THE VERDICT: Guilty
"We, the jury, find the defendants, August Spies, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden, Albert R.Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg, guilty of murder in manner and form as charged in the indictment and fix the penalty at death.
We, the jury, find the defendant Oscar W. Neebe, guilty of murder in manner and form as charged in the indictment and fix the penalty at imprisonment in the penitentiary for fifteen years."
--- Verdict by the jury.
Public opinion was divided. Most continued to detest labor unions, as they associated it with radical violence.
"I am proud of our Government. Its beauty and power over all other Governments is demonstrated by the conviction of the Anarchist fiends…. Why, even Russia is left behind, for while she sends them to Siberian mines, or to the execution block, it is only as individuals. It was left for our glorious America to teach them a lesson in how to exterminate this social vermin by chopping off its head, and thus kill the body of the movement." |
"The Scaffold Waits—Seven Dangling Nooses for the Dynamite Fiends!" |
However, others believed the men had been convicted unfairly.
"In Chicago stand convicted |
"I have very little sympathy with [the defendants' beliefs]... But when these men are gagged and their pens broken by the strong hands of a tyrannical government, then their cause becomes my cause, and I protest for them as I would protest for myself." |
The labor leaders had been found guilty because they had taken on the responsibility of fighting for better work conditions, even though they were Constitutionally guaranteed the rights to free speech and peaceable assembly.