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I just finished reading Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas, which follows the trial of "Big Bill" Haywood and two other leaders of the Western Federation of Miners for conspiracy in the 1905 assassination of Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg.

According to Lukas, the jury ultimately decided for the defense because they felt that the prosecution's case rested entirely on the uncorroborated word of Harry Orchard, the man who had laid the bomb that killed Steunenberg. The Pinkerton detectives working on the case had previously obtained a confession from a supposed accomplice, Steve Adams, which supported their case. Adams recanted once he found out that Clarence Darrow would be leading the defense, though, and the prosecution was unable to use him.

Let's say the Pinkertons are able to convince Adams not to retract his confession. The jury finds Haywood and his co-defendants guilty, and the WFM leaders are sentenced to hang. What happens then?

Do their deaths mean any notable victories for the labor movement go the other way? Do Western state governments declare open season on the WFM, or is the union emboldened by their leaders' martyrdom?

IOTL Haywood was eventually elected to the national committee of the Socialist Party but was expelled after fighting too openly with the moderates - and he took a large section of the party's left with him. Does Haywood's absence lead to better relations between the IWW and the Socialist Party, or was a split over revolutionary industrial unionism versus electoral socialism inevitable?

Does the failure of the defense sink Clarence Darrow's career?
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