, that even though the state had not proved
that any of the eight men on trial had actually thrown the bomb, they were
nevertheless guilty of a conspiracy to commit murder.

The bigoted speeches of the prosecutor Grinnell, and his aides, are
equalled only by the speeches of the prosecution in the Mooney case, the
Herndon case, the Scottsboro case. In other words, they established a fine
precedent for all anti-labor prosecutions to follow.

The trial lasted 63 days. The jury was out only three hours. That's all
the time they needed to examine the mountain of evidence presented in
those months. It is true that most of it was perjured, framed-up evidence
prepared by the prosecution, wild-eyed stories of the men leaping from the
wagon which was really a barricade, flaming pistols aimed at the police,
etc. The rest was quotations from their writings and speeches made years
before the Haymarket meeting was ever dreamed of. The verdict was a
foregone conclusion: death for all but Oscar Neebe and for him 15 years in
the penitentiary.

The judge thanked the jury from the bench and announced that there were
carriages outside the door waiting to take them home. The press of the
entire nation congratulated Chicago upon having such upright and
courageous citizens to serve on juries. Chicago papers collected a purse
of $100,000 to divide among them as a reward for work well done.

The case was appealed to the Illinois State Supreme Court which, on March
18, 1887, found no errors on which it could reverse the verdict. This
despite affidavits proving that the jury was chosen from a carefully
selected panel of enemies of the men by the bailiff and the judge and many
other flagrant violations of civil rights, too many to enumerate.

And then came the appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Old as they
are, none of the present incumbents were then sitting on the bench. But
their worthy forerunners were equally reactionary. They found no
constitutional grounds for reversal! Of course not, even though the right
of free speech and assembly had been trampled underfoot at the Haymarket
Square, the right to a fair trial made into a cruel farce.

On November 11, 1887, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer and
George Engel were led out to the gallows. At the last moment, yielding to
the terrific pressure of protest which had been developed by the defense
in the last months, and a great wave of general sympathy with the men
througho