The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 429 - Joe Hill (live)
Episode Date: May 12, 2020Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Wobbly Joe Hill. Recorded live at Wiseguys in Salt Lake City.SourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch...
Transcript
Discussion (0)
When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my
place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on
an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your
parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year
whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for
something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find
out how much at airbnb.ca slash host.
You're listening to the dollop!
This is a Buy Racial American History podcast. Each week I, Dave Anthony, read a
story from American history to my friend.
Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic will be about.
Is that true? Yep. You really don't know. You would know more than anybody. Have we discussed this?
I feel like I've never actually questioned you about it. Well it would be
insane for you to question me about it. Maybe it's time. Do you know? Yeah I do.
Fuck! How do you know? Because I got through your iPad when you're shouting at
the TV like a lunatic. I'm shouting at you. Dave's head he's on stage with the
others. I'm also running. I'm blocking Klobuchar.
She's great. I want Minnesota and the only one that wants Minnesota. It was great when she threw a
three-hole punch right over her dough. October 7th, 1879. Joel Emanuel Haglund.
Is that what was you looking me to see if I had any clue who that was? After all
these years I love that you still do the check-in.
Was born in the seaport town of Javla, Sweden to devoutly Lutheran parents. He
was a third of nine kids. Sure. Or also known as six because three died when
there were babies. Is that confirmed? Yep. Okay. We're just gonna start calling that
baby out. Yeah. Three baby outed. Six left. 66%. Pretty good. It's a D. It's a solid D.
Joel's father Olaf was a poorly paid railroad conductor. Stereotype. His mother
Margarita Catharina. Who's that? Who names a kid with two A's on the end? Margarita
Cathalina? Yeah, I'm guessing the drink Margarita wasn't around already. Otherwise that's also a faux pas.
She was a housewife. She didn't work. The Jolcimer taught the practices of an
Orthodox Lutheran. Joel's younger sister Esther, quote, there were no political
discussions at home. We were taught to be obedient to God and the King and to
submit to all authority. That feels a little political. It feels like our
democracy a little bit. Honestly. Yeah. Well, it's gonna get worse.
Joel's parents loved music. They often led the family in song. Olaf played the
organ at church and then he built one so he could teach his children how to play
the organ. That's a lot of work. Yeah. He got to be really committed to build a
fucking organ. Yeah. I mean, pianos were a thing. Yep. Basically the same. It's not
the same though. It's not. The sound is different, but as far as work, you're
like, well, this is done instead. You're like, pipe 34 is off. Oh, there it is
again. Olaf's stuck in it. Olaf. I feel like this all the time.
As a team, Joel wrote songs about his family, especially to tease his sisters.
He went to concerts. He performed at local cafes. He played the guitar, the
accordion, the piano. I assume the organ is not here, but that's not on the list.
I hate you, dad. I'm going without the pipes. Do you want your pipes? My son
will use pipes at this house. I don't need your stupid pipes. You're no son of mine.
When Joel was nine, his father died after a work accident, as is the law of the
dollar. Right. Good run though. Yeah. I mean, nine. That's pretty good. Yeah, it's
pretty great. Yeah, he got a lot of good years with your dad there. I assume he wasn't
working on the organ. Oh, yeah, he was a railroad. Imagine how badly that went.
Boy, I would prefer it to be the organ. It's hard for comedic effect.
Olaf was the family's only source of income, so Margarita took the kids out
of school and put them all to work. Great. Okay, so he's nine and working?
Yeah. Nine years old, they got a job at a rope factory. Sure. Yeah. Well, someone's
got to make it. I guess they've never traced it back, but someone's making rope.
Yeah. You know, we're just so spoiled. We're like, oh, rope. It's right there.
It's everywhere. It's rope. It's just everywhere. It's ubiquitous.
There's some nine-year-old like, uh, how sick do they want it? Oh, Miss Papa.
Mathematics was fun. The cool thing about a rope factory though is that if you
really hate the job, it's just an easy way out right there. Well, it's a testament to
his handiwork. Oh, my God. Look at that knot. Leave him up. It's so good. It's like
advertising. I think we've got a new logo. Rope. We're the guys who make it.
He worked long hours in shitty industrial conditions. As a team, he worked as a
fireman on a steam-powered crane and shoveled coal for a construction
company. So things are looking up. Yeah, for sure. No, fun to adolescence indeed. He
went from making rope to shoveling coal. Yep, definitely up. When Joel was 21, he
got tuberculosis in the skin and joints. I didn't know that was a thing. He doesn't
get the long one. What? Did he get the normal, the chesty one? Apparently got the
really weird Swedish one. My joints are coughing. Too much blood. There were not
really any treatment options in Iavla, so Joel went to Stockholm. Okay. Where he
got extensive treatment while working odd jobs full-time to pay for it. Great.
That's like America. He received radiation and a series of brutal
operations on his face and neck. Is this where he becomes organ man? Is this the
origin story? But there's something went wrong in the radiation room. And then they
attached large bat wings to his bat. It left deep scarring and damage on his body
for the rest of his life. In January 1902, Margarita died after surgery that was
supposed to have eased her lifelong back pain. Well, yes, but you know what you were
getting into back then. Yeah, in 1902 you're like, the survival rate for this
surgery is extremely high. It's five percent. Yes, you have a five percent chance of
living, but your life will be much better after. That sounds great. I don't know
math. Well, that's fantastic. Say goodbye to everyone in this room. Bye. Yeah, you're
not gonna see them again. Come back with some 10 after the surgery. Oh, right.
Yeah, yeah. Anyway, take care. I can't count backwards from 10. I don't know math.
All right. Well, here, we'll just put this in your arm. So there's six kids. They're
all now in their late teens and early 20s. They sold the family home, split the
money and went their separate ways. For four stayed in Sweden, Joel and his
younger brother Paul went to New York City. Their siblings in Sweden would
never see the brothers again. Interesting. They landed on Ellis Island in October
1902. Now, Joel was quote, six feet tall, slim with deep blue eyes and dark brown
hair. A handsome, intelligent, serious and thoughtful young man, bold and unafraid,
more hobo than poet. Literally on board for the entire description until the end
where I'm like, what are the Venn diagram of hobo and poet is almost an
eclipse? I mean, what? Is it just a hat difference? It's like mine goes down
further and mine's more of a tube. Hobos don't shave. Poets don't either. No,
you're not. No. Nice try. You have me for a moment. Poets are rich, rich people's
kids. You're still not actually right. You're closer than your first point, but
no. Poets get tons of ladies. Dude, go to Silver Lake, South of Hobos. Joel also had a
very strong sense of humor. He had a very good grasp of English because he had
learned it at the YMCA in suite. For sure. Yeah. Of course. And it's just how long
the YMCA's been around, how it's in every country apparently. Yeah. Good. The first
job he landed in New York was cleaning spittoons. Oh, what's that? Isn't that
what? That's horrible. Isn't that just like a dump job? I gotta tell you, after I
read that, I went down a wormhole. On what? How dirty spittoons work? I just was
looking at spittoon stuff for hours. Wait, okay. Do you know the answer to this? I was thinking about this the other day. You were thinking about spittoons the other day? Why did they ding? What's with the ding? It's not real, right? They don't ding. Well, I think that's a sound effect, number one. Okay. Well, I've just said it. As far as movies would have me believe it, every time it goes like, it goes ding. I know, but I'll show you.
You know, when you go to bed, you don't hear a cat in the trash going, like, no, that's real. It's just movie sounds. Wait, what? Yeah. What movie are you watching? Cats? Oh, the musical. Yeah, okay. Bucket a beer. Thank you.
No, but they, they were everywhere spittoons. Okay. Around this time. He made it. I'm still a little worried that you're killing cats, but anyway, we'll keep going. And he's a day cleaning him. They were in pubs, brothels, saloons, hotels, banks, barbershops. Where weren't they? Pharmacies. Sure. Anywhere, dudes, we're walking.
So everywhere. And they made them because before that, everyone was just spitting on the floor. Yeah, like, we should get a cup or something. Yeah, sure. But like, we'll get a ding in Vaz. And just start going through pictures and there's just spittoons fucking everywhere.
Ugh. Okay. So his job was to clean them. Yeah. Okay. Which is the bad job. Yeah. Nobody wants, that's not a high status job. When you dump it out, though, it sounds like a bell ring. That's right.
So after a while, he had enough of the slums and cleaning spit and Joel and his brother decided to head out into the USA. And they actually went their separate ways. Okay.
Between 1902 and 1912, there's very little record of Joel. He was constantly on the move as a laborer, you know, working around wherever. Move frequently. He was in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, North and South Dakota, Spokane, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Pedro, Fresno, Mexico, British,
Mississippi, Alaska and Hawaii. Jesus. Dude fucking. What year is this? This is 1902 to 1912. In 1906, Joel wrote a first hand account of the great San Francisco earthquake to his hometown newspaper in Iava, Sweden.
He was fired from a machine shop in Chicago and then blacklisted for trying to organize a union. Oh, dear you. Mother fucker. I don't get a time machine. I think we'll tell you what's good for you. You can trust us.
The guys who screw you. You should have seen me explaining to Finn yesterday when the union was. Oh, I can't. And then the motherfuckers try to fuck you. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? And they say, yeah, let's have you work 16 hours a day.
But how do babies get made? And then you get together as a group and you go in and you say, we're going to fucking cut you. I'm 11.
He's 10. Sorry. He already knows that. I told Martin Luther King to kill himself. I'm teaching history. Just teach yourself one thing. It comes home. I go, hold the fuck on.
Those teachers must love you.
And as my wife says, you cannot tell our son not to talk to cops. The fuck I can't.
He was like, I saw a bunch of cops. I didn't talk to him. I was like, right? I agree.
So this trail around gets fired from the job for organizing. In San Pedro, California, Joel is said to have joined the IWW, Industrial Workers of the World.
The EW.
EW. A revolutionary international labor union. They were called the Wobblies. But other people called them that and they were like, yeah, sounds good.
At one point, Joel changed his name to Joseph Hillstrom.
Sure.
And then he shortened it to Joe Hill.
Oh, we found the readers.
Oh, okay. I'll play along, but come on.
Pretty obvious.
Let's do it. Let's still do it.
Of course.
Want to hear it again?
One more time wouldn't hurt. I love the story.
You love the story?
In a bad way. I love to hate it.
It's tough. You go ahead. I'll talk later.
He probably shortened his name to avoid anti-immigrant sentiments and because he was blacklisted.
So he joins the IWW. The specific year he joined is not exactly known because the U.S. government seized and destroyed all of the IWW's records in 1917.
Nice.
Because freedom in America has stopped.
You know, you have a good government when you have to destroy the opposition's records to show how strong it is.
Most historians believe Joe joined in 1910.
He also seems to have served as the San Pedro branch secretary for several years.
So he's in this union.
He wrote a letter as an IWW member to the industrial worker, which is a magazine that you probably get.
I love it.
What's your favorite section?
Steel. It's just like us.
Who welded it better is also a fun section.
I named two U.S. for once so you could go fuck yourself.
That was really good.
So here is the letter.
August 1910.
It was about a worker who had gotten a damaged hand.
Quote, after a bit a train pulled out and he tried to obey the orders, but that upholder of law and justice saw him and habitually took a shot at him.
His intentions were of course the very best.
He's a sarcasm.
Okay.
His intentions were of course the very best, but being a poor shot he only succeeded in crushing the man's hand.
The poor fellow might starve to death though, so that bloodthirsty hyena may not get so badly disappointed after all.
Not being satisfied with disabling the man for life, he struck him several blows on the head and face with a sapper.
A tree sapper.
A sapper is a rubber hose with chunks of lead in the end.
So it's purely a weapon.
Or does it give you like a sprinkler vibe?
No.
Okay.
There's not a lot of other uses for it.
Sure.
For lead hose?
Yeah.
It's like something you make if it's like the apocalypse.
It's like an apocalypse weapon.
Right.
Even then I can think of better things.
You know what we should do is put some lead in that hose.
Yeah.
Seriously.
All right.
Great talk.
Now fellow workers, how long are those hired murderers whose chief delight is to see human blood flowing in streams going to slaughter and maim our class?
There is only one way to stop it, to unite on the industrial field.
Yours, Joe Hill.
It's a nice chirpy finish.
Joe fit right in with the radical IWW.
He soon rallied behind the cause of two Mexican brothers who were plotting to overthrow the government of Mexico from where they were living in Los Angeles.
Yeah.
So just via fax essentially?
Well, if there were a couple guys in Mexico right now who were like, we're going to overthrow the government.
I'd be like, what do you need?
Even though I like the government of Mexico right now, I would still just get on board.
Yeah.
Okay.
Know what I mean?
No, because he is a good...
Yeah, yeah.
He's good to get out.
Look, anything south of the border should be overthrown.
It's just America.
And there's a dictator named Diazou who was overthrown.
And then the two brothers, the Magran brothers formed with the idea of taking Baja California and creating a country for the working class.
Oh, like that.
Yeah, right?
Yeah.
Because it's also a nice area.
Yeah.
Which is on both sides.
That's right, yeah.
Retirement.
Retirement?
Yeah.
Well, it's for the working class.
Yeah, but if I'm there, I'm like, hey, we got this.
This is the winner's circle, boys.
How about some services?
Margarita, get around to Margaritas.
She passed away, and that's interesting.
Right now.
The army quickly spelled the several hundred.
Joe was said to be in charge of enlisting IWW members in LA.
When he was trying to incite his fellow rebels to use force to take Baja, Joe wrote, quote,
the workers may find out that the only machine worthwhile is the one which capitalists use
on us when we ask for more bread for ourselves and our families.
The one that works with a trigger, all aboard for Mexico.
Yours, Joe.
It's a terrible joke.
And they did invade.
A bunch of men from the US who were basically considered hobos.
Sure.
They literally did.
Like a hobo army went down to Mexico.
Oh, no.
A bunch of poets.
Which?
Yes, look at their hats.
Oh, they are two-kitch.
How about a poem, boys?
The hobo army took Mexicali and Tecate,
and they were then prepared to take on the Mexican army and fight for Tijuana.
A letter in the industrial worker asked for more IWW men to get involved,
quote, only a few of the IWW boys have been killed.
Is that your opener?
Yeah.
I think you might want to parenthetical that.
Just as some of us are dead, but it's fine.
And the revolution has been only supported by the Mexican-American members of the liberal junta
and the members of the IWW locals down here in California.
And right now, about half of the 250 here in Tijuana are members of the IWW.
So it's like a bunch of fucking union guys sitting down in a big, big crowd.
Right, right.
This should happen again.
It's fine.
I know.
It will happen again.
Yeah.
Just think of a bunch of fucking guys from an auto plant going out and invading Guatemala.
We're from AutoZone.
What?
We're the zone.
So are you.
I tell you, they shouldn't let us unionize.
Oh, God.
Look at that over the hill.
It's OOO O'Reilly Auto Parts.
Son of a bitch.
It's like fuckers.
You're lucky that O'Reilly is a national company.
I was very lucky.
The invasion lasted six months.
What?
Yeah.
We don't talk about it in our history books, but yeah.
But it's just like when you think of like the invasions nowadays, like Iraq or something,
it's like a week and a half.
Yeah, but this is different.
So this is like, you know, socialist believe in freeing the working man all around the
world.
So it makes sense.
Sure.
Yeah.
We'll set it in Iraq, buddy.
I'm not sure you know what happened in Iraq.
We had a podcast about it.
I would love to listen to it, my man.
It's pretty good.
The invasion lasted six months, but Mexican troops drove the rebels back across the border.
Hill would later say he had never been there, but several Wobbly members said he was.
Soon after, Joe was living in a shack on a beach in Hawaii with two other Wobblies.
They worked as longshoremen loading sugar onto boats.
I'd do that.
Yeah, that sounds much better than that.
Be a sugar loader.
Attacking Mexico.
For a beach shanty?
Fuck yeah.
I'd load this sugar.
In 1912, Joe participated in a demonstration of unionists, socialists, and suffragettes
in San Diego.
They were protesting a decision to prohibit the use of public downtown spaces for meetings.
Now, this is when Ben Reitman and Emma Goldman came to San Diego.
Right.
So he was there when all that went down.
His train was stopped by IWW, by Gauntlet, by fucking assholes.
Sorry.
And the Wobblies had to run Gauntlets.
One account said Joe was captured and beaten badly.
Okay.
Joe's obscure persona has been discovered through accounts of his close friends.
Joe was unusually quiet at union meetings, but enjoyed listening to the more philosophical
discussions.
He didn't drink.
Joe considered hard liquor a capitalist scheme to poison the working class.
Yeah, but it's like the one we're okay with.
We're like, it's true for sure.
And we've all been like, yeah, yeah, good call on that one.
We need that shit.
So thank you right there.
We are going to try to uproot your system.
But first, we've got a bucket of beers to dip into.
Someone said Yeagerbond's earlier.
I don't know.
I think we're out of those.
Then we're going to...
I forgot what we said we were going to do.
Should get pizza.
Yeah.
Capitalist pizza.
Yeah.
Papa John's.
We'll get Papa John's.
Capitalist slice.
Yeah.
Racist pie with garlic dripping drooly sauce.
Yeah.
Joe is popular with women, but he never had a steady girl.
Well, that's part of it.
I mean, if you get it, then that's part of it.
He was playing the field, so he can't be...
Keep going.
He avoided whorehouses.
Okay.
Sure.
He spent...
He's very tickled by that.
He spent much of his free time writing songs.
He would often play at wobbly events wherever he was living at the time.
The one immigrant worker in Seattle, quote,
no one heard Joe Hill sing or play could easily forget him.
He quickly rose through the union's ranks because of his music and passion for workers' rights.
He wrote and performed catchy political songs and sterical poems that could be used as rallying cries for laborers.
Okay.
This also attracted just people who didn't give a shit about unions because they liked the music.
Okay.
That's how you do it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, we would...
That would be a great service today if we had more of that music.
We don't anymore.
Anyway, keep going, buddy.
Joe's most popular song is The Preacher and the Slave
in which he coined the idiom pie in the sky.
Oh, all right.
He's the inventor of pie in the sky.
Yeah.
How about that?
Yeah, it's pretty good.
That's a legacy of some kind.
It was a parody of a Salvation Army hymn that criticized the Salvation Army for bringing the needy religious Salvation
instead of helping with hunger, employment, and housing.
Just saying.
Okay.
So he's kind of like a weird...
A union weird-out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a union weird-out.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
So the Salvation Army was like, would you like some Christ?
Oh, not food.
Oh.
There's some bread inside the end of that Bible.
But...
Oh.
Many workers called it the Starvation Army.
Goddamn kids.
It's so creative.
These rascals.
That's off to them.
That's fun.
Basically it was one of the main tools used by the Wobblies to get their message across to what were largely a literate, uneducated immigrant and working class audience.
Okay.
So Joe wrote tons of songs.
He would write them to fit different strikes.
Somebody's gone to a strike.
He'd write any song for whatever.
Right.
It was like how Elvis did like movies and wrote like...
That's where he wrote all his songs.
Instead of like any creative like force, he was just like, now this is about a surfing guy.
I think I'm right.
There's stuff that I didn't think was going to be an attack Elvis podcast.
Well, it's time.
I'm coming after him.
It's a disgusting animal.
Yeah.
He's like us at the end.
He's like, like America's like Elvis right now.
Yeah.
We're on the toilet eating a hand sandwich with a revolver and a beer.
Like, I think we got a hit left in us.
Just eating a bowl of bacon.
Yeah.
It's all going good.
Just drinking from the toilet.
Get Priscilla on the phone.
Elvis, this is...
Come on.
I've got a country for us to invade, sir.
The army is no more.
Come on.
Got one more.
Venezuela, I'm coming for you.
Still got it.
Still got it?
Yeah.
No.
I'm lost to Graceland.
So the way he got around was hopping trains.
Sure.
So that way he could get around really easily.
Sure.
Super easy.
And he introduced call and response songs to Italian dock workers in San Pedro.
So he started the whole thing.
Right.
That's big.
That's a bigger legacy than pie in the sky.
The guy who told the audience to say something bad.
What do we want?
Pies.
Where do we want them?
Now.
All right.
Let's try again.
And we want to separate my catchphrase from my new technique.
These are all caught up in that.
What do we want?
Pie.
No.
Say something like equal rights.
What do we want?
Equal pie.
That's better.
That's good.
That's better.
That's what actually works best.
We do want equal pie.
All right.
Well, don't respond anymore.
It's a spassy big ball.
Okay.
Listen.
The Italian stereotypes are here again.
Some people joined the Wobblies because of its music.
Richard Abrezeer.
Quote.
What?
Richard Abrezeer.
Yeah.
Hello.
I'm Richard Abrezeer.
Call me Dick Abrezeer.
Excuse me?
Yeah.
Yes.
Ooh.
Abrezeer, as you say.
Well, I'm just the dick for that.
Hey, listen.
I'm pretty uncomfortable.
No.
Maybe you should slip out of that Brezeer and let me put it down the back of my pants
for a while.
Hello.
I don't have a Brezeer on.
Meet my friend Penisbra.
Why are you here?
I heard it was told there'd be popcorn, but I see not.
They have pie.
It's got such a hack.
Richard Abrezeer, quote.
What first attracted me to the idea of fabric made out of nipples?
Oh, that friction.
Sorry.
Dick.
Dick, wait.
You just calm down.
You don't know Dick.
I got a mind of my own.
What first attracted me to the IWW was its songs and the gusto with which its members sang
them.
I heard these songs even before I came to Spokane and joined the union.
It's such singing.
I thought it was good propaganda.
It held the crowd for wobbly speakers.
Good propaganda.
It brings them in.
Yeah, sure.
We should get back to that.
Yeah.
Singing unions.
Yeah.
Great.
Within a year of joining the IWW, Joe was a beloved member of the union.
His songs were sung and being sung in Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Wales.
They were translated into Swedish, Finnish, Russian, hungry, French, Spanish, Italian.
So he's fucking killing us.
Yeah.
He made his way to Salt Lake City.
I mean, even for the fact that we're here, that was an ambivalent reaction.
That was like if we said Salt Lake City in another city.
It wasn't good.
But I get it.
I get it.
Don't come crawling back, sir.
I mean, fuck.
That was an hour ago.
You guys fucked up.
Yeah.
Let's be honest.
What?
She yelled, we're insignificant.
It's the first time anyone's ever yelled that.
We're insignificant.
And then what if you give it a second time?
Why wouldn't you repeat it?
That's what I said.
Doesn't matter.
Joe worked at the Silver King Mine.
Sure.
He lived in Salt Lake for a while.
Now around 10 p.m. on January 10th, 1914, John Morrison and his two sons, Arling and
13-year-old Merlin.
What?
What else are you going to name your kid if he's a wizard?
Merlin.
Yeah.
I mean, honestly.
Dad, I want to dance over my dead body.
Go back to your spellbook.
Get it right.
Abracapocus.
Oh, my God.
This kid's an idiot.
So the family were closing up their store.
When two men, weighing red bandanas, entered.
One yelled at Morrison, quote, we've got you now and shot him with a pistol.
Merlin hid in the back of the store.
Arling loaded his father's revolver and shot at the men as they fled.
One returned fire and shot Arling.
Both Arling and John Morrison were dead.
So we just have Merlin in the back?
Yeah.
Now I will cast a spell.
And now it's the time.
The pressure's really on.
Oh, my God, I made ice cream.
Oh, my God, I made ice cream.
So John Morrison was next cop.
He recently retired because what the fuck was that?
Is that a phone?
Does somebody have a ghost phone?
Yeah.
Well, that's what he said.
Either turn him off or send him to booze.
I think that's fair.
I love that policy.
Oh, usually when you're cheering an open mic.
Usually you just hear comedian tears hitting Ash.
That might be the first comment going on.
So right now they're like, this is going to be okay.
So he's the next cop.
He recently retired.
Wait, who is this?
The guy who got killed.
John Morrison.
He recently retired due to fears of retaliation for men he had arrested.
He said he feared for his life and his families.
And then turns out, right?
Yeah, he was accurate.
Merlin gave a detailed account of the shooting to police and a vague description of the gunman.
Because he was hiding in back.
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
No money or items were taken from the store.
Okay.
So it was revenge.
Police concluded Arling wounded one of the gunmen because there was blood outside.
This is good cop work right here.
Yes.
And police thought it was revenge killing.
Yeah.
And they told the press that.
By the way, I said it was revenge killing first.
No, you did.
I mean, it was really amazing the way you put that together after what I said about him retiring
because he was worried people would try to get revenge.
Thank you.
I mean, I didn't say that we were revenge, I said retaliation, but your brain.
I'm just saying I said revenge and then the next thing you said was.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm not going to be this like, you know, I'm not going to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin this moment,
but someone took one giant step for man and someone was second.
Go ahead, Bobby.
Go ahead.
We'll let you have that one.
I don't think I have one every now and then.
Go ahead, buddy.
All right.
So Neil Armstrong's dead.
Go ahead.
I'm listening.
The cops had a list of 12 men.
The revenge list.
Yeah.
It had been arrested by Morrison and then recently released from prison.
Okay.
At 1130 on that same evening, Joe Hill went to Dr. Frank McHugh.
Joe had a bullet wound on the left side of his chest.
Jesus.
I'll wait.
No, ma'am, your throat hurts, please.
My heart is bleeding.
He said he was shot at a bar when a drunk man accused him of insulting his wife.
I mean, that's how that happens.
Yeah, I know.
And it's like we really have like, we've hit the curve where we're like, that doesn't happen
anymore, and now we're like, I see that happening more and more.
I can see this coming back in a very short way.
So as the doctor examined him, a gun fell out of Joe's clothing.
Okay.
Clang.
Oh, that's my gun.
But it was normal for people without guns.
Yeah, right.
Very normal.
In 1914, Utah hadn't been a state for 20 years yet.
There was tension between federal authorities and the Mormon population.
Sure.
There had been a lot of violence stemming from the practice of polygamy, which they were
into, and they wanted to keep fucking a bunch of ladies.
Well, again, this is like God after dark.
That's what polygamy Mormonism is.
It's like pervy God, where God was like, ooh, yeah, all that other shit, and fuck them
all, boys.
God, what are you talking about?
I'm just having a sniff of a brandy.
Don't worry about, oh, God, you don't think I'd like to get wet?
Everybody's beak deserves a dip.
What the fuck just happened?
I'm going to light up a smoke real quick.
Fuck, I'm not being God.
Put on the new Joe Hill.
I'm not that good.
Did Jesus just shake his hair?
Huh?
I'm God.
Jesus, I put him to bed a while ago.
When the cat's away, do that yoga bomb you won't shut up about.
You're saying your son is the cat?
Yeah.
When the cat's away?
Jesus is a pain in the...
I mean, I love the kid.
He's a great kid.
He's a great kid.
He's unbelievable.
I mean, look, he died for the sins.
He's unbelievable.
This kid's going to be better than his dad, but right now, what he doesn't know doesn't
kill him.
I mean, I'll talk about a wrong turn of phrase.
Holy shit.
Good lord.
He just said he died.
Good me, I should say.
Oh.
He said he's going to be better than you, but he's already dead.
Yeah, but dead is meaningless in this...
You are a foolish little man, aren't you?
So do you even be up here right now?
Now look, do you want to doers on the rocks or are you just going to be a loser all night?
You're a fucking asshole.
Hey, look, it's the seventh day.
It's my time, baby.
Did you just put that cigarette on the table?
Yeah, they're done hills.
I'm out of shits to give.
This is God after dark, baby.
You want to do a bump?
No.
Come on.
It's just a little cloud.
That's all that is.
Fucking...
Do a gummer and then watch God blow your mind like he blows his nose.
Here we...
Oh!
Let me tell you about your rafts.
Hey!
Talk about a coke bender.
I'd been up for weeks when I made the giraffe.
I was just looking at a horse and I was like,
what if you shook it up much?
Look, man, I just came here to get a gram.
Can I just get a little bit here a while?
All right.
Let's play a game of Mortal Kombat.
You watch me do some deadlifts, then you get a gram.
Huh?
You're in the Lord's den now.
Is there anybody else who sells blowers?
Not the good shit.
You want to go snort a little baby powder?
Go talk to Jesus.
You want some shit that's going to numb your face and your genitals?
You stick right here with God.
Wait, genitals?
Yeah, that's right.
I'm not going to repeat myself.
Well, you're a bummer.
It's just going to have someone over to spill it out.
Yeah, you can see why.
I mean, you're completely out of fucking control.
Like, you can do literally anything you want.
Like deadlifts.
Between a pop.
You're God, so it doesn't matter how much you can deadlift.
What do you think the most you can deadlift is?
Not as much as you.
You're not as much as me.
That's right.
Fuck!
Come on, do crystal with me and then we'll go for a walk.
I'm not going anywhere other than you're bleeding out of your nose.
Buddy, I've got so much of that stuff, it don't matter.
I invented the shit.
Wow.
Alright, here's your gram.
Thank you.
So, I'll see you later.
Yeah, look, come back any evening and I'll write this every night.
Yeah, I don't know.
There's this other guy.
He's got some good shit.
Fear of Satan.
I fucking love that dude.
That dude is so wild.
That dude's awesome.
He talks a lot of shit about you.
Hey, we have a real love hate thing, but I'll tell you what, we love to jam.
You get him on the bongos, you get me on the banjo.
Woo!
That's really awful.
He's the one who came to heaven to get some coke, so I don't have to tell you that.
And the way I tell St. Peter I was asleep, he's like a mother.
That's the worst.
Alright, my man, take care.
Alright, see you later.
Alright.
Okay, bye.
Alright.
How do I get out of here?
So, like we said, Mormons like to fuck a bunch of people.
Right.
But look at me.
Just 10 years earlier, the Cheech leadership officially prohibited polygamy.
Mormons were powerful members of the community and were very anti-union.
Most of their vitriol was directed at the Wobblies and their radical beliefs.
Sure.
So Wobblies like Joe Hill carried guns.
Okay, right.
He got to carry guns because of all the fucking Mormons.
Right.
Woo!
Same.
Yeah, nothing's changed.
Now, the bullet didn't hit any of Joe's vital organs.
The doctor was able to easily clean and bandage the wound.
Okay.
And then he had a friend drive Joe home.
Now, the friend said Joe asked him to stop at a vacant field where Joe went out and threw
something into the distance.
Sure.
So he was like, did we pull over?
I want to throw some stuff for you.
Sure, Joe.
Come on, buddy.
What do you do when you're passing a field?
You're like, oh, wait, I got some stuff.
Oh, hold on.
I got to throw out a bunch of stuff.
Close your eyes.
The next morning, the doctor read about the double murder and he went and told the cops
about Joe.
Three days later, the doctor visited Joe to reexamine the wound and deliver painkillers
to him.
After Joe took the medicine, he was feeling drowsy and that's when the police came barging
in.
Now, Joe was just laying there, you know, kind of out of it and confused, pretty much
undressed.
So he rolled over, grabbed his pants and a cop shot him in the head.
What?
No, we're doing this naked, boy.
You keep your dick out.
I won't see that shit.
We're the new dick detectives.
You ever get any coke on your balls?
I can hear you.
Sorry.
The boy.
You coming by later?
Yes.
No, I'm tired.
Sick.
Okay.
We'll play guitar hero.
We'll do it like the red hot chili peppers.
We'll put socks over our cocks.
All right, I got to go.
All right.
See you in a bit.
How do I hang up?
You don't.
I go.
Okay.
Yeah.
I'm like a ring cam.
I call it.
Okay, bye.
No, this is not bye.
This is hello again.
All right.
Very well.
See you in a bit.
Okay.
Hey, officer, can you shoot me?
So the bullet shattered most of the bones in Joe's hand.
Sure.
They arrested him and they assumed his roommate was a partner in the killings.
His roommate was auto apple quest.
Yep.
Well, I would definitely want that guy.
I want to talk to that guy about some stuff.
Apple auto quest.
Yeah.
That sounds like when you're like running some detection on your Mac.
Apple auto quest, please.
I have a virus.
But auto had left town when he heard about the murders.
Okay.
Auto was never found.
Okay.
Police found a single red bandana in the apartment, but no gun.
But arresting Joe also made no sense because it was a revenge killing and Joe had no connection,
no motive, and he did not try to leave town.
Right.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported when Joe asked how he was wounded.
He said, quote, I was in a fuss over a girl and I got shot.
I don't want to say where it occurred.
So he's cut.
Why won't he?
I think he doesn't want to drag the lady into it.
Okay.
He's a gentleman.
Right, right.
We got shot.
Sure.
Yeah.
The prosecutor suddenly said it was a robbery gone bad even though nothing was taken and
the killer yelled, we've got you now.
A robbery gone bad.
Is it a robbery that never occurred?
Yeah.
No, it was real.
It was so bad that it wasn't a robbery.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's so bad that it wasn't a robbery.
Yeah.
They took so much, nothing was taken.
Also, when Merlin.
Oh, right.
Young.
Young.
Little Harry Potter.
A tiny wizard.
May I?
When Merlin, the only witness, saw Joe for the first time, he said, quote, that's not
him.
Okay.
And again, he was basically in back the whole time.
Joe was facing the death penalty.
A few days later, Merlin changed the story and he now told the Salt Lake Tribune, quote,
Hill is about the same size and height as one of the men.
As the light was dim, I could not get a lasting impression of the man's features.
But Hill appears to be very much the same bill as the man who entered the store and from
whom I saw fire at my father.
After my father had fallen and the murderers saw that my brother intended to fire in return,
the man who I think resembles Hill crouched behind the end of the counter and shot my
brother.
Well, so.
He's definitely not talking to the police at all in this couple of years, right?
That's just, yeah.
They're right at the top of his head.
Wait a minute.
No, it was him, actually.
Yeah.
Joe couldn't afford a lawyer, so two local attorneys volunteered to defend him for free.
The prosecution proves 12 eyewitnesses who claim the killer looked like Joe.
Okay.
Like most of the people in Salt Lake City at the time, the killer was young, a white male
with an average bill.
Well, where are you going to find that guy in Utah?
I think they exist out here.
Oh, look.
All of that.
And now Merlin just identified Joe as the killer.
What an evolution.
Yeah.
Good for some.
Maybe Merlin does have a magic power.
Why?
Yeah.
Because he wanted you to recollect things that didn't occur.
That's right.
Halfway through the case, Joe fired his lawyers.
Okay.
He said their cross examinations were weak and that they weren't objecting to leading
questions.
Yeah, but we're free and there's nobody else.
Yeah, you're still fired.
Yeah, you shit.
In his statement to dismiss them, Joe wrote that quote, he believed they were acting in
partnership with the district attorney to convict him of a crime he had not committed.
Okay.
Interesting.
Joe declined the dismissal and then Joe refused to participate in the trial.
He would not testify and he never explained why.
But most of all, it was because he didn't want to drag a girl into it.
Okay.
So there's a ton of evidence indicating that Joe was not the killer.
Right.
Four men were treated for gunshot wounds that night.
Okay.
It's a great town.
Yeah, I mean, seriously.
I mean, how many people live there and five guys got shot one night?
And it's not like everyone's like, holy shit.
Did you hear what fucking happened last night?
It was a slow evening at the hospital.
Only five.
So the shooter yelling, we've got you now was not brought up at the trial.
The bullet that was supposed to have passed through Joe was never recovered at the crime
scene.
Okay.
Joe used supposedly was never found.
Okay.
Joe's accomplice was never found.
And the blood outside the store turned out to be from a dog's injured paw.
Yeah, that is very sad.
The dog is bleeding a lot.
So.
Do we follow the dog case at all in this or is that where we leave it?
He comes back at the end.
The dog does?
Yeah.
The dog did it.
Keep going.
Hurry up.
Get to the end.
This is huge.
Put it right there.
Please.
Where is the aquarium?
Wait, that's a dog?
Yeah, that's a dog.
What kind of dog?
That's from the Scooby family.
So that means that someone could have never been shot if the blood outside was removed.
Oh, right.
Yeah, right.
So now that it's linked Joe to the crime.
Your leaving was used against him, even though Otto had no police record.
The police publicized that Otto was Joe's accomplice and offered a larger reward for him.
Otto was never seen or heard from again.
Joe was arrested.
Before Joe was arrested, the suspect was an ex-con named Frank Wilson.
Morrison arrested him.
He'd just been released from prison.
And the night of the shooting, afterwards, witnesses said they saw a suspicious looking man on a streetcar leaning over as if he was in pain.
Okay.
Okay.
Couldn't be that guy.
No, probably not.
He was going, oh, my bullet.
Well, let's keep looking, Sarge.
There's nothing around here.
I got shot in the tum tum.
You know, I saw some funny footprints over that way.
Maybe if we follow that lead for a little while.
Oh, God.
Why did I shoot that cop?
Yeah.
There's something around here I don't like.
It stinks.
But it's not right here.
It's west.
I shot the sheriff, but I didn't shoot the wizard.
God, why can't that be a song?
Bob Merlin.
Yeah.
One of the witnesses identified Wilson as the suspicious man on the streetcar by a photograph.
And the cops were searching for Wilson when they heard about Joe and his wound.
Okay.
And, quote, learned Hill's identity as an IWW songwriter and suddenly their interest in
Wilson as a suspect faded.
Right.
Besides Wilson, four other suspects were arrested for the murder before Joe was.
Okay.
Quote, two were wanted for armed robbery in Arizona.
Another told lies to the police and a fourth had a bullet wound in his arm.
After Joe was arrested, all of those men were released and allowed to leave town.
For sure.
I mean, we've got our guy.
Yeah, yeah.
For sure, leave town.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, go.
Take a vacation.
Actually, we insist you go.
Get the fuck out of here, guys, you did it.
That's fun.
And Morrison's wife told police that he said to her, quote, if anything ever happens to
me, you may have to look up these two men.
And he told these guys names.
Jesus.
That's a lot of evidence.
The police would not disclose the names of the men and did not pursue the lead.
Probably because the men that he named were citizens in the neighborhood.
Also, a news reporter said he interviewed Morrison about a previous armed attack and
Morrison said the same two men's names and that quote, they were out to get him.
But are there any clues?
Have we got any leads, boy?
The reporter offered a testify against the man and named them publicly, but prosecutors
did not.
As did the judge.
Yep.
Good.
Justice.
Fair justice.
That evidence.
That's always been.
Totally different.
Yeah.
And then the police chief of San Pedro, who, by the way, San Pedro's near Los Angeles,
who held Joe for 30 days for vacancy during a strike, wrote to the Salt Lake City police,
quote, I see you have under arrest for murder one Joseph Hillstrom.
You have the right man.
He is certainly an undesirable citizen.
He is somewhat of a musician and writer of songs for the IWW song.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He got dead in a dig in there.
Yeah.
Somewhat.
I mean, what an ability to know who did it from so far away.
San Pedro?
Yeah.
I mean, unbelievable ability.
That's how Utah solves 95% of its murder.
Yeah.
But we're going to do a police line up.
Yeah.
We're going to go to another state.
We're going to get letters from the coast of California.
That's how we will solve our crime.
The letter fueled the prosecution's case and turned the trial into a media circus.
That's always a good thing to hear.
Because, you know, the media is going to give it to you.
They help.
So straight.
They help out.
So helpful.
The Utah police, press, government, and judicial system were all under the influence of the
trust and the Mormon church, and they backed the San Pedro cops crew.
I know.
I know.
I know you guys have heard this, but the Mormon church, pretty fucking big here.
Yeah.
It's super cool towards gays.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very understanding.
Especially the church.
Yes.
To be fair.
The jury found Joe Hill guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Get him.
Get him.
Hey, it's actually a good thing.
You can come up here and hang out with your old boy, the Lord.
Have you heard Yellow Submarine?
I've got both sides of the vinyl.
We're going to have so much fun.
Joe, trust me, baby.
It's nothing.
Get up here, you old scamp.
I don't want to.
I got a cot at the end of my bed.
You can sleep in.
But by the way, you're not going to need to sleep.
It's the seventh day.
And on the seventh day, he snorted.
Oh.
Okay, I'll do one.
All right, so you freaking out a little bit.
Get up here.
I don't want to now.
I want to go down.
Well, either way.
You're partying.
How does purgatory work?
How can I get in there?
It's a myth.
Fuck.
Yeah.
All right.
I'll do some blow.
Yeah.
Just 20 bucks.
What?
20 bucks.
You got to pay your share.
It's not a charity.
It's not a fucking mind.
Is it that?
Well, then do your thing.
I mean, I'm just telling you.
It's not a charity.
By the way, the whole system you set up here is shit.
Hey, I put some really good pieces in place.
You idiots fucked it all up.
That's why I got to come back at some point.
You know Bloomberg is fucking moving up in the polls.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
I do.
And I'll be honest.
I never finished his legs.
I don't know what he's standing on.
Joe was given the choice of picking hanging your firing squad.
Well, at least there is some justice.
Joe said quote, I'll take the shooting.
I've been shot a couple of times before and I think I can take it.
Now Joe, you don't understand how this works.
That's not at all how it works.
You guys just shoot me twice and then if I survive, I get to go.
And to be honest, I don't think rope would be fair.
I have too close for a relationship to rope.
Go ahead and shoot me the legs, guys.
You know what my heart is in my hands.
So shoot there, boys.
Two shots.
That's what we agreed to.
Sorry?
Oh, all the shots.
Oh, I don't like my chances in this race.
Oh, it's not a race.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
I guess I'll take what's behind the door.
Okay.
So the decision was appealed to the Utah Supreme Court.
Joe got a new lawyer who basically said this is all happening because he's a member of IWW.
The governor of the time, William Spry, was pro-boss and anti-union to his core.
Sure.
During his tenure, Utah had some of the worst working conditions in the nation.
The International Socialist Review, quote,
the Big M. Kangan area, a locality employing nearly 5,000 men,
was the site of 440 on-the-job deaths in 1911 alone.
I mean, that is so bad.
Like in 1911.
High rates.
440.
Like what?
I mean.
That's like, you're getting close to 10% of the workforce.
That's dying.
Wow.
There should be some regulations or something.
Yeah.
Well, and then the good news is you have a place like Amazon where they are number one.
Utah legislature, because of this passed a bill requiring corner investigations for all
minors' deaths, but Governor Spry vetoed it.
Yeah.
Well, who needs to know?
Yeah.
Thank you.
Also, bodies get in the way of profits.
Yeah.
That's true.
Yeah.
Isn't it more fun to invent the reason why they died?
Yeah.
Chocking it up to poor factory conditions.
He went down and got tuberculosis and died in one day.
Yeah.
And in that 24-hour TB.
Joint.
Yeah.
And then Utah union organizing was vehemently opposed.
One strike breaking agencies shot and killed workers all with the knowledge of the state
and government local police.
Governor Spry endorsed anti-union violence by permitting minors to deputize company government
as sheriffs.
Mm-hmm.
All good.
Yeah.
Joseph Chilbert for 22 months while his decision was appealed, the IWW led an international
campaign to save him.
It got tons of media attention worldwide, thousands of people sent letters.
The daughter of the president of the Mormon church wrote letters to national leaders for
Joe, the Swedish ambassador to the United States, wrote a telegram to Woodrow Wilson.
The appeal was denied.
But the Utah Board of Port Partons said they were willing to hear testimony in a closed
session from the woman or husband who allegedly shot Joe.
Okay.
So, like, let's bring the lady out.
Right.
They refused to identify anyone saying you would harm the reputation of the woman and
drag her into the truck.
Wow.
Okay.
Anti-Coby.
Yeah.
Hits.
Oh!
Oh!
Yeah!
Is it still too early?
Oh, yeah!
Historians believe that Joe was protecting the identity of a secret sweetheart.
He wrote a letter to the Board of Partons.
The state has no right to inquire into the origins of this wound.
The Chief Justice responded, quote, the unexplained woman was a distinguished remark.
The defendant may not avoid the natural and reasonable inferences for remaining silent.
Okay.
So, he's not going to tell them how they got shot.
Wow.
Yeah, it's called chivalry.
Yeah.
It is believed he knew he couldn't win.
So, Joe thought he couldn't win either way.
Right.
And all that would happen is he would drag a woman into him and it would be...
Yeah.
I'm sure the media is not like today.
But you know if that can of worms gets opened, it's over.
Yeah.
He may have seen also dying for the Union cause with the entire world watching would create
a martyr who could rally millions to his cause.
Unless you get to hang out up here.
That's shit.
I don't.
That's a negative.
I've got those long jobs that just have a hole in the back.
Yeah.
Just for when we got to go.
Okay.
Which is not going to be alive with the amount of blow.
Like a little trap door.
I guess I thought it would be different.
It's a back flap.
Okay.
I figured that's what it is.
I got our initials on them.
Okay.
Mine's TL.
Yours is GA.
Is there no one else you can hang out with?
Why are you getting...
My page is broken so I'm like not getting a lot of pages.
Okay.
I'm going to sing a song.
Okay.
Okay.
So Helen Keller, who is a socialist, wrote President Woodrow Wilson.
She said the trial was not fair and the sentence wasn't just.
She asked him to say the execution.
The Swedish ambassador did the same.
So Woodrow Wilson wrote a personal letter to Governor Spry asking him to delay the execution.
Quote, respectfully ask if it would not be possible to postpone the execution of Joseph
Hilstrom, who I understand is a Swedish subject until the Swedish minister has an opportunity
to present his view of the case fully to your excellency.
Letters then flooded the governor's office.
He didn't give a shit.
He wrote President Wilson, quote, your inference, your interference in this case may have elevated
to an undue importance.
And the receipt of thousands of threatening letters demanding the release of Hilstrom,
regardless of his guilt or innocence, may attach a peculiar importance to it.
All right.
It's nice to write a fuck you letter back to the president.
The audience decided not to be like me.
Hey, Mr. President, why don't you suck my balls?
Telegram that back to him.
Gentlemen, I've received a letter from the governor of Utah and it is a wonderful invitation.
Please come and suck on my balls.
I will be in Utah for a while.
And as I go, I will be working on my mouth muscles.
Utah.
Look at how uncomfortable this guy's getting.
He's sweating like he's going on trial.
The governor received threats.
The Salt Lake Telegram reported 500 laborers in Tacoma wrote to the governor, quote, we,
the working men of Tacoma in a mass meeting, 500 strong, forbid you to murder our fellow
worker, Joe Hill.
You'll be held personally responsible for his well being.
Joe wrote in a socialist journal, quote, there had to be a goat, a scape goat.
And the undersigned being as they thought a friend was tramp, a sweet, and worst of all,
an IWW had no right to live anyway and was therefore duly selected to be the goat.
Now, if the people of the state of Utah want to shoot me without giving me half a chance
to state my side of the case, bring on your firing squads.
I'm ready for you.
I wrote.
No, no, no.
I'm not done with my letter.
Oh, sorry.
Sorry.
You shouldn't say it out loud if you don't want us to.
No, we're ready to do it.
We're ready to do it.
I'm working it through in my head.
All right.
Go back.
Go back.
Sorry.
I have lived like an artist and I shall die like an artist.
Okay.
Now, yes.
All right.
Enough.
I get it.
I get it.
I get it.
I'm not fucking butch-casting the Sundance Kid.
Why don't you fucking relax?
Okay.
November 18, 1915, around 10 p.m., Joe gave his will to a prison guard.
He requested he be cremated and scattered in the wind.
At 5 a.m. on November 19th, Joe broke the handle of a broom that had been given to him
to clean his cell.
He then tore blankets off his bed, twisted the strips through the bars of the cell,
and slid a mattress against the door.
When guards tried to remove the barrier, Joe hit them with the sharp end of the broom handle.
So he's sort of Captain America himself in there with a mattress shield?
And a broom sword?
Yeah.
And the guards are like, well, we've never seen this before.
What the hell do we do here?
I don't know.
He's just being super annoying.
No.
No, you don't.
One guard got through and punched Joe on the stomach and then a couple more pushed through.
Joe kept fighting in overpowered two guards.
The two were bloody and laying on the floor of his cell when the other guards arrived.
And the sheriff, who had become friends with Joe over the couple years he was there,
the sheriff said, quote, Joe, this is all nonsense.
And Joe said, what do you mean?
And the sheriff said, you profess to die like a man, Joe.
Well, I'm through, but you can't buy him a man for fighting for his life.
Yeah, that is dying.
Like that is a brave, that's brave.
That's how you go out.
Yes.
Speed up as many guards.
Ah, come on.
You're being a little, you're being weird brave.
Just be brave, brave.
I'm being punchy brave.
Come on.
The broomstick.
Yeah, it's pretty.
The broomstick stops real weird.
I made a spear.
Yeah, sort of.
A union spear.
At 35, Joe Hill was executed by a firing squad on November 19, 1950 for being a socialist by the state of Utah.
Yeah.
And they would do it again.
Yeah.
They're planning it.
Uh, when the deputy yelled, ready, aim, Joe shouted, quote, fire, go on and fire.
Honestly, if you're in that position, I think lunch is a better thing to scream.
Just for a shot.
Ready, aim, launch.
See, if some guy's like, oh, shit, we're going to get it.
All right, that's lunch.
Then you get behind that mattress and in a room again, you're like, I got another 10 minutes left.
Yeah.
The day Joe was executed, a bomb was planted at the precedent of the standard oil company's private estate to protest Joe's execution.
It was found by Gardner and defused.
I mean, that is...
That guy is awesome.
Whoever that guy is, he's like, let's go fucking blow up an oil man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A funeral was held in Salt Lake.
Governor Spry sent three undercover agents to find out if anyone was planning to kill him.
Joe?
It's fine if anyone's going to kill the ashes.
I don't trust this yet.
They're going to double-blom up like a twice-baked potato.
Well, then God gets the iron.
Ooh, a little bump.
Oh, Joe.
Holy shit.
Gone but not forgotten.
Big Bill Haywood, the founding member of the IWW, received a letter from Joe after his death.
Quote, goodbye, Bill.
I mean, by the way, I want to pull that move.
I want it like my last week, if I get it, you know.
Yeah, just a ton of letters.
I would send out...
Postumous postage.
I would send out just valentines.
Yeah.
Hawaii's cool, you know.
So he sends a letter to Big Bill Haywood right before he dies and gets to Bill afterwards.
Goodbye, Bill.
I die like a true blue rebel.
Don't waste any time in mourning.
Organize.
Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line?
I don't want to be found dead in Utah.
That's very good.
Yeah.
Very, very good.
I like your valentine idea a lot, but by a hair that wins.
Goodbye, Bill.
Well, farewell.
So Joe is cremated and his ashes were put into 600 ebonylobes and sent to IWW offices in every state except Utah.
That is dope.
Ashes were also sent to members in South America, Europe, Asia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.
You better have a heads up on what's in that envelope though.
Otherwise...
Was that anthrax?
Each envelope contained a photograph of Joe, a mock paper headline that read,
Joe Hill murdered by the capitalist class.
Wow.
And a copy of his last will, which said he wanted to be scattered.
Joe Hill's official procession was held in Chicago and was attended by thousands, I think like 30,000.
Traffic had to be shut down for several miles within Chicago.
Well, that sounds like Chicago between 47 miles.
Attendants wore IWW pennants that said,
Don't mourn, organize.
Or red ribbons that said,
Joe Hill murdered by authorities of the state of Utah.
The political left uses the slogan,
Don't mourn, organize to this day.
The state of Utah indeed created a martyr.
His execution became a rallying cry for workers across the world and was seen as proof
that the government and big business were conspiring against the working class.
His songs became the most recited chance in labor strikes.
But the IWW split and fell apart in 1924.
In 1916, a bomb was found in Governor Spry's yard and six wobblies were arrested.
I couldn't find out what happened to him after that.
In the 1940s, a Stanford professor extensively researched Joe's case
and he concluded that Joe's roommate, quote,
Otto Applequist was in fact murdered by the very police who were pretending to search for him.
Otto was most likely killed because he was the only witness
who could have confirmed Joe's alibi and therefore his innocence.
In 1988, an envelope that was seized for subversive potential in 1970,
in 1917 by the U.S. Post Office was found and included the photo of Joe,
the letter and the ashes.
It was stored in the White House's National Archives building until the IWW found out
and they said they should get the ashes.
And after negotiations with the government, the ashes were turned over but not the envelope.
Billy Bragg and Otis Gibbs drank some of the ashes with Union brewed beer.
Bits were cast to the wind in U.S., Canada, Sweden, Australia and Nicaragua.
Sweden decided hit the ashes they got.
We put inside the wall of a Union office besides a plaque commemorating hill.
And in the early 2000s, New York University archivists were transferring communist party
of the United States materials to another archive when one was in the Communist Party USA headquarters
and they found a box hidden under a desk and the box contained one item.
The final will and testament of Joe Hill.
Wow.
Yeah, so congratulations, you guys killed a socialist.
Woohoo!
It's good, good for you.
Oh, good for you.
Yeah.
No, I'm sure you killed a lot more.
This was just a really important one.
Yeah.
But no, you guys will kill more soon.
Anywhere where there's an Amazon warehouse there's gonna be a socialist dying in a couple of years.
Wish I was kidding.
Yeah, the inability to keep unions forever is really such a fault line for us.
No, it's great.
It's terrible.
You must destroy...
Capitalism.
America.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, it's true.
I mean, you don't have Jeff Bezos if you have unions.
We need that guy because he'll eventually control the media, the water, the food.
I like a guy with $200 billion who looks like Lex Luthor.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, just built a golf course on his property.
Yeah.
I mean, like, imagine.
Oh, I'm imagining so many things right now.
Diff, diff.
I'm not good at the golf courses.
Like what?
Turning him into a golf course.
Uh...
You can just stretch him.
How much can you stretch Jeff Bezos?
Is this a game show?
Yeah.
Pretty good.
I think it might be.
Look, when we take over, we're gonna make that one happen.
It will be fun to eat him.
It will be fun.
His head's chewier than I would have imagined.
No, it's as chewy as I thought.
Well, that's a very weird conversation we're ending on.
He's got calamari head.
Uh...
Well, by the way, tip your waist out.
Yes, tip the hell out of your waist out.
No pressure.
We're watching you.
$1000, miss. I mean, thank you so much. That's huge.
It's unbelievable.
You shouldn't have. That's so nice.
Uh...
You got anything else you want to talk about?
No.
They killed him.
Yeah, they killed him.
Yeah.
Motherfuckers.
Yeah.
That's okay.
You're alright, buddy.
Don't know.
Yeah.
He's up in the sky now, don't worry about it.
He's got his duplex.
He doesn't have a duplex?
Yeah, he does.
Yeah, of course he does.
He's got the top and then he rents out the bottom
so that he doesn't end up paying rent, really.
Takes care of itself.
He's got a plan, dude.
God is a shay real estate investment?
No, God knows how to get free rent.
Does he do time shares in Hawaii?
Potentially.
You don't know.
He works in mysterious ways, dude.
They're not like none of them are good.
Well, you know, take it up with him, man.
That's how I've been talking to you this whole time.
David.
You know.
Your father's up there.
What are you doing?
What are you drinking?
What are you holding up?
This guy's holding up a sign that says November 3rd, 1987.
I'm not going to yell because I don't know what it's for.
I'm not going to yell at something bad.
Like, that could be the day that Pee Wee was arrested
in a theater in Florida.
By the way, that was a liberating day.
I don't know about you, but I didn't feel comfortable
masturbating during films until that day.
Yeah.
I do.
Yeah, I know.
You were ahead of the curve.
We've all got everything.
Thank you guys so much for coming out.
We appreciate it very much, really.
We will be here tomorrow night.
Enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The sources for this episode are
Book Who, William Adler, the man who
never died, the life of time, some legacy of
Joe Hill, American labor icon,
Philip Sheldon, a phone-er, the case of Joe
Gibbs Smith, Joe Hill, and Wallace Stegner, Joe Hill, a biographical novel.