Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror by Dean A. Strang

Abstract

Reviewed by: Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror by Dean A. Strang Jeff Johnson Dean A. Strang, Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. 268pp. $21.95. On November 24, 1917, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stood at the center of a turbulent period in American history. That evening a bomb exploded at the city’s police station, killing nine policemen and 1 civilian. What was presumably the work of anarchists became part of the period’s much broader story of discord, with important implications for immigrant communities. Dean Strang’s Worse Than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror offers a useful insight into an important, though lesser-known moment. The crucial backstory to the attack was the city’s prominent Third Ward Italian population. Outlined in the first two chapters, they emerged at the delicate balance of ethnicity and faith with varied allegiances to the mother country and the church. A key figure within the community was Rev. August Giuliani. Evangelical and patriotic, he organized several visits to the Third Ward in August and September, culminating in a riot on September 9. The authorities blamed unpatriotic malcontents and radicals among the Italian community, and, remarkably, when the November attack occurred, police arrested dozens of “radical” Italians and (with many of them nearly illiterate and held without charge) held eleven from the Bay View Riot, and accused them of the earlier bombing. The book includes sound background on anarchism (and its varied voices) in the United States. Notable individuals like Johann Most and Luigi [End Page 129] Galleani may have found admirers among Bay View Italians, we are told, and Emma Goldman was particularly connected to the 1917 attack, as she advocated for the eleven accused. Yet the central characters of the book seem to be lawyers. District Attorney Winfred Zabel orchestrated the prosecution. Leading the defense was William Benjamin Rubin, a former partner of Zabel’s, and their professional relationship turned “acidic,” according to Strang (87). Rubin had a passion for the plight of the working-class, but had focused his practice on criminal defense. In 1917, though, Rubin defended ten of the elevent accused of the bombing. In the end, and not surprisingly, all eleven (ten men and one woman, most of whom could not understand the proceedings) were all found guilty and sentenced by the young Judge A. C. Backus to twenty-five years of hard labor in Waupun, Wisconsin. At the head of the quick 1918 appeal was famed Chicago attorney Clarence Darrow. Darrow, self-described “General Counsel to the poor,” was at the center of countless cases that mattered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that students of labor, race, and justice will undoubtedly recognize (Pullman, Steunenberg in Caldwell, the McNamara brothers, Sweet in Detroit, and Leopold and Loeb). In the book we learn as much about Darrow, if not more, than we do about the accused (which understandably is a problem of sources, but readers are offered only brief moments of biography and postscript). In collaboration with his partner Peter Sissman, Darrow mounted the ultimately successful (for nine of the defendants) appeal. The book communicates well that this case was in many ways about power and unequal shows of it. Photographs of the perp walk of the eleven, depictions of the accused in the press, and a jury composed almost exclusively of business-friendly members all demonstrated a stacked deck. And the eagerness to pin the act on presumably disloyal immigrants fueled a common refrain during the period: that a much broader conspiracy threatened the nation, rightfully according to Strang, that were branded a “shadowy network of anarchists, labor radicals, and socialist,” and “antagonists” in “black hats” (55–56). For some among the working-class, socialists, anarchists, and labor organizers, there was a stark polarity during the period. As Strang writes, “it’s you against them, against the bosses, the owners, the people who oppress you,” and the author communicates this theme excellently (40). As with most books, some readers might ask questions in a few areas. The...