ATDDTA (6) who is Lew up against?

[bekah]

or
Who's pulling the spikes?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Labor_Wars#A_plot_to_derail_a_train>

A plot to derail a train

In the election of 1903, organized labor won a victory. Claiming that 
the mine owners controlled both the Republican and the Democratic 
candidates for county assessor, Teller county labor united behind a 
candidate on the Independent Citizens ticket, and won. A different 
story dominated the local news, however. A railroad track walker had 
discovered missing spikes.[112]

According to Peter Carlson, author of the book Roughneck, written 
about the life of WFM leader Big Bill Haywood, the incident at first 
appeared to be an attempt to wreck a train carrying strike breakers 
to non-union mines.[113] A former member of the WFM by the name of 
H.H. McKinney was arrested and confessed to K.C. Sterling, a 
detective employed by the Mine Owners' Association, and D.C. Scott, a 
detective for the railroad, that he had pulled the spikes. McKinney 
implicated the president of District Union No. 1, the president of 
the Altman local, and a WFM activist in an alleged conspiracy to 
wreck the train. But then McKinney repudiated his confession by 
writing a second confession, stating that he had been promised a 
pardon, immunity, a thousand dollars, and a ticket to wherever he and 
his wife wanted to go, to "any part of the world," if he would lie 
about the spikes. He didn't know who had pulled them, and the first 
confession had been brought to him, already prepared, while he was in 
the jail.[114]

McKinney and his wife were then given new suits of clothing, and he 
was granted "unusual privileges", allowed to spend time away from the 
jail for free meals and to see his wife. A trial was held for the 
three union men, and McKinney changed his story again, this time 
asserting that his original confession was true, and that the 
repudiation was false. He testified that he didn't know who paid for 
the meals and clothes.[115]

But some of the testimony in the trial implicated the detectives who 
had arrested McKinney. One of the two arresting detectives admitted 
to being employed by the CCMOA for "secret work," and a third 
detective confessed to helping plot the derailing. One of the 
detectives had also been seen with another man working on the 
railroad tracks.[116] The plot had been hatched by detectives 
employed by the railroad and the Mine Owners Association, with the 
intent of blaming the union.[117]

Rastall reported that McKinney testified he would be willing to kill 
two hundred or more people for five hundred dollars.[118] In his 
autobiography, Bill Haywood, the secretary treasurer of the Western 
Federation of Miners, stated that the president of the Victor Miners' 
Union and many other union men were on the train.[119] Haywood 
described McKinney as a "rounder and a pimp" who had also worked with 
a third detective named (Charles) Beckman, from the Thiel Detective 
Service Company. Beckman had worked undercover as a member of Victor 
Miners Union No. 32 since April. His wife was an undercover member of 
the union's Ladies' Auxiliary.[120]

Additional testimony indicated that Detective Scott inquired of a 
railroad engineer named Rush, where would be the worst place for a 
train wreck. Rush pointed out the high bridge where, if a rail was 
pulled, the train would crash three or four hundred feet down an 
embankment, killing or injuring all on the train. Scott told Rush to 
be on the lookout for damaged track that night at that spot. Later 
that evening Rush stopped his train, walked ahead on the track and 
discovered that spikes had been pulled.[121]

Sterling admitted in his testimony that the three detectives had 
tried to induce WFM members to derail the train.[122] But in Bill 
Haywood's perception, Detectives Sterling and Scott put all the blame 
on McKinney and Detective Beckman.[123] A jury of non-union ranchers 
and timbermen unanimously found the three union men "not 
guilty."[124] McKinney was allowed to go free on the train-wrecking 
charge, but was later arrested for perjury. He was released on $300 
bond, which the Mine Owners' Association covered.[125] Detectives 
Sterling, Scott, and Beckman were never arrested.
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