitage and Mr. Simons, Federal Prohibi- 
 tion Agents. 
 
 It had been less than two weeks since the first big 
 raid was carried through, but many apparently sup- 
 posed that it was quite safe to go back into business, 
 that, as in the case of raids made for election purposes, 
 they would not be bothered for a long time to come. 
 The fact that so many taken in the first raid were 
 again taken in the net shows that the bootleggers and 
 saloon men had not yet been convinced that it was a 
 war to the finish instead of a spectacular and exciting 
 game of which Glenn Young and his forces would soon 
 tire. 
 
 The raiding forces congregated at Marion, where 
 they were duly instructed as to the night's program. 
 From here the dry crusaders started out on their 
 nocturnal expedition, which they had reason to antici- 
 l)ate would be full of thrills and stills. And it was, 
 and history records that when the battle was over, and 
 the smoke had cleared away, both wets and drys had 
 experienced several kinds of thrills — but the drys had 
 the stills, together with their owners, who were given
 
 118 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 a free ride to Benton, county-seat of Franklin County, 
 where they were compelled to give bond, or to remain 
 in the local bastile for future disposition, at which 
 time perhaps they will have sense enough to learn that 
 Ijreaking the liquor laws is not so much a game as a 
 crime, a crime for which they will no longer simply be 
 slapped on the wrist and discharged with a smile, but 
 one for which they will suffer the inconvenience of a 
 heavy fine, plus the added inconvenience of imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Among the interesting scenes in the drama of this 
 Saturday evening were these : — 
 
 Over at Cagle's Park, just West of Marion, there 
 was a roadhouse of which Hosea Cagle was the man- 
 ager, and in which alcohol was the moving spirit. As 
 Cagle still had the prospect of a good night's business 
 he was inclined to argue the matter of arrest, indeed 
 he even went so far with his arguments as to forcibly 
 resist, but the equally forceful arguments of the raid- 
 ers were finally so persuasive that he surrendered to 
 the inevitable, where on Monday morning he appeared 
 before Commissioner Hart at Benton and was con- 
 signed to the Franklin County law violators' dentention 
 parlors in default of $2,000 bond. 
 
 Hosea Cagle has since passed into the presence of 
 the highest and holiest, into whose presence he was 
 hurled but a few days ago, when at 2:00 o'clock in the 
 morning he drove into a thick cable stretched across 
 a road which was being repaired. He is beyond the 
 jurisdiction of earth's courts, and we can only hope 
 for him the mercy of God. 
 
 At Johnson City, in the eastern end of the county, 
 Al. E. Hartwell was visited and his place investigated
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 119 
 
 without waiting for any formal invitation from Al., a 
 rather versatile fellow, who, not satisfied wath the 
 common game of selling illicit liquor, is reputed to have 
 added as a side line and addition, the manufacture of 
 Federal Internal Revenue Stamps. These he is also 
 alleged to have distributed, for a due consideration no 
 doubt. When this gentleman with a wet name and 
 wet occupation was arrested he had thirty or forty of 
 these Government Stamps in his possession, and about 
 a dozen photographic reproductions of the stamps used 
 on whiskey bottles. The enterprising Hartwell was 
 transferred from his place of business to one in Frank- 
 lin County, where he was charged with the possession 
 of illicit liquor and forged Government Stamps. His 
 bond was fixed at $10,000. 
 
 Tono Coloni of Herrin, a representative of the sixty 
 per cent Italians who never become American citizens, 
 also had some Saturday night thrills, followed by some 
 Sunday morning blues. There are some ver>^ fine 
 Italian citizens in Herrin and throughout Williamson 
 County. They are not reflected upon at all when men 
 like Tono and others get into trouble, any more than 
 American citizens who are decent and law abiding are 
 reflected upon by those American born whites who do 
 most of the killing in Williamson County. It wasn't a 
 foreigner who shot out the beautiful eyes of Mrs. S. 
 Glenn Young. Don't forget that. And they were not 
 foreigners who were guilty of the awful slaughter of 
 those non-union men back in June, 1922. Most of the 
 liquor violations in Williamson County have been on 
 the part of foreigners, but Tono Coloni is no worse 
 than the rest of them, and not nearly as bad as the men 
 who use the foreigner for a **stool-pigeon," a source
 
 120 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 of illegal revenue, and as a vote getter. Well, I started 
 to tell you about Tono. He evidently had a hobby for 
 collecting pint bottles bearing the label, '*Hill and Hill". 
 The contents of those bottles were found, upon exam- 
 ination, to contain liquid of the moonkist quality. The 
 stamps with which the bottles were decorated were 
 more interesting than any from Ceylon or Hindustan, 
 being clever forgeries of Government Stamps. I do 
 not know Tono's present hobby, but Glenn and the 
 Klan have thoroughly discouraged the one for bottle 
 and stamp collecting. The moral is that when you 
 take up anything as a hobby, first sit down and try and 
 figure out whether it will ultimately pay. 
 
 This record of activities upon the county stage 
 would be incomplete without mention of the part 
 played by Carterville's Chief of Police, Alvin Thomas. 
 Alvin is a brother of Ora Thomas, recently released 
 from jail where he served a term on a liquor charge. 
 It is the same Ora Thomas whom a witness declared 
 fired one of the shots into the person of Caesar Cagle, 
 who was killed on February 8th. It is the same man 
 who was with Whitey Doering, convicted mail robber, 
 when Doering was killed in a quarrel out at Half Way, 
 a criminal resort not far from Marion, a few months 
 ago. It is the same Ora Thomas, whom sheriff of 
 Williamson County made one of his deputies just after 
 he came out of jail recently, and an intimate associate 
 of City Judge Bowen of Herrin and State's Attorney 
 Delos Duty. 
 
 Alvin Thomas had promised to clean the so-called 
 soft drink parlors out of Carterville if he was made 
 Chief of Police. They were cleaned out, and possibly 
 Alvin should have the credit for it. But the chief was
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 121 
 
 SO humorously inconsistent, for whereas, he faithfully 
 guarded Carterville by day he was equally faithful in 
 guarding a liquor joint East of Carterville by night. 
 It was out at Durant's place, a new oasis, that Alvin 
 showed such loyalty to his friends. On the evening of 
 January 5th, the place was raided for the second time 
 inside thirty days. The raiders surrounded the place, 
 and ordered the occupants out, planting machine guns 
 at convenient spots to sweep the building if any shots 
 were fired. Alvin Thomas was obstinate and only 
 yielded to the argument of legitimate force directed 
 against the head, which had been somewhat slow to 
 grasp the fact that the raiders were not kids with 
 pea-shooters playing a Hallowe'en lark. Alvin recov- 
 ered from his self-invited wound, but has not yet re- 
 covered the position of Chief of Police in Carterville. 
 It would not occasion any surprise, however, if the 
 Sheriff were to appoint him as one of his deputies to- 
 morrow. 
 
 Durant's place contained concealed dynamite. It 
 seems that is was planned to blow up the building 
 when the officers stepped inside. 
 
 "The Little Napoleon Stays With Them" 
 
 S. Glenn Young has been nicknamed ''the little 
 Napoleon". Certainly he has some Napoleonic quali- 
 ties, something of his leadership and courage and 
 something of his "stick-to-it-iveness". 
 
 Sunday was quite calm in Herrin and throughout 
 the county. Prayers ascended from the hearts of 
 thousands of worshipers who congregated in the splen- 
 did churches of its thriving towns. It is suspected 
 that curses strong and long also popped out of the
 
 122 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 mouths of hundreds of law violators, some of whom 
 were behind prison bars, and others with the court 
 in prospect and with jail on the horizon beyond. I 
 have no doubt that some curses also parched the lips 
 of certain officials, whose incompetency and willful 
 neglect of duty was receiving nation-wide advertise- 
 ment through the aggressive work of Young and the 
 Klan. And that reminds me of a good line in a letter 
 received recently from one of the oldest and most fa- 
 mous men in the Secret Service Department of the 
 United States Government. I refer to Mr. Henry E. 
 Thomas of Charlotte, N. C. In speaking in the highest 
 terms of Glenn Young, both from the standpoint of 
 character and achievement, especially as he had ob- 
 served his work down in that section, he says, ''the 
 only enemies he had were the criminals and a few 
 jealous officers'*. 
 
 On Monday afternoon at 4:30 o'clock. Young and 
 several hundred duly deputized men began writing an- 
 other chapter in the story of Williamson County raids. 
 They kept on writing it until ten o'clock that night. 
 In that interval scores of bootleg joints were raided 
 by the unmasked squads of volunteers. Herrin, 
 Marion, Weaver, Freeman and other moist centers 
 were visited and violators taken into custody. 
 
 In Herrin the raiders visited the Jefferson Bar, 
 kept by Marlow and Lavan. It was outside this bar 
 that Constable Caesar Cagle was brutally murdered 
 on the night of February 8th, and for which crime 
 the Shelton brothers were indicted. Pete Marlow, who 
 is something of a prize fighter as well as a vender of 
 *'soft" drinks, and Lavan, his partner, were arrested. 
 Chief of Police Stallions and another officer were in
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 123 
 
 the saloon and put up their hands with the crowd. 
 Glenn gave them definite orders to *'beat it", and they 
 acred wisdom's part and got out. There were about 
 twenty-five gamblers, and other crooks of various 
 talent, in the place at the time. The proprietors and 
 two others, said to be half owners in the alcoholic dis- 
 pensary were taken to Benton to fill bonds. 
 
 Whipped curs usually howl, and "Stop Thief"! is a 
 worn gag still used to detract attention from the actual 
 wrong doer. Following the raid on the saloon above 
 mentioned warrants were sworn out charging Young, 
 with taking $3,000 from the place when it was raided. 
 Warrants were also sworn out by pugilistic Pete 
 charging other klansmen with larceny. These charges 
 are but specimens of hundreds such trumped up 
 against law enforcement officers who do their duty 
 and put the lawless element where they belong. It is, 
 of course, a source of embarrassment to men like S. 
 Glenn Young, who has a reputation for honesty, espe- 
 cially when an unfriendly press so often exploits the 
 false and ignores the true. As to the outcome of 
 these wounded cur charges there can be no doubt, 
 they are doomed to failure. 
 
 Such tactics as these on the part of the victims of 
 law were inevitable. Everything that they and the 
 500 deputized thugs from St. Louis, Chicago and other 
 centers, could do to discredit the raids was immedi- 
 ately done, and is still being done. Hence the need, 
 in part, of this authentic story of what really hap- 
 pened. 
 
 State Troops Sent to Williamson 
 
 "Situation is getting beyond control. Fear riot is 
 coming. Rush troops at once." This was the message
 
 124 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 received at Springfield from Sheriff George Galligan 
 of Williamson County on January 8th. The troops 
 were called out by Governor Len Small through Adju- 
 tant General Carlos E. Black. The three companies 
 called and ordered to proceed to Marion were, Com- 
 pany I of Salem; L of Mt. Vernon; and K of Cairo, 
 all of the 130th Infantry and in command of Major 
 W. P. Graney of Cairo. These troops arrived on the 
 evening of Tuesday the 8th. They immediately 
 marched to the court house where they took up 
 quarters for the night. The officers in charge con- 
 sisted of General Black, Colonel Si. Tripp, and Captain 
 Burke of the Adjutant General's office; Major Omer J. 
 McMacklin of Salem; Major Will Graney of Cairo; 
 Captain Bigelow of Salem ; Captain Labar of Company 
 L., Mt. Vernon. 
 
 Upon arrival the soldiers naturally expected to see 
 a crowd of rioters, a city full of armed citizens. Much 
 to their surprise they found a jolly, good natured 
 crowd, quietly awaiting the coming of the militia, the 
 need for which they could not understand. One officer 
 remarked to a local newspaper reporter that instead 
 of trouble it looked to him as though everybody was 
 either going or coming from Sunday school. He 
 wanted to know the reason for troops being ordered 
 into a peaceful community. 
 
 The night passed without any disturbing element, 
 while the mump stricken sheriff lay safely guarded by 
 the militia in his fine brick domicile. Wednesday 
 morning saw the arrival of numerous newspaper men 
 from the big city dailes, eager to wire a real thriller 
 of blood spilling to their metropolitan bosses. Some 
 of them must have wept with chagrin and disappoint-
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 125 
 
 ment when they found an atmosphere where the dove 
 of peace would feel perfectly at home. 
 
 All day Wednesday leading citizens, ministers and 
 business men, could be heard expressing condemnation 
 of the act ordering troops, for which there was not 
 the slightest need. It was their conviction that no- 
 body wanted the troops but the lawless element which 
 was being run to earth. 
 
 Of course the sheriff gave the eager St. Louis 
 Globe Democrat and other papers a colored account, 
 and one at variance with the known facts in many in- 
 stances. Of more than twenty-five leading business 
 men and citizens interviewed not one of the number 
 expressed the opinion that troops were necessary in 
 any part of the county, much less in Marion. 
 
 S. Glenn Young informed the Post reporter that 
 the stories of brutality by raiding officers was entirely 
 unfounded, and that stories of taking money and 
 jewelry from prisoners are false. He declared that 
 witnesses by the dozen will be furnished to prove every 
 statement. He affirmed that a remarkable feature of 
 the raids, is the fact, that no serious injury was in- 
 flicted on anyone. 'The truth will come out at the 
 trial," declared Young, and I am sure nobody doubts 
 the outcome. 
 
 Chief of Police Boyd told this same reporter that 
 he had a confession from the woman alleged to have 
 been assaulted by the officers that she had jumped upon 
 them when they entered her home to conduct a raid, 
 and had the officer bj^ the throat when he pushed her 
 aside to continue his search. The same woman had 
 fought this police officer three months before when he 
 had raided her place.
 
 126 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 The author has in his possession a home-made 
 stiletto, which an Italian woman pulled on S. Glenn 
 Young in one of the raids. I confess that if any 
 woman pulled such a weapon on me I would forget 
 her sex in that very moment and deal with her on 
 other than sex grounds. And yet, I have it from an 
 eye witness that Mr. Young simply took hold of her 
 in a firm manner and swung her around out of his 
 way, at the same time taking the instrument with 
 which she w^ould have killed him, out of her hands. The 
 sheriff told a reporter that in at least one case he had 
 been informed that a woman had been struck in mak- 
 ing her arrest. Troops! Troops! 
 
 And that reminds one of the story that appeared in 
 Everybody's Magazine a few months ago. It seems 
 that a bunch of gunmen started a reign of terror in a 
 certain Texas town, and that the terror stricken Mayor 
 of the place wired frantically to the Governor for 
 Texas Rangers to be sent and restore peace. A special 
 train came down from the capital, and one lonesome 
 ranger stepped out. 
 
 ''Where's the rest of the outfit," demanded the 
 Mayor and Sheriflf. 
 
 "Rest ■' replied the ranger mildly. ''You 
 
 ain't got but one riot have you ?" 
 
 Troops were not needed in Marion or anywhere else 
 in Williamson County at this time. Wliat was needed 
 was a sheriff with just half the nerve of the Texas 
 Ranger — but then I forgot the sheriff had the mumps 
 or infantile paralysis or some such children's disease 
 at the time.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 127 
 
 Troops are Strongly Protested 
 
 At noon on Wednesday, January 9th, a meeting of 
 ministers and other prominent citizens was held at the 
 First Christian Church of Marion, and the following 
 protest was drawn up, authorized and handed to Adju- 
 tant General Black : 
 
 Marion, Illinois, 
 January 9th, 1924. 
 
 At a meeting of the Marion Ministerial Alliance, 
 Mayor J. H. Clarida and Chief of Police Schafer of the 
 City of Marion, sitting with them, it was unanimously 
 decided that we feel that when you have made a thor- 
 ough investigation of the condition in Williamson 
 County, you will find that there will be no further 
 need for troops, and that you will recommend their re- 
 moval, as we believe there was no condition existing 
 that justified the sheriff in making his request for 
 them. 
 
 A. M. Stickney, President. 
 L. H. Knight, Secretary, 
 
 In a meeting held shortly after this in the office of 
 the Citizen's Trust and Banking Company, attended 
 by bankers and other representative citizens, the 
 opinion was freely expressed that troops were not 
 needed in the county, and that the Sheriff and State's 
 Attorney were not doing their duty as officers of the 
 law. 
 
 These united protests from responsible citizens ul- 
 timately had their desired effect, and an order for the 
 recall of the troops was issued from Springfield on 
 January 15th, as a result of which the Mt. Vernon and 
 Cairo companies of State Militia left for home the 
 same night, the Salem company remaining for a day
 
 128 LIFE A X D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 or SO longer. Thus ended for the boys in uniform a 
 week's rest at the expense of the county. While in 
 Herrin and Marion they had little to do apart from 
 the regulation exercises. Many of them were enter- 
 tained by various churches and clubs, and as a result 
 of their fine treatment, and the many splendid people 
 whom they met, the boys carried away a far different 
 impression of Williamson County than that with which 
 they came. 
 
 Glenn Thwarts Coup of Herrin Wets 
 
 Thwarting a reported coup of the bootlegging ring 
 of the county to make a ''last stand" against the en- 
 croachment of the law, and raid the vault containing 
 all the "evidence" against prohibition violators, 
 Young bundled up his 161 bottles of ''moon" on Friday 
 evening, January 12th, and slipped out of Marion 
 under cover of darkness. 
 
 He motored to Chicago with the coveted cargo of 
 effervescent liquid and safely cached the evidence in 
 the vaults of the Federal Prohibition Office, where it 
 remained ready for use when the cases came up on the 
 docket. 
 
 At this time no less than three hundred cases were 
 pending in the Federal Court at Danville. Concern- 
 ing these. Young told the press, "We've got the goods 
 on evei-y one of those 300, backed by the testimony of 
 the most reputable citizens of the county. We expect 
 convictions in 99 per cent of the cases, and inasmuch 
 as 25 per cent of the defendants have been convicted 
 previously, we hope to send that number to the peni- 
 tentiary. We've finally got that gang on the run, and 
 we're going to keep them going. They've been in the
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 129 
 
 saddle down there for years and a clean county is 
 something new to them". 
 
 The Story of The Raids— Continued 
 
 The person who wrote the song, "John Barleycorn 
 Is Dead", was just as far from the truth as the other 
 individual who wrote, "It Ain't Gk)in' To Rain No 
 More". It is said that Mark Twain was once met on the 
 street by an old acquaintance who hadn't seen him for 
 years. With a surprised look on his face the man ex- 
 claimed, "WTiy Mark, I heard you were dead", to 
 which the incurable wit replied "Well, that report was 
 greatly exaggerated". 
 
 After the raids of December 22nd, January 5th and 
 7th, one might have supposed that John Barleycorn 
 had been buried in Williamson County. But John has 
 the proverbial cat outclassed entirely in the matter of 
 lives. On January 20th, he was still doing business at 
 the old stand in the county, and was at his morning 
 devotions very early on this Sunday when Young and 
 other officers, assisted by several hundred citizens, 
 mostly Klansmen, interfered with his devotional 
 exercises. 
 
 The citizens and Klansmen who constituted the 
 crusading army were sworn in at West Frankfort by 
 Victor L. Armitage, and from there the posse started 
 on the round up, possibly thinking that, "the better the 
 day the better the deed". The early morning itiner- 
 ary included Herrin, Johnston City, Colp, Weaver, 
 Spillertown, Paulton, and a few outlying districts. As 
 a result of this scoop 125 or more men began the Sab- 
 bath in the toil of the law\
 
 130 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 The Springfield representative of the Associated 
 Press, Mr. Cribb, was invited by Glenn Young to ac- 
 company the raiding party that he might see at first 
 hand how the raids were conducted, and that no illegal 
 act was committed. The newspaper man was sworn 
 in as a deputy, and many who saw him at work were 
 agreed that, 'There is indeed a man, brave and un- 
 afraid of anything". Mr. Cribb saw for himself that 
 the stories of abuse and loot were simply base fabrica- 
 tions. 
 
 The entire raid of that early Sunday morning was 
 conducted without trouble. Only one shot was fired 
 and that by a Federal Officer, and it happened thus: 
 At one place which was raided a box was seen near 
 the man's house heavily padlocked. Upon being re- 
 quested to open the box, the owner said, ''Me no hava 
 da key". The Federal Ofliicer trained his gun on the 
 lock, fired and blew it off. Inside the box was dis- 
 covered the reason why the foreigner "no hava da 
 key". It contained a quantity of moisture inspired 
 with too large a percentage of alcohol to meet with Mr. 
 Volstead's requirements. The keyless owner was 
 taken to a Benton institution, from which he doubtless 
 would gladly have escaped, but alas, "Me no hava da 
 key". 
 
 Over at Paulton, a small mining community lying 
 North and East of Marion, the raiders were given 
 entrance to a home and asked for a drink, saying that 
 they were peaceable friends. The owner was delight- 
 fully hospitable, seated them comfortably, went to the 
 kitchen and returned bearing with him some whiskey 
 glasses and a bottle of the stuff that makes a mouse 
 feel big enough to fight an elephant. He filled the
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 131 
 
 glasses with Sunday measure and told the company to 
 "drink hearty". But ''there's many a slip twixt the 
 cup and the lip". One of the officers remarked to the 
 man, "That's enough — stick 'em up". And the episode 
 closed for the time being when the liberal dispenser 
 of alcoholic good cheer "raised 'em", and was escorted 
 to the Benton jail there to meditate upon the ingrati- 
 tude of his fellow men, and to lament "love's labors 
 lost". 
 
 At another questionable place the owner's con- 
 science being very tender prompted him to fly, and 
 through the morning gloom he glumly glided toward 
 a creek which slowly meandered not far away. When 
 his pursuers arrived at the creek they failed to see 
 him, until, looking about more carefully they discov- 
 ered a pair of feet and ankles encased in boots, sticking 
 out from a brush pile. An enthusiastic pull brought 
 out the remaining parts of Mr. Bootlegger, who like 
 the foolish ostrich, evidently thought that if his head 
 and body was hidden he would escape detection. 
 
 And listen, ye thirsty sons of Bachus, at one place 
 twenty barrels of good, tasty, sparkling wine were 
 found. 
 
 In Herrin the Adjutant General requested Young 
 to cease raiding, and that he and his deputies work in 
 harmony with Sheriff Galligan, to which the law en- 
 forcement officer replied : — "I positively refuse to line 
 up with a bunch of crooks. I never have and I never 
 will; and if you are sent here as you say to co-operate 
 with the sheriff's office I refuse to co-operate with you 
 or to permit any man with me to do likewise". He 
 reminded the officer that at the time troops were 
 needed, and the best citizens of the county wanted
 
 132 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 them to prevent the Herrin massacre, and although he, 
 Colonel Black, was on the job and knew the whole 
 situation, he refused to act. And that now, when 
 there was no necessity for troops, and all good citizens 
 had protested against them, he had ignored their 
 protest. 
 
 Johnston City Joints Jolted 
 
 French and Italian liquor joints in particular were 
 hit in the raid made by Young and the Klan on Friday, 
 February 1st. Johnston City has quite a large per- 
 centage of French and Italian people. These, it seems, 
 had not yet learned that the Eighteenth Amendment 
 had been passed. 
 
 The Klansmen and others who assisted Glenn 
 Young in the raids of this particular night were depu- 
 tized by Brady Jenkins of Williamson County. State 
 search warrants were provided for the occasion. Fol- 
 lowing the regular plan, the raiders were divided into 
 groups of five, and instructed to raid the places 
 assigned them at a certain time. 
 
 Fully 160 law violators were taken during the 
 night. Among those taken were seven women and one 
 police officer. The later was taken into camp at Dew- 
 maine, a colored community just a mile or so North 
 of Carterville. This dark complected gentleman bears 
 the name of Jim Brown, and was the deputy sheriff 
 of the colored settlement. Incidentally, he was also a 
 defendant in the riot trials of 1922. When arrested 
 he had a gallon of mule in his possession. He was 
 handcuffed to the proprietor of the place raided and 
 consigned to jail to await further notice. 
 
 In Johnston City the raids yielded the largest re- 
 turns. Here too the only serious trouble was en-
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 133 
 
 countered when four Leonard brothers, Frank, Joe, 
 John and James, said to be members of the Knights of 
 Columbus, attempted to beat one of the raiding officers 
 over the head with a gun. They were arrested before 
 doing much damage, however, later to face the addi- 
 tional charge of assault and battery and resisting an 
 officer of the law. 
 
 Joe Podner, alleged slayer of Ray Williams a 
 farmer of Johnston City was among those taken, as 
 also were Emil and Louis Maroni and Caesar Colombo. 
 By far the majority taken in the raids were foreigners. 
 
 When all the prisoners had been rounded up, Glenn 
 Young chartered a special train and conveyed them to 
 Benton. Here, upon their arrival, two rows of Klans- 
 men, probably 400 or 500 yards long, lined up to the 
 court house, and the prisoners marched between them 
 to the office of Commissioner Hart, there to give bond, 
 or be sent to jail. 
 
 Following these Johnston City raids there was a 
 great cry of persecution, and complaints on the part 
 of the French and Italian people against Young's ac- 
 tivities. The Italian representative took up the case 
 at Springfield and issued a tissue of lies through the 
 press in regard to the raids. It was just recently that 
 this same man used his office to prevent Missouri legal 
 authorities from taking back to that state a cold- 
 blooded murderer whom several sheriffs and other offi- 
 cers had positively identified. The result was that the 
 man was liberated. 
 
 The French Consul also took up the defense of his 
 people and appealed to Washington in an effort to pre- 
 vent the raiding of French homes, although liquor had 
 been found in every home raided. The French people
 
 134 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 of Williamson County, as well as Italians, and other 
 foreigners seem slow to learn, in many cases, that they 
 are amenable to Uncle Sam's laws. Is it a matter of 
 surprise, however, that they have been so slow to learn 
 it in this section, where so many American bom have 
 played fast and loose with those laws, and where in- 
 fractions of the laws, especially the liquor laws, have 
 been winked at for gain on the part of prominent 
 county officials and local officers, pledged and duty 
 bound to enforce those laws ? We do well to remember 
 when abusing the foreigner for lawlessness that very 
 often they have learned it from lawless Americans. 
 
 Cases of Liquor Violations Tried in Danville 
 
 The week beginning with March 23rd was a very 
 busy one in the court of Judge Lindley at Danville, 
 Illinois, for it was here that hundreds of liquor viola- 
 tors from Williamson County appeared to answer for 
 "the deeds done in the flesh". 
 
 Through the influence of S. Glenn Young (who 
 made a special trip to Washington for the purpose) 
 supplemented by the pressure of many of the best 
 citizens in Williamson County, including all of its Pro- 
 testant ministers, the cases were not permitted to be 
 prosecuted by United States Attorney Potter of 
 Marion, to whom reference has previously been made 
 in this volume. A special prosecutor was appointed 
 for the cases in the person of Lawrence T. Allen. Mr. 
 Allen did his work in a highly satisfactory manner, 
 except, of course, from the standpoint of the boot- 
 leggers et al. Judge Lindley also proved his metal 
 and ability, administering legal remedies in large doses 
 without fear or favor.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 135 
 
 The majority of the bootleggers pleaded guilty, 
 evidently hoping for and expecting mitigation of 
 sentence. 
 
 Ora Thomas, who is now out again and one of 
 Sheriff Galligan's deputies, was given a severe lecture 
 by the Judge, in which he said that if Thomas was a 
 specimen of the citizens of Williamson County it was 
 no wonder the troops had to be called. He was also 
 given four months on the first count, and also a heavy 
 fine. 
 
 Jail sentences imposed on others at this time ranged 
 from thirty days to four months, but for some reason 
 Or other many of them never served their full time. 
 Perhaps their sentences were shortened for good be- 
 haviour, for even bootleggers and saloon keepers can 
 be fairly good in jail. They are always quite repentant 
 until they get out. 
 
 We will never get very far toward the solution of 
 lawlessness in America, and never discourage the illicit 
 traffic in liquor very seriously among many until the 
 day comes when the law gets teeth in it, and judicial 
 penalties are actually enforced. To fine a bootlegger 
 is simply slapping him on the wrist. Money is a com- 
 paratively small consideration with most of them. Not 
 until they know that to violate the liquor laws means 
 a long incarceration behind prison bars as well as a 
 substantial fine, are they likely to feel that the game 
 isn't worth while. 
 
 And yet, the conditions in the county today, as 
 compared with the conditions which obtained here six 
 months ago, are vastly different and do argue for a 
 discouraged condition on the part of the liquor law
 
 136 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 violators. To visit the Herrin of today is to see a 
 vastly different Herrin from the beginning of 1924. 
 It is not yet one hundred per cent, and the county is 
 not yet a thoroughly dry county, but none, except those 
 anxious to discredit Young's work and that of the Klan, 
 can deny that it is easily seventy-five per cent better 
 than it was, proving beyond all controversy that the 
 work of S. Glenn Young in Williamson County has 
 been drastic and eminently successful. 
 
 I presume that there will be strong efforts made 
 from time to time to get things back to the open days 
 of the past, but any such effort will simply constitute 
 a call for other raids. The work will be kept up until 
 the county is one of the very driest in the United 
 States of America. If the officials will co-operate with 
 the Klan, as they so splendidly do up in Urbana, w^here 
 Sheriff John Gray, who is not a Klansman, is doing 
 such fine work, the officials will find the Klan a w^on- 
 derful ally. If they will not co-operate and will not 
 enforce the laws they will find it enforced, legally, but 
 through other channels. Williamson County expects 
 soon to change things at the ballot box, placing in 
 office men who cannot be bought or sold, men pledged 
 to keep the county as clean as it is within the power 
 of the law to do. We have such men in the county and 
 in them very largely lies the hope of the future. The 
 county that has suffered so long from men who have 
 been weak, if not positively wicked, has, we believe, 
 learned its lesson. I sincerely trust that the future 
 will vindicate this judgment.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 137 
 
 FEBRUARY THE EIGHTH 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 THE KIDNAPPING 
 
 AS some mountain peaks stand out more promi- 
 nently than others against the horizon so there 
 are certain days in the annals of individual or 
 community life which stands out more prominently in 
 the memory than others. Such a day, or rather night, 
 is February 8, 1924, to many in the City of Herrin. 
 Possibly the only date standing out more prominently 
 in its history is that of June 22, 1922— ''Bloody 
 Thursday". 
 
 John Ford, the present Chief of Police in Herrin, 
 an el!icient officer who cannot be bought, will long re- 
 member that night though he was deprived of seeing 
 or having any part in the activities of its closing hours, 
 owing to the great solicitude of the sheriff, George Gal- 
 ligan, for John's physical safety, and the fact that the 
 same official kidnapped him and spirited him, along 
 with others who might interfere vdth the work 
 planned for the evening, out of Williamson County. 
 
 Being a man upon whose word people can rely, the 
 statement given to local papers by Mr. Ford in regard 
 to his experience that evening, carries conviction as to 
 its truth. He says : — 
 
 ''About 8:25 P. M. I was called by Tom Thornton. 
 He said, 'Get ready and come to town'. I asked what 
 the trouble was, and he replied that Policeman Albert 
 Jones said that there were two deputies in Old
 
 138 
 
 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXX YOUNG 139 
 
 Squirrel Local with high powered rifles, and that there 
 was going to be trouble. I asked Tom if he had noti- 
 fied Grain, another of our dependable officers, and he 
 told me that he had not done so. I directed him how 
 to reach Grain's home, and asked him to call him 
 while I dressed. 
 
 "Dressing very hurriedly, I went down on the street 
 in front of my home and got into Mr. Garl Neilson's 
 car. Mr. Grain came along shortly, got into the car 
 with us and we drove North on 13th street, then West 
 on Monroe to 14th, stopping at the Boulevard stop. 
 
 ''Grain and I stepped out of the car, and, going 
 over to the sidewalk, met John Garvaglia, the chair- 
 man of the Herrin Board of Health. I asked him if 
 Old Squirrel Local met upstairs, and he replied, 'I 
 dunno'. I asked him who was meeting up there and he 
 repHed, *I dunno'. I asked him if there had been any 
 trouble up there, receiving the same answer, 'I dunno'. 
 I said, 'John we have been called here. Go up and 
 see if there is any trouble'. He said, 'No, you police- 
 man, you go.' 
 
 "We walked to the door and entered the stairway, 
 to be covered immediately by two guards with sawed- 
 off pump shot guns. These guards were at the top of 
 the stairway and were Jack Skelcher and Angelo 
 Delaria. 
 
 "I said to the guards, 'Boys, put these guns down. 
 We have been called here', to which Angelo Delaria 
 replied, 'Don't come up here'. 
 
 "Not thinking of any trouble, we mounted the 
 stairs, myself in the lead and Mr. Grain following. 
 After getting some five or six steps up, I heard the
 
 140 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 doors rattle, and looking back over my shoulder I saw 
 through the glass John Garvalia locking or monkeying 
 with the door. I then discovered that we had been 
 trapped. We walked on to the head of the stairs, how- 
 ever, and I again said, 'Boys, put down those guns'. 
 Jack Skelcher obeyed and Angelo Delaria said again, 
 'Don't come up here'. 
 
 "I heard another racket at the foot of the stairs, 
 and looking down saw John Garvaglia coming through 
 the side doors from the old saloon into the stairway. 
 I walked up to Angelo Delaria and took his gun away 
 from him, without drawing my own and at this junc- 
 ture the hall door flew open and men poured out, four 
 abreast, with drawn revolvers, sawed-off shot guns, 
 high powered rifles, swearing and calling us all kind 
 of names, and at the same time ordering us to 'stick 
 them up high'. 
 
 "C. R. Shelton, Ervey Shelton, Sylvester Reggia, 
 Hezzie Byrnes and Ora Thomas covered me with their 
 shot guns, and many others covered Grain with guns. 
 Ora Thomas disarmed me, and just then John Layman 
 and George Galligan (sheriff and deputy) came up. 
 Layman (the deputy) said, 'You damn dirty Ku Klux 
 
 we have you where we want you', and at 
 
 that reached over Thomas' shoulder and grabbed me 
 by the hair of the head, — taking my hat with the hair, 
 neither of which I have seen since. 
 
 "George Galligan then stepped between Thomas 
 and I and said, 'Ora, get these men back in the hall. 
 I will take care of John'. John Layman stepped down 
 some two or three flights and disarmed Grain. John 
 Garvaglia at this time jerked Grain down the stairs,
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 141 
 
 some three or four steps. Layman followed up, and 
 C. R. Shelton struck at Grain with something and Lay- 
 man jerked Grain back. Just as he did so a shot rang 
 out, and I saw the fire between me and Grain. The 
 bullet passed through Grain's coat sleeve and struck 
 Layman in the chest. 
 
 "Layman sank in a stooped position and said, '1 
 am shot.' G. R. Shelton and Hezzie Byrnes took hold 
 of Layman and started up the stairs, but turned Lay- 
 man loose, and he walked past me up into the hall, 
 returning a few seconds later by himself with both 
 hands on his chest just above the belt line. When he 
 got opposite me in the stairway he stopped and said, 
 
 'Boys, here is the dirty that shot me. 
 
 Get him, get him'. Ora Thomas still had his gun on 
 me, and stated, 'No, boys. Ford did not shoot Layman, 
 I have his guns'. I said, 'No, Ora, I didn't shoot Lay- 
 man and you know it'. 
 
 "The sheriff was standing back of Ora Thomas, 
 and said again, 'Boys, get back in the hall and behave'. 
 G. R. Shelton said, *Get back in the hall, hell, and get 
 
 us all killed'. Hezzie Byrnes said, 'No, by ! Get 
 
 them machine guns and get out on the sidewalk and 
 
 kill every — '. that comes up'. Shelton 's 
 
 brother said, 'Where is Mage Anderson? Go tell him 
 here is the police'. 
 
 "At this time there were some forty or fifty men 
 in the stairway, and mob rule was in full sway. They 
 began punching us in the bodies with all kind of guns, 
 and making all kind of threats while they pushed us 
 down the stairs and out on the sidewalk.
 
 142 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 *'Layman went through the door, about the first 
 man, by himself. Sheriff Galligan ordered us into a 
 car, and picked out Sylvester Reggia, Jack Skelcher 
 and himself to acompany Grain and I. About this time 
 Hezzie Byrnes attacked Sim Stephens as he walked 
 upon the sidewalk, jerking off his star and striking 
 him with his gun over the head. Then Sim was 
 ordered into a second car, and a man called Hezzie, 
 and two or three other men got in. A third car was 
 also loaded, but I could not tell who or how many got 
 in. Ora Thomas, C. R. Shelton and others were giving 
 various kinds of orders on the sidewalk, and we drove 
 away, our car, a Hudson coach, leading the procession. 
 
 **We went East on Monroe to 13th street, and 
 South on 13th to the 500 block, then West to 16th 
 street. Here the third car dropped out, and we drove 
 North on 16th to Monroe to the Marion hard road. It 
 was about 9 :00 p. m. when we left the hall, and 10 :10 
 when we arrived at the county jail. 
 
 "Mr. Galligan entered the jail parlor with us, asked 
 us to have a seat and said that he was going up town 
 but would be back again in a few minutes. At 10:15 
 the phone rang, and the turnkey came out of the South 
 room through the parlor and out into the hallway and 
 answered the phone. He then came back into the par- 
 lor and said that Ora Thomas had just called up from 
 the Herrin hospital and said that C. S. Gagle was dead 
 and that hell was popping in Herrin. 
 
 "I remarked, 'That's too bad", he replied, 'What in 
 the do you mean'. I said, 'It's too bad it hap- 
 pened that way', and again he asked, with an oath, 
 what I meant. Again I said, 'It's too bad it happened
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 143 
 
 that way', whereupon he quickly asked, 'Are you fel- 
 lows some of George's deputies?' Grain said, 'No, we 
 are prisoners'. 'Oh', he replied, 'You are the Herrin 
 policemen'. 
 
 "At this time a man called Hezzie came through 
 the South room from locking Stephens up in jail, and 
 George came in from the front way and they met at 
 the parlor door. Hezzie asked George, 'Where are 
 
 those D d policemen?' George replied, 'They are 
 
 in here, we are going to take them away.' Hezzie re- 
 plied, 'You are a h of a sheriff, why don't you lock 
 
 them up ?' He started with us for the cells, but Galli- 
 gan said, 'No, these boys are all right, we are going 
 to take them away'. Hezzie then said to me, 'You are 
 
 the dirty that shot Layman'. I said, 'No, I 
 
 did not do such a thing', whereupon he drew his guns 
 and said, 'You are a d d liar'. 
 
 "The sheriff rushed us out into the car, drove up 
 around the square, turned South from there and stop- 
 ped for five or ten minutes at some buildings just off 
 the South-East corner of the square. He then drove 
 us West to the railroad and then on to Carbondale, 
 where we stopped a few minutes for gas and went on 
 to Murphysboro, arriving there at 12:00 o'clock p. m. 
 We were placed in jail. Sim Stephens was released at 
 4:00 a. m., then we were ordered by the deputies to 
 get ready to leave. 
 
 "We came down to the office and I asked the depu- 
 ties why and where they were moving us to. They 
 would not tell us, and I asked them why they were 
 holding us. They said, 'For safe keeping'. Deputy 
 Flanagan said the business men had held a meeting and
 
 144 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 asked that we be moved. I asked if they were afraid 
 of our friends, and he replied, 'both your friends and 
 your enemies'. Grain asked what the charges against 
 us were, to which question no reply w^as given. We 
 left the beautiful City of Murphysboro at 10:50 a. m., 
 February 9th, for the City of Belleville, the home of 
 the Dutch and Sauer Kraut. 
 
 ''Arriving there at 4:50 p. m., the big Dutchman 
 got our pedigree, and w^e were thrown into a cell, or 
 better still, a bunch of cells, with bootleggers, high- 
 waymen, murderers and other respectable citizens who 
 could not get along with the Dutch and had been 
 thrown into jail for safe keeping along with the 
 Herrin policemen. However, our friends being hot on 
 our trail, made us appreciate them more than words 
 can tell, and we returned to you with a better know- 
 ledge of how to serve our people. 
 
 "When Father Brady Jenkins and J. H. Ford's 
 smiling faces greeted us in the big Dutchman's office 
 at Belleville about 7:40 a. m. Sunday morning, it was 
 the brightest Sunday in all our lives put together, and 
 to cap the climax Crain went over to Belleville to get 
 married. 
 
 "We committed no crime; we had nothing to fear, 
 and we only hope, regardless of cost, that we all may 
 have learned a valuable lesson. For no great cause 
 has ever been won without sacrifice. 
 
 "In closing I wish to state frankly, honestly, truth- 
 fully, that I never drew a gun Friday night in the 
 Rome Club Hall stairway, for, as I saw the issue, it 
 was useless. It was an impossibility for me to have 
 shot Layman or anyone else, and from the depths of
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 145 
 
 our hearts, if we have such a thing left in our bodies, 
 we are thankful for the kindness and brotherly love 
 shown us and our loved ones in our brief tour of in- 
 spection of the various county jails in Southern Illi- 
 nois. There is no doubt in our minds but what the 
 great God who rules heaven and earth had a hand in 
 protecting us, for circumstances speak for themselves 
 and prove beyond doubt that the meeting we butted 
 into last Friday night was against us.'* 
 
 J. W. Ford, Chief of Police 
 
 H. M. Grain. 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to before me this Fourteenth 
 day of February, 1924. 
 
 W. F. Keaster, 
 
 Justice of the Peace.
 
 146 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 FEBRUARY THE EIGHTH 
 
 ACT n. 
 
 THE MURDER OF CAESAR CAGLE 
 
 CRUEL, cold, deliberate and dastardly. Words 
 fail to describe the shooting of Constable Caesar 
 Cagle on the evening of February 8, 1924. 
 There is no mitigating feature, nothing whereby to re- 
 lieve it of any measure of its awfulness. If there is 
 no hell there ought to be, for if the perpetrators of 
 such foul crimes escape punishment at the hands of 
 the lav7 here, as they so frequently do, there ought to 
 be a place of judgment and punishment in a v^orld to 
 come. I believe there is. 
 
 The premeditated murder of Caesar Cagle followed 
 the significant events recorded in the last chapter. I 
 say "premeditated", for there is every reason to believe 
 that not only was his murder planned, but that others 
 also were booked for ''knocking off". Of this Glenn 
 Young himself bears witness when he says: — "I have 
 been condemned to death. I am not guessing at it. I 
 have the proof. The night that Caesar Cagle was mur- 
 dered, four more of us were slated to travel the death 
 road — myself, Sam Stearns, chairman of the county 
 board. Police Magistrate Abe Hicks, and State Sena- 
 tor William Bandy. 
 
 "Cagle's murder was a well premeditated crime, but 
 the plans went awry as regarded the rest of us. I was 
 at Marion when Cagle was shot. I was immediately 
 notified by phone and a bunch of us started for 
 Herrin.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 147 
 
 "The first two automobiles were an Oldsmdbile and 
 a Buick sedan, the latter having been driven by myself 
 all over the country in the raids. I was last in a new 
 Rickenbacker sedan which the friends of law enforce- 
 ment had given me to replace the old car. 
 
 **As we were two blocks from the county jail in 
 Marion, we ran into an ambush, and the first two cars 
 were riddled with bullets, several occupants being 
 shot, but no one killed. 
 
 "Those bullets were meant for me, and it is only 
 a miracle that I was not killed. Upon stopping our 
 cars and running back to the comer, we saw the 
 would-be assassins running into the county jail." 
 
 Certainly it is clear that more than Caesar Cagle 
 were listed for death on that awful night of February 
 8th. Where those plans were laid and fostered we 
 can only suspect. Why they failed we do not know, 
 unless it be that a kind, overruling Providence 
 thwarted the purposes of wicked men that the cause 
 of righteousness might prevail in Williamson County. 
 
 Alas that the murderous plans succeeded as well 
 as they did, and that today a devoted wife, young son 
 and aged father and mother mourn the loss of one who 
 did his duties faithfully and paid the price with his 
 life upon the streets of the city to the protection of 
 whose citizenship he had pledged himself. 
 
 Before me lies a stenographic report of the Coro- 
 ner's inquest, held in the City Hall of Herrin on Feb- 
 ruary ll-13th, 1924. The jury consisted of John 
 Herrin, cashier of the First National Bank, as fore- 
 man; A. T. Pace, former Mayor of Herrin, as clerk; 
 0. W. Lyerla, cashier of, the Herrin State Savings
 
 148 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 Bank; Joe P. Benson, cashier of the City National 
 Bank; George Kays, a carpenter and miner, and Shell 
 Hunsaker, a miner. The Coroner was W. M. McCown. 
 
 Over sixty witnesses were summoned before this 
 jury and fifty-four of them were called upon to give 
 testimony. It is up to the courts to decide upon the 
 guilt or innocence of those involved in this terrible 
 affair. In presenting the evidence given before the 
 Coroner's jury I am not passing judgment upon the 
 case, but simply recording history. That opinions will 
 be formed as a result of this history is inevitable, and 
 whatever may be the decision of the courts convic- 
 tions formed through the testimony of eye witnesses 
 will abide for all time. 
 
 George Parsons told the jury that he was in the 
 miner's local about eight o'clock on the evening of 
 February 8th, attending one of the regular meetings of 
 that organization; and that as he and some of his 
 friends were leaving the hall a group of men, carrying 
 arms, came in. Among them was Ora Thomas. 
 Parsons said that he did not look back to see what 
 happened, but that Mr. Jones, one of the officers, went 
 and asked the six or eight armed men what their busi- 
 ness was and ''what the trouble was that they were 
 coming in with guns"? They didn't answer at first 
 but finally admitted that Sheriff George Galligan had 
 sent them and that they were "going to have a little 
 party". 
 
 Perhaps no testimony presented to the jury has a 
 stronger bearing upon the case than that of Jack Rowe, 
 an intelligent, dependable young man of twenty-three 
 whose witness was as follows: —
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 149 
 
 **I had just come from the basketball game and was 
 on my way to town in company with' my cousin, and as 
 I was passing 14th and Cherry streets I saw a crowd 
 of about 25 or 35 men, all of whom carried pistols, come 
 down the street. They were shouting to the people to 
 keep off the streets. 
 
 "When the men got along by the Jefferson Bar I 
 heard one of them say, 'Here he is.' I looked over to- 
 ward the sidewalk and saw Caesar Cagle walking 
 north toward the mob of men. Cagle stopped and the 
 mob rushed over to the sidewalk. One man, a heavy 
 set, well built fellow, hit Cagle over the head with a 
 gun, and Cagle fell to the walk. Cagle had heard the 
 shout, 'Here he is' and drawn his revolver from a 
 holster under his left arm. He had just drawn when 
 he was knocked down by the big fellow. Three men 
 rushed to him and jerked the gun from his right hand. 
 
 '1 heard three shots fired." 
 
 "Did you recognize any of the men ?" 
 
 "There were three men." 
 
 "What happened to the men after the shooting?" 
 
 "They just scrambled away." 
 
 "Were the shots fired by one man?" 
 
 "Two of the shots were fired by two men." 
 
 "Do you know the men that fired?" 
 
 "Yes, one shot was fired by one man and one by 
 another." 
 
 "Would you care to tell us who they were?" 
 
 "That's what I was getting at. The one shot was 
 fired by Ora Thomas, the other by Shelton." 
 
 "What is his given name?"
 
 150 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 "I couldn't tell you his given name. There are two 
 of the boys." 
 
 '*Do you know who fired the other shot?" 
 
 **Some men got in between me and Cagle, and al- 
 though I heard the other shot I did not see the flash." 
 
 "How was the man dressed, the one that fired the 
 shot?"" 
 
 "The Shelton that fired was a big built man, about 
 175 or 180 pounds, a little larger than Cagle and kind 
 of sleepy eyed and full in the face, a heavy built 
 fellow." 
 
 "Cagle fell to the walk and the crowd seemed to 
 disperse. I rushed to his side. I had not recognized 
 him before, but when I reached his body I pulled back 
 his cap and saw it was Caesar Cagle. I called for 
 help, and as I lifted him up by the shoulders two other 
 men each took one of his legs and w^e carried him to 
 the hospital three blocks away. As we were carrying 
 him up the steps I felt another gun carried in a scab- 
 bard on his right hip. I took this out and some man 
 came up and took it away from me. Caesar gave one 
 groan, the only sound he made, and we just carried 
 him on in to the operating table." 
 
 It was a pathetic moment when Franklin Cagle, 
 the little eleven year old son of the slain man, took 
 the stand to tell the jury what he knew about the 
 murder of his father. He told of coming from the 
 movie, and that as he went down the street toward 
 the Rome Club he saw a lot of men congregated. 
 George Kenner, a friend of the family, met him and
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 151 
 
 told him to go get his father as there was a big fight 
 on. The lad telephoned his father but failing thus to 
 locate him went to the Masonic Temple, where his 
 father and mother were attending a social, and deliv- 
 ered the message — the message that was to result in 
 his father's destruction. 
 
 Harry Hanks, a mechanic of Herrin gave important 
 testimony. He said: — '1 left the high school about 
 8:30, and as I got to 14th street I saw a bunch of 
 men, three or four of whom I recognized immediately. 
 Their leader was Shelton. There were two Shelton 
 brothers. One was a tall slim fellow, and the other 
 fellow a large man. These two brothers were in 
 front. I saw a fellow coming down from the rear in 
 the direction of the hospital. He hesitated a second 
 or two on the Illinois Central platform, and seemed 
 to stop in the alley behind the hotel, but it came out 
 afterward that he stepped in the doorway of that bar 
 there. Just as we got to the corner of the Jefferson 
 we stopped. Someone said, 'There he is'. Shelton, 
 the tall slim one, made a dive for him first and hit him 
 over the head. Just as he fell shots were fired, a 
 flash from one gun and three flashes from another; 
 and the two that I saw shoot were the Shelton 
 brothers. I think they were the same kind of guns 
 because there wasn't any difference between the noise 
 of the guns. I saw Vurney (Shelton) and his two 
 brothers and a fellow they call Harris get in a Ford 
 coupe, and they all had guns in their hands. I don't 
 know Harris' given name, and they drove away." 
 
 Conflicting testimony was offered in regard to Ora 
 Thomas. Dr. Black of the hospital which he permitted
 
 152 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 to be used as a Flaming Circle barracks, stated that 
 Thomas was in the X-Ray room when Cagle was 
 brought in, whereas Stanley Johnson testified, *'No, 
 Ora Thomas was not in the X-Ray room at that time". 
 
 ''Did you notice where he was?" 
 
 ''Well, after a while, when he was in the operating 
 room, he told John Layman that he'd have to go and 
 he went out of the operating room. I don't know 
 where he went. While he was gone, Johnson told me 
 at a later date, he (Johnson), Black and a visitor car- 
 ried Layman in and placed him on an X-Ray table and 
 took a picture of him. This was no good and a second 
 one was taken. While they were working on the 
 second one Ora Thomas came back. Then a bunch 
 came in the door and said they had brought Cagle in 
 shot." 
 
 Well, however that may be, the Coroner's jury re- 
 turned the following verdict : — "We, the jury, find that 
 Caesar Cagle came to his death on February 8th, 
 1924, near the hour of 9 :30 p. m., by gun shot wounds 
 at the hands of one Shelton described as tall and slim ; 
 and one Shelton described as heavy-set and sleepy- 
 eyed. 
 
 "After being in session four days and examining 
 fifty-four witnesses, we found one eye-witness who 
 testified that Ora Thomas fired upon Caesar Cagle with 
 a revolver. A number of witnesses testified that Ora 
 Thomas was at the hospital at the time the shooting 
 occurred. 
 
 "One eye-witness testified that Angelo Delaria ran 
 from the scene of the shooting toward the hospital
 
 RAIDER S, GLENN YOUNG 153 
 
 with two revolvers in his hands, which testimony was 
 not contradicted." 
 
 Signed, 
 
 John Herrin, Foreman 
 
 A. T. Pace, Clerk 
 
 O. W. Lyerla 
 
 Joe P. Benson 
 
 Geo. Kays 
 
 Shell Hunsaker 
 
 Following the decision of the coroner's jury, prac- 
 tically every man who had been arrested in connec- 
 tion with the murder was released. This included 
 Sheriff George Galligan, who had been arrested at 
 Carbondale on a warrant served by S. Glenn Young, 
 charging him with complicity in the death of Caesar 
 Cagle. It also released Mayor Anderson, Hezzie 
 Byrnes, L. C. Johnson, Hugh Willis, Pete Smith, W. A. 
 Thomas, W. Z. Trout, John Garvaglia, John Davis, 
 Nicholas Dudy, Veto Sanfaletto, C. E. Haselton, Carl 
 and William A. Ruff, Louis Grazzatt, Bill Dean and 
 Sylvester Reggio. 
 
 Mai'tyred KJansman Honored in Death 
 
 Shortly after noon on Sunday, February 10th, 
 autos, each bearing the American flag, began to form 
 in line and at 2 : 00 o'clock a procession of two hundred 
 cars started towards the First Baptist Church of Her- 
 rin, where the services were held. Williamson Lodge, 
 Knights of Pythias, assisted by Rev. I. E. Lee, pastor 
 of the church, and Rev. P. R. Glotfelty, pastor of the 
 Herrin Methodist church, had charge of the sei'vices. 
 Both of these ministers have been very hearty in sup-
 
 154 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 porting the work of the Klan and are commonly sup- 
 posed to be identified with the great American organi- 
 zation. 
 
 The spacious auditorium of the church was 
 crowded with the immediate friends of the murdered 
 officer. Over a thousand people thronged the church 
 on the outside, saw the casket carried in, and waited 
 for over an hour until the body was borne out again 
 and the procession of several hundred automobiles 
 filed away toward Oakwood cemetery at Carterville, 
 six miles away, where the last solemn rites took place. 
 
 Immediately before the opening of the service in 
 the church, a huge blanket of white flowers, bearing 
 the central inscription **K. K. K." in green was de- 
 posited on the casket, and a fiery cross of red roses 
 placed at its side. At the conclusion of the impressive 
 service the casket was wheeled to the front of the 
 church and more than two thousand people filed by 
 the bier, paying their tribute of respect for the valor 
 of the deceased officer. 
 
 Buried With Klan Robe and Visor 
 
 When the casket containing the body of Caesar 
 Cagle was lowered beneath the sod, his Klan robe and 
 hood were placed on top and buried with him. 
 
 It had been rumored that Klansmen would attend 
 the funeral in full regalia, but at the last minute the 
 Grand Dragon of the Realm of Illinois issued instruc- 
 tions that under the circumstances it would be better 
 to dispense with any ceremony that might cause 
 further trouble, a wise decision in which the Klans- 
 men of Williamson County readily concurred, for the 
 supreme desire of the organization has been to avoid
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 155 
 
 trouble wherever it is possible to do so, though in this 
 they are a unit, even though it be a fight to a finish, 
 namely, that Williamson County will be cleaned up if 
 it takes two years, five years or even ten years in 
 which to do it. 
 
 Caesar Cagle is another name added to the long 
 list of those who have been brutally murdered by the 
 enemies of law in our American life. We believe that 
 the inspiration of their sacrifice is not lost. Today, 
 little Franklin Cagle, son of the slain Klansman and 
 possibly the youngest member of the Klan in the 
 United States, has already avowed his purpose to 
 grow up and take his father's place in the enforcement 
 of our American laws. 
 
 But let us not forget. Caesar Cagle was murdered, 
 and the perpetrators of the crime are still free and 
 unpunished. We seek not vengeance but justice. A 
 good wife, a loyal son, a fond mother and a father, 
 T. E. Cagle, who has served the county honorably and 
 well as Constable, and Justice of the Peace, which office 
 he now holds in Carterville, awaits the merited punish- 
 ment of those who planned and carried out the cruel, 
 brutal murder of their loved one. Will justice be 
 meted out? The ineffectiveness of our criminal courts 
 does not furnish us with much ground for hope. 
 
 Sound the Depths of Infamy 
 
 That the infamy of men does not end at the grave 
 of their victims was illustrated in the Carterville 
 cemetery a few weeks after the burial of the Klan 
 Officer, Constable Cagle. 
 
 A beautiful and costly stone had been placed by the 
 family over the grave of their slaughtered and beloved
 
 156 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 dead. Perhaps because their wicked hearts were em- 
 bittered by the county wide respect shown to their 
 enemy in death, his foes vomited forth their hatred by 
 causing crude oil to be poured over the choice brown 
 granite stone erected over his grave and bearing the 
 words, "The Rock of Ages". The oil was rubbed on 
 the face of the monument and upon the headstone. It 
 was also poured upon all the coping and cornerstones 
 that surround the lot. 
 
 Those upon whom suspicion has inevitably been 
 cast, have made many efforts since then to discredit 
 the story, and have even broadcasted the news that 
 the monument was never defaced. The author of this 
 volume saw the defaced monument shortly after the 
 crime was committed, however, and vouches for the 
 truthfulness of the story. The spots of the offending 
 oil having been removed as well as possible, but the 
 stains remain distinctly visible. 
 
 The Cagle monument stands at the extreme south- 
 west corner of the cemetery. Why would that monu- 
 ment, the farthest removed from the entrance to the 
 burying place, be selected for the baptism of oil? 
 Everything points to deliberate and malign intent. 
 
 As the editor of the Semi-Weekly Herald of Herrin 
 well remarks, ''When men are murdered on the 
 streets and then molested in the Silent City of the 
 Dead because they stand for law enforcement, where 
 it is enforced by regularly constituted officers of the 
 law, it is then time for every American citizen to 
 awake and say emphatically that such criminals shall 
 be hanged or sent to prison for life".
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 157 
 
 ^ 
 
 FEBRUARY THE EIGHTH 
 
 ACT HI. 
 
 THE HERRIN HOSPITAL BARRACKS 
 
 HE closing act and scene of the famous February 
 I the Eighth has been exploited and used as prop- 
 -*" aganda against the Klan and S. Glenn Young 
 more than any other act or scene in the great drama 
 of the Dry Raids in Williamson County. Much cen- 
 sure has been heaped upon the heads of the Ku Klux 
 Klan because some shots were fired into the Herrin 
 Hospital. The public having received, through the 
 Associated Press, a distorted idea of the whole affair 
 is hardly to blame for the feelings engendered. That 
 a few shots were fired into the hospital none will deny, 
 but I am satisfied that when any fair minded man or 
 woman knows the character of the hospital and the 
 severe provocation given by the gunmen within it that 
 night, they will see the matter in a different light, and 
 say that, ''Under the circumstances we would have 
 been strongly tempted to do the same thing ourselves". 
 
 That the Herrin hospital was a veritable barracks 
 of the notorious Knights of the Flaming Circle on the 
 night of February 8th, there is abundant and substan- 
 tial evidence. That numerous guns, including at least 
 one machine gun, were smuggled into the building be- 
 fore the events of that night is clear from the fact 
 that they were used, and that reputable army officers 
 have testified that they found them there upon their 
 arrival upon the scene.
 
 158 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 A nurse, no longer in the employ of the hospital, 
 who was on service in the institution prior to and on 
 the night of the trouble, has told me of mysterious 
 boxes which were carried into the basement and 
 secreted in lockers shortly before the fatal evening. 
 These boxes were long, thick and heavy, and may have 
 contained the guns, intended for use when the hour of 
 opportunity struck. Not only were there plenty of 
 guns. But trustworthy witnesses, who knew the life 
 of the hospital from within, have declared that there 
 was always plenty of booze about the house of healing. 
 
 Perhaps poor little Dr. Black, head of the some- 
 what questionable institution, was moved with fear 
 when he allowed his hospital to be used by that organi- 
 zation of men which is composed of that element who 
 want the saloon and every other institution of kindred 
 character to operate in Williamson County. Indeed 
 the author has it from the lips of one of the nurses 
 that on one occasion Dr. Black said to her in effect 
 that she had better stay with the Flaming Circle; ''I 
 would rather have one hundred Ku Kluxers after me 
 than one Flaming Circle, for they'll get you sure, by 
 G ". 
 
 And who were some of the armed guests of the 
 hospital on that memorable night? There was Ora 
 Thomas, alleged by an eye witness to have fired one of 
 the shots that killed Caesar Cagle. There was Alvin 
 Thomas, his brother, who guarded Carterville by day 
 and was knocked down while resisting officers who 
 were raiding a joint on the Marion road at night. 
 Hugh Willis, whose name appeared frequently in con- 
 nection with the Lester Mine massacre, was also pres- 
 ent. Hezzie Byrnes, whom John Ford saw strike
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 159 
 
 Policeman Sim Stephens over the head with his gun 
 early that evening, was likewise a member of the hos- 
 pital company. And what shall I say more? What 
 need I say more? It is superfluous to mention the 
 names of Rodie Trout, Bill Ruff, Carl Ruff, Leo Ladd, 
 King Johnston, John Murray, and others not forgetting 
 the honorable Mayor of Herrin, Mage Anderson, who 
 had to be there, of course, in the interest of the city 
 and its decent citizenship. Rather strange company 
 for the chief magistrate of a city to be in, however, 
 some have remarked. 
 
 S. Glenn Young's story of the affair, as given in a 
 statement to the Post Dispatch of Marion, is as 
 follows : — 
 
 "Shortly after my arrival in Herrin last night, a 
 Deputy Sheriff, some deputized citizens and myself 
 went to the Herrin Hospital armed with warrants for 
 eight men charged with the murder of Caesar Cagle. 
 We had reason to believe they were in the hospital, 
 and knocked at the front door. We were asked what 
 we wanted, and told those inside that we were officers 
 of the law. To this a volley of shots from inside the 
 door was the answer. There were several volleys of 
 shots, and to me it was indeed a mystery why none of 
 our party were injured. We backed away a short dis- 
 tance and fire was opened upon us again from up- 
 stair windows. We fired some shots in return, but 
 because of the fear that we might injure some of the 
 patients at the hospital we refrained from answering 
 any further shots and proceeded to place a guard 
 around the place, and this guard we maintained until 
 the arrival of the troops about 4:00 a. m.
 
 160 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 "We issued a warrant for the arrest of Sheriff 
 George Galligan and sent men to Murphysboro to 
 serve the warrant, but Galligan had left Murphysboro. 
 We communicated with the police in Carbondale, and 
 he was arrested and put in jail there this morning. 
 
 *'We have more than fifty witnesses who will 
 testify that Galligan was in the party that shot Cagle, 
 who was murdered in cold blood. W"e have scores of 
 witnesses who will testify that Galligan said, 'If they 
 are looking for trouble they will get it before morning'c 
 
 ''Witnesses will also testify that John Layman is 
 another who fired. He is now in the hospital at the 
 point of death as the result of a bullet fired accident- 
 ally by a member of his own gang. We are here to 
 cooperate with the troops in every way to preserve 
 quiet." 
 
 Inasmuch as there are plenty of people living near 
 the hospital who will testify that the first flashes seen 
 came from the interior of the hospital, and that those 
 who were without only fired when they were made the 
 targets of those within, firing from the upper win- 
 dows, it would seem to any fair minded person that 
 to shoot in self-defense, even into a hospital manned 
 by gunmen, has a reasonable measure of excuse. The 
 cowardice of the culprits who hid behind the sick (for 
 that is virtually what they did) and fired upon those 
 legally deputized to arrest them, has no excuse what- 
 soever. Every act of the lawless element in William- 
 son County, including the foul shooting out of the eyes 
 of Mrs. S. Glenn Young, has been a cowardly act. 
 
 Troops Again Called To Herrin 
 
 The night which began with the meeting of the 
 lawless Knights of the Flaming Circle, attended by the
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 161 
 
 Sheriff, George Galligan, and his chief deputy John 
 Layman ; the night that saw the kidnapping, on the part 
 of the Sheriff et al, of the two Herrin police officers, 
 and the brutal murder of a third; the night that saw 
 Herrin Hospital used as a fortress, from which many 
 shots were fired with intent to kill, ended in the send- 
 ing of state troops to the scene of the trouble. 
 
 February 9th, saw five Companies of Illinois Na- 
 tional Guardsmen patrolling the streets of Herrin. 
 Why were they there ? 
 
 They were there because a weak sheriff, prior to 
 and subsequent to his election, had become so obKgated 
 to the lawless element in Williamson County, so tied up 
 by promises, that he could scarcely call his soul his 
 own. 
 
 They were there because George Galligan, Sheriff 
 of Williamson County, was the pawn of cheap poli- 
 ticians and the criminal class who wanted to keep the 
 county wet and dirty. 
 
 They were there because the District Attorney, 
 W. 0. Potter, was the friend of the bootlegger and 
 evil doer throughout the county, because of which 
 politic friendship he had utterly failed to perform his 
 duty toward law violators. 
 
 The troops were there because in a word, the gov- 
 ernment of Williamson County was as rotten and in- 
 efficient as government could possibly be, the laughing 
 stock of the lawless and the lament of every decent, 
 law abiding citizen who had the interest of the county, 
 and its reputation at heart. 
 
 They were there because of the determined effort 
 of the lawless element and certain of the officials to
 
 162 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 discredit in the eyes of the world the very much needed 
 clean-up so rigorously and efficiently instituted by S. 
 Glenn Young and the Klan. They succeeded well in 
 bringing things to such a pass that troops did indeed 
 appear to be needed. If the officers who were respon- 
 sible for their coming had done their duty, even at 
 the eleventh hour, and placed behind prison bars the 
 thugs and bootleggers responsible for so much of the 
 outlawry, instead of aiding them as they did, troops 
 would have been entirely unnecessary, and the county 
 would have been saved much expense to say nothing 
 of the nation v/ide shame which came upon it through 
 an unfriendly press. 
 
 S. Glenn Young and the Klan gave clear evidence, 
 by immediate cooperation with the troops, that the 
 thing they were after was not the defeat of any fac- 
 tion, but the enforcement of existing laws and the 
 establishment of a decent social order. 
 
 How about the sheriff and the county officers? Did 
 they show a similar spirit? Did they seek to cooperate 
 with the military authorities? On Sunday, March 2nd, 
 the head of the military forces in Herrin, Major Gen- 
 eral Foreman, called a conference of the various 
 forces of the county organized for law enforcement, 
 among them the county officers, and a so-called "citi- 
 zens' committee," made up of business men of the com- 
 munity. Neither the county officers nor the citizens' 
 committee attended the conference.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 163 
 
 BOWEN AND THE BONDS 
 
 THE story of Bowen and the bonds will long be 
 remembered in Williamson County. It centers 
 around an unrighteous judge who came to Her- 
 rin and thought that in order to succeed he must cater 
 to the lawless element, that his best financial inter- 
 ests demanded that he stand in well with that type 
 of citizen whose operations and influence the Klan 
 was organized to discourage and destroy. That he has 
 sacrificed honor in vain, in so far as Williamson 
 County is concerned, there can be no doubt. 
 
 And yet we are glad for Bowen*s bonds. They 
 served to advertise to the nation one thing at least 
 which needed publicity, namely, that the best and most 
 influential men of the county were behind S. Glenn 
 Young and the great reform movement of which the 
 Ku Klux Klan was the very backbone. But I must 
 hasten to the story. 
 
 On February 14th, City Judge E. N. Bowen of the 
 Herrin City Court, ordered a special grand jury to 
 convene at the City Hall of Herrin on Monday, Feb- 
 ruary 25th, to make a thorough and complete investi- 
 gation of the riot of February 8th, which resulted in 
 the death of Constable Caesar Cagle, the serious 
 wounding of Deputy Sheriff John Layman, the so- 
 called "shooting up of the Herrin Hospital", and other 
 disorders. 
 
 "If Herrin has a dirty coat it is up to Herrin to 
 do her own dry cleaning," Judge Bowen declared.
 
 164 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 ''The City of Herrin is the place that has the black eye, 
 and we are going to try to clear our name", he said. 
 
 **I have no criticism to make of any previous in- 
 vestigations", the judge said, ''but we want to do our 
 own house cleaning. The special grand jury will be 
 charged to make a thorough and complete investigation 
 of the entire affair." 
 
 The Herrin City Court, over which Judge Bowen 
 presides, has the same authority as the circuit court 
 only its jurisdiction is limited to within the corporate 
 city limits. 
 
 The special grand jury did not begin its work until 
 March 3rd. After a nine day session they returned 
 ninety-nine indictments against various citizens of 
 Herrin. Many of the indictments carried several 
 counts. They ranged from "malicious mischief" to 
 "murder". Prominent and respected citizens were 
 charged with well nigh every crime on the calendar. 
 The efforts of the jury, however, seem to have been 
 particularly directed upon S. Glenn Young, against 
 whom they brought in thirty-one indictments of sixty- 
 five counts, charging him with everything from assault 
 to murder, down to petty larceny. 
 
 This special grand jury, upon which Mr. Young 
 affirms were two former bootleggers and several of 
 the most notorious characters in the county, made a 
 very singular report on the situation in Williamson 
 County and especially of Herrin. The report was as 
 follows : 
 
 "State of Illinois, Williamson County, City of 
 Herrin.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 165 
 
 *ln the City Court of the City of Herrin, to the 
 March Term A. D. 1924. 
 
 "To the Honorable E. N. Bowen, Judge of the City 
 Court of the City of Herrin, Williamson County, 
 Illinois. 
 
 "We the Special Grand Jury, now sitting in Grand 
 Inquisition at the March Term, A. D. 1924, of the 
 aforesaid City Court of the City of Herrin, Williamson 
 County, Illinois, upon reporting in open court of re- 
 turns made by us concerning matters investigated at 
 the said term of said Court, and before asking to be 
 by the Court discharged from further duties as Grand 
 Jurors, beg to make the following report to your Honor 
 as to the conditions found to have existed in the City 
 of Herrin during the late so-called Klan and Anti- 
 Klan activities: 
 
 "We find that in the said City of Herrin, during a 
 period of some four or five days, approximately com- 
 mencing with the 8th day of February, 1924, what 
 might be probably called a *Reign of Terror' existed 
 as a result of acts of oppression and persecution by the 
 so called Ku Klux Klan, which resulted in some meas- 
 ure of retaliation by an Anti-Klan order, known as the 
 Knights of the Flaming Circle. 
 
 "We further find that during the so-called raids 
 by the Ku Klux Klan, under the leadership of one S. 
 Glenn Young, who is purported to be hired by the Ku 
 Klux Klan for such purpose, numerous people w^ere 
 robbed, beaten, abused and in many instances impris- 
 oned secretly, without any legal process and wholly 
 without justifiable cause, which ultimately resulted in 
 the calling of the Illinois National Guard to William-
 
 166 LIFE AX D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 son County, a Company of which is still on duty in 
 the City of Herrin. 
 
 "This Grand Jury most respectfully reports to the 
 court that for nine days we have worked diligently to 
 learn and report to the court the principal occurrences 
 giving rise to and constituting the troubles in Herrin 
 in the period of time beginning at about 10:00 p. m. 
 on February 8th, 1924. We have also used every 
 effort to learn who were the men guilty of the crimes 
 and outrages committed in and about Herrin during 
 said time. 
 
 "The true bills returned into court are a part of the 
 results of these labors in this behalf. 
 
 "We think it proper to also report to the court, 
 as a matter of public concern, some of the conclusions 
 reached by this jury touching certain matters growing 
 out of the evidence heard by it, which conclusions are 
 distinct from the legal findings resulting in bills re- 
 turned. These conclusions arise from facts forced 
 upon the attention of this jury by the evidence heard, 
 and are matters of great public importance, and, we 
 think, show a condition that threatens the verj' 
 foundation of civil government and society in William- 
 son County and in Herrin. 
 
 "Somewhere about 9:00 p. m., February 8th, 1924, 
 a difficulty occurred in which John Layman, deputy 
 sheriff, was seriously wounded. He was taken almost 
 immediately to the Herrin Hospital for treatment. At 
 this time the streets were full of men and about one- 
 half-hour after Layman was shot, Caesar Cagle, a 
 constable, was killed in the streets. As these matters 
 are likely to be subjects of cases in court, we do not
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 167 
 
 think it prudent to discuss the shooting of Layman 
 and Cagle in this report. 
 
 "Soon after this shooting of Cagle, a large body of 
 men, being estimated from 150 to 500 in number, 
 gathered at the Herrin Hospital, under the apparent 
 claim that the slayers of Cagle had taken refuge there- 
 in. Being refused admission to the hospital, this body 
 of men, all of whom seem to have been armed with 
 guns and pistols, made an unlawful attack upon the 
 hospital and fired into the doors and windows thereof 
 hundreds of shots, in spite of the fact that the hospital 
 was filled with patients, some of them in the most seri- 
 ous physical condition. 
 
 "One room, in which there was a woman, had six- 
 teen shots fired into the windows. The facts of this 
 attack as detailed to this jury, are entirely beyond 
 description and are almost beyond belief. This attack 
 was entirely unlawful and without any justification 
 whatever, and was the most amazing display of mob 
 violence which has ever come to the certain knowledge 
 of the members of this jury. 
 
 "Early on the morning of the 9th of February, 
 certain parties, led by one S. Glenn Young, assumed 
 to take over the office of the government of the 
 City of Herrin. The Mayor, C. E. Anderson, was un- 
 lawfully seized and, with several others, was placed 
 in jail, where they remained three days before they 
 were released. George Galligan, the Sheriff of Wil- 
 liamson County, was seized without the least sem- 
 blance of authority and carried out of the county and 
 finally placed in the Champaign jail, and was out of 
 the county in all about three days. During this un- 
 lawful and violent incarceration of the Sheriff and
 
 168 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 Mayor, the government of the city and largely of Wil- 
 liamson County, was assumed and taken over by the 
 said S. Glenn Young, who was not a citizen of the 
 county, and who claimed to be acting chief of police, 
 in spite of the law, which, as this jury is informed, 
 provides that no man can legally act as any such 
 officer unless he has been a citizen of the state and 
 county one whole year before he so assumes to act. 
 
 ''It seems clear to this jury, from the evidence 
 heard, that it was the purpose of the said S. Glenn 
 Young and those acting in concert with him, to over- 
 throw the civil authority in Herrin and Williamson 
 County, seize and imprison the Sheriff and Mayor and 
 take upon themselves the task of government without 
 any legal authority whatever. 
 
 "Carrying out this idea many of the most respect- 
 able and best known citizens of Herrin were thrown 
 into jail without even the semblance of a complaint or 
 warrant, and without authority, simply upon the order 
 of said Young, and a great many men assumed to act 
 as policemen without any right except the supposed 
 authority of the said Young, and this jury finds that 
 the said Young acted entirely without authority in 
 all that he did. The streets were filled with armed 
 men who assumed to have control of the city, and all 
 men moving in the streets were challenged by these 
 armed men who demanded of them some secret pass- 
 word not known to this jury, and all who had not this 
 mysterious password were either arrested or driven 
 from the streets. 
 
 "The evidence shows that the County and City 
 were only relieved from this unbearable situation by 
 the arrival of the soldiers.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 169 
 
 "We think Sheriff Galligan is to be commended for 
 calling for the troops. Their timely arrival certainly 
 saved the City and County the most serious trouble. 
 
 ''This grand jury condemns all these acts of vio- 
 lence and oppression as being wrong in principle and 
 without authority. 
 
 ''We condemn and deplore mob violence in every 
 form and the promiscuous and open carrying of pistols 
 and guns in public places without authority. 
 
 "We condemn the assumption of police authority 
 in this County by any organization or order, secret or 
 otherwise, whatever, or by any person whomsoever, 
 except by the legally appointed and qualified officers 
 of the law, recognized and provided for by the statutes 
 of Illinois. 
 
 "We particularly condemn the importation into 
 Williamson County and into the City of Herrin, of 
 any man who is not a resident and citizen of said 
 County, and the attempt to place in the hands of any 
 such non-citizens and non-residents police or other 
 executive authority in plain violation of the written 
 law of Illinois. Such acts and such attempts can only 
 lead to disorder and to violence and necessarily, to 
 crime. 
 
 "We condemn the attempt on the part of any order, 
 secret or otherwise, to stir up strife and hatred be- 
 tween classes of our citizens on account of race or 
 birth or religion. All classes, races or religions are 
 equal before the law and ought to be equal in fact. 
 Any man who attempts to raise a race war or a re- 
 ligious war is a public enemy.
 
 170 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 "Finally, we earnestly call upon all the citizens of 
 Herrin and Williamson County, without regard to race 
 or tribe or creed, to come to the support of the officers 
 of the law and of the constituted authority recognized 
 by the law, and help to re-establish and maintain law 
 and order in the County and in this City, and help 
 make them fit places for the residence of civilized 
 people." 
 
 The jury which made this report to City Judge 
 Bowen was composed of the following men : — 
 
 Guy Minto, Herrin, foreman; Marchal Edwards, 
 Corinth ; Henry Arms, Corinth ; Elmer Miller, Marion ; 
 Otto Jennings, Creal Springs; Sylvester Webb, Creal 
 Springs; Carrol Chapman, Herrin; Alex. Haughee, 
 Herrin; Philip Harris, Herrin; Jas Ranmar, Herrin; 
 W. B. Williams, Herrin; Geo. Hamilton, Marion; Lit 
 Shackelford, Marion; David Babington, Johnston 
 City; Geo. Neeley, Marion; Wm. Collins, Marion; Bob 
 Jackocoby, Johnston City; Harry Wilson, Johnston 
 City ; Lott Bell, Johnston City ; Harry Slater, Johnston 
 City; John McCloskey, Johnston City; E. M. McDowell, 
 Marion. 
 
 Herrin Holds a Protest Parade 
 
 'There will be a parade in Herrin tomorrow at 
 10:00 a. m. of all citizens who are in sympathy with 
 Law Enforcement and it is requested that all stores in 
 sympathy with this parade close their places of busi- 
 ness from 9 a. m. until 12 m. The purpose of the same 
 being to have bonds filed for those indicted by the 
 grand jury.'* 
 
 "Committee"
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 171 
 
 In response to this request issued on the previous 
 day more than ten thousand people swarmed the 
 streets of Herrin on Tuesday morning, March 18th, 
 to make what had been announced from the churches 
 as a ''religious protest" against the "unrighteous ver- 
 dict" of the city grand jury. 
 
 This was indeed something new under the sun. 
 Certainly there is no record of a similar parade ever 
 having been held in the State of Illinois. The allega- 
 tion that it was an ''intimidation parade" was thus 
 far from the truth. The fact that such a large per- 
 centage of the crowd were respected members of the 
 local churches, and that honored ministers of the city 
 were active in the whole affair is a sufficient answer 
 to that. 
 
 The crowd was estimated at between eight thou- 
 sand and ten thousand people in the line of march 
 besides the people in cars and those lined up along the 
 streets. The thoroughfares were practically deserted 
 until 9:00 o'clock, when people began to assemble at 
 the various churches. By 9:30 the streets were 
 crowded with men going toward the Christian church 
 on South Park street. Following a brief address by 
 Rev. Glotfelty the march began. 
 
 The procession covered a stretch of ten blocks. 
 In the lead was a gaily decorated automobile from 
 which a huge American flag protruded, also a banner 
 indicating that the occupants of the car were members 
 of the Grand Army post. The marchers all carried 
 American flags of varying size. 
 
 By the side of the color bearer, who carried another 
 large American flag, marched S. Glenn Young, two of
 
 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 the local ministers, and John Whitesides of Marion. 
 In the church section of the procession banners dis- 
 played the names of the congregations, and women 
 were banded together in one large group. 
 
 The marchers, accompanied by the Herrin band 
 playing patriotic airs, passed the city hall several 
 times. From the second story of this building Judge 
 Bowen and a small group of county and city officials 
 silently watched the public demonstration against the 
 findings of his jurors. Young was applauded time 
 and time again on the streets and there was no mis- 
 taking the fact that the sentiment of the vast majority 
 was with him in the fight for a clean county and the 
 enthronement of justice which Bowen, lacking a sense 
 of humor, declared had been dethroned. 
 
 During the parade, in fact throughout the entire 
 day, national guardsmen were stationed at the entrance 
 to the city hall. It constituted a sort of ''no-man's 
 land" for all but those who had definite business there. 
 From the roof of an adjoining building a trooper, 
 armed with revolvers and a rifle covered the doorway. 
 Two guardsmen stood on the corner, and with fixed 
 bayonets kept the people moving. The sidewalk on 
 both sides of the city building was kept cleared. 
 
 At the top of the wide stairs leading to the court 
 room on the second floor two more guardsmen were 
 stationed with bristling bayonets, barring the entrance 
 to the court room, which only the defendants, their 
 bondsmen, newspaper men and the officials were per- 
 mitted to enter. Everyone making an attempt to enter 
 was searched for concealed weapons by the troopers. 
 
 Major John H. Powers of Decatur was in charge 
 of seven guardsmen, but during the day he was re-
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 173 
 
 lieved by Major R. W. Davis of Carbondale, who is a 
 part owner of the Carbondale Free Press. 
 
 That there was considerable tension in the air on 
 Bond Tuesday may be readily conceived, but there was 
 no disorder of any kind. Groups of men stood about 
 the streets all day and discussed the situation, but 
 there were no other demonstrations apart from the 
 orderly parade, and there was no act of lawlessness in 
 connection with the whole affair. From the windows 
 of the few former "soft" drink parlors, and from 
 lunch rooms and cigar stores many, who are defend- 
 ants in liquor cases as the result of Young's activities, 
 watched with subdued interest the scene without. 
 
 Within Judge Bowen's court all was in readiness, 
 and the anticipation on the part of all who were a 
 party of the plan arranged must have been very keen. 
 That it had been agreed among them to make the bonds 
 for the indicted Klansmen, especially S. Glenn Young, 
 so high that they could not furnish them and would be 
 confined in jail, there can be no doubt. Shylock never 
 hungered for his pound of Gentile flesh with half the 
 zest that Judge Bowen et al hungered for revenge upon 
 the man who had shown up the rottenness and ineffi- 
 ciency of many of the officials of the county and of the 
 City of Herrin. 
 
 All is now ready for the big act. The parade is 
 over. In the streets surrounding the city hall thou- 
 sands eagerly and yet patiently await the outcome, as 
 the defendants file past the "dead line", established by 
 the guardsmen, into Bowen's court. 
 
 As Young, Sam Stearns, who is chairman of the 
 board of county commissioners and Exalted Cyclops of
 
 174 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 the Williamson County Klan, Abe Hicks, Herrin's 
 police magistrate, Chief of Police John Ford and 
 Wallace A. Bandy, State Representative, enter the 
 court room each is greeted with a round of applause. 
 
 At a long table immediately in front of the judge 
 are seated six newspaper men and two girl clerks. 
 Upon it are the files in the grand jury indictments. 
 Delos (Firefly) Duty had charge for the State and 
 Arlie Boswell, himself indicted several times by the 
 jury, served for the defendants. 
 
 Glenn Young, Ike Tetford, Gilbert Waller, John 
 Smith, Taylor Noll, Leonard Wagner, Charles Green, 
 Jay Johnson, Harry Herrin, Charles Cargal and Otis 
 Maynard, all indicted together for assault with at- 
 tempt to commit murder, were the first to be ar- 
 raigned. Bonds were fixed at $4,000 for each man, 
 and bondsmen, declaring themselves worth $180,000 
 quickly offered themselves as sureties. 
 
 Other arraignments, in nearly all of which Young 
 figured, were similar in character, ranging from the 
 most serious crimes to those of lesser importance. 
 When bond was called for, men, claiming to be worth 
 from $6,000 to $500,000 promptly affixed their signa- 
 tures. In the indictments taken care of on Tuesday 
 morning, March 18th, the bonds ranged from $4,000 to 
 $132,000. The whole morning was occupied in caring 
 for seventeen indictments, leaving eighty-two to be 
 taken care of in the afternoon. 
 
 When Judge Bowen stated that a safe estimate 
 would be two and one half million dollars bonds for 
 the defendants, Young stated that his followers and 
 bondsmen worth twenty-five million dollars stood
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 175 
 
 ready to act as sureties. One defendant declared that 
 a friend of the cause from St. Louis had phoned early 
 in the morning to say that if needed he would come to 
 Herrin and stand sponsor for the defendants to the 
 extent of six million dollars. 
 
 The actual arraignment of the defendants and the 
 filing of bonds could not be completed on Tuesday. 
 Toward the close of the afternoon Judge Bowen post- 
 poned further proceedings until Thursday. Following 
 his action, Young turned to his followers and said: 
 "Well, I want you fellows to be here Thursday so we 
 can finish this up" ! ''We'll be with you Glenn", yelled 
 a hundred men, and there was generous applause. 
 
 Thursday saw the same enthusiastic rally of the 
 adherents of law enforcement to the cause. Bonds 
 were filled as rapidly as they were presented. Some 
 of the best citizens of Marion, Johnston City, Carter- 
 ville, Cambria, Herrin and other places were on hand 
 to satisfy the exorbitant demands of the court, which 
 ultimately required bonds amounting to $5,000,000.00 
 before it would release the defendants. 
 
 J
 
 176 
 
 LIFE Ay D EXPLOITS OF
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 177 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF THE OKAW BOTTOMS 
 
 SHAKESPEARE causes one of his characters to 
 ask the question, "Is there a crime beneath the 
 roof of heaven that stains the soul of man with 
 more infernal hue than damned assassination?" 
 
 On the afternoon of May 23rd there occurred one 
 of the most pathetic and tragic incidents in the sen- 
 sational program of events which have served for 
 many weeks to keep Williamson County in the columns 
 of the metropolitan press. The tragedy, which with 
 pained heart I now record, did not take place in this 
 county, but there are strong reasons to believe that 
 the hellish deed was instigated within its confines. 
 Perhaps the crime was hatched in the same cruel 
 brain that planned the murder of Caesar Cagle on the 
 streets of Herrin. 
 
 Knowing that Young had a multitude of friends in 
 Williamson County, his enemies would not dare to 
 harm him within its precincts. Evidently keeping in 
 close touch with his every movement, they laid in wait 
 for him, and with deadly shot guns and automatics 
 made a determined attempt to murder both himself and 
 his brave little wife as they journeyed toward East St. 
 Louis on the Atlantic-Pacific highway. 
 
 I fear that there are some men and women in Wil- 
 liamson County and elsewhere who are so debased in 
 thought and degraded in life as to be indifferent to 
 what happened there in the Okaw River bottoms that 
 afternoon. They may even secretly rejoice in the 
 affair. There are others so utterly abandoned to evil 
 that they regret the failure of the would-be assassins
 
 178 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 to acomplish their hellish purpose, for the success of 
 which a substantial reward is known to have been 
 offered. Of this, however, I am confident, that every 
 true man, every man and woman with decent red 
 blood flowing in their veins, and the love of right with- 
 in their hearts, cannot think of the tragedy without 
 a deep stirring of soul, and an intensifying of feeling 
 against the thug, the bootlegger, and the unprincipled, 
 money palmed officials who protect them. 
 
 It was one of those few warm, radiant May days 
 that graced the spring of nineteen-twenty-four. Every- 
 thing in nature seemed vocal with joy and eloquent 
 with peace. It is the nature of murder to seek the 
 dark shadows of the night. Who would dream of it 
 pursuing its bloody quest in the sunlight of a May 
 day, and along a pathway redolent with the fragrance 
 of flowers and gladdened by the sweet minstrelsy of 
 the birds singing to their mates in the loveland of 
 spring? 
 
 Perhaps it is an index of moral and social condi- 
 tions today, that what once sought the ambush of the 
 wings of night, now operates even in the light of noon- 
 day. I recall the time when daylight robbery and 
 murder were somewhat remarkable. Today they are 
 of daily occurrence and elicit no surprise. Is it that 
 men are waxing worse and worse, as the Book of 
 Books says they will in the latter days ? Or, is it a by- 
 product of war, through which human life has been 
 cheapened to many, and they themselves hardened to 
 bloodshed? Of that I must leave it to my readers to 
 judge. 
 
 When S. Glenn Young and his refined and comely 
 companion left Williamson County shortly after noon
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXX YOUNG 
 
 179 
 
 Son of S. Glenn Young 
 
 on Friday, May 23rd, en route to East St. Louis, there 
 was no thought within the minds of either that tragedy 
 was impending. Even the stern duties of Glenn's task 
 as a law enforcement officer were forgotten in the glory 
 of spring and the beauty of the vision which greeted 
 them on every hand. As they traveled at moderate 
 rate in their Lincoln car, the gift of many admirers, 
 the mother's thoughts were often centered in her off- 
 spring, a sweet wee babe of less than two years, for- 
 tunately left in care of Mrs. Young's mother for a
 
 180 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 few days while sHe accompanied her husband on a 
 speaking tour in Williamson and Saline Counties. 
 
 It may be that mother's imagination was enjoying 
 the vision of her baby's face. Perhaps she could 
 feel the circling arms of her little one, and the pres- 
 sure of her offspring against her breast, when murder 
 suddenly thrust its vile shadow across the path to end 
 the lovely dream. 
 
 On the Atlantic-Pacific Highway a short distance 
 West of the village of Okawville, there is a stretch of 
 cinder road running through the Okaw River bottoms. 
 On either side of the road is a steep embankment at 
 the bottom of which back water from the river often 
 lies for many weeks in the spring of the year. A 
 thick growth of trees follows this road for over a mile. 
 There are no human habitations here. Loneliness pre- 
 vails, relieved only by the occasional chug of the pass- 
 ing automobile. It was such a setting which the 
 would-be assassins chose for their assault. 
 
 Mid-way between two bridges and on a narrow 
 stretch of the road, a Dodge car, which had been 
 trailing Young's sedan, speeded, and passing on his 
 left poured a volley of buckshot into the Klan leader 
 and his wife. Eighteen of these lodged themselves in 
 Mrs. Young's face and neck, while a forty-five calibre 
 automatic bullet pierced the body of the car and struck 
 Glenn in the leg a few inches below the knee. The 
 missile fractured the large bone, glanced and frac- 
 tured the small bone, then remained just within the 
 skin on the calf of the leg. 
 
 As soon as the first volley was fired, Glenn, to pre- 
 vent, if possible, further danger to his wife, stopped 
 the car and stepped to the road, dropped to the cinders
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 181 
 
 Maude Simcox Young, from a recent photo, taken since blinded.
 
 182 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 beside the car. As he groveled there, aware for the 
 first time that his limb was seriously wounded, the 
 bullets fairly rained round about him but did no 
 further harm. After emptying their guns and pistols 
 the gunmen sped West on the highway. Within the 
 space of a few seconds Young had paid a terrible 
 price for his fearless and heroic efforts against law 
 violators in Williamson County. If half a chance had 
 been his to reach his automatics or his sub-machine 
 gun, his enemies and those of the social body who shot 
 him dowm would doubtless have received swift justice. 
 Knowing that they had no chance with him in a fair 
 fight they chose the way of the coward. 
 
 Fully twenty minutes elapsed between the at- 
 tempted assassination and the arrival of friendly 
 hands to minister help to the unfortunate victims of 
 criminal hatred and intrigue. Though severely 
 wounded himself, Young did all that he possibly could 
 do, during this time, to help his stricken wife, w^ho was 
 drenched in blood, and her face marred and swollen 
 beyond recognition. Upon the arrival of another car, 
 ambulance service was called from Mascoutah, and 
 Mrs. Young removed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in 
 Belleville. Here the bullets were removed from her 
 face and neck. One had struck below the right eye, 
 and another above the left optic, destroying the sight 
 of both. The muscles which control the tongue were 
 also penetrated, an injury which almost resulted in 
 her strangulation when on the way to the hospital. 
 
 It is now several days since the tragedy. There in 
 St. Elizabeth's Hospital, ministered to by friendly 
 hands, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, lies the 
 fair and innocent victim of cowardly brutality. Her
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 183 
 
 room is fairly banked with floral tributes from a large 
 group of friends who love and respect her. With the 
 same pluck that has characterized this brave little 
 woman throughout all the past weeks and months of 
 danger, she lies there without murmur or complaint, 
 awaiting with sad heart but courageous soul the ver- 
 dict of time. Will she ever look upon the face of her 
 darling babe again? Or, marred, handicapped and 
 limited, is she doomed to live the remainder of her 
 days as a pathetic and eloquent illustration of a 
 woman's sacrifice, and of the hellish results of the 
 liquor traffic, outlawed, and yet protected even by offi- 
 cials elected by the people and pledged to protect our 
 citizenship against the violation of the eighteenth 
 amendment? 
 
 When the Moll ambulance from Mascoutah left the 
 scene of the assault, conveying Mrs. Young to the 
 hospital ward, Glenn remained with his car until a pass- 
 ing automobile passenger offered to drive him into 
 Belleville. Here the wounded Klan leader went to the 
 same hospital, where the bullet was soon located and 
 removed from his injured leg. The bullet, which had 
 lodged with such splintering effect, was one of twenty 
 which had punctured the body of the car. Most of 
 these were buckshot, but others were .45 calibre army 
 pistols. 
 
 But what of the would-be-assassins? Glenn im- 
 mediately telegraphed descriptions of the Dodge auto- 
 mobile and its occupants to towns lying between there 
 and St. Louis. Word was also communicated to John 
 Ford, chief-of -police in Herrin, to be on the look out for 
 the parties whom Young knew to have done the shoot- 
 ing. Albert Jones, a Herrin police officer, deputized
 
 184 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 ten or twelve men ''to investigate suspicious char- 
 acters". 
 
 On Saturday morning a questionable looking car, 
 passed through Carterville, apparently on its way to 
 Herrin. Word concerning this armed car was flashed 
 to Herrin, and a number of men, duly deputized by 
 officer Albert Jones, were sent to the w^est end of the 
 city, where they formed a cordon at the end of the 
 cement road which connects Carterville with Herrin. 
 
 It was not long before the suspiected car, a heavily 
 curtained Dodge Touring, came into sight and w^as 
 signaled to stop. For an answer one of the occupants 
 opened fire upon the officers, while the other manipu- 
 lated the car off the hard road, missed another car and 
 hit head on into a third. The tw^o cars headed into the 
 ditch. Shots continued to come from the suspect car, 
 to which the deputies replied until their firing ceased. 
 One of the two in the Dodge was seen to fall toward 
 the side of the car, where he sank to the floor. This 
 was Jack Skelcher. The other man, who gave his 
 name as ''Brown", opened the door of the car when it 
 came to a stop, and started to run across the field. In 
 an effort to stop him several shots were fired, one of 
 which took effect in his leg, bringing him to a halt. 
 
 After the wreck and the shooting, Traffic Officer 
 Jones was called out to straighten out the traffic which 
 had become jammed. He also took charge of the car 
 in which the men were traveling. Both men were 
 rushed to the Herrin hospital, where Skelcher died 
 shortly after his arrival. Brown's injury was not at 
 all serious, and he would probably have made his 
 escape from the building if the officers had not kept 
 him under careful guard.
 
 RAIDER S. GLE^N YOUNG 185 
 
 A thorough search of the car brought to light the 
 following interesting and somewhat suspicious items 
 of interest, carefully wrapped in an oil cloth bag: — 
 One jar of face cream, one lip stick, some nose putty, 
 two boxes of make-up, one bottle of bay rum, one .38 
 Smith Special with four empty shells and two loaded 
 ones, one forty-five automatic, and one riot gun. This 
 is a sawed off shot gun, and it is alleged belongs to 
 Williamson County, as the numbers on the gun are 
 identical with the one that should be in the possession 
 of the county sheriff. Skelcher is said to have been 
 seen with a gun like this one on the night prior to the 
 murder of Caesar Cagle. It is affirmed that he was at 
 the Rome Club of Herrin with the gun in his posses- 
 sion on the night when the Klan officer was murdered. 
 The shells in the Riot Gun were of B-B size. 
 
 In addition to the articles named a large black 
 mask was found in the car. This mask was large 
 enough to completely cover the head, and had only 
 eye holes to see through. There were two hats, an 
 0. D. shirt, one pair of khaki trousers, and one bloody 
 handkerchief, in addition to some other old clothes all 
 muddy and soiled. 
 
 The car, which was brought to town and stored in 
 Smith's Garage, was identified later as one stolen on 
 the previous Sunday night. A fisherman who was 
 near and saw the shooting affray in the Okaw bottoms, 
 took the number of the assailant's car, and it was 
 found to correspond with the license number of the 
 car driven by Jack Skelcher and '"Brown", since identi- 
 fied as Charles Briggs, who with Bernie Shelton had 
 been indicted some time before for highway robbery, 
 but never apprehended by the county officers.
 
 186 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 After receiving treatment at the hospital in Her- 
 rin, Briggs was confined in the county jail. Efforts 
 to induce him to talk were unavailing. He maintained 
 a policy of silence. 
 
 Another car, in which were the Shelton brothers, 
 under indictment for the Cagle killing, had been seen 
 to follow that driven by Skelcher and **Briggs". This 
 car was seen in Carterville, en route to Herrin, and 
 again passed through the community, after the Hemn 
 affair, going South. Chief of Police Ford saw it fol- 
 lowing the Skelcher car into Herrin, and observed it 
 turn back when the bandit car was stopped. 
 
 This fact, together with the affirmation of Young 
 that the Shelton brothers were among the four occu- 
 pants of the Dodge car which had assaulted them in 
 the Okaw bottoms, caused charges to be preferred 
 against them and Briggs as the parties guilty of the 
 firing which ruined the life of Mrs. Young and almost 
 ended the career of her husband. 
 
 Briggs was taken to Carlyle, in Clinton County, 
 where a formal charge was preferred against him and 
 the Shelton brothers. Earl and Carl. The latter sur- 
 rendered several days later and gave the necessary 
 bond. A hearing was arranged for June 18th, but was 
 postponed until the 26th, because of Young's inability 
 to attend, his wound not yet being suflficiently healed. 
 
 On Thursday, June 26th, escorted by thirty or 
 more cars of loyal Klansmen from various sections of 
 Southern Illinois, Young, with his injured leg still en- 
 cased in plaster Paris and unable to walk without the 
 use of crutches, journeyed to Carlyle in the bullet 
 scarred Lincoln sedan in which he had been attacked 
 at Okawville. He did not drive the machine, but rode
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 187 
 
 in the back seat of the car with his foot resting on a 
 pillow. 
 
 Needless to say, after the attempted assassination 
 of the Klan leader, and the well known determination 
 of his enemies to "get him", all Klansmen in the com- 
 pany who had legal right to carry arms, did so on this 
 occasion, not knowing what trouble might develop, for 
 they were dealing with desperate men, men who had 
 as their allies some of the most notorious gangsters in 
 East St. Louis. 
 
 That these precautions were fully justified was evi- 
 dent upon their arrival at Carlyle, the county-seat of 
 Clinton County, for the Shelton brothers and Charles 
 Briggs were accompanied by several members of the 
 infamous "Egan Rats", well dressed, diamond studded 
 gentlemen who drove high priced, high powered cars 
 and had every appearance of being in the millionaire 
 class. One would never have suspected that they had 
 long since found their way into the pages of the 
 criminal's ''Who's Who". 
 
 The hearing had been set for 2:00 p. m. in Justice 
 E. H. Nicolay's court. The Sheltons and their sym- 
 pathizers arrived about noon. S. Glenn Young and his 
 party were on hand just in time for the opening of the 
 court proceedings. When the "Stormy Petrel's" sedan 
 pulled up at the court house, which was surrounded by 
 Sheriff Regan's deputies armed with shot guns, he was 
 helped from his machine by four men, but crutched it 
 into court, apparently in good health and spirits, 
 though actually deeply depressed by the awful tragedy 
 of which his wife had been the victim. 
 
 When the Young party entered the court house. 
 Sheriff Regan asked that all check their weapons with
 
 188 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 him, and all guns, ranging from small pistols to a 
 machine gun, were consigned to his care. 
 
 WTien called upon by Justice Nicola\^ to make a 
 statement, Young testified as follows : — 
 
 "Mrs. Young and myself had left Marion for East 
 St. Louis, and arriving at the Okaw Bottoms, a Dodge 
 touring car drove up along side of us with four men 
 in it. The gunmen immediately opened fire with .45 
 automatic pistols and shot guns. I saw all four and 
 recognized them. Mrs. Young also saw them. I told 
 Mrs. Young to get down, but she wanted to see who 
 our assailants were. One of the gunmen pointed a 
 shot gun point blank in Mrs. Young's face and pulled 
 the trigger. Today she is blind and will never see her 
 sixteen months old baby again. The thugs deliberately 
 shot her in the face". 
 
 Young told the Justice that he stopped his car and 
 stepped out on the cinders at the side, thus trying to 
 draw the fire away from Mrs. Young. When asked 
 if he could identify the men who did the shooting he 
 pointed to Carl and Earl Shelton and Brown, alias 
 (Burton), alias (Briggs), and said that they were 
 the men. 
 
 The prosecution did not reveal its hand further by 
 calling any additional witnesses. '*It would be as 
 much as their lives are worth to call any of the wit- 
 nesses to the stand here today". Young said, and all 
 those who know the character and history of the men 
 alleged to have done the damnable work have no ques- 
 tion that he spoke truly. 
 
 It was probably this refusal of the prosecution to 
 show its hand that caused the Shelton brothers and 
 Brown to waive preliminary hearing.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 189 
 
 Joseph McGlynn of East St. Louis and Judge C. A. 
 McNeill of Carlyle represented the defendants. Hugh 
 Murray was prosecuting attorney and was assisted by 
 Andrew Nichoff. 
 
 Justice Nicolay bound the Shelton brothers and 
 Brown over to the November grand jury and fixed 
 their bonds at $10,000 on each charge, making it 
 $20,000 for each defendant. All of them gave bond 
 and were ready to leave for home when Sheriff Regan 
 arrested the trio, and Art Newman, a gunman and 
 manager of the Arlington Hotel in East St. Louis, on 
 a murder conspiracy. The warrant was issued by 
 Justice Hicks of Herrin. They were lodged in jail, 
 awaiting the necessary bondsmen to provide them with 
 temporary freedom. 
 
 Immediately after the hearing Young was placed 
 in his sedan and, escorted by a large number of loyal 
 friends, left in the direction of Centralia. 
 
 A tremendous crowd, said to have been the largest 
 in the history of Carlyle, were gathered in the little 
 city for this occasion. The court room was packed 
 and hundreds tried in vain to gain an entrance. That 
 the sympathies of the crowd were with the ''Little 
 Napoleon of Williamson County" is beyond question, 
 for in spite of the abuse and false newspaper propa- 
 ganda to which S. Glenn Young has been subjected 
 since instituting the campaign against bootleggers and 
 criminals in the county, his work is gaining nation- 
 wide recognition, and the real character of the man 
 is becoming known to thousands, who, through lack of 
 knowledge, have been more or less prejudiced against 
 him. 
 
 Scarcely a week had passed after the jailing of the 
 Sheltons, Newman and Briggs Company before the re-
 
 190 LIFE A \ D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 port came back to Williamson County that the quartet 
 had been freed. A telephone communication to Carlyle 
 brought confirmation of their alleged release. The 
 Sheriff of Clinton County stated that one Ora Thomas 
 (the same man whom witnesses declared fired one of 
 the fatal shots into Constable Caesar Cagle, and the 
 same man who was found guilty of liquor violations 
 less than six months ago, receiving four months and 
 a heavy fine at the hands of Judge Lindley in Danville) 
 came to Carlyle armed with a letter from Delos Duty, 
 State's Attorney of Williamson County, instructing the 
 sheriff to turn the prisoners over to Thomas. The 
 sheriff, not thoroughly satisfied with the document 
 presented to him by Thomas, called Marion. Being 
 unable to get in touch with the sheriff he was con- 
 nected with the State's Attorney's ofliice. 
 
 Duty assured him that the letter was all right, 
 and that Ora Thomas was a duly constituted Deputy 
 Sheriff, being under bond. The sheriflf still hesitated 
 to release the prisoners, but yielded to the request 
 when Thomas promised to bring the prisoners to Her- 
 rin and cause them to appear before Judge Hicks. 
 The prisoners were subsequently seen driving about 
 the streets of East St. Louis in a big Lincoln sedan. 
 It was a clear case of turning them loose, another 
 evidence to many of the utter rottenness of conditions 
 where the criminal has all the protection and society 
 none. That a man like Thomas should be deputized by 
 the Sheriff's office is clear evidence of collusion be- 
 tween that ofl^ce and the criminal class. That the 
 State's Attorney was a party to it speaks loudly of 
 his utter unfitness to serve the people in that or any 
 other office where honor is required, and loyalty to 
 principle demanded.
 
 RAIDER S. GLE\X YOUNG 191 
 
 CLOSING TRIBUTES 
 
 MY story is ended, and yet just a few of the 
 thrilling episodes in the spectacular career of 
 my hero have been recorded. It may fall to 
 other hands than mine to write other chapters in the 
 life story of this courageous and efficient officer of the 
 law, but those chapters cannot possibly record any 
 greater dangers, more thrilling experiences, or more 
 daring gambles with death than those which find 
 mention in this volume. 
 
 Today I spent several hours with S. Glenn Young, 
 and I marveled again as I have marveled many times 
 during the last few months, at the remarkable poise 
 and courage of the man. Sitting there in the Ly Mar 
 hotel at Herrin, Illinois, with his bullet shattered leg 
 resting upon a cushion, he seemed defiantly indiffer- 
 ent to the desperate foes, into the very heart of whose 
 haunts he had come, of his own volition, to remain 
 until his particular business was finished. 
 
 One would naturally suppose that after the awful 
 tragedy of the Okaw River bottoms, the crippling of 
 his own body, the terrible blinding of his wife, and the 
 unfair abuse of the press, that the spirit of this man 
 would be broken. But his spirit is as indomitable 
 today as it was in his country's service down on the 
 plains of Texas, or amidst the mountain fastnesses of 
 the Blue Ridge, where difficulties and death faced him 
 in the open or lurked for him in the darkness on every 
 hand. His soul is just as unconquerable and his de-
 
 192 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 termination to ''carry on" against the violators of 
 Uncle Sam's laws just as unwavering as in any of the 
 days which have past. 
 
 And to her lasting honor be it said that the spirit 
 of the dauntless Glenn is just as truly that of his brave 
 and sorely stricken wife, the little blind mother w^ho 
 today occupies an adjoining room in the hotel. There, 
 unable to care for herself, and with the spring-like 
 beauty of a former day marred forever, she is utterly 
 uncomplaining and unswervingly loyal to her husband 
 and in her fealty to the cause for which he has dedi- 
 cated his manhood. We do but justice when we place 
 the laurel wreath of our loving praise upon the brow 
 of this gracious little woman, whose pitiable condition 
 is the result of lawlessness in our American life and 
 corruption within official position, this splendid soul, 
 whose only crime was that she was the faithful wife 
 of the man who dared to face hell itself in the cleaning 
 up of Williamson County. We do no more than jus- 
 tice, I say, when we honor her who had never wronged 
 the less than men and worse than devils who shot out 
 her beautiful eyes on that tragic afternoon in May. 
 
 S. Glenn Young and his wife are martyrs to the 
 noble cause of civic righteousness. They are the un- 
 fortunate victims of the ramified liquor traffic and of 
 malfeasance of office in Williamson County. As J. M. 
 Sheets, a clean, sane and capable Illinois editor, has 
 well said in the Oblong Oracle of a recent date: — 
 "Men may ascend their pulpits and divinely enunciate 
 great sermons, and set afloat wonderful avalanches of 
 oratory; writers may bombard evil anywhere and 
 everywhere; mothers may pray and fathers may 
 pleadingly endeavor to dissuade sons from traveling
 
 RAIDER S. GLEAN YOUNG 193 
 
 the deceitful trails of a fathomless life, and yet with 
 all the reforming forces at hand, God has created an 
 arm of humanity, organized a department of law en- 
 forcement and placed such men as S. Glenn Young at 
 its head, without which this government would not 
 long endure". 
 
 To face fearlessly and unflinchingly the foes of 
 society, the would-be destroyers of government, and 
 the actual destroyers of manhood and womanhood, to 
 protect the social body from the thug, the murderer 
 and other enemies of the state is a brave man's job. To 
 flirt with death day by day in loyalty to that task, 
 voluntarily chosen, is heroism at its highest. 
 
 S. Glenn Young is not a fanatic upon the question 
 of prohibition, but he believes that as long as the law 
 remains upon the statutes it should be enforced. In 
 his work in Williamson County his activities were not 
 simply directed against the violators of the Eighteenth 
 Amendment but against those of a more dangerous 
 tjTDe as well. In order to drive them out of the county 
 it was necessary to break up the dens in which they 
 congregated and planned much of the crime which 
 they committed inside and outside of Williamson. 
 Such places as have been broken up by Federal in- 
 junction are the haunts of such men as the Sheltons, 
 Brown, Jack Skelcher, Ora Thomas and Whitey Doer- 
 ing, the slain mail robber. 
 
 Let no Roman Catholic, Jew or negro regard Young 
 as one in whose breast there flames a burning ani- 
 mosity against men of any race, color or creed. The 
 only individuals or organizations his hand is against 
 are those who refuse to respect the laws of the United 
 States of America. To know him is to be persuaded
 
 194 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 that instead of being narrowly partisan he is a man 
 of broad sympathies and viewpoints. 
 
 That he has taken numbers of lives in the prose- 
 cution of tasks assigned to him occasions no surprise 
 and elicits no criticism except among those ignorant 
 of his work and the desperate nature of the characters 
 with whom he has had to deal. To take life in self- 
 defense is surely sanctioned by enlightened conscience 
 and reason, particularly when the threatening foe has 
 been given a fair chance for his life. Of the thirty or 
 more men whom Young has slain he declares that he 
 never killed a man who did not first try to kill him. 
 
 To S. Glenn Young the government has assigned 
 the toughest and most desperate cases, government 
 intriguers, insidious outlaws, incurable foes of law 
 and order. None but prejudiced or unthinking men 
 can blame him for destroying the lives of those who 
 would have destroyed him and lived on to destroy 
 others, constituting a perpetual menace to the social 
 body. 
 
 Today this man who has fought many a worthy 
 battle, just as truly his country's as any fought over 
 seas, is in peii)etual jeopardy from the shot gun of 
 the thug, and the pistol of the ambushed assassin. 
 His refined and loyal wife shares that danger with 
 him. The car in which they travel is innocent looking 
 from without, but, of necessity, is an arsenal within. 
 And why all this hazard and limitation of life for 
 this famous officer of the law? Again I declare that 
 it is largely due to the weakness and failure of Ameri- 
 can criminal law, to the fact that nearly all the advan- 
 tages are on the side of the criminal, thus making 
 law a mockery to him and leaving him at liberty to
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 195 
 
 continue his depredations upon society. As many a 
 police officer in our American cities has been the vic- 
 tim of the murderer^s bullet within the last few years, 
 in no small measure, because of the sad failure of law 
 to function quickly and adequately, it will not occasion 
 gi^eat suii)rise if S. Glenn Young, the doughty and 
 intrepid defender of society, will suddenly pass out at 
 the hand of some desperado whom the administrators 
 of law have failed to place and keep where they belong. 
 
 But here's the expressed hope of thousands of 
 hearts, that the man who has written his name large 
 in many states as a brave man, excelled by none and 
 equaled by few, if any, law enforcement officers in 
 America, may yet be spared to inspire terror into the 
 hearts of evil doers and to lend the weight of his 
 influence to the highly dangerous and infinitely worthy 
 task of making America a better and safer land in 
 which to live.
 
 196 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 BASIC CAUSES OF LAWLESSNESS 
 
 EVEN the ultra optimists, those cheerful gentle- 
 men whose farorite song was, "All's Well With 
 The World", have been compelled to admit the 
 fact that for some time past America has been experi- 
 encing an unprecedented era of lawlessness. From 
 Capitol Dome to the humblest hamlet on the plain the 
 facts are too patent to be denied. Representative 
 Tinkham of Massachusetts recently affirmed that the 
 District of Columbia is 300 per cent more drunken 
 than Paris, and 2,000 per cent more murderous than 
 London. Circuit Judge J. Hugo Grimm, in an address 
 delivered a few days ago in St. Louis, affirmed that 
 "it is a well known fact that the volume of crime 
 has been constantly on the increase in this country". 
 
 Numerous reasons for this widespread lawlessness 
 have been assigned, and reams of remedies have been 
 prescribed to cure the epidemic which has infested 
 our life, an actual menace to our national greatness 
 and place of moral leadership among the nations of the 
 world. 
 
 There are those who tell us that present conditions 
 are the natural by-product of the Great World War, 
 that it is only a passing phase of our life and will soon 
 spend itself. They declare that before long we will 
 return to a healthy respect for law and delegated 
 authority. War, they tell us, has always produced 
 such conditions, and the greater the war the more seri- 
 ous and widespread the aftermath of lawlessness. 
 
 Then we meet many representatives of the "I am 
 so dry" who lay the burden of the whole thing at the
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 197 
 
 door of the eighteenth amendment, blaming every- 
 thing from Oil Scandal down to robbery of the corner 
 grocery on Mr. Volstead. 
 
 Those who really think, however, are convinced 
 that the fundamental causes of the lawless spirit so 
 manifest in America today, antedate the cataclysm in 
 Europe and the epochal legislation against the liquor 
 traffic in America, made permanent we trust by the 
 eighteenth amendment to our Constitution. They be- 
 lieve that among the basic causes of lawlessness are : — 
 
 A Prostituted Press 
 
 Long before the great war released the passions of 
 hell, and bathed a world in blood and tears we had 
 numerous large newspapers of the sensational, muck- 
 raking order, which daily paraded the worst sins of 
 society before the public mind and through the potent 
 influence of suggestion sowed the seeds of lawlessness 
 and crime in the minds of impressionable adolescent 
 youth. The moral menace of sensational newspapers 
 and magazines is very great. I am not a Christian 
 Scientist, but they have given to America one good 
 thing, an efficient newspaper free from the slime of 
 vice. Paul laid down a great psychological principle 
 when he said : — ''Whatsoever thijjgs are honest, what- 
 soever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
 whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are 
 of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be 
 any praise, think on these things". The American 
 press seems to have reversed the Pauline psychology 
 and says: — "Whatsoever things are dishonest, what- 
 soever things are unjust, whatsoever things are im- 
 pure, whatsoever things are unlovely, whatsoever
 
 198 LIFE ASP EXPLOITS OF 
 
 things are of bad report, if there be any vice, and if 
 there be any curse . . . think on these things". 
 All this makes for lawlessness and crime. 
 
 Education Minus Religion 
 
 Judge Alfred J. Talley says that, **0f all the great 
 nations of the earth, save only bolshevik Russia, we 
 alone exclude religion from our com-mon schools." 
 Young criminals are not, for the most part, mentally 
 deficient, but they are morally weak, largely because 
 a lack of religious training has deprived them of a 
 moral code upon which to erect the superstructure of 
 character. 
 
 We are at last rubbing our eyes and awakening in 
 America to the fact that for a long time past we have 
 been permitting certain influences to keep the Bible 
 from having its due place as a moral force at the cen- 
 ter of our educational system. For that mistake we 
 are paying a tragic price, and will pay more. All this 
 *'tommy-rot" about the Bible being a secular book is 
 due either to illogical reasoning or ungodly propa- 
 ganda. 
 
 I think it was Humboldt who said that what you 
 would have in the state you must first put into the 
 schools. Surely we will never have a stronger, deeper 
 and intense respect for law and morality until we 
 put back in the school that book which above all others 
 engenders respect for law and morality. 
 
 Why stand in open mouthed amazement at the fre- 
 quent revelation of immorality among the students of 
 our high schools and colleges today? We are to blame, 
 for we have been neglecting the moral development of 
 our children, a very essential part of true education.
 
 RAIDER S, GLENN YOUNG 199 
 
 The reading of the old fashioned ten commandments 
 each day in the class rooms of American schools would 
 result in a better America tomorrow. Hats off to Ken- 
 tucky and Iowa which have put the Bible back where 
 it belongs in Protestant America. 
 
 The Fatal Wide Open Door 
 
 Race intolerance has no place in my mind or heart, 
 and yet I would build a much narrower door into that 
 house of many mansions which we call America. The 
 present reign of lawlessness has vital relationship to 
 the fact that we have been welcoming immigrants in 
 numbers far out of proportion to our ability to assimi- 
 late them, or rather their ability to be assimilated. 
 During the last fifteen years the North and the East 
 and the West have been inundated by a flood of in- 
 ferior peoples, an overwhelming proportion of whom 
 have massed themselves in the cities and industrial 
 centers. The United States of America contains much 
 less than fifty per cent of Anglo-Saxon stock. 
 
 Now this modern tide of immigration constitutes 
 a menace in that its mental and physical qualities are 
 lowering our level of literacy and health. Lacking an 
 inherent capacity for American citizenship, with the 
 ideals and ideas which that implies, it threatens our 
 most beloved institutions. Having no deep and abid- 
 ing respect for constituted authority in their hearts, 
 they strike at the very pillars of government. Our 
 failure to invite and welcome to our shores only those 
 immigrants of the right social and national stock has 
 been a national folly of costly price. 
 
 Like Senator Reed, Junior Senator from Pennsyl- 
 vania, the writer heartilv advocates an immigration
 
 200 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 law based on the immigrant's capacity for assimila- 
 tion. If a large percentage of the British and Swedes, 
 who have come to this country, have become American 
 citizens, then give them a high quota, say seven or 
 eight per cent (instead of the present three per cent). 
 And if a small percentage of the Poles, Russians, 
 Greeks and Italians have become citizens of the 
 United States, then give them a low quota, say one 
 per cent or less. 
 
 It is high time not only that American industries 
 should be forbidden to exploit Southern Europe for 
 cheap labor, but that our government should make 
 narrow, by careful discrimination, the gateway into 
 our far flung commonwealth. 
 
 Criminal Failure of Criminal Law 
 
 Since writing the last paragraph I have been talk- 
 ing with Mr. John Gray, the very efficient and trust- 
 worthy sheriff of Champaign County, Illinois. He tells 
 me that on the day prior to the opening of the wonder- 
 ful stadium of the University of Illinois, they secured 
 some officers from Chicago to identify and look after 
 the Chicago professional pickpockets whom they ex- 
 pected down to operate among the great crowds who 
 would attend the grand opening. 
 
 They did all that was expected of them, as a result 
 of which a number of those professional gentlemen 
 who live out of other folks pockets were rounded up 
 before they had a chance to begin internal operations, 
 and conducted over to the sheriff's office, where they 
 were detained until the big affair was over. 
 
 While they sat there, a group of well dressed 
 affable sort of fellows, one of them said : —
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 201 
 
 "Sheriff, I have something to tell you; do you care 
 to hear it?" 
 
 "Go ahead", replied Mr. Gray. 
 
 "I want to tell you that we fellows have a lawyer 
 in Chicago, and that w^e report to him every day at 
 five o'clock. If we don't report at that hour he knows 
 we are in jail, and immediately proceeds to get us out 
 on a writ of habeas corpus. Mr. Sheriff, we have 
 never been fined in Chicago, never served a jail sent- 
 ence, and I think we make a good deal more money at 
 our business than you do". 
 
 How deplorable the fact that America has become 
 noted the world over for the weakness and failure of 
 its criminal law. These three institutions of law, 
 namely trial by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, and 
 the right of appeal, institutions once the traditional 
 safeguards of innocent men and women, are now far 
 too often actual accomplices of guilt. Cases are on 
 record w^here as much as six years have elapsed be- 
 tween the apprehension and the conviction of the 
 guilty, during which period the criminals have enjoyed 
 complete freedom on bail. In many cases the law vio- 
 lators have continued to prey upon the social body. 
 
 Can we wonder at America's unenviable reputa- 
 tion for lynchings? Were we greatly amazed at the 
 action of that father in Chicago a few weeks ago. 
 The murderer of his son had managed, through his 
 attorneys, to secure the delayal of his case no less than 
 nine times. The infuriated father took the law into 
 his own hands and shot the slayer of his son to death 
 outside the door of the court room. 
 
 Delays and miscarriages in justice have given 
 great encouragement to crime in America during the
 
 202 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 last few years, and the conditions we now behold are 
 a strong vindication of the truth contained in that 
 somewhat unfamiliar book which says, that "Because 
 sentence against an evil work is not executed speed- 
 ily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is embold- 
 ened to do evil". (Ecc. 8/11) . A prompter punishment 
 of law violators is essential to a respect for law and 
 a fear thereof. 
 
 But even more deplorable than the delays in ad- 
 ministration are the actual miscarriages of justice. 
 It seems that men and women can commit murder in 
 our land, knowing that their chances of paying the 
 price with their own lives are comparatively meager. 
 They know, too, that so-called ''life imprisonment" 
 seldom means life in these days. Not only so — money 
 talks in America, and it talks very winsomely and 
 persuasively for the criminal class, the result being 
 that justice is often thwarted. Not until punishment 
 in America is commensurate to the crime committed, 
 and that for rich and poor alike, can we reasonably 
 expect a deepened respect and regard for law among 
 the masses throughout our republic. There are in- 
 dications that men of character and caliber are ad- 
 dressing themselves to this tremendous and vital prob- 
 lem in our American life, and in that fact we can 
 find considerable comfort. 
 
 Cori-upt Politics A Big Factor 
 
 One reason why British criminal law functions so 
 much better than ours in America is that it is untram- 
 meled by political influences. Laxity in the enforce- 
 ment of law in this and of other states is largely due 
 to corrupt politics. The influence of unprincipled
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 203 
 
 politicians is not usually thrown on the side of law en- 
 forcement. In Williamson County, as in Cook County, 
 their influence is acting every day as a shield and en- 
 couragement to crime. The use of the lawless and 
 criminal class at election time by corrupt politicians 
 must be paid for, and it is paid for, too often paid for 
 by the agencies of law enforcement, bringing political 
 pressure to bear upon officers of the law in an effort 
 to prevent the punishment of criminals. That this un- 
 godly influence has prevented very effectively none 
 can question. May the day hasten when we shall have 
 less attention and enthusiasm for the party label, and 
 an increased concern and enthusiasm for the character 
 of the men who are candidates for office, whether it 
 be in municipal, state or national government. 
 
 Quit Crying for the Criminal 
 
 Not far from where I am now sitting a man shot 
 a young husband down without a moment's warning. 
 The murderer pleaded guilty and was given a sentence 
 of from one year to life. For a few weeks there were 
 sobs for the wife who had been ruthlessly robbed of 
 her partner. Recently, however, although the slayer 
 has spent less than two years behind prison walls, 
 many have been crying for the criminal, and circulat- 
 ing a petition for his release. While it afforded me no 
 pleasure, I felt it my duty to society to sign a counter 
 petition urging that he be kept where he belongs and 
 where society has a right to demand he shall remain, 
 at least until a sentence salutary in its influence, and 
 somewhat in harmony with the nature and degree of 
 the crime committed, has been served. 
 
 The weak sentimentality which weeps for the vic- 
 tim until the criminal is caught, and then transfers
 
 204 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 sympathetic interest to him, is a menace to law en- 
 forcement, and an encouragement to crime. 
 
 Houses Versus Homes 
 
 Many so-called homes are simply boarding houses 
 where the future citizens of America eat and sleep. 
 That a very small percentage of the law violators come 
 from real homes is an established fact that should 
 make us do some serious thinking. Is the lawlessness 
 which we so deeply deplore and lament actually being 
 brewed in the place which we call home? We have 
 thought of it as finding its source in the school, the 
 street, the show-house, and the social sediment of our 
 day, and have forgotten perhaps that the American 
 home may be the most fertile breeding place for the 
 irreverent and lawless spirit. 
 
 A noted criminal lawyer voiced the conviction of 
 many recently when he declared that, "The making of 
 homes today is by far the most important question be- 
 fore the country", and that "a return to the home 
 movement would do away with many of the problems 
 of juvenile delinquency and juvenile crime". 
 
 We may not want the old-fashioned home back in 
 its entirety, but there were certainly some things back 
 there in that old home which we need badly today, and 
 without which no home can be a real asset to the com- 
 munity and national life. 
 
 First, we need love in the home. That involves 
 comradeship between husband and wife, and the com- 
 panionship of parent and child. It means a sympa- 
 thetic interest in the things which interest the child, 
 a human understanding of his life and a kindly, fair 
 dealing with him in all his experiences.
 
 RAIDER S. GLEKK YOUNG 205 
 
 Second, we need discipline in the home. The rod, 
 administered by a wise hand and a loving- heart, has 
 never been a detriment to any boy or girl if the cause 
 was just. The use of ''Old Hickory" in the home would 
 have saved many a lad from becoming a social liability. 
 Undisciplined children in American homes will scarcely 
 respect delegated authority in the school or the state. 
 
 Finally, we need instruction in the home. And by 
 that I do not simply mean instruction regarding the 
 functions of the body, or instruction regarding mor- 
 ality and citizenship. I mean that there should be 
 definite religious instruction in the great facts of 
 Divine revelation, and the matchless principles enunci- 
 ated by Him who came to show men how to live. 
 There is no substitute for a truly religious home, 
 where religion is taught by precept and example. The 
 boy or girl who goes out into life without such a home 
 behind them, goes out under a great handicap. It is 
 in such homes that there is instilled into mind and 
 heart a healthy respect for authority, lacking which 
 good citizenship is impossible. Behind many a gun- 
 man, gambler, libertine and scarlet sister, lies the 
 pathetic and tragic failure of parents to establish a 
 home. 
 
 I have endeavored to swing before the vision of my 
 readers some of the basic causes of the lawlessness 
 which confronts not only America but the world of 
 today. It is not enough to have the case diagnosed, 
 it must be treated. Sometimes drastic measures are 
 necessary if a cure is to be effected, and the patient 
 saved. If we love America we will not rest on the 
 couch of indifference, but will cooperate sympathetic- 
 ally, and untiringly with all those who are endeavoring
 
 206 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 to save her from the insidious enemies which infest 
 her and threaten to destroy. To fight the physician 
 who prescribes medicines which make for health and 
 vigor, or who on occasion must use the lance or the 
 scalpel, must surely be the result of ignorance, folly, 
 or a lack of love for the patient — AMERICA. 
 
 KLAN PRINCIPLES ARE AMERICAN 
 AND CHRISTIAN 
 
 The teachings and attitude of an organization is 
 one thing and those of individuals within that organi- 
 zation quite another. They should be in absolute har- 
 mony, but we frequently find them differing, and in 
 consequence the organization comes in for criticism 
 and abuse through its ignorant or inconsistent repre- 
 sentative. 
 
 In writing these concluding lines I am setting down 
 that for which the organization actually stands, and 
 its attitude toward certain important problems of 
 American life. 
 
 First, the tenets of the Ku Klux Klan are essen- 
 tially Christian. This fact is well set forth in the 
 words of a Pennsylvania member of the order, ad- 
 dressed to a church congregation in that state and 
 accompanied with a substantial offering toward the 
 work there being carried on: — 
 
 ''We, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan magnify the 
 Bible as a basis for our constitution, the foundation 
 of our government, the source of our laws, the sheet 
 anchor of our liberties, the most particular guide of 
 right living, and the source of all true wisdom. We 
 honor the Christ as the Klansman's only criterion of
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXN YOUXG 207 
 
 character, and we seek at His hands that cleansing 
 from sin and impurity which only He can give." 
 
 Second, the tenets of Klanism are thoroughly 
 American. Klansmen stand for the American flag 
 against enemies without and within. They emphasize 
 devotion to the American flag as an ensign of Ameri- 
 can nationality and the emblem of national honor. 
 
 They teach that a citizen's first and highest allegi- 
 ance (beneath that due his God) is to the government 
 of the United States, and that no other government, 
 no king, no potentate or powers of any kind, should 
 share in that allegiance. They stand for white 
 supremacy, maintaining that purity of the white blood 
 must be maintained, that only as we maintain white 
 supremacy can we be faithful to the foundation princi- 
 ples with which our forefathers cemented the founda- 
 tions of our national life. 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan is for the maintenance of law and 
 the establishment of order. The oath which the Klans- 
 man takes requires this of him: ''I furthermore, in 
 the presence of God and man, solemnly pledge, promise 
 and swear that I will at all times, in all places and in 
 all ways, help, aid and assist the constituted authori- 
 ties of the law in the proper performance of their 
 legal duties, so help me God. Amen". 
 
 Klansmen believe that the American home is the 
 fountain head of American life, and that if the nation 
 is to endure, the fountain must be kept clean. They 
 stand for fidelity in wedlock, scrupulous purity in the 
 marriage covenant, and for a closed door against every 
 form of sex impurity. They are unalterably opposed 
 to social vice and the intermingling of different races 
 in sex relationship.
 
 208 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 There was a time when the writer joined in the 
 charge of intolerance against the Klan. Like many 
 others I regarded it as religiously and racially intoler- 
 ant. I have learned that ignorance of its nature, 
 prejudice and calumny are largely responsible for this 
 false view. 
 
 No true Klansman is opposed to the Roman Cath- 
 olic as an individual. True he cannot join the Klan, 
 even if he would, but neither can a Protestant join the 
 Knights of Columbus if he so desired. The Klansman 
 accords to every individual Catholic the right to wor- 
 ship God according to the dictates of his own con- 
 science. He would not rob him of any constitutional 
 right which he enjoys. But the domination of America 
 by Rome as a religious-political power is another 
 matter. Against that the Ku Klux Klan is unalterably 
 opposed, and opposed because they know what that has 
 meant in every European country where Rome has 
 held sway; and they are determined that there shall 
 never be established in America a union between 
 church and state, that America shall remain a Pro- 
 testant nation, and that the papal burdens which our 
 forefathers fled to America to escape shall never en- 
 thrall, limit and weigh dowTi America's free sons and 
 daughters. They do not believe that those who owe 
 their first allegiance to a foreign potentate can well 
 be intrusted with the administration of American 
 government. 
 
 Again, I have come to know that no true Klansman 
 holds out against the Jew, even though he is barred 
 from the Klan organization. (No Gentile society 
 questions the prerogative of a Jewish organization to 
 exclude all others but Jews.) But, recognizing as he
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 209 
 
 does the splendid contribution which the Jew has made 
 to civilization, recognizing the fine qualities of the 
 Jewish mind and character, he likewise recognizes the 
 fact that the Jew is, and ever has been, segregative in 
 religion, customs and life, that he is unassimilable, 
 and that because the Jew is a separate people, he can- 
 not in the very nature of the case have a part in a 
 movement dedicated to the unification of the varied 
 strains of American life into compact nationhood. 
 That does not mean, however, that the Klan would 
 deny him a single right, or rob him of that haven of 
 rest which he has found in America as nowhere else 
 in the world. All the Ku Klux Klan demands of the 
 Jew is that he, with them, shall be true to the Consti- 
 tution of the United States. 
 
 And for the colored race, which many suppose 
 Klansmen secretly or openly hate, the Klan actually 
 holds sympathy rather than antipathy. But let me 
 ask this question — can there not exist sympathy and 
 good will and helpfulness without willingness to have 
 him seek to assume the burdens of modern govern- 
 ment? Was it hatred of the Chinese and the Japs 
 which induced the American government to exclude 
 them from American life? I think not, but rather 
 because it was in the best interests of America to 
 exclude non-assimilable peoples. The assimilation of 
 the negro race is unthinkable and entirely outside of 
 the Divine plan. Social equality with the white would 
 neither be in the interest of the negro or the white, 
 and white supremacy in American life is imperative 
 for the well being of both. The true Klansman says, 
 ''promote the health and happiness of the negro, but 
 the reins of government in America must be kept in
 
 210 LIFE AX D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 hands of the white race. To do otherwise would be 
 suicidal to the life of the American republic." 
 
 Klan Oath Explained 
 
 The oath of this national patriotic organization has 
 been well explained in recent time by Imperial Wizard, 
 Dr. H. W. Evans, who says: — 
 
 **It is as categoric and solemn as the English 
 language can make it. It enjoins obedience to the 
 order's constitution, laws, regulations, usages and re- 
 quirements, and prescribes the strictest secrecy re- 
 garding its internal affairs. Each member swears he 
 'never will recommend for membership any person 
 whose mind is unsound, whose reputation is bad, 
 whose character is doubtful, or whose loyalty to the 
 United States of America is in any way questionable.' 
 Selfishness in every form is interdicted. Social loyalty 
 is elevated above personal friendship, blood relation- 
 ship, family interest and every other relatively narrow 
 tie. Klansmanship is stringently enjoined, but only 
 *in all things honorable'. To the government of the 
 United States and to the governments of the states of 
 the union we 'sacredly swear unqualified allegiance* 
 pledging our property, our votes, our honor and our 
 lives. Free education, free speech, free press, separa- 
 tion of church and state, white supremacy, just laws, 
 the pursuit of happiness — all these each Klansman 
 swears to seal with his blood, 'be Thou my witness 
 Almighty God' ". 
 
 Is that not good Americanism? Is that not 
 Christian ? I am persuaded it is, and that the practice 
 of such tenets of faith will make for a stronger, better, 
 richer American life.
 
 RAIDER S . GLENN YOUNG 211 
 
 There are good and great men in American life 
 today, so influenced by political interests that they 
 will not declare themselves on the side of this great 
 American organization, and yet they stand for the 
 very things for which it stands. And what decent 
 American citizen could be against them? It is to be 
 expected that the bootlegger, the gambler, the seducer 
 of womanhood, the hi-j acker and the denkeeper will 
 be against them, as they are. It occasions no surprise 
 that corrupt officials, criminals and crooks, bolshevists 
 and anarchists, demagogues and political hypocrites, 
 in a word, that all whose lives and activities are sub- 
 versive to that which is best in the life of America 
 are against the Klan, but to find Protestant whites, 
 intelligent, moral, patriotic, idealistic and practical, 
 opposed to it must surely be due to political or mone- 
 tary interests, or lack of knowledge regarding that for 
 which the Ku Klux Klan actually stands. 
 
 There are thousands of potential Klansmen in 
 America, and it is safe to predict, especially in light 
 of the wonderful growth of the past months, that a 
 great host of these potentials will become actuals 
 when knowledge is instrumental in removing that 
 prejudice which an active propaganda has succeeded 
 in insinuating. 
 
 AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL 
 
 beautiful for spacious skies, 
 
 For amber waves of grain. 
 
 For purple mountain majesties. 
 
 Above the fruited plain, 
 
 America, America, God shed His grace on thee. 
 
 And crown thy good with brotherhood
 
 212 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 THE ONSET 
 
 Sound an alarm! The foe is come! 
 
 I hear the tramp — the neigh — the hum, 
 The cry, and the blow of his daring drum; 
 
 Hurrah ! 
 
 Sound; the blast of our trumpet blown 
 Shall carry dismay into hearts of ctone; 
 
 What! Shall we shake at our foe unknown? 
 Hurrah! Hurrah! 
 
 Have we not sinews as strong as they? 
 
 Have we not hearts that ne'er give way? 
 Have we not God on our side today? 
 
 Hurrah ! 
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE? 
 
 What constitutes a state? 
 Not high-raised battlement or labored mound. 
 
 Thick wall or moated gate. 
 Nor cities proud with spires and turrets crowned ; 
 
 Not bays and broad armed ports, 
 Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; 
 
 Not starred and spangled courts. 
 Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume in pride. 
 
 No: — men, high minded men. 
 With powers as far above dumb brutes endued 
 
 In forest, brake or den. 
 As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude; 
 
 Men who their duties know, 
 But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain. 
 
 These constitute a state.
 
 RAiDER S. GLENN YOUNG 213 
 
 THE LAST CHAPTER 
 
 Closing Incidents in the Life of S. Glenn Young, 
 
 Who Met Death in Herrin, Illinois, 
 
 on January 2U, 1925. 
 
 When the preceding chapters of this book of chron- 
 icles of the life of S. Glenn Young were written, there 
 was no indication that the principal of the sketch 
 would not long live and long continue to be a terror to 
 evil-doers. There was no thought in the mind of S. 
 Glenn Young, when he related such details of his ex- 
 periences as an officer of the law that delineated his 
 most notable achievements, that this book of memoirs 
 would be other than a medium of satisfying the large 
 public curiosity anent his career. His biographer had 
 no suspicion that this work, intended as it was, would 
 be transformed into a historical document, the last 
 chapters of which were to cover the last earthly acts 
 of the subject himself. This author, however, must 
 have experienced a slight premonition when, in near- 
 ing the conclusion of his work as it was then con- 
 stituted, he predicted that the duty of recording the 
 further exploits of his friend would probably fall to 
 others. And so it has. 
 
 This new writer approaches the task with not only 
 the realization of inability to do justice to the subject, 
 but with a sadness whose depths cannot be plumbed 
 at the ruthless sacrifice it seemed was necessary, and 
 the tragic end which came to S. Glenn Young in the 
 fullness of his powers and the height of his usefulness. 
 As the whole world knows, the world that is in touch
 
 214 LIFE A X D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 with current events, S. Glenn Young is no more. His 
 brief day has ended, and the curtain of eternal black- 
 ness has shut from view of mortals and loved ones 
 his features and form. The only consolation is, that 
 by his last act he completed his mission in Williamson 
 County. His sacrifice was not in vain. His most en- 
 during monument will be that invisible shaft reared 
 in this city of Herrin and this county of Williamson 
 for the supreme sacrifice he was called upon to^ deliver 
 that his task might be finally consumated. 
 
 Doubtless there are those who will feel a sense 
 of disappointment as they read the pages of this 
 volume. They gathered their impressions of the man, 
 and their conception of his deeds from the public 
 press, with its sensationalism and unprincipled 
 methods of twisting facts to suit their unhallowed ends 
 of furnishing lurid and morbid tales to a people who 
 are never surfeited with such things. They naturally 
 will have expected this volume to drip blood from 
 every paragraph, written along the lines of the old- 
 time detective tales or in the fashion of reputed ac- 
 counts of the lives of sensational criminals, with excit- 
 ing adventures cloaked in a veil of mystery, imaginary 
 details of battles to the death against bulldozing "bad 
 men" determined to defy the law to the last breath 
 and never to be taken alive as prisoners, with fair 
 women alwaj^s somehow mixed up in the plots, and 
 the hero finally emerging from a mystic maze with his 
 enemies all under his iron heel and the heroine nestling 
 closel}^ in his manly arms. 
 
 But these memoirs are only the prosaic records of 
 a man who had a mission, as surely as any man who 
 has passed over the pages of history before him, who
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 215 
 
 faithfully and devotedly carried out that mission and 
 died for its sake. It is not alone that, but it is a de- 
 fense of a man who was the most villified and the most 
 misrepresented of any man of modern times in the 
 last months of his life. It is an attempt to convey 
 to an indifferent and unappreciative peoples the right 
 view of S. Glenn Young, as a man and as a public 
 servant, who counted that day lost whose descending 
 sun had not seen some deed of his adding to the sum 
 total of human accomplishment. And, finally, it is a 
 justification of the united uprising of the outraged 
 citizens of Williamson County, Illinois, and their cru- 
 sade for morality and better citizenship. 
 
 Not that S. Glenn Young did not live through 
 nearly a score of years of a career that daily exposed 
 him to deadly dangers, nor that his experiences as an 
 official were not thrilling, and that his final end v\^as 
 not sensational and impressive to those who merely 
 read of and never come in contact with the phase of 
 life this man rubbed against constantly and always as 
 its most feared opponent and to many its fatal 
 Nemesis. Not that. Mainly this volume is lacking in 
 all these essentials craved by the readers of novel and 
 yellow press because only one man could actually give 
 the details of the exploits of S. Glenn Young, and that 
 man was S. Glenn Young himself. He w^ould not. 
 
 With this prelude and what is to follow the melo- 
 dramatic incidents of the night of Saturday, January 
 24, 1925, in Herrin, Illinois, are here to be set out in 
 such detail as one not directly implicated can supply, 
 lacking still that luridness and cheapening touch that 
 are altogether missing in preceding chapters. It was 
 fitting that S. Glenn Young should end his career in
 
 216 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 Williamson County, for it was here that he performed 
 his greatest service to mankind. It was sad, it was 
 tragic, it leaves a train of consequences in its wake 
 that only time will fully reveal, a frail little woman 
 plunged into eternal blindness through her love and 
 loyalty, and an infant son to grow up without the 
 guiding hand and support of a loving father. Yet, 
 withal, it was appropriate, and somehow fits into the 
 picture of the life of S. Glenn Young as his real friends 
 viewed it and as this volume is intended to convey to 
 others. It is a story of unselfishness and devotion to 
 plain duty, with no touch of mercenary ambitions pol- 
 luting its pellucid stream, that has but few parallels 
 in American existence. 
 
 On the surface, on this bright winter day of late 
 January, 1925, the struggle of right against wTong 
 in Williamson County was nearing the end, with the 
 forces of right in the ascendant. With the election of 
 conscientious county officials in the November polling, 
 and especially of a prosecuting attorney who was and 
 is incorruptible, it was felt that great progress had 
 been made. Criminals no longer had the protection 
 of the prosecutor's office as well as that of the sheriff 
 and his subordinates. Innocent men would no longer 
 be dragged into court and forced to face unwarranted 
 charges and provide bail to the last dollar of the legal 
 limit upon multiplied counts of fraudulent indictments. 
 In the membership of the county board of supervisors, 
 who possess the only regulatory powers so far as the 
 sheriff of an Illinois county is concerned, there were 
 at least twenty honorable citizens who could be de- 
 pended upon to do right at all times. There had been 
 an exodus of criminals, both great and small, until
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 217 
 
 but few remained to flaunt the law and scorn the 
 courts. Dives of all kinds were either closed or their 
 business was being conducted along legitimate lines 
 and their patronage reduced to a point where it was 
 only a matter of time until the owners would be forced 
 to close their doors. Of the notorious road houses of 
 the county only charred embers and blackened ashes 
 marked their sites. Abandoned women, and their 
 more degraded paramours, had been driven from the 
 county before the scourge of public opinion. Open 
 gambling was no longer tolerated, drunkenness was 
 at its lowest ebb in all the years of the history of Wil- 
 liamson County. Crime of all sorts was gradually de- 
 clining, and the outlook was growing brighter day 
 by day. 
 
 Sheriff George Galligan was immured in his forti- 
 fied county jail at Marion, surrounded it is true by 
 some of the worst of the men whom he had been lead- 
 ing in the w^ar of retaliation against the forces of law 
 and order, these criminals deputized as sheriffs and 
 carrying the authority of the State of Illinois insofar 
 as he had the power to confer it. But Galligan dared 
 not himself instigate any further reprisals, and re- 
 mained within easy reach of his jail fort and his 
 illegally enlisted small army of gunmen. 
 
 Chief of these deputies was Ora Thomas of Herrin, 
 reputed Chief Ranger of the Knights of the Flaming 
 Circle, known to be implicated in the assassination of 
 Constable Caesar Cagle and in the massacre at the 
 John Smith garage in Herrin. Galligan had violated 
 the compromise agreement he entered into with the 
 "Committee of One Hundred" neutrals when his force 
 of deputies was reorganized, discharging the men ap-
 
 218 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 pointed at that time and naming as their successors 
 Ora Thomas and others. Thomas was one of the vic- 
 tims of the first raids engineered by S. Glenn Young. 
 He had been found guilty of violation of the Volstead 
 act and sentenced to a term of four months, being 
 incarcerated in the county jail of Edgar County, at 
 Paris, 111. It was immediately after the release of 
 Thomas and his return to Williamson County that 
 Galligan made him chief of his staff of deputy sheriffs. 
 Thomas was not recognized as an officer by the county 
 board of supervisors, and his salary was never granted 
 by the board, but he continued to serve in that capacity 
 so long as he lived. 
 
 Ora Thomas in the beginning was a coal miner. 
 Above the average in intelligence of men of his calling, 
 but without sufficient education and lacking other 
 necessary qualities to elevate himself, Thomas leaned 
 to radicalism. His discontent caused him to turn to 
 Socialism as the lever for the uplift of the working 
 classes, and particularly himself, and his study or 
 superficial consideration of the subject grew to such 
 an extent that he was converted into a radical even 
 among radicals. At one period in the development 
 of this man his agitation and continual haranguing 
 of men employed in mines where he worked were so 
 marked that he was unpopular with the bosses and 
 found difficulty in securing employment. He was ac- 
 tive at meetings of local unions of miners, and ac- 
 quired considerable ability as a rough and ready de- 
 bater upon topics allied with his beliefs. 
 
 From this point, Thomas began to drift into local 
 politics. He had built up a following of a kind, and 
 this bait is always alluring to the vigilant politicians
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 219 
 
 of every community, who prefer to have their voting 
 strength in blocks under control of their henchmen. 
 In Herrin the dominant party v^as the Union Labor 
 party. In county politics the machine of the Republi- 
 can party v^as supreme, but in Herrin the local poli- 
 ticians were permitted to collect their spoils under a 
 title that allured the adherents of organized labor and 
 assured their leaders of a division of county as well as 
 home patronage. Herrin is as nearly one hundred per 
 cent union as it is possible for any community to be, 
 so this accounts for the tolerance of the politicians. 
 
 Saloons had never closed in Herrin. Their pro- 
 prietors merely took down their signs and instead of 
 paying licenses paid for privileges. Marion, the county 
 seat, was reasonably free from commercialized vice, 
 but Herrin and other cities of the county, as well as 
 the score of mining camps without government other 
 than township organizations, were fertile fields for 
 exploitation. The city of Herrin was in the grip of 
 elements concerned solely in the perpetuation of graft 
 for their own profit. 
 
 Prior to the revolt of the good and decent people 
 of Herrin and other communities, and the coming of 
 S. Glenn Young, the city was full of dives of various 
 sorts. Liquor was dispensed openly over the bars at 
 post-war prices, bawdy houses flaunted their shame 
 on important thoroughfares, gambling was unmolested 
 and gamblers battened on the earnings of hardwork- 
 ing miners and others. 
 
 When Thomas began to acquire political sway over 
 his followers he grew in importance to the men who 
 controlled the various forms of illicit traffic. If they
 
 220 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 began to use him, he also began to use them, and fin- 
 ally he fell a not unwilling victim to the lure of large 
 gains at a minimum of exertion. There are no tales 
 of infidelity on the record of Ora Thomas. He was not 
 degraded, it would seem. His wife and children did 
 not suffer from his departure from the paths of virtue, 
 and he did not lose the esteem of a large part of his 
 fellow citizens. His early discontent with his lot, his 
 inability to raise himself to the conditions of affluence 
 and prosperity that he thought was his inherent right, 
 set his feet on the wrong path, and there he walked 
 unto the end. Yet at that end he had not profited, for 
 he died a poor man and left his family to fend for 
 themselves aside from such aid as friends will be 
 moved to proffer. 
 
 That is the setting. That is the background. Here 
 were two men, similar in stature and physique, for 
 both were less than the average in height and weight. 
 Both were natural leaders, both were animated by 
 motives that gripped their whole being, and they were 
 diametrically opposed to each other. The plot of the 
 last act in this thrilling drama runs like a bright 
 thread through the somber woof of this chronicle of 
 the life of S. Glenn Young, and were the life of Ora 
 Thomas to be set forth in same fashion, that same 
 bright thread would be visible through its pattern and 
 against its sin-colored background until they ran to- 
 gether and broke off sharply when the looms of their 
 lives became entangled and the machines weaving 
 both were rendered hopeless ruins. 
 
 S. Glenn Young was intent upon only one thing — 
 his every word and every act were the result of the 
 one thing that motivated and regulated and controlled
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 221 
 
 his being. His fetish was law observance and his voca- 
 tion was enforcement of observance. It was his form 
 of patriotism, his expression of loyalty, his contribu- 
 tion to the general welfare. It was the salt of his 
 life, the very breath of his existence. It flavored the 
 days of his youth, it caused him to desert the smooth 
 path of the practitioner of medicine and follow the 
 rugged and faintly marked trails where ran the outlaw 
 and his kind. It was a profession to him, worth all 
 its hardships and travail, the most necessary of all 
 the inexact sciences, the most useful, and it should be 
 the most appreciated to all as it was in his eyes. 
 Without law there can be no government; without 
 government there can be no civilization. Those were 
 his views as he held and lived them. 
 
 Only one thing ever angered S. Glenn Young. The 
 ordinary irritations of life did not bother him, he was 
 tolerant in all his views, liberal in his beliefs, and a 
 firm believer in the existence of a Creator and All- 
 Wise Providence. He retained no racial prejudices, 
 he warmed no religious hatreds in his bosom. He was 
 a cosmopolitan — a citizen of the higher world, al- 
 though a frequenter of the underworld in his unrelent- 
 ing pursuit of criminals and his undeviating policy of 
 prevention of law violations. He was calm in moments 
 of crisis, his judgment was quick and almost infallible, 
 brain and body coordinated to an unusual degree, and 
 his equanimity was unusual. Yet let any man, friend 
 or foe, show himself contemptuous of restraint or lax 
 in respect to the constituted laws, and S. Glenn Young 
 was aroused. That is the only thing that disturbed 
 him. His ordinarily low and suave voice became harsh 
 and strident, his whole attitude was transfigured, and
 
 222 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 the man became a machine driven by the motive power 
 that alone could move him at top speed. 
 
 And it came to pass, on the twenty-fourth day of 
 January, in the city of Herrin, that Glenn Young 
 and Ora Thomas with their virile natures came to- 
 gether, their opposing minds rocked from the collision, 
 there were bursts of noise and flashes of fire, and 
 within the brief space of thirty seconds the issue was 
 decided. When the smoke cleared away after another 
 brief instant these two and two more men were 
 stretched on the floor of the corner cigar store where 
 the encounter was staged, three dead and weltering 
 in their own life blood, and only Ora Thomas gasping 
 out his last shortened breaths as life also slowly de- 
 parted from him. 
 
 It would require another volume the size of this to 
 adequately analyze and set down all the incidents that 
 led up to this greatest tragedy Southern Illinois ever 
 knew. It would take months to trace the half-hidden 
 details of plot and counter-plot that were set in motion 
 to encompass this very thing. It would take a fiction- 
 ist of the highest talent to clearly and in order record 
 the story and tell it as it should be told. With the 
 brief space both of time and volume, now left, that is 
 impossible. 
 
 Naturally, many will want to know just why S. 
 Glenn Young, who must have known that he was 
 marked for slaughter, remained where his enemies 
 and his executioners were also near. Force of circum- 
 stance, those circumstances that governed his move- 
 ments and impelled him to many acts that in the case 
 of others would have been actually foolhardy, were in 
 the main responsible.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 223 
 
 Glenn Young was not a braggart, nor was he a fool. 
 He was courageous to the uttermost degree, but he 
 was not without the kind of judgment that accom- 
 panies real bravery. As a matter of fact, he felt that 
 he was more safe in Herrin, surrounded as he was by 
 loyal friends and supporters who would have followed 
 him to certain death and gone down battling for his 
 sake and considered the sacrifice none too great, as two 
 of them did and others were standing by ready to do. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Glenn Young left Herrin on 
 more than one occasion for absences of some length. 
 His work in Williamson County was completed so far 
 as his obligations to and agreement with the citizens 
 of that county went. Had it not been for the at- 
 tempted assassination in the Okaw river bottoms, de- 
 scribed previously, he would probably have re- 
 mained away for considerable periods, although it was 
 his expressed intention to establish and maintain a 
 residence in Williamson County and more than likely 
 seek the nomination for sheriff of the county in the 
 next general election. His plans in taking up and 
 pursuing work in the organization department of the 
 Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were disrupted by the 
 ambuscade and its results. Herrin klansmen were 
 quick to respond to the needs of both Mr. and Mrs. 
 Young while they were lying wounded and helpless in 
 the hospital, and their entire strength and resources 
 were placed at their disposal. Naturally, Glenn Young 
 sought a haven among his friends. 
 
 S. Glenn Young was not mercenary. He was not 
 even careful in respect to the business side of his 
 career, and having worked for so long as a salaried 
 government employe with an assured income, he was
 
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 21
 
 RAIDER S. GLEyy YOVNG 
 
 225
 
 226 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 sentence and had been appointed a deputy sheriff. It 
 was during this period, also, that the massacre at the 
 John Smith garage had taken place, and Glenn Young 
 felt that his place should have been here, and that per- 
 haps had he been in Herrin the affair would not have 
 taken place. 
 
 So shortly after this he returned to Herrin, so 
 much improved that crutches were discarded for a 
 cane. That was the beginning of the end. The knowl- 
 edge that men had been shot down who for months 
 had been among his closest associates and were killed 
 mainly because they had been such, must have weighed 
 on his mind. The practical defiance to law and order 
 exhibited by Sheriff Galligan and his aides on all sides, 
 the threats they were constantly uttering, and their 
 apparent intention to remove all those who had taken 
 leading parts in the series of episodes and incidents 
 that led up to this point were factors that must be 
 considered. Opposition from these who had felt the 
 heavy hand of the law soon began to show itself. Added 
 to this was opposition that developed among a few 
 former supporters, which originated probably within 
 the ranks of the enemy, that had for its excuse the fact 
 that S. Glenn Young had resumed raiding of boot- 
 leggers in all parts of the county, although the war- 
 rants were legal and the parties were ahvays accom- 
 panied by constables or other officers, and had com- 
 municated itself to some who had heretofore been sup- 
 porters but now were withdrawing. As soon as this 
 feeling appeared, insidious efforts were exerted, suc- 
 cessfully, to enlarge its scope and discredit not only 
 the present but the past work of the raider, and to
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 227 
 
 break the ranks of his supporters by means of a propa- 
 ganda campaign. 
 
 These were some of the things that strengthened 
 the determination of S. Glenn Young to stay in Herrin 
 until the job he had inaugurated and directed was en- 
 tirely completed and until the forces of evil and am- 
 bassadors of crime had been vanquished. It may be, 
 too, that to leave at this juncture would have been 
 made the occasion to accuse him of cowardice, and that 
 this also entered as a motive in keeping him in full 
 view of the enemy. It w^as reported, and is no doubt 
 true, that he declined an offer to go to Miami, Fla., to 
 engage in a crusade similar to that which cleaned up 
 Williamson County, but declined the job and expressed 
 a determination to stay on the old job until the forces 
 he was opposing w^ere routed. 
 
 Then came a forlorn-hope trip to Rochester, 
 Minn., to have the eyes of Mrs. Young examined before 
 the far-famed clinic of the Mayo Bros.' hospital. The 
 verdict that was rendered held out the slightest of 
 hopes, and at the same time practically condemned the 
 young w^fe and mother to an existence in the dark. 
 Again Mr. and Mrs. Young returned to Herrin, and 
 this time it was forever for the fearless and gallant 
 champion of organized government. 
 
 Who can say what thoughts passed through the 
 active mind of he who was so soon to be plunged into 
 eternity without an instant for preparation? Who can 
 even imagine his harrowing grief as he realized that 
 happiness for him was only a hollow mockery with his 
 companion doomed to life long blindness and helpless- 
 ness? He had much time for bitter reflection during
 
 228 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 the weeks that passed between the return from Minne- 
 sota and the fatal encounter that eventually ensued. 
 
 His friends noted a changed demeanor, although 
 he may have been successful in concealing the change 
 from his wife on account of her affliction. He was 
 less patient of the weakness he could see in others, he 
 threw down the gage of battle to those of his former 
 supporters who had apparently deserted him, and his 
 even temper showed signs of fraying. Where once 
 nothing could ruffle the calmness of his demeanor, not 
 even bodily danger of the most threatening nature, 
 there were signs of a growing irascibility that was 
 entirely foreign to the nature of S. Glenn Young. Then 
 came the day and the hour, the tragedy that thrilled a 
 nation, and the final acts of devotion and tributes of 
 respect. These can best be set forth by the accounts 
 of the shooting, and of subsequent events, as published 
 in the Herrin Herald and written while the stress of 
 the period was intense and the details freshly im- 
 printed.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 229 
 
 LEADERS OF OPPOSING FACTIONS MEET 
 AND FOURTH TRAGEDY OF CLASH OF LAW 
 AND LAWLESSNESS BLOTS THE RECORDS 
 (From Herrin Herald, Jan. 29, 1925.) 
 
 S. Glenn Young, Edward B. Forbes, Omer Warren 
 and Ora Thomas are dead, four families and numerous 
 friends and relatives are in the depths of giievous 
 mourning and a brooding spirit of dread hovers over 
 the community. Yet both factions seem to have at last 
 attained a spirit of conciliation and the mood of the 
 hour is more hopeful than it has been for many months 
 in this section of Williamson county. There is a sign 
 of brightening in the dark clouds that have hovered 
 for so many months like a pall in the civic skies. 
 
 Herrin has just passed through another shambles. 
 Saturday night, just as the picture shoves v^ere dis- 
 gorging hundreds of men, women and children into the 
 downtown streets, the staccato reports of automatic 
 pistols of large calibre swelled in mounting crescendo, 
 accompanied by the deeper tones of police positive re- 
 volvers as the bass notes of the piano punctuate the 
 treble motif. For thirty seconds, possibly, the reverb- 
 erations swelled and then abruptly ceased, leaving on 
 the floor of the Canary cigar store in the European 
 hotel building four men weltering in their own blood. 
 Pedestrians near the corner of North Park avenue and 
 Monroe street scurried to cover in doorways, around 
 corners and behind parked automobiles, while those 
 farther removed gravitated in that direction.
 
 230 
 
 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 231 
 
 In that brief thirty seconds four lives had been 
 snuffed out. Two of these men, dead or dying, were 
 the outstanding militant leaders of the factions rep- 
 resented in the internecine strife of the past fourteen 
 months — Glenn Young, redoubtable chieftain of the 
 law and order forces, and Ora Thomas, chief deputy 
 under Sheriff George Galligan and field general of the 
 forces in opposition. The other two men laid low were 
 Edward B. Forbes and Omer Warren. From the most 
 reliable reports to be had, neither Forbes nor Warren 
 had an active part in the battle. Young and Thomas 
 accounted for each other and Forbes was probably shot 
 by Thomas as he turned and fell, while it is a question 
 as to who was responsible for the shooting of Warren. 
 
 Thirty or forty minutes before this sanguinary 
 battle a shot rang out, a bullet from a large calibre re- 
 volver or high powered rifle pinged against a granite 
 pillar in the main entrance to the Gauldoni drug store 
 in the Annex building, a block down Park avenue and 
 across the street from the European hotel. Reports 
 vary as to where this shot came from and its purpose. 
 Only testimony before the coroner's inquest, which will 
 probably not be available for a week, will throw any 
 light on this incident. 
 
 Friends of S. Glenn Young assert that the shot 
 was the bait and the lure to draw the raider into range 
 of the guns of his enemies. It certainly had that effect. 
 Others claim that the shot was fired by members of the 
 Young party to intimidate Thomas and his adherents. 
 Still another version, and one corroborated by half a 
 dozen eye witnesses, is that the shot came from the 
 revolver in the hands of Ross (Red) Lisenby, a mem- 
 ber of the Herrin night police force, while Lisenby
 
 232 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 claims that the shot was intended to place a quietus 
 upon his career. The only sure thing about this phase 
 of the affair is that the shot was fired, and that it 
 marked the beginning of the tragedy that followed 
 shortly afterward. 
 
 The lone shot brought out many people, and little 
 groups stood on the streets and discussed the incident. 
 S. Glenn Young and several of his friends, whose 
 identities have not been revealed, also began an in- 
 vestigation into the happening. Young knew that 
 Thomas was in Herrin, having encountered him upon 
 the street prior to this time and exchanged words, 
 warning the deputy sheriff not to make a move toward 
 drawing a revolver. Thomas was the implacable enemy 
 of Young and Young was not taking any chances with 
 him and at the same time did not take undue advant- 
 age of his opportunity. 
 
 All kinds of wild tales, lurid in their vividness, had 
 been circulating in Herrin, ever since the return of 
 S. Glenn Young and his blind wife from Rochester, 
 Minn., some weeks ago. These tales had for their ap- 
 parent object the fanning of the flames of hatred be- 
 tween leaders of both factions, in the hope of provok- 
 ing one side or the other to some such action as oc- 
 curred Saturday night, and another object was to 
 create dissension in the ranks of those who sponsored 
 the Williamson county cleanup and create a division 
 in their voting strength. Even yet this same propa- 
 ganda is alive and spreading its slimy trail through 
 church and home, store and office. 
 
 In the course of the investigation headed by Young 
 and his friends, how many is not known at this time, 
 but comparatively few, the party was led to the Canary
 
 RAIDER S . GLEXX YOU X G 233 
 
 cigar store in the European hotel, which occupies the 
 front corner room in front of the lobby of the hotel 
 and a grill room in the rear. Young first entered the 
 cigar store and passed through to look into the small 
 hotel lobby. He apparently did not see anyone he 
 cared to accost and walked out through the front 
 door. But he immediately turned and again entered 
 the store, approaching a miner named Elias Green. 
 Young accused Green, it is said, of spreading reports 
 that he was a "scab herder," about the worst accusa- 
 tion that can be made against a man in this union 
 stronghold. 
 
 Ora Thomas was not then in the place. That seems 
 absolutely established. Thomas did, however, come 
 up the street from an office where he had gone follow- 
 ing the single shot some time previously. It is said 
 that he telephoned his wife from that office saying they 
 ''had him trapped," but that he was not trapped subse- 
 quent events proved. When Thomas entered, reliable 
 witnesses will testify at the coroner's inquest, Young 
 had his back to the door but realized who it was and 
 warned Thomas not to draw his revolver. These wit- 
 nesses said that Thomas had his .45 calibre Colt's auto- 
 matic in his right hand overcoat pocket apparently 
 ready for action, and that he continued to cross the 
 floor toward one of the counters. 
 
 Young was occupied with watching both Green 
 and Thomas, and again warned Thomas not to make 
 an overt move. Thomas said nothing, but when he 
 was at the end of the counter, suddenly produced his 
 pistol and fired the first shot. Young at that time had 
 neither of his two weapons in his hands or in sight 
 unless their handles could not be seen above his over-
 
 234 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 coat pocket. Young started to sink and at the same 
 time drew one of his own guns and fired at Thomas, 
 the bullet from Young's automatic striking Thomas 
 over one of his eyes and passing straight through his 
 head. 
 
 Then the shooting became general and it will 
 probably never be definitely known just how the other 
 victims met their death. Firing from the outside un- 
 doubtedly followed closely that upon the inside of the 
 cigar store. Forbes was probably struck by a bullet 
 fired by Thomas after he was wounded, as the whole 
 clip of the automatic used by Thomas is said to have 
 been emptied. Young's revolver showed that he fired 
 only two shots. Forbes, while he carried a weapon, 
 did not remove it from its holster, and Warren had no 
 weapon in his hand when he w^as killed. 
 
 Young and Forbes died almost instantly, while 
 Thomas lived for some minutes. Two bullets pierced 
 the breast of S. Glenn Young. One entered the right 
 side and went straight through "his body and through 
 the heart. The first bullet struck while Young was 
 still erect, but the second messenger of death which 
 probably found its mark as he was sinking to the floor, 
 entered the right breast higher and ranged dowTiward 
 through the body and not quite out of the small of the 
 back. Forbes was shot once, the bullet penetrating 
 the lower part of the heart. Thomas was struck once, 
 in the forehead with the bullet emerging from the back 
 of the skull. Warren's wounds were strangest of all. 
 He had two bullet holes in the top of his head, which 
 led to the belief that shots had been fired from a win- 
 dow in the second story of the European hotel. War- 
 ren lived for several hours after being removed to the
 
 RAI D ER S. GLENN Y O U N G 235 
 
 hospital, and Thomas lived for nearly half an hour 
 after being shot. 
 
 Neither Forbes nor Warren had achieved any espe- 
 cial prominence in the events of recent history. 
 Whether they were actually v^ith Young or merely 
 happened to be on the streets at the time and followed 
 him into the store on errands of their own is a moot 
 question. That Thomas was alone is also dis- 
 puted, and there are any number of details that in 
 the end will rest upon mere supposition. Green did 
 not take any part in the affray, it would seem from all 
 accounts as they are pieced together, nor did anyone 
 else on the inside come to the aid of Thomas, but it is 
 probable that his aides were not in position to effec- 
 tively assist him. 
 
 Yet, from past events and well defined rumors, 
 there was a conspiracy to ''get" S. Glenn Young and 
 it could easily be deduced that the plot came to its 
 fruition Saturday night. No man in Williamson county 
 had so many implacable enemies, no man was so villi- 
 fied and cordially hated, no other man constituted such 
 a stumbling block in the way of ''restoring" conditions 
 desired by these enemies. There was a constant flow 
 of gossip intended to induce Young and Thomas to fly 
 at each other's throats like wolves maddened from 
 hunger in a desolate and desolated world. 
 
 Following the battle within the small space of the 
 Canary cigar store, friends of the victims removed 
 the bodies of the dead to the undertakers' morgue and 
 the wounded were taken to the Black hospital. Mem- 
 bers of the Law Enforcement League, deputized for 
 that purpose by Police Officer Harold Grain, took
 
 236 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 charge of the streets and a hundred or more armed 
 men patrolled the downtown thoroughfares and the 
 highways entering the city. One of the sad incidents 
 was when a son of Edward Forbes, on his way home 
 from a basket ball game at the high school, helped to 
 handle the body of his father until he caught a glimpse 
 of the dead man's face and almost collapsed. The chief 
 of police did not appear at the city hall, and Night 
 Chief Harry Walker and Officer Lisenby were not in 
 evidence following the affray. The deputized officers 
 stopped many cars entering the city and on the main 
 streets, as a precautionary measure to avoid further 
 trouble. 
 
 It was not until the arrival of half a company of 
 national guards from Carbondale, under command of 
 Major Robert Davis, that the citizens were relieved of 
 their duties and ordered to their homes by the soldiers. 
 The soldiers at first disarmed the volunteer officers, 
 but upon explanation returned their arms and re- 
 quested that all but a necessary few leave the streets, 
 which was complied with. The troops were ordered 
 here by Governor Len Small and Adjutant General 
 Carlos Black after telephone communications had in- 
 formed the state officials of the situation. Sheriff Gal- 
 ligan denies requesting the presence of troops, but the 
 governor would not have acted, otherwise. 
 
 There was not the slightest indication of further 
 trouble after the brief but tragic battle in the Europ- 
 ean hotel bwilding. After arrival of the trooiis there 
 were even fewer symptoms of another outbreak. 
 
 When Sunday morning dawned, bright and clear 
 with sunshine flooding the city, it was hard to realize
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 237 
 
 that anything out of the ordinary had occurred. Yet 
 it was not long until the streets were thronged with 
 automobiles and pedestrians, with soldiers doing patrol 
 duty on every block and in front of the undertaking 
 parlors where the dead men were taken. All day Sun- 
 day the roads leading into Herrin were crowded with 
 automobiles arriving and leaving this center of nation- 
 wide interest. Thousands viewed the body of S. Glenn 
 Young in the Jenkins mortuary chapel, where it rested 
 in state, but other thousands merely drove through the 
 streets and observed the outward signs that remained. 
 The bodies of Edward Forbes and Omer Warren were 
 removed to the family homes early Sunday morning, 
 and only the body of S. Glenn Young was placed on 
 public view. At the conclusion of the Sunday night 
 service at the First Baptist church, a guard of honor of 
 friends of the dead leader escorted the remains to the 
 church, where the casket has since rested, with relays 
 of friends and fellow workers constantly in attendance.
 
 238 
 
 LIFE AS D EXPLOITS OF 
 
 ^W '
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXN YOUNG 239 
 
 ORDER OF SERVICE FOR FUNERAL OF 
 S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 Rev. P. R. Glotfelty, pastor of the First Methodist 
 church of Herrin, \yith which denomination both Mr. 
 and Mrs. S. Glenn Young were affiliated; Rev. I. E. 
 Lee, pastor of the First Baptist church of Herrin ; Rev. 
 J. E. Story, pastor of the First Christian church of 
 Herrin ; Rev. B. E. Green of Herrin, pastor of the First 
 Baptist church of Hurst, and Rev. William Carlton, 
 young Baptist Minister of Marion, all of whom were 
 closely associated with S. Glenn Young in his magnifi- 
 cent work in Williamson county, will have leading 
 parts in the services preceding the burial of the dead 
 raid leader Thursday afternoon. Many visiting min- 
 isters will be present and so far as possible will be 
 given places of honor. The following is the program 
 of the service at the First Baptist church : 
 
 Solo, 'The Rosary" ..____ Mrs. Otto Tate 
 
 Scripture Reading, the T^venty-third Psalm __ 
 
 Prayer By Visiting Minister 
 
 Solo, "Somewhere a Voice Is Calling" __ 
 
 Rev. H. Ward, Assis't Pastor First Baptist Church 
 
 Reading of Obituary - Rev. B. E. Green 
 
 Solo, "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" Mrs. Otto Tate 
 
 Sketch, "His Early Life" Rev. J. E. Story 
 
 Sketch, "S. Glenn Young, the Raider" 
 
 .—Rev. William Carlton, Baptist Minister, Marion 
 Sketch, "Young's Work in Williamson County — A 
 
 Backward Look" _- - Rev. I. E. Lee 
 
 Sketch, "Young's Work in Williamson County — A 
 
 Forward Look" Rev. P. R. Glotfelty 
 
 Solo, "Day Is Dying in the West" Rev. Henry Ward.
 
 240 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 FUNERAL RITES FOR S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 IMPRESSIVE AND CARRIED OUT IN THE 
 PRESENCE OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE 
 
 Thursday, January 29, 1925, is a memorable day in 
 the annals of Williamson county, which has been the 
 setting for many notable happenings, many of them 
 of a regrettable nature. It was the last day that S. 
 Glenn Young would ever be viewed in the flesh, and the 
 figure which had become so familiar to residents of 
 the strife torn community was to be carried to its 
 last earthly habitation. 
 
 The day dawned with leaden skies, matching the 
 spirit of depression that has enveloped friends and 
 admirers since the tragic occurrence of Saturday night, 
 January 24, the chill winds lightly blowing over snowy 
 fields and lawn being no colder than the hearts of men 
 who had stood shoulder to shoulder with the martyred 
 hero in the tremendous struggle of recent months. 
 There was just one happy augury. Aw^ay down on the 
 eastern horizon w^ere the faintest of rosy tints, where 
 the sun was struggling to break through the dark 
 clouds that obscured its face and behind whose curtain 
 it was just as bright, just as warm, just as beneficent 
 as when there were no rifts in the skies. There are 
 those optimists who see the faint dawning of a better 
 day in Williamson county, knowing that the blackest 
 of clouds have a silver lining, and that while there 
 are days dark and dreary they are sure to be succeeded 
 by other and brighter days when it is good to be alive. 
 
 Since nine o'clock Sunday night the body of S. 
 Glenn Young had peacefully reposed in front of the
 
 RAIDER S. GLEXN YOU X G 241 
 
 chancel of the First Baptist church, guarded every 
 minute by mourning and faithful friends. To estimate 
 the number of people who had passed the bier and 
 gazed with mingled feelings upon the motionless form 
 so calm in its silent majesty is impossible. Fifteen 
 thousand persons passed through the mortuar>^ chapel 
 Sunday morning, afternoon and evening, and since the 
 casket was removed to the church there has been an 
 almost constant stream of visitors. Any who came, at 
 anj^ hour of day or night, were granted the privilege 
 of paying homage or gratifying their curiosity. 
 
 Last night, the last on earth for S. Glenn Young, 
 two white robed and hooded sentries stood motionless 
 at the head and foot of their friend and leader, arms 
 folded and lips as mute as the one they guarded, lend- 
 ing an air of weirdness to a scene indescribably beauti- 
 ful. These sentries were changed every fifteen 
 minutes, two entering from the front and those re- 
 lieved disappearing into a back room. The ceremony 
 was continued until long after midnight and resumed 
 early this morning. 
 
 With altar and chancel, choir loft and platform 
 buried in lovely flowers in varied but always beautiful 
 design, two fiery crosses with white lights illuminated 
 a scene of rare and awesome beauty, almost the only 
 illumination of the auditorium. Flowers came from 
 many Southern Illinois points, and from distant states, 
 as well as from Herrin and Williamson county individ- 
 uals and organizations. Those who gazed and drank 
 their fill will never entirely forget the sight. 
 
 Today's event was undoubtedly the largest funeral 
 of its kind ever observed in the history of the Knights
 
 242 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 of the Ku Klux Klan under the auspices of anj- local 
 organization. It was strictly a klan funeral from be- 
 ginning to end. During the religious service there 
 were no robed men or women except the sentries and 
 the pall bearers. Following the church program, 
 klansmen donned their regalia and continued garbed 
 in their white robes and helmets until the last sad 
 rites were said at the Herrin cemetery. 
 
 The pallbearers were Arlie 0. Boswell, state's attor- 
 ney; Leonard Stearns, circuit clerk; Fred Simpson, 
 county recorder; John H. Smith, garage owner; Glenn 
 Fowler, son of the secretary of the township high 
 school board, who was Young's constant aide for 
 months; Roy Browning, contractor. 
 
 Reaching the cemetery the ritual of the klan was 
 carried out impressively, and then the dove gray 
 casket was sealed and lowered into the vault partly 
 prepared for its reception, and to be completed by 
 workmen before they depart from the burying place. 
 Literally a hill of flowers surrounded the mausoleum 
 and would completely cover it deeply when the top 
 was completed. 
 
 This mausoleum is located in the new part of the 
 Herrin cemetery in plain view of passersby on the 
 hard road. It is constructed of thick concrete base and 
 walls, reinforced with steel and steel lined, only large 
 enough to contain one casket. This precaution has 
 been taken to thwart the ghouls who doubtless would 
 attempt to desecrate the grave of S. Glenn Young 
 under other conditions. For a time close watch will 
 be kept on the burial plot that some foul effort is not 
 made to disfigure, if not destroy, the mausoleum. Some
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 243 
 
 may think this is far fetched but they do not know 
 the character of the opposition in Williamson county. 
 It is not the foreigner or alien who would do this. It 
 is the men without a country masquerading as Ameri- 
 cans who are so perverted and so degraded that 
 nothing is too low for them to essay. Some of them 
 are men occupying high places in law and scientific 
 professions, federal offices and lesser places of honor 
 and power, who might not commit the deeds them- 
 selves but would order tools to dastardly deeds and 
 pay them! 
 
 As a last w^ord and continuing the same line of 
 thought, this fight of past and present in Williamson 
 county is not a klan and anti-klan fight. It is not a 
 religious fight, although the Protestant churches are 
 leading and supporting it and other denominations are 
 not aiding. Even the most casual readers of the pur- 
 posely distorted accounts of recent events can see that. 
 What few foreigners or men of foreign-born parentage 
 are implicated are outnumbered by those who should 
 have an undying loyalty for our country and its in- 
 stitutions, by birth and education. It is a battle for 
 right against wrong, a struggle for supremacy between 
 forces on strictly moral issues, a fight for good govern- 
 ment opposed to corruption, the clash of those who be- 
 lieve in law against those who profit from lawless- 
 ness. Thus the issue is joined and it is a struggle that 
 must be indisputably won by one side or the other 
 before it is finally settled.
 
 244 
 
 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 245 
 
 MORE DETAILS OF FUNERAL 
 
 (From Herrin Herald, Jan. 30, 1925.) 
 
 S. Glenn Young is at rest. The last rites were said 
 over all that was earthly of the slain chieftain at the 
 Herrin cemetery at eventide Thursday night, January 
 29, 1925, after a day crowded with events, and in the 
 presence of devoted loved ones, followers, klansmen 
 and women, the casket was lowered into its final rest- 
 ing place in the vault amid the silent prayers of the 
 solemn faced men and women. Although forever lost 
 to the sight of man, his features and his qualities are 
 enduringly stamped upon the hearts and minds of 
 thousands, while millions yet unborn will bless his 
 name although they never know it. 
 
 It was not until the shades of a drear winter night 
 had enveloped the precincts of the cemetery that the 
 funeral cortege arrived at the burying ground. By 
 the dim light of a new moon and a few stars, barely 
 heightened by the flickering of three small candles, 
 the ritual of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had con- 
 signed the bodv of their revered leader to the earth and 
 his soul to the Master. Then, as the male quartet 
 started to sing the strains of "The Old Rugged Cross", 
 there rang out from a distance the beautiful strams of 
 "Taps." Instantly over the crowd, uncomfortable in 
 the cold and more or less restless from their discom- 
 fort, there descended a blanket of silence, the hush of 
 which was so pronounced it was poignant. It was 
 the most impressive moment of an occasion pregnant 
 with meaning.
 
 246 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 Representatives of city newspapers, antagonistic to 
 S. Glenn Young and the movement for which he served 
 and for which he sacrificed, gave the number of people 
 drawn to Herrin yesterday at 25,000, and that was the 
 figure published in the metropolitan papers this morn- 
 ing. It is easily probable that these estimates were 
 purposely low, and just as low as possible to be made 
 and not be disproved. So, when the Herrin Herald 
 gives an estimate that 40,000 people were attracted 
 to Herrin yesterday by the outstanding event of its 
 history, it is felt that the bounds of reason are recog- 
 nized. 
 
 Two different men here yesterday, and at different 
 times, gave it as their opinion that the crowd here 
 Thursday was larger than that which assembled for 
 the funeral of President Harding. Yet even at 25,000 
 the friends and relatives of S. Glenn Young feel that 
 sufficient honor was rendered and that enough of real 
 homage was exhibited to forever perpetuate the name 
 of their relative and friend. One thing is almost cer- 
 tain, the number of people who passed the bier of S. 
 Glenn Young, from Sunday morning until the last 
 straggler had been admitted to the Baptist church yes- 
 terday afternoon, number more than 50,000 and proba- 
 bly w^as greater than ever before on a similar occasion 
 without a single exception. 
 
 People began to fill the First Baptist church early 
 on the morning of the funeral day, and by half past 
 nine every seat was filled. These early comers, eight- 
 een hundred of them, sat reverently in their pews and 
 chairs from that hour until nearly five o'clock without 
 water or food, and then the most of them followed the 
 casket to the cemetery and stood in the cold air and
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 247 
 
 on the half frozen slush and mud for another hour and 
 a half. It was wonderful. That is the only term that 
 is descriptive. 
 
 While the long service was being carried out thou- 
 sands stood in the streets. Overflow services were held 
 at the First Christian and First Methodist churches, 
 while the beautiful Masonic Temple was thrown open 
 on both floors to allow those who desired to get indoors 
 to relieve their discomfort to some extent. Every 
 courtesy possible was shovm the multitude, without 
 distinction, and the late hour at which the procession 
 left the church was due to anxiety to give every visitor 
 the privilege of gazing for the last and perhaps the 
 first and only time upon the man whose exploits had 
 drawn them here. 
 
 Between seven and eight thousand people took ad- 
 vantage of the privilege to pass before the bier where, 
 banked with a profusion of flowers from distant and 
 near points, the last hours of S. Glenn Young were 
 spent, with his spirit released from its earthly prison. 
 At the head of the casket sat the young blinded wife, 
 whose love and faith and loyalty led her to accompany 
 her mate through storm and strife, fair weather and 
 foul, the peaceful quiet of the little village home of her 
 parents in Patoka, and in the great centers of popula- 
 tion, and finally through the dastardly attempted as- 
 sassination which resulted in her blindness, and was 
 but the forerunner of the final ending. 
 
 Widows of others slain with the dead man and in 
 prior massacres were also present, and Mrs. Edward 
 Forbes, wife of one of the men who fell at the same 
 time as S. Glenn Young, could not control the grief
 
 248 
 
 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 249 
 
 she felt for both herself and Mrs. Young. Other 
 women bent to kiss the pathetic figure, who sat dry 
 eyed and inquiringly before that large assemblage, 
 vainly trying to imagine the scene which was depicted 
 in the church, and at times reaching over to caress 
 the cold forehead of her loved one. In pews directly 
 in front of the casket sat the relatives, the brothers, 
 George and Leo, the sister, Mrs. Iva Harper, the nine- 
 year-old twin girls by Mr. Young's first marriage, 
 Doris and June, who were brought here by their 
 grandmother. 
 
 Robed klansmen stood guard at head and foot 
 of the casket, while other robed men guarded doors 
 and performed other useful duties. The altar, chancel 
 and choir loft were covered with beautiful floral offer- 
 ings. Two electric fiery crosses, emblem of the order 
 in charge of the service, cast their effulgent rays 
 softly over the ensemble. 
 
 For two hours softly beautiful strains floated from 
 the pipe organ while the multitude passed through the 
 church. Then, at nearly five o'clock, the pallbearers 
 carried the casket from the building, it was placed in 
 the hearse and the procession moved slowly forward, 
 first over the principal down town streets and then 
 out the long road to the cemetery. 
 
 One hundred robed klansmen on foot, headed by 
 four large American fiags, preceded the six pallbear- 
 ers, robed and riding horses caparisoned with march- 
 ing regalia. Then came the immediate relatives in the 
 Lincoln sedan still bearing its scars from the at- 
 tempted assassination of S. Glenn Young and his wife. 
 A long line of sympathizing friends followed in auto-
 
 250 LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF 
 
 mobiles, although most of the cars had preceded the 
 cortege to the cemetery. It was dusk when the proces- 
 sion started, the shades of night had fallen long be- 
 fore the slow moving footmen had reached the end of 
 the line of march. 
 
 The klansmen and women of the klan filed into the 
 roped enclosure after the two truck loads of flowers 
 had been arranged around the mausoleum. The offi- 
 cers and the singers gathered under the canopy erected 
 over the vault, and the beautiful ceremony proceeded. 
 When Rev. Robert Evans of East St. Louis, personal 
 friend of the dead man and leading klansman, had 
 pronounced the eulogy and concluded the ceremony by 
 dropping blooms upon the casket, the curtain of night 
 blotted out from view of friends and foe alike the 
 sealing of the tomb, and the last act in the life of S. 
 Glenn Young had come to its dramatic close. With the 
 dying strains of "Taps" softly echoing in their ears, 
 with heavy hearts and leaden feet the hundreds of 
 loyal friends, who had remained until the last, set their 
 faces homeward to take up the burden where S. Glenn 
 Young laid it down.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 251 
 
 OBITUARY 
 
 S. Glenn Young was born to G€orge B. and Eva 
 Young on a ranch near Long Island, Kansas, on March 
 4th, 1886, and was killed in Herrin, Illinois, on Janu- 
 ary 24th, 1925, being at his death 38 years, 10 months 
 and 20 days of age. 
 
 The father, who now resides at Medford, Oregon, 
 survives him, the mother passing away many years 
 ago. Five brothers and two sisters also survive him, 
 viz: George B. Jr. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Leo and 
 and Mrs. Eva Harper of Virgil, S.D. ; Roy of Taft, Cali- 
 fornia; Paul, Wilhelmina and Phil, of Medford, 
 Oregon. 
 
 S. Glenn Young was married to Maude Simcox, 
 daughter of George B. and Florence Simcox, whose 
 later home has been at Patoka, Illinois, on July 5, 1921. 
 Bobbie, a 23-months' old son, with his mother, survive 
 this union. 
 
 WTien young in years, Glenn left home to shift for 
 himself. His mother being a Kansas Prohibitionist 
 and his father a United States marshal, he soon was 
 enlisted in the Department of Justice and w^as sent 
 after moonshiners in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He 
 continued in this and similar work until three years 
 previous to the World War. For these three years he 
 pursued the study of medicine at Marquette Univer- 
 sity, at Milwaukee, Wis., where he was a Greek letter 
 fraternity man. At the entrance into the World War 
 by the United States, he was called back to the gov- 
 ernment service and was sent into the south after draft
 
 252 LIFE AXD EXPLOITS OF 
 
 evaders and deserters. Here he attracted the atten- 
 tion of the world by his single-handed exploits. In this 
 work he is said to have brought in as many as 3,000 ; 
 among them being the Rose and Crawley gangs that 
 the government had despaired of ever bringing in, do- 
 ing this singlehanded and alone. 
 
 Since the war he has served as federal prohibition 
 officer; as an investigator; and as raider of bootleg 
 joints. 
 
 He came into Williamson county some fifteen 
 months ago by invitation to assist in cleaning out illicit 
 liquor selling and other forms of vice and crime. How 
 well he has served and how well the work has been 
 done, the day both declare. 
 
 The enmity of law-breakers of every kind had been 
 incurred and when he could not be bought off his death 
 was plotted and after unsuccessful attempts was fin- 
 ally consummated on January 24th, at the European 
 Hotel, Herrin. 
 
 Neither friend or foe thought of Young as a church 
 man and yet as a young man he accepted Christ and 
 united with the Methodist church in his home town of 
 Long Island, Kansas. He never feared death and al- 
 ways expressed himself as at peace with his Maker 
 and ready to be offered up, if needs be, for his coun- 
 try's sake. A prominent Italian-Catholic has said of 
 him that the church could not show him too great an 
 honor, as he did church work. He testified to a life 
 of daily prayer and when possible attended divine wor- 
 ship ; and always felt his work to be a Divine Call. 
 They crucified the Master, this servant felt himself not 
 above his Lord.
 
 RAIDER S. GLENN YOUNG 
 
 253
 
 Address All Communications 
 
 to 
 
 MRS. S. GLENN YOUNG, 
 
 Herrin, Illinois