Union-busting, Klan-leading, serial killer Glen Young meets his mortal enemy, union miner Ora Thomas on the streets of Herrin. Both die. Young, a sadist responsible for up to 30 murders of unionists, miners, immigrants, and personal enemies–also an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Investigation–was seen by Ora Thomas, U.M.W.A. miner, anti-klan former sheriff and Flaming Circle member, on January 24, 1925 at a local cigar store in Herrin. Eyes met, guns were drawn, and in seconds Thomas had laid Young and his two bodyguards in a deserved grave. Thomas, fatally wounded in the exchange, died on the floor of the cigar stand next to his mortal enemies. After the 1922 ‘Herrin Massacre’ where UMWA miners decisively defended their strike from scabs and hired Klan gunmen killing dozens of strike-breakers and thugs, a reign of terror descended on the Southern Illinois coal fields. The Klan took over whole towns, deposing elected bodies, and made a concerted effort to infiltrate and smash the UWMA. Militant mining communities revolted, and a complicated class war raged in the coal fields for decades, with the bloodiest years in the mid-1920s. Other factors came into play; the John L. Lewis and Farrington bureaucracy, anti-Communist union leaders making common cause with the Klan, Democratic and Republican political machines, the ‘Knights of the Flaming Circle’ anti-klan defenders, prohibition and racketeering, politically divided progressive miners, and a helluva lot of violence. However, the militant miners never surrender to the Klan.

‘Glenn Young, Klan Raider, Meets Death’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 13. January 27, 1925.

Led Gang in Assault on Deputy Sheriff

(Special to The Daily Worker). HERRIN, Ill., Jan. 25. Glenn Young, Ku Klux Klan murderer, has been killed here, after leading a gang of gunmen in an assault on Ora Thomas, deputy sheriff.

Thomas was attacked by 14 klan gunmen, who led by Young, opened fire on Thomas as he was walking down the principal street of the town unaccompanied.

Recently Returned to Herrin.

Thomas ran into the European Hotel and barricading himself behind the clerk’s desk, returned the fire of the klan killers. Thomas, before falling to the floor mortally wounded, shot and killed Glenn Young, and wounded Homer Warren and George Forbes, all klansmen.

Thomas had just returned to Herrin, after an absence dating from the latest shooting in which an automobile load of klansmen, which included Homer Warren, attacked Thomas and Galligan anti-klan sheriff of Williamson county, in front of the Smith garage.

Six men were killed in this shooting, three of the attacking klansmen being shot, and retreating before the fire of the deputy sheriffs. Young had paraded the streets armed to the teeth and looking for trouble. He had been staying at the Lyman Hotel where he declared he was writing his autobiography. Troops have again been called from Carbondale by Governor Small. Many of the militiamen are also members of the ku klux klan.

Had No Official Authority.

Glenn Young gained prominence as a man killer. For 15 years he worked for the department of justice, spending most of that time in hunting draft evaders and army deserters. Young is said to have received over $60,000 from the United States government in return for the men he killed or captured.

Young had boasted that he killed 30 men during his career. In 1920 Young came to Illinois working for the ku klux klan. His first act was to enter the home of a farmer at Madison, Illinois, and fire nine shots into the farmer’s body, killing him in cold blood. Young had no official authority for his murderous raids, being backed only by the ku klux klan.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n013-NYE-announc-NY-Edition-jan-27-1925-DW-LOC.pdf