The Haymarket Trial

AI & VPO May 1, 2026

The Haymarket Trial: A Closer Look

Jury Selection — A Rigged Process

The juror you're referring to was Henry Ryce, a clerk who during voir dire (jury selection) openly admitted he had already formed an opinion that the defendants were guilty. He was seated anyway.

But the problems went far deeper than one juror:

The jury pool was assembled by a special bailiff, Henry Ryce, who was reported to have told acquaintances he was personally selecting jurors who would hang the defendants. He allegedly said something to the effect of "these men are going to be hanged as sure as death."
Potential jurors who admitted prejudice were still seated, while those who expressed any doubt about the defendants' guilt were dismissed.
The pool was stacked with businessmen and white-collar workers — no one sympathetic to labor or immigrants.
Defense attorneys repeatedly objected to jurors who admitted bias, but Judge Joseph Gary overruled nearly every objection.

Judge Joseph Gary — Anything But Impartial

Judge Gary was arguably as problematic as the jury:

He allowed the prosecution to pursue an entirely novel and legally dubious theory — that the defendants were guilty of murder not because they threw the bomb, but because their speeches and writings had inspired whoever did.
He made rulings consistently favoring the prosecution throughout the trial.
He was later criticized by legal scholars as having presided over one of the most biased trials in American history.
Shockingly, years later Gary actually wrote a self-congratulatory magazine article about the trial, defending his conduct — which many found deeply inappropriate for a sitting judge.

The Prosecution's Theory — Guilt by Association

This is perhaps the most legally disturbing aspect of the trial. Prosecutor Julius Grinnell's strategy was radical:

He never identified who threw the bomb.
He never proved any defendant had prior knowledge that a bomb would be thrown.
Instead, he argued that because the defendants had publicly advocated for revolution and workers' armed resistance in speeches and newspapers, they bore collective moral and legal responsibility for the bombing.
In essence, men were sentenced to death for their political beliefs and rhetoric — not for any direct criminal act.

This would be constitutionally unthinkable today under First Amendment protections, but in 1886 it was allowed to stand.

The Defendants — Who Were They?

The eight men tried were a mix of labor organizers and anarchist writers, most of them German immigrants:

Name	Background
August Spies	Editor of the German-language anarchist paper Arbeiter-Zeitung; spoke at Haymarket
Albert Parsons	American-born, former Confederate soldier turned radical labor organizer
Adolph Fischer	Printer, anarchist
George Engel	Toy shop owner, anarchist organizer
Louis Lingg	Young carpenter; the only one who arguably had direct bomb connections — he made bombs, though not proven to be the Haymarket bomb
Michael Schwab	Journalist
Samuel Fielden	The speaker at the podium when police moved in
Oscar Neebe	Labor organizer; given 15 years rather than death

Notably, Albert Parsons was not even at the police confrontation — he had left before the bomb was thrown. He actually turned himself in voluntarily, believing he could prove his innocence. He was wrong.

Louis Lingg — The Most Defiant

Lingg deserves special mention. Only 22 years old, he was the most unrepentant of the defendants. He:

Openly declared his belief in violent resistance to oppression.
Was found with bomb-making materials — giving the prosecution its strongest evidence against any individual.
The night before the scheduled executions, he died in his cell from a dynamite cap exploding in his mouth. Whether it was smuggled in by a sympathizer for suicide or planted by authorities has never been conclusively settled. He reportedly said beforehand, "I will die as I have lived — an Anarchist."

The Appeals Process — Doors Slammed Shut

The defendants appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in Spies v. Illinois (1887), ruling it was a state matter. This was a significant early precedent, and a deeply controversial one, essentially allowing the convictions to stand without federal review.

The Hangings — November 11, 1887

The executions of Spies, Parsons, Fischer, and Engel became a solemn moment in labor history:

They were dressed in white shrouds and hanged simultaneously.
August Spies' last words were: "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."
Albert Parsons began to speak but the trap door dropped before he could finish.
Tens of thousands attended their funeral procession through Chicago's streets.

Governor Altgeld's Pardon — 1893

When Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the three surviving prisoners (Neebe, Schwab, and Fielden) in 1893, he didn't just quietly release them — he issued a lengthy, scathing document methodically dismantling the trial:

Attacked the jury selection as fraudulent.
Condemned Judge Gary's conduct as biased and improper.
Argued the evidence never established the defendants' guilt.
Called the entire proceeding a perversion of justice.

The political consequences were swift and brutal. Altgeld was denounced as an anarchist sympathizer, a traitor, and an enemy of law and order by the press and political establishment. He lost his re-election bid in 1896 and his political career never recovered. He died in 1902, largely vindicated by history but broken by the backlash.

The Unresolved Mystery

The bomber's identity has fascinated historians for over a century. Leading suspects have included:

Rudolph Schnaubelt — a German anarchist who fled Chicago shortly after and was never extradited. Many historians consider him the most likely candidate.
A police agent provocateur — some have argued the bomb was thrown by someone working for or manipulated by authorities to justify a crackdown. This remains speculative but not entirely dismissed.

No conclusive proof has ever emerged. The mystery endures.