Inslee refuses to pardon IWW union men in 100-year-old Centralia murder case

January 10, 2025

                Washington Governor Jay Inslee has refused to pardon eight Centralia, Washington union men convicted in a controversial murder case following the 1919 Centralia Tragedy. The men, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), were convicted in 1920 “…in a trial that history has shown to have been marred by jury tampering, witness intimidation, and judicial bias” according to a statement by Cecil Roberts, UMWA International President. Five jury members later recanted their guilty verdicts after they were presented evidence withheld from them during the trial.

                The pardon petition was sent to the governor in 2023 by the North American Regional Administration of the IWW and the UMWA. It requested “…a full and complete pardon for the eight workers unjustly convicted and imprisoned.”

                The governor’s decision was announced in an email from his policy advisor, Barbara Serrano, to the IWW’s Centralia Committee. The notice said the Governor was “not comfortable passing judgment on events in Centralia and a jury trial that occurred more than a century ago”.

                Other supporters of the petition were the Washington State Council of Firefighters, the Kitsap Central Labor Council, labor historians, and surviving relatives of the union members.

                The convicted men, Eugene Barnett, Britt Smith, Ray Becker, John Lamb, James McInerney, Loren Roberts, and brothers Bert and O.C Bland, were Centralia-area loggers or coal miners. Their lawyer, Elmer Smith, was found not guilty but he was disbarred for representing them. IWW organizer Wesley Everest was pulled from jail and lynched the night of November 11, 1919. No one was ever charged with the murder. In 2022 the City of Centralia moved towards acknowledging the Union perspective by accepting an I.W.W. memorial in Washington Park.

                The trial followed the 1919 Armistice Day attack on the IWW’s Centralia union hall by members of the American Legion. The union men were advised that they had a legal right to armed defense of their office, which had been attacked and destroyed the previous year. In the attack, four Legion men- Warren Grimm, Ben Casagranda, Arthur McElfresh and Dale Hubbard, were killed. In the trial, no evidence was presented indicating that any particular defendant fired any fatal shots, and the jury recommended leniency. A ‘labor jury’ organized by Seattle, Portland, Everett and Tacoma Labor Councils sat through the trial and returned a ‘not guilty’ verdict. The guilty verdict was condemned by a number of church councils.

                The convicted union members were sentenced to 25-to-40 years at Walla Walla State Penitentiary.  McInerney died in prison; the rest spent between 11 and 19 years before they were paroled following pressure on the state’s governors from church, union, and civil liberties groups.