A collection of articles looking at the murder of 22-year-old U.M.W.A. member, and Young Workers League militant, Boris Popovsky in court by a policeman/klansman in southern Illinois on July 15, 1924.

‘The Klan is the Murderer of Union Men’: The Killing of Boris Popovksy, Young Communist and United Mine Worker, July, 1924.

Klan Furnishes Bail to Policeman Killer by BARNEY MASS.

Communist Murdered in Court
YOUNG WORKER SLAIN BY COP IN KLUX TOWN

WEST FRANKFORT, Ill., July 18.—Boris Popovsky, 21, an active member of the Young Workers League of West Frankfort and the Workers Party was brutally slain in the city hall courtroom here by Policeman O.P. Bozarth. The latter, arrested for murder, is now on $10,000 bail believed to have been furnished by the Ku Klux Klan. The killer is still on the force. Popovsky was arrested while at work. He was driving a bakery wagon for the Home Bakery he and his brother George Popovsky conducted. The policeman charged him with driving too fast—an absurd charge, citizens of West Frankfort say—and brought him to the City hall building.

Slain in Courtroom.

Popovsky was assaulted in the courtroom while Justice Crim was making out the papers in the case. There were no other witnesses but from the officer’s own admissions he got into a bitter argument with his prisoner when the latter denied that he had exceeded the speed limit. The uniformed thug, working himself into a passion, suddenly brought the butt end of his heavy revolver down on Popovsky’s head, fracturing his skull. Popovsky died in the United Mine Workers Hospital.

Justice Runs Away.

A significant incident in the affair is the disappearance of Justice Crim shortly after the assault in his courtroom. Members of the United Mine Workers are demanding that Crim be brought back into town and forced to tell what he knows. The murdered youth was an active unionist. West Frankfort is one of the Illinois towns where the Ku Klux Klan has carried on its campaign of terrorism against union men and particularly those of foreign birth.

Ku Klux Terrorism.

Only a few years back the town established its 100 per cent American attitude by running out and killing all the foreigners in the town. A foreigner living there in that time, took his life in his own hands. Glenn Young has been removed by Bob Evans, of equal fame, as the K. K. K. organizer in that territory, and we can still see murderous activity of the K.K.K. prevail in Williamson County.

The killing of Popovsky should set into action the miners in that vicinity in protest against the high-handed tactics of the K.K.K. police in West Frankfort and his removal should immediately be demanded. The politics of that section should be cleaned out and the basis of this has been laid by the last act in the chain of organized murder. Lets clean out these 100 percenters and place in their stead the miners who are entitled to control their own destinies.

From the Daily Worker. July 19, 1924.

Y.W.L. DENOUNCES POLICEMAN SLAYER AND KLAN BACKERS.

The brutal murder of Comrade Popovsky, member of the Y.W.L. and an active and valiant worker for the cause of the working class is a matter that concerns every worker in this country. The Ku Klux Klan is rumored to have put up the $10,000 bond for his murderer, Policeman O.P. Bozarth. This indicates that he has the backing of the gang of hoodlums who have no respect for even their own laws. The murder of Comrade Popovsky in a courtroom shows that not even in an open court are workers safe from the brutes that protect capitalism. The workers of West Frankfort must unite their forces with all other workers to rid the country of their exploiters. They must work to establish a government of the working-class that will serve the workers and prevent the hirelings of capitalism from committing such horrible crimes in the future. The Workers of West Frankfort must fight against the parties controlled by the Klan. They must let the bosses know where they stand. The Young Workers League extends its sympathy to the parents, brother, comrades and friends of Boris Popovsky.

From the Daily Worker. July 19, 1924.

CONSPIRACY TO SHIELD SLAYER OF COMMUNIST

Only Witness, Justice Crim, “Didn’t See”

WEST FRANKFORT, Ill., July 22.—Further facts regarding the murder of Boris Popovsky, union miner and Workers Party member, in the court room of Justice of the Peace A.M. Crim came out at the inquest held here before Magistrate J.C. Randolph. These facts came out in spite of the evident desire of Justice Crim and police officers of this Ku Klux town to protect policeman Bozarth as much as possible.

Crim was the only other person in the court room at of the murder and he tried to say as little as possible. He was the magistrate before whom the policeman and his victim were appearing and presumably knew what was going on in front of him but he tried to persuade the coroner’s jury that he was too busy at his desk to know what was happening— when the murder occurred. He admitted, however, that he heard the officer charge Popovsky with speeding and that Popovsky indignantly replied. Then he heard a commotion, and the miner struck the 1 floor. Bozarth was standing in the door.

“I’ve Killed Him.”

“My God, I’ve killed him!” the Justice quoted the policeman as saying.

“Did you see any weapon?” Crim was asked.

“I SAW BOZARTH PUT HIS GUN INTO HIS SCABBARD.”

Neither the justice nor the policeman attempted to bring first aid to the lad as he picked himself up. Crim brought a bucket to scrub off the blood, but Popovsky had to wash his bleeding head unaided. Dr. Albert S. Albert of West Frankfort came in on a call from another policeman and looked the lad over. He made no examination for fracture, not thinking him hurt so severely. He heard Popovsky gasp to Bozarth: “This is a hell of a note to hit a man like this.” Bozarth did not deny the act, but excused himself by saying that the boy had called him a liar.

Not until the young miner got to the United Mine hospital did he get real attention, and then it was too late. There he went into convulsion after convulsion. The skull was trepanned by surgeons. The terrible effect of the blow from Bozarth’s gun is told as follows by Dr. Black of the hospital:

Smashed Like Eggshell.

“We opened the scalp and found a crack from the middle of the head extending downward toward the ear to the margin of the frontal bone on the right side.

“About midway of the linear crack was also a circular crack, both ends joining the crack above and below. A piece about the size of a dollar was broken out. The blood was flowing freely.”

A big clot of blood between the brain covering and the skull was removed, also a piece of bone an inch and a half by two inches and a half, but it was too late. The boy died.

Still on Police Force.

The Jury’s verdict was that Boris Popovsky died as the result of a blow from some unknown Instrument. Policeman Bozarth, the slayer, awaits Grand Jury action. He waived preliminary examination. He is out on $10,000 bail, believed to have been furnished by Ku Klux Klansmen, and is STILL ON THE POLICE FORCE.

From the Daily Worker. July 23, 1924.

Murder in Illinois

The murderer of Boris Popovsky in West Frankfort, Illinois, is out on bail, furnished by the Ku Klux Klan, and still on the police force of that city. Probably he will not kill another young worker until this case blows over. In order to be quite safe in the murder, Bozarth, the slayer, performed his deed in the courtroom. There was but one witness, a “justice,” so-called, and he says that he was so busy reading the paper that he really doesn’t know if Bozarth delivered the blow that crushed the skull of the young Communist.

Here is a case of cold-blooded murder, committed at the very seat of “justice.” That the latter was blind, according to tradition, is usual in cases involving workers. Murder is quite “all right” in southern Illinois, when it is committed against radicals, against workers, by Ku Kluxers or other hundred percenters. It is but a few weeks since a worker was shot in cold-blood, in reprisal for the wounding of Glen Young, the Volstead fascist. Justice has not worried about it.

Recall the great hullabaloo that went up when, in a pitched battle precipitated by imported gunmen, brought in to break a strike at Herrin two years ago, some of the scabs were killed. Remember how the Chamber of Commerce raised great slush funds from private capitalistic sources, to finance the attempt to hang the union men of Marion County, protesting that Herrin was a “stain upon our fair State.”

The Chamber of Commerce will not cry for the punishment of Bozarth, the murderer of Popovsky; it probably helped raise the bail money for him. The reason is, that while in Herrin the men who were to be punished were workers who struck against the coal operators, in West Frankfort the murderer Bozarth performed his slaughter in the service of the bosses. The courts of Illinois are. instruments in the hands of the industrial and financial lords. Labor will receive no justice there.

Editorial from The Daily Worker. July 24, 1924.

“Law and Order”

The Southern Illinois Ku Klux Klan mobs are fickle. Three Negroes arrested near Mound City, Illinois, “suspected” of killing a white girl, twice narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan mob. A company of Illinois militia was rushed to the scene, and the Negroes were moved from Villa Ridge, out of the clutches of the Klan mob, to the Mound jail, where another Klan mob formed. They were then moved by the sheriffs to Mound City, the mob, howling for blood, following in autos.

“The witness to the crime was unable to identify the Negroes,” news dispatches tell us. Despite this fact, the Klan mob later in the day again threatened the lives of these innocent men, thirsting for blood, calling for “justice.”

This same Klan mob, however, which was augmented by respected citizens from West Frankfort, Illinois, allows O.P. Bozarth to remain on the police force of that town, after brutally murdering twenty-one year old Boris Popovsky. Popovsky was not arrested for robbery. He was hailed to court accused of driving a bakery truck too fast. Bozarth evidently did not like Popovsky’s looks so he brutally clubbed him to death under the nose of the judge. Bozarth is now out on bail, which is said to have been put up by the Ku Klux Klan. He is still on the police force at latest ac- counts, although charged with murder.

Editorial from The Daily Worker. July 26, 1924.

The Ku Klux Klan is the murderer of union men.

Boris Popovsky was a member of the United Mine Workers. He is dead. Remember, union men, that he was killed by a Klansman. The Ku Klux Kl,an is the murderer of Communists. Boris Popovsky was a member of the Young Workers League, the organization of Communist youth. He is dead. Remember, young workers, that he was killed by a Klansman. Comrade Popovsky was 22 years old, an intelligent and active member of the U.M.W. of A. and the Y.W.L. The Ku Klux Klan is cunning. It has its agents in the aimed forces of the state authority. On the police force of West Frankfort, Illinois, it had, among others, a brute named O.P. Bozarth. This animal arrested Comrade Popovsky upon some trivial pretext and, taking him to the seclusion (!) of a court of “justice” beat him to death with a pistol butt. He died at the union hospital at West Frankfort on July 15th. There was no provocation, and if there had been, no reason, even under capitalist law, for murdering this unarmed boy. The murderer, O.P. Bozarth, was released on bond, although this is a capital crime, and is still holding his job as a policeman! Young Workers League members, are there any Boris Popovsky Branches to keep fresh in the minds of young workers how our Comrade died?

From Labor Herald. October, 1924.

MOTHER OF SLAIN COMMUNIST MINER CONTRIBUTES TO DAILY WORKER FUND IN SON’S NAME.

MADISON, Ill., Jan. 29.—Netta Popovsky, mother of Boris Popovsky, member of the Young Workers League who was brutally murdered by a policeman at West Frankfort, Illinois, last July, has taken out a ten dollar insurance policy to build the DAILY WORKER for 1925. The policeman who murdered Popovsky under the eyes of the judge in an open courtroom, is still on the West Frankfort police force. The policeman had arrested Popovsky, a well known Communist in Southern Illinois, charging him with speeding in a laundry truck. When Popovsky was brought into the courtroom the policeman clubbed him to death with the butt of his revolver, without provocation. In sending her contribution, the slain Young Communist’s mother writes:

“Dear Comrades:

“Enclosed herewith you will find a check for 810.00 in payment of an insurance policy which I wish to be issued in memory of my deceased son Boris Popovsky, who was killed most brutally, as you know, last July at West Frankfort, Ill., by an uncautious tool of the capitalist class, namely an officer of the law.

“While my son Is dead, It is a great satisfaction to my heart to see the great Ideal for which he has spent his short and youthful life spread throughout the world. He has struggled for the achievement of Communism and died with his last words for that ideal. It is not only on finished undertakings that we honor useful labor. Although he no longer Is with us, his death, however, did not take away the spirit for which he fought, for he left behind him an army of comrades constituting a mightier power which eventually will bring for the goal for which he strived.

“It is with these thoughts in mind that I am sending you this small financial support in my son’s memory, so that the efficiency of the offensive weapon may be made stronger against our enemy in 1925.

“Yours fraternally, Netta Popovsky.”

From The Daily Worker. January 31, 1925.

TO TRY POLICE KILLER OF RED AT W. FRANKFORT

Clubbed Y.W.L. Member to Death in Court

BENTON, III., May 28. According to reports given in a local newspaper, the trial for the brutal murder of our comrade, Boris Popovsky, at West Frankfort, Ill., last July is coming up some time in June in the circuit court of that city. The deceased comrade was arrested on a fake charge of speeding, brought to court, and there murdered in the presence of a presiding judge on July 10, 1924, by a policeman who is still on the police force. He clubbed Popovsky to death with the butt of his revolver.

Realizing that this murder was not done as skillfully as were previous murders of hundreds of active workers in this country and fearing that this, if discussed openly, will cause a great unrest among all intellectual workers, they have been silencing the case for almost a year. It will be easy for anyone to detect at this trial the corruptness used in all capitalistic courts of “Justice.” Bribery and threats of all sorts will be inevitable. But Popovsky happens to be a Communist. The Southern Illinois Ku Klux Klan lynchers do not howl for the policeman’s blood. In the name of law and order it is all right to murder Communists. It is time the miners of Southern Illinois wiped out the disgraceful practices of Ku Kluxers who are operating in Southern Illinois.

From The Daily Worker. May 30, 1925.

Trial of Ku Klux Klan Murderer of Communist Postponed Until Sept.

BENTON, Ill., June 30. The case against O.P. Bozarth who is charged with the murder of Boris Popovsky, former Y.W.L. and Workers Party member, was postponed until Sept. 4, 1925. The attorney for the defense asked for the postponement on the ground that he is ill and unable to conduct the case. An affidavit signed by the defense attorney’s physician was produced as evidence in the request for a continuation. The case had been postponed several times before and now no one doubts that the defense is trying to stall the case off as long as possible to wear out the prosecution witness and the family of Boris Popovsky. Bozarth is said to be a member of the K.K.K. and has a reputation for brutality.

Boris Popovsky had been arrested several times before by Bozarth, each time on a fake charge of speeding. Before coming to West Frankfort Popovsky lived in Madison, Ill., and was very active in the party. On coming to West Frankfort he became active in the Y.W.L.

From The Daily Worker. July 2, 1925.

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.