Illinois vs. August Spies et al. trial transcript no. 1. Direct examination and re-direct by Mr. Grinnell. Cross-examination and re-cross by Captain Black. Testified on behalf of the Prosecution, People of the State of Illinois. Officer who went on a patrol wagon to the riot scene at McCormick Reaper Works in response to a distress call from the officers at McCormick's. Testified on various topics (page numbers provide a partial guide): McCormick Reaper Works strike, meeting or riot (vol.I 415).
Testimony of John N. Enright, 1886 July 20.
Volume I, 415-421, 7 p.
Enright, John N.
Police officer, Chicago Police Department.
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[Image, Volume I, Page 415]
John Enright,
a witness for the people having been duly sworn and examined in chief by Mr. Grinnell, testified as follows:
Q What is your name?
A John Enright.
Q You are a police officer?
A Yes sir.
Q What is your position on the force?
A Police Sergeant.
Q At what station?
A Hinman.
Q How long have you been there?
A A year ago; I will be two years the first of September next.
Q How long have you been on the police force?
A Going on thirteen years.
Q Were you at your station on the 3rd of May last?
A Yes sir.
Q In the afternoon?
A Yes sir.
Q Did you respond to a call for the patrol wagon?
A I did, sir.
Q Were you on the patrol wagon?
A Yes sir.
Q How many officers accompanied you?
A I believe there were ten with myself.
Q Where did you go?
A To McCormick's Reaper Works.
Q When?
A At or about half past three in the afternoon.
Q When you got down there, what did you do? And what did you see---what did you see first and what did you do?
MR. SALOMON--We object to the testimony of this witness.
Objection overruled and exception by defendants.
MR. GRINNELL-- Answer, please. When you got down there what did you find? What did you see?
A I saw a large crowd of people there. Some of them throwing stones at the windows of Mc Cormick's Reaper Works, some breaking the furniture of the outer office on the sidewalk.
Q Well, what did the police do?
A We drove through the crowd and got into the yard, commenced to drive them out of the yard, those that were stoning the building --drove them out as far as they could go against the body of the mob.
Q How did you drive them, with what?
A With our clubs.
Q When did the shooting begin?
A Well, after their rallies turned back on us we heard shots coming from different parts of the crowd, and we scattered, then, about twenty or thirty feet apart in order to keep the crowd back, and keep all the ground that we had cleared between the crowd and the building, and held that clear, and keep them from the buildings. They were throwing a shower of stones at us; some of them leading the crowd and encouraging them for to beat us back--some
different portions of the crowd.
Q You say you heard shots from the crowd?
A Yes sir, from different points.
Q Had the police fired before you heard those shots?
A Well that I could not state exactly.
Q When did the police begin to fire?
A When we heard shots fired from other points.
Q Did you fire?
A I did, sir.
Q Until after?
A I tried to speak to the crowd and pacify them, and tell them for to go back and keep back; if they would not, some of them would get hurt; the more I would try and pacify them or keep them back, the more they would throw stones at me, and the rest of the men, so when I could not keep them back, and they would be closing right in on to me, I would fire.
Q Where?
A At the crowd.
Q By the way, how long did that tumult and mob continue there in force? How long were you there in that tumult?
A Well, I imagine it was about from twenty or twenty-five minutes.
Q After it was over with, I suppose you went out to pick up the dead and wounded?
A Well, we went to look around to see if there was any dead or wounded there and we did not find them.
Q Did not find anybody?
A No sir.
Q Did not find any body lying on the ground dead?
A No sir.
Q And so far as you know you found no injured ones?
A No.
Q Is that true?
A That is so--Not from the effects from any bullets.
Defendats' counsel move to exclude the testimony of this witness; motion overruled; exception by defendants.
Cross-examination by Mr. Black.
Q How many policemen were there in all, Sergeant?
A Either eleven or twelve, I believe it was eleven.
Q There were ten with you in the wagon that came to the ground, I understand?
A Yes sir.
Q How many policemen did you find there already?
A We did not find any at all.
Q Not any; where did the 11th man or the 12th man come from?
A Well, I am only saying that there may be twelve in the crowd counting the driver.
Q You made your way inside of the yard, and perhaps drove the crowd out of the yard, I understand, by the use of your clubs?
A Yes sir.
Q And after you fired--do you remember how many shots you fired?
A How many I fired?
Q Yes, personally.
A I do, sir.
Q How many?
A Five.
Q Emptied your revolver?
A Yes sir.
Q Was the firing pretty general from the men that were under your command?
A Well, I believe they answered back.
Q The question is, Was the firing pretty general from the men under your command.
A Whenever the crowd would close on to them.
Q That is not the question. The question is, Was the firing pretty general from the men under your command?
A I believe so.
Q None of the policemen were shot, were they?
A No. They were some of them wounded with rocks.
Q Sir?
A Not from bullets; there were from rocks.
MR. BLACK--Now, I move that the latter part of that answer be striken out, as irresponsive.
Motion overruled; exception by defendants.
Q Do you know who shot the rocks?
A Not any of them personally.
Q Did you see any machine by which they were shot?
A Excepting their arms.
Q They are machines, are they?
Objected to; objection sustained.
Q Do you understand that a human arm is a machine? In the ordinary sense of that term?
THE COURT--You need not answer that.
To which ruling of the court defendants excepted.
MR. BLACK--Did you see any rocks shot there?
A I saw them thrown there.
Q That is not the question: Did you see them shot?
A Not out of any gun.
Q Now, I will ask you again, Were any of the policemen shot?
A Just as I have told you before.
Q Were any of the policemen shot?
A Not with bullets.
Re-Direct Examination by MR. GRINNELL.
MR. Enright, just one question; Inspector Bonfield has suggested it: You were the first patrol to arrive upon the ground?
A Yes sir.
Q Immediately there after, others came?
A Yes sir.
Q So that you had how many policemen there, all told?
A Well, we may have a couple of hundred.
RE-CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. BLACK
Q I asked you how many policemen there were all together and you
said eleven or twelve. How many do you say there were now?
A Well, do you mean on the first wagon, or afterwards?
Q No, I asked you how many were there all together--that was my question--on the ground?
THE COURT---Finally.
A Oh, there may be two hundred or thereabouts, more or less.
MR. BLACK--Now, your answer that the firing from the men was pretty general, referred to all the policemen that were there, didn't it?
A It referred to the eleven or twelve men.
Q Well, was it true also, that the other policemen fired?
A No sir; they were not there at the time of the firing.
Q They came afterward?
A Yes sir.
Q Did not arrive on the ground, unti,l after the firing was over?
A No sir.
Q So that the only policemen who fired were the men under your command?
A That is all that I know of.
Q The others did not get on the ground then, until the trouble was practically over, I understand you?
A Well, they commenced to scatter as soon as they saw the policemen coming to our assistance, and commenced to run across the prairie.