Bloody Williamson: A Chapter in American Lawlessness [Paperback]

Paul M. Angle (Author), John Y. Simon (Introduction)

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (December 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252062337
• ISBN-13: 978-0252062339
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First read the book, February 10, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: Bloody Williamson: A Chapter in American Lawlessness (Paperback)

I write primarily to prevent the interested reader from being influenced by Alan Mills's review. It seems that Alan's review is based on a look at the dustjacket, or perhaps something someone told him while he wasn't exactly paying attention. Had he been listening more closely, he might have learned that Williamson is not a town, but a county. Had he finished Chapter One he might not have missed the central fact that it was not the miners who were killed in what came to be known as the "Herrin Massacre", but the company's mine guards and a group of recent Irish immigrants working the mine during the strike,who surrendered to the union under promise of safe conduct, before being taken to a field and shot by striking miners, who then cut the throats of their victims and urinated on their bodies. It is possible that a reading of the book would have alerted Alan to the fact that in 1922 Williamson County the union was not only well established, but had the support of a majority of the populace, and the collusion of some county officials. It was a combination of public intimidation and bribery that prevented jurors from convicting anyone in the two celebrated murder trials that followed the massacre. I don't understand Alan's point about the federal government fostering the wealth of the rich; worrying about this may be a hobby of Alan's, but the concept has nothing to do with Angle's book, or the events it describes. Those who do go on to read Angle's classic book will find a well-written and exciting account of an extraordinary period of lawlessness in Southern Illinois. It is also well-researched and accurate. Some of the participants in these events later refused to write books of their own, saying that they could never tell the story as well as Paul Angle already had.

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read history of violence in small-town America, April 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Bloody Williamson: A Chapter in American Lawlessness (Paperback)

Down-home bullies, organized labor, the KKK and gangs of '20s bootleggers converge in this reporter-style history of the bloody county of Williamson in southern Illinois. Formed in 1839, the county reeled from 780 murderous assaults and 50 murders (with only 6 convictions) in its first 37 years and was called a "disgrace to the state" by the Chicago Tribune in 1875. By the early 1900s, the Klan and union mobs moved in, leading to "The Herrin Massacre" of 1922, which General John J. Pershing called "ruthless murder" and the New York Sun disdained as "butchery." This is a fascinating read by a top-notch midwestern historian, who examines the unusual mix of forces leading to generations of fear and lawlessness. "Bloody Williamson" will rock your world; you will marvel at the terrifying history that belongs to this quiet corner of rural America

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully interesting, November 3, 2006

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bloody Williamson: A Chapter in American Lawlessness (Paperback)

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, Williamson County, Illinois became a byword for lawlessness. The county first came to nationwide attention in the 1870s, when a bloody feud, comparable to the worst that the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee had to offer, wracked the area. Then in the 1920s, the town was beset by union and Ku Klux Klan violence to a shocking degree. Indeed, the rest of the country, and even the rest of the world was appalled at the violence, and the townspeople who condoned it.

This is a wonderfully interesting book. The author does an excellent job of bringing bloody Williamson to life, and showing it in all its lack of glory. This tale of union murderers and KKK hoodlums (often the same people) is sure to shock you, and make you very glad that you didn't live then and there!

I highly recommend this book!