Speaker 1: You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Listener Discretion advised the first sign of something amiss was
Speaker 1: the broken window from the back of the courthouse. The
Speaker 1: damage was obvious. One of the tall, thin ground floor
Speaker 1: windows was shattered, long cracks radiating out from the window handle.
Speaker 1: The group of officials stared at the window, worry blossoming
Speaker 1: in their minds. That broken window, they knew, led into
Speaker 1: the courthouse records vault. They had actually been on their
Speaker 1: way to the vault when they briefly stopped outside to
Speaker 1: survey the construction. The Jackson County Courthouse in Medford, Oregon,
Speaker 1: had technically been completed the year before, in nineteen thirty two,
Speaker 1: but there were some small projects left to complete. One
Speaker 1: of those projects not yet begun was adding bars to
Speaker 1: the windows of the courthouse's record vault to prevent a
Speaker 1: break in. County Clerk Naida Neil led the group back
Speaker 1: inside and down the hallway to the vault. The room
Speaker 1: looked undisturbed from the outside. Neil entered the combination locks
Speaker 1: code and swung open the heavy door. Inside, the damage
Speaker 1: was obvious. Neil stared in horror. Only the day before
Speaker 1: she had secured the pouches of ballots in the vault.
Speaker 1: The men behind her, including attorneys, county officials, and a
Speaker 1: circuit court judge, were aghast. They were there to look
Speaker 1: at those very ballots, which were crucial in a hotly
Speaker 1: contested sheriff's After months of political fighting, Circuit Court Judge
Speaker 1: George Skipworth had ruled that a recount needed to take place,
Speaker 1: but now many of the ballots were gone. This was
Speaker 1: only the latest drama to bubble up in Jackson County,
Speaker 1: located in southern Oregon on the California border. The county
Speaker 1: had recently become a hotbed of political intrigue. Governor Julius
Speaker 1: Meyer dispatched the Oregon State Police to help the Medford
Speaker 1: Police investigate. The team found burnt scraps of ballots in
Speaker 1: the courthouse's furnace. Further out, they found water logged ballots
Speaker 1: caught in an eddy under a bridge. Whoever had taken
Speaker 1: these ballots did not want them counted. Back at the courthouse,
Speaker 1: detectives found a clue a piece of fabric had snagged
Speaker 1: on the broken vault window. Cladus MacCready, the Medford Chief
Speaker 1: of Police, surveyed the crowd gathered outside. His eyes caught
Speaker 1: on a torn pant leg. The pants, he thought, looked
Speaker 1: to be made of the same material as the fabric
Speaker 1: scrap from the window. He fixed his gaze on the
Speaker 1: pants owner, twenty year old Mason Sexton. Mason and his
Speaker 1: younger brother Milton were temporarily living in a spare room
Speaker 1: at the courthouse, doing chores in exchange for lodging. Quietly,
Speaker 1: Macready and the detectives took the Sextons into custody. The
Speaker 1: Medford police held the brothers in jail for four days
Speaker 1: without bail or access to a lawyer. On the fourth day,
Speaker 1: Mason Sexton confessed he and Milton had broken into the
Speaker 1: courthouse faultroom and stolen the ballots, and they hadn't been alone.
Speaker 1: The Sextons were members of Good Government Congress, a controversial
Speaker 1: local political organization founded by two Medford men, Llewellyn Banks
Speaker 1: and Earl Fayle. The Good Government Congress, or GGC, had
Speaker 1: begun as a populist political movement, but had evolved into
Speaker 1: something more dangerous. One of the candidates in the contested
Speaker 1: sheriff's race, Gordon Skemmerhorn, was affiliated with the group Skemerhorn
Speaker 1: had taken office months earlier despite the close race, and
Speaker 1: had been trying to put off the recount for as
Speaker 1: long as possible, But once Judge Skipworth ruled that the
Speaker 1: recount would happen, the GGC had moved into action. The
Speaker 1: night of February twentieth, the GGC held a rally in
Speaker 1: front of the courthouse. At the same time, a small
Speaker 1: crew of men gathered behind the building on a pre
Speaker 1: arranged signal. As the crowd cheered for a speaker, a
Speaker 1: supporter parked nearby loudly revved his engine. With the noise
Speaker 1: covering him, Mason Sexton smashed the vault window with an axe.
Speaker 1: The men passed the ballots from the locked room out
Speaker 1: into waiting vehicles, which ferried them to the outer reaches
Speaker 1: of the county, where the ballot pouches were split open,
Speaker 1: their contents dumped in the river or burned in fires.
Speaker 1: The Sexton's story was shocking. They implicated a number of
Speaker 1: important local figures, including the mayor of a nearby town,
Speaker 1: Sheriff Skemmerhorn, and the ggc's leaders, Llewellyn Banks and Earl Fayle.
Speaker 1: Fayle had recently won election to county government. The political
Speaker 1: situation had been tense in Jackson County before, but this
Speaker 1: was a whole new level and things were about to
Speaker 1: get worse. As the police pursued the ballot thieves, the
Speaker 1: GGC upped its violent rhetoric, and then they acted on it.
Speaker 1: Less than a month later, when Medford Constable George Prescott
Speaker 1: tried to arrest GGC leader Llewellyn Banks for his part
Speaker 1: in the robbery, Banks shot Prescott dead. The murder would
Speaker 1: lead to a trial that had the potential to extinguish
Speaker 1: the burning ember of insurrection in Jackson County or fan
Speaker 1: the flames into an inferno. Welcome to History on Trial.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week Oregon v. Llewellyn
Speaker 1: and Edith Banks. At two thousand, eight hundred and one
Speaker 1: square miles, Jackson County is slightly larger than the state
Speaker 1: of Delaware. It sits atop the Oregon California border, its
Speaker 1: western border shooting northward through the Siskiyou Mountains, and its
Speaker 1: eastern through the Cascade Range. Between these heavily forested mountains
Speaker 1: lies a wedge of fertile valley nourished by the Rogue
Speaker 1: River and Bear Creek. The modoc Amqua, Shasta, Takelma, and
Speaker 1: La Gawa tribes lived on the land that is today
Speaker 1: Jackson County. In the eighteen fifties, white settlers began arriving.
Speaker 1: Throughout the decade, these settlers, with assistance from the United
Speaker 1: States Army, attacked the native inhabitants, killing hundreds of people
Speaker 1: and eventually driving them from the land onto reservations. With
Speaker 1: the native peoples removed, white settlers began transforming the land
Speaker 1: for commercial use. Wheat was the first staple product of
Speaker 1: the region, but by nineteen hundred, fruit was king. Acres
Speaker 1: of pear and apple trees sprung up across the valley,
Speaker 1: bringing with them more money and a new kind of farmer,
Speaker 1: wealthy outsiders with large holdings. As the fruit industry grew,
Speaker 1: so too did the economic and class divides in the county.
Speaker 1: Golf courses and country clubs and private hotels sprung up
Speaker 1: in the county's largest cities, Medford and Ashland. Alongside this
Speaker 1: orchard elite existed smaller farmers, ranchers, and dairy owners, as
Speaker 1: well as the county's most rural residents who lived in
Speaker 1: the forested foothills of the mountains and mainly worked in mining, logging,
Speaker 1: or construction. The class, wealth and cultural divides in the
Speaker 1: county made it fertile territory for political movements. Before the
Speaker 1: Good Government Congress in the nineteen thirties, there were two
Speaker 1: major political upheavals in Jackson County, both during times of
Speaker 1: economic turmoil. In the eighteen nineties, farmers across the country
Speaker 1: found themselves suffering under the com bind burdens of low
Speaker 1: crop prices, high railroad shipping rates, and unaffordable mortgages. These
Speaker 1: difficulties led to the rise of a populous political party,
Speaker 1: the People's Party, which largely consisted of agrarian workers who
Speaker 1: opposed industrialists, bankers, and monopolists. A chapter of the People's
Speaker 1: Party was established in southern Oregon in eighteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: Jackson County voters were drawn to the party for its
Speaker 1: promises to root out corruption and to return power to
Speaker 1: the people, the people in this case being white Protestant farmers.
Speaker 1: The movement had undercurrents of nativism and religious prejudices. Officials
Speaker 1: hosted rallies, picnics, and other events that attracted large crowds.
Speaker 1: By eighteen ninety four, the party had won enough support
Speaker 1: to begin to win elections. Though the movement lost momentum
Speaker 1: within a few years, it left a mark on Jackson County.
Speaker 1: As Jeffrey la Land writes in his book The Jackson
Speaker 1: County Rebellion, quote local farmer's time of struggle enabled solidarity
Speaker 1: to overcome individual rural communities extreme localism by focusing their
Speaker 1: attention on an identifiable enemy. This was a formula that
Speaker 1: would prove to be successful time and again in the county.
Speaker 1: It was another economic downturn that led to Jackson County's
Speaker 1: second political upheaval. In the nineteen tens, the fruit industry
Speaker 1: was gravely impacted by a drought, a pest infestation, and
Speaker 1: World War One, which led to lowered fruit prices. The
Speaker 1: difficult times continued throughout the decade, and by the early
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, tensions in the county were high. In nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty one, dissatisfied Jacksonians found a political outlet for their unhappiness.
Speaker 1: The ku Klux Klan, how delightful, attracted members with its
Speaker 1: appeals for political reform, support for causes such as prohibition,
Speaker 1: and of course, its attacks on Jews, Catholics, and anyone
Speaker 1: who wasn't white. By nineteen twenty two, the KKK was
Speaker 1: a powerful presence in the county. A series of night
Speaker 1: riding attacks in which clan members abducted people and threatened
Speaker 1: to lynch them drew national attention to Jackson County. The
Speaker 1: clan continued to influence events in the county, as well
Speaker 1: as across the country, well into the nineteen twenties. Though
Speaker 1: many in the regions supported the KKK, many others opposed it,
Speaker 1: and the conflict divided the county for years, But by
Speaker 1: the end of the decade a new concern had arisen.
Speaker 1: In the autumn of nineteen twenty nine, the stock market crashed,
Speaker 1: signaling the beginning of the Great Depression. The depression's effects
Speaker 1: quickly rippled out into Jackson County, and the timber and
Speaker 1: fruit industry struggled to stay afloat. Unemployment was rampant, and
Speaker 1: public services experienced huge cuts. That same year, a man
Speaker 1: named llu Ellen Banks bought a local newspaper called the
Speaker 1: Medford Daily News. The fifty nine year old Banks was
Speaker 1: new to the area. He and his wife Edith, had
Speaker 1: only moved to Medford three years earlier, but he had
Speaker 1: made quite a splash. Born into a modest fruit growing
Speaker 1: family from Ohio, Banks now owned citrus groves in California
Speaker 1: and orchards across Jackson County. Having been in the fruit
Speaker 1: business his whole life, he had strong ideas about the
Speaker 1: industry's future and what changes ought to be made. His
Speaker 1: controversial views on direct selling quickly earned him enemies amongst
Speaker 1: Jackson County's established fruit consignment sellers. Buying the Medford Daily
Speaker 1: News gave Banks another platform for his beliefs. He began
Speaker 1: writing a ca for the paper in which he attacked
Speaker 1: the fruit sellers, but over time the scope of his
Speaker 1: political opinions increased, as did his columns frequency. He espoused
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories about bankers, regulatory agencies, and the Federal Reserve.
Speaker 1: By nineteen thirty one, he was publishing his column every day,
Speaker 1: his angry diatribes filling up a whole page. Banks was
Speaker 1: not the only controversial publisher in the area. Earl Fayle,
Speaker 1: a general contractor and real estate developer in his mid forties,
Speaker 1: was the owner of the Pacific Record Herald, a weekly paper.
Speaker 1: Like Banks, he went in for conspiracy theories, but his
Speaker 1: focus was more local. Fayle was obsessed with what he
Speaker 1: called the Gang, a cabal of elites who he believed
Speaker 1: ran city and county government. Fail did more than just
Speaker 1: write about government, He also tried to join it, running
Speaker 1: for Medford mayor four times throughout the nineteen twenties. Another
Speaker 1: newspaper editor, Robert Rule of the Medford Mayle Tribune, called
Speaker 1: Fayle quote the hardy perennial who has been running for
Speaker 1: mayor for this city since the Neolithic age. Banks and
Speaker 1: Fayle might seem like fringe figures, and in other times,
Speaker 1: in other places they may very well have been, But
Speaker 1: in a county with deep veins of populis sentiment, in
Speaker 1: a time of great suffering, their voices resonated. The two
Speaker 1: men became political allies in nineteen thirty, when Banks ran
Speaker 1: for the United States Senate and Fayle again ran for
Speaker 1: Medford mayor. Banks's campaign went nowhere, at least outside of
Speaker 1: Jackson County. Inside the county, he received forty percent of
Speaker 1: the vote. Fail who was running for mayor for the
Speaker 1: fifth time, did even better. Though he ultimately lost the race,
Speaker 1: it was only by a margin of fourteen votes out
Speaker 1: of three thousand, two hundred and forty Over the next
Speaker 1: two years, conditions worsened in the county. In nineteen thirty two,
Speaker 1: the county's second largest bank failed, and while banks were failing,
Speaker 1: Banks and Fail were also failing, but seriously, both men
Speaker 1: were facing bankruptcy. They were also facing a number of
Speaker 1: libel suits from people who they had published unsubstantiated damaging
Speaker 1: conspiracies about Fail. And Banks seemed to be at their
Speaker 1: lowest points, but they were, if nothing else, canny men.
Speaker 1: In the dire conditions of the depression. They saw an opportunity.
Speaker 1: People wanted change. Banks and Fail thought that they could
Speaker 1: provide that change. Their plan was this, they would take
Speaker 1: control of the local Republican party, choose candidates that aligned
Speaker 1: with their political views, and use their newspapers to get
Speaker 1: those candidates elected. If everything worked out, Banks and Fail
Speaker 1: would be running Jackson County. The two men had different
Speaker 1: motivations in creating a movement. Llewellyn Banks frankly needed the money.
Speaker 1: A man accustomed to wealth, he drove cadillacs, wore finely
Speaker 1: tailored suits, and lived in a beautiful house. He was
Speaker 1: now barely scraping by. To Banks, the path to power
Speaker 1: was also a path to money. He could use his
Speaker 1: government connections to dismiss the suits against him and reduce
Speaker 1: his taxes. For Earl Fayle, power was the goal itself.
Speaker 1: He dreamed of taking down the so called gang and
Speaker 1: getting revenge for the injustices he believed he had suffered
Speaker 1: at their hands. Though their motivations differed, the men shared
Speaker 1: a sense of unbridled determination. They would stop at nothing
Speaker 1: to win, even if that meant breaking the law. Earl
Speaker 1: Fayle wasn't satisfied with just electing allies to political office.
Speaker 1: He wanted to run himself. Fayle, of course, had previously
Speaker 1: tried to become mayor of Medford. This time he picked
Speaker 1: an even more powerful office. He declared his intention to
Speaker 1: become county judge. A county judge is akin to a
Speaker 1: county commissioner. The judge and the other commissioners make important
Speaker 1: decisions about local taxes, infrastructure, and boundaries of election districts.
Speaker 1: Faile ran an aggressive campaign for the Republican primary nomination.
Speaker 1: He toured the farthest reaches of Jackson County, speaking in
Speaker 1: school rules and churches, vowing to root out the elite
Speaker 1: political gang that he said was oppressing the common man.
Speaker 1: Watch your step, folks, he told a crowd in Shady Cove,
Speaker 1: or they will have you in jail if you can't
Speaker 1: account for every ten minutes of your life. Faile campaigned
Speaker 1: alongside his and Banks's chosen candidates for other positions, Thomas
Speaker 1: j Enwright running for district attorney and Phil Loud running
Speaker 1: for sheriff. Both were young political newcomers and their lack
Speaker 1: of name recognition hurt them. Both men lost their primary races. However,
Speaker 1: another ally, Gordon Skemmerhorn, did win the Democratic primary for sheriff,
Speaker 1: beating the longtime incumbent Ralph Jennings, and most importantly, Faile
Speaker 1: won his own primary handily. Then on November eighth, nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty two, fail won the general election, and though other
Speaker 1: Faile backed candidates lost their races, incumbent George Cotting managed
Speaker 1: to hold onto the district Attorney's office, Fayle's ally, Gordon Skemmerhorn,
Speaker 1: won the county sheriff election. This should have been a
Speaker 1: thrilling moment for Fayle, after years of failure, he had
Speaker 1: finally won and one perhaps the most politically powerful position
Speaker 1: in the county at that but behind the scenes, his
Speaker 1: personal woes were only increasing. Fayle had lost a number
Speaker 1: of libel cases, including one whose judgment entailed seizing his
Speaker 1: printing press. He now had to share a printing press
Speaker 1: with Banks. The two men were also facing yet more
Speaker 1: lawsuits when State Circuit Court Judge Harold D. Norton, who
Speaker 1: happened to be Fayle's neighbor, refused to dismiss the pending
Speaker 1: libel cases. In the summer of nineteen thirty two, Banks
Speaker 1: and Fayle began an aggressive recall campaign against Norton, though
Speaker 1: they kept their involvement with this campaign a secret. Banks
Speaker 1: and Fayle's political gains were also not quite as solid
Speaker 1: as they might have wished. Though their ally skemmer Horn,
Speaker 1: had won the sheriff's selection, it had been a tight
Speaker 1: race against the incumbent Ralph Jennings, who had run a
Speaker 1: write in campaign. After losing the primary, Jennings was now
Speaker 1: asking for a recount. Skemmer Horn was doing his best
Speaker 1: to delay the recount, but it was entirely possible that
Speaker 1: he could lose his position if the recount went forward.
Speaker 1: Over the summer, tensions in the area rose. Though Fayle
Speaker 1: had many supporters, he faced criticism. Two other local newspaper editors,
Speaker 1: Robert Rule of the Medford Mail Tribune and Leonard Hall
Speaker 1: of the Jacksonville Minor, spoke out against Fayle. Hall was
Speaker 1: an irreverent, bold writer with a gift for parody, and
Speaker 1: his attacks on Fayle riled people up so much that
Speaker 1: he was physically attacked in the street. Threats of violence
Speaker 1: hung over the county like thunder clouds. Comparing the situation
Speaker 1: in Jackson County to that of Europe before the First
Speaker 1: World War. The Oregonian called the area a Balkan powder keg.
Speaker 1: Banks and Fayle were central to creating this atmosphere. Banks
Speaker 1: publicly called for a citizen's vigilance committee to remove District
Speaker 1: Attorney Cotting and Circuit Court Judge Norton from their offices,
Speaker 1: even going so far as referencing the hangman's noose. In response,
Speaker 1: the American Legion, a veterans organization, posted guards outside county
Speaker 1: officials homes. Armed guards became the norm for prominent Jackson
Speaker 1: County citizens. County Commissioner Ralph Billings posted them in his yard,
Speaker 1: and Mail Tribune editor Robert Ruhle stationed them outside his
Speaker 1: printing press. A whole gang of ragtag guards, mainly young
Speaker 1: unemployed men who called themselves the Green Springs Mountain Boys,
Speaker 1: took to patrolling banks and Fayle's shared press, and eventually
Speaker 1: began personally guarding banks. They swore to quote shoot anybody
Speaker 1: who came through the door. Tensions were so high when
Speaker 1: Medford Residence said that quote. Every time a car backfired
Speaker 1: at night, they crawled under the bed. Things did not
Speaker 1: calm down once Earl Fayle took office. Hundreds of his
Speaker 1: supporters would show up at County commission meetings and harass
Speaker 1: the other commissioners. At one meeting, Fayle called for opening
Speaker 1: the County Commissary, typically only a resource for unemployed residents,
Speaker 1: to everyone. The other commissioners said that this just wouldn't
Speaker 1: be possible. In response, the crowd of Fayle's supporters shouted,
Speaker 1: hang them, throw them in the river. As residents became
Speaker 1: increasingly concerned about Banks and faals embrace of extremes, opposition
Speaker 1: to their political efforts grew. In mid January, the American
Speaker 1: Legion and the County Bar Association organized a meeting for
Speaker 1: concerned citizens at the Medford Armory some fifteen hundred people
Speaker 1: showed up. The group voted to endorse the integrity of
Speaker 1: county officials like District Attorney Cotting. A smaller subgroup of
Speaker 1: attendees formed an anti Banks Fail committee, which they called
Speaker 1: the Committee of the one Hundred. At the same time,
Speaker 1: Banks and Fail were formally organizing their supporters. In January,
Speaker 1: they established the Good Government Congress. Banks became the group's
Speaker 1: honorary president with the final say on all decisions. Membership
Speaker 1: was open to anya county voter who paid the fifty
Speaker 1: cent monthly dues. The organization grew quickly. Soon the GGC
Speaker 1: claimed to have over six thousand members. Six thousand is
Speaker 1: an impressive number in a county with a total population
Speaker 1: of only thirty thousand, including children. The membership roles have
Speaker 1: been lost, so it's hard to verify this number, but
Speaker 1: Jeffrey L. Land notes that nearly six thousand people voted
Speaker 1: for Earl Fayle in his county judge election, and pictures
Speaker 1: of GGC meetings show large crowds. That the group's first
Speaker 1: general assembly on February fourth, approximately two thousand people showed up.
Speaker 1: Like past political movements in the county, the GGC appealed
Speaker 1: to people's sense of disenfranchisement and unfairness. The group's preamble,
Speaker 1: printed on every membership card, began quote, we, the citizens,
Speaker 1: property owners, and taxpayers of Jackson County, Oregon, are faced
Speaker 1: with economic conditions which, under the existing order of things,
Speaker 1: have passed beyond individual control. After listing these conditions unemployment, foreclosures,
Speaker 1: high taxes, low crop prices, the pre ample concluded quote,
Speaker 1: we find it necessary to form ourselves into an organization
Speaker 1: for the protection of our lives, our homes, and our properties.
Speaker 1: The GGC explicitly tied themselves to the American tradition of protest.
Speaker 1: Their mission statements reference the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 1: Banks compared GGC members to Revolutionary War minutemen. Many members
Speaker 1: of the GGC saw themselves as patriots who wanted to
Speaker 1: bring the county's government back to its representative, democratic roots.
Speaker 1: Opponents of the GGC saw them differently. Critics called members hillbillies,
Speaker 1: describing them as un educated, unsophisticated rural voters who had
Speaker 1: fallen under the sway of two charismatic demagogues who were
Speaker 1: the GGC members. Actually, it's hard to generalize them. Not
Speaker 1: all members of the GGC lived in rural areas. Not
Speaker 1: all rural residents were GGC members. Not all members of
Speaker 1: the GGC were well intentioned advocates of good government. Some
Speaker 1: saw it as a channel for jobs or personal advancement.
Speaker 1: Like all political movements, the GGC attracted a varied group.
Speaker 1: The main thing that these people shared was economic status
Speaker 1: rural or urban, male or female, farmer or small business owner.
Speaker 1: Most GGC members had been devastated by the depression they
Speaker 1: wanted change. Their motives are understandable, but banks and fail
Speaker 1: were not the men they needed, and the group's appeals
Speaker 1: to racism, xenophobia, and anti Catholic and Wish prejudices should
Speaker 1: also not be overlooked. By mid February, the GGC leadership
Speaker 1: was increasingly concerned about the impending sheriff's recount. It seemed
Speaker 1: entirely possible that George Skemmerhorn, the GGC ally and current sheriff,
Speaker 1: would be ousted by their recount's results. It was then
Speaker 1: that planning for the courthouse break in began. Though most
Speaker 1: of the group's rank and file members had no idea
Speaker 1: about the break in, the group's leadership used a planned
Speaker 1: courthouse rally on February twentieth as cover for the crime.
Speaker 1: After the Sexton brothers arrest and subsequent confession and implication
Speaker 1: of the GGC in the crime, local officials moved quickly.
Speaker 1: On February twenty seventh, only seven days after the break in,
Speaker 1: a large group of robbery participants were arrested, including Earl
Speaker 1: Fayle and Gordon Skemmerhorn. The police used the Sexons to
Speaker 1: elicit confessions from many of the arrested men. They placed
Speaker 1: each man in turn in a ward alone with the
Speaker 1: Sextons and listened in on the subsequent conversations about the
Speaker 1: break in. Skemmerhorn did not fall for this trap, and
Speaker 1: Fayle also escaped it. His followers had posted bond for him.
Speaker 1: Shortly after his arrest. Outside the jail, trouble was brewing.
Speaker 1: Diehard GGC members, feeling threatened, went on the attack. Men
Speaker 1: seized newspaper editor Leonard Hall, who opposed the GGC, and
Speaker 1: held him fast while GGC president Henrietta Martin hit his
Speaker 1: face repeatedly with a horsewhip. A large group of GGC
Speaker 1: members assembled outside the courtroom and threatened to break their
Speaker 1: friends out of jail. In response, the National Guards sent
Speaker 1: armed men to guard the jail, and Earl Phayle, once
Speaker 1: released from jail, tried to use the powers of his
Speaker 1: office to subvert the justice process. He issued writs for
Speaker 1: the release of all the jailed men and also issued
Speaker 1: an arrest warrant for Medford Police Chief Claydus MacCready. On
Speaker 1: March sixth, the GGC held a rally at the courthouse
Speaker 1: in front of approximately two thousand people. The ggc's leadership
Speaker 1: railed against their opponents and called for action. Llewellyn Banks,
Speaker 1: who spoke last, was explicit in his calls for a revolt.
Speaker 1: Banks was growing desperate. He needed control of the county
Speaker 1: government in order to escape the large number of lawsuits
Speaker 1: and creditors claims against him, and now that control was
Speaker 1: slipping through his fingers. Unless we can have justice, he
Speaker 1: told a group of anti GGC observers at the back
Speaker 1: of the crowd, I will take the field of revolution
Speaker 1: against you people. As March war on, Banks's plans for
Speaker 1: revolution became more concrete, his world was crumbling. On March fifteenth,
Speaker 1: law enforcement officials seized his fruit packing house, his orchards, and,
Speaker 1: most devastatingly his newspaper. The ownership of these assets would
Speaker 1: be transferred to the creditors. Banks was deeply in debt
Speaker 1: to and although Banks had not been arrested in the
Speaker 1: first roundup of ballot thieves, he had been intimately involved
Speaker 1: with the crime. He knew it was only a matter
Speaker 1: of time before he too was brought in. Banks was
Speaker 1: not going to go down without a fight. For some time,
Speaker 1: Banks and Fayle had been concocting a plan to seize
Speaker 1: da Cotting and other county officials and hold them hostage
Speaker 1: until they stepped down from their positions. They might even
Speaker 1: the two men thought need to kill the county officials
Speaker 1: to smooth the process. Sheriff Skemmerhorn, usually an enthusiastic ally,
Speaker 1: had rejected this plan. Undeterred, Banks had begun recruiting Quote
Speaker 1: a secret group of fighting men, telling them that he
Speaker 1: quote meant business. He told the men to start stashing
Speaker 1: weapons throughout the countryside. Banks also began planning for his
Speaker 1: inevitable arrest. He made a plan to hide out in
Speaker 1: a supporter's mountain cabin. He typed up two letters addressed
Speaker 1: to Chief MacCready and Captain Lee Bone of the Oregon
Speaker 1: State Police. I have committed no crime, Banks wrote, and
Speaker 1: I will therefore refuse to submit to arrest on charges
Speaker 1: framed by the power interests and Medford's old gang. Any
Speaker 1: effort to arrest me will result in bloodshed and, to
Speaker 1: no doubt, my death. Medford Police Constable George Prescott had
Speaker 1: heard about Banks's violent threats and he was worried. The
Speaker 1: sixty three year old Prescott shared his concerns with James O'Brien,
Speaker 1: a detective sergeant with the Oregon State Police. When the
Speaker 1: two men met at Medford City Hall on the morning
Speaker 1: of March sixteenth, nineteen thirty three. They were about to
Speaker 1: arrest Llewellyn Banks. O'Brien and Prescott had arrested a number
Speaker 1: of ballot theft suspects over the past month, but Prescott
Speaker 1: worried that this arrest would be different. He had a
Speaker 1: bad feeling about it. This wouldn't be Prescott's first run
Speaker 1: in with Banks. On February eighth, Prescott had gone to
Speaker 1: Banks's office to confiscate his newsprint per a court order
Speaker 1: obtained by one of Banks's unpaid creditors. After Prescott sees
Speaker 1: the newsprint, Banks lashed out at him, in an editorial saying, quote,
Speaker 1: mister George Prescott, in full uniform with a badge of authority,
Speaker 1: sees the paper. Prescott violated the law with full knowledge
Speaker 1: of his act. A state of complete anarchy now exists
Speaker 1: in Jackson County. Prescott's wife had been so upset by
Speaker 1: this public attack on her husband's character that she was
Speaker 1: briefly bedridden. Now O'Brien tried to kid Prescott out of
Speaker 1: his concern. Only the mean die young, he told the
Speaker 1: older officer. The old never die young, Prescott joked back.
Speaker 1: Nerves settled, the two men set out. They arrived at
Speaker 1: the Bank's home on West Main Street around ten point
Speaker 1: fifteen and walked up the porch steps to the front door.
Speaker 1: Edith Banks, Llewellyn's wife opened the door, but only a crack,
Speaker 1: leaving the safety chain latched. She reached the crack and
Speaker 1: dropped the letters Banks had written earlier, saying, here's two
Speaker 1: letters for you. I am sorry, missus Banks, Prescott said,
Speaker 1: but I have a bench warrant for your husband. Edith
Speaker 1: tried to shut the door, but Prescott stuck his foot
Speaker 1: into it and told her just a minute, I will
Speaker 1: give you that warrant. And let you read it. He
Speaker 1: reached into his pocket to grab the warrant, but he
Speaker 1: would never have a chance to pull it out. At
Speaker 1: that moment, Llewellyn Banks appeared in view with his hunting
Speaker 1: rifle aimed at Prescott. Before anyone could react, Banks fired
Speaker 1: the bullet designed to mushroom. On impact, ripped through Prescott's body.
Speaker 1: He fell back into O'Brien's arms dead. Chaos irrupted. O'Brien
Speaker 1: ran from the porch and into a nearby home, where
Speaker 1: he called in the murder. A large force assembled outside
Speaker 1: the Bank's home, armed with teargas in case Banks would
Speaker 1: not surrender, but Edith Banks called the police headquarters and
Speaker 1: said that Banks would surrender peacefully to county Deputy Sheriff
Speaker 1: Phil Loud, a former supporter of Banks. The police agreed,
Speaker 1: and Loud arrived along with State police cam Captain Lee Bone.
Speaker 1: Banks shook Bone's hand and told the two men that
Speaker 1: he had shot Prescott, quote just like any burglar. He
Speaker 1: did not seem upset at all. Prescott's funeral three days later,
Speaker 1: on March nineteenth, was said to be the largest ever
Speaker 1: held in Medford. More than four thousand people attended. Prescott
Speaker 1: had been a beloved community member involved with service organizations
Speaker 1: and the Boy Scouts. He left behind his wife, Lottie,
Speaker 1: and three grown children, Francis, Paul, and Nooda. Soon the
Speaker 1: district attorney charged both Llewellyn and Edith Banks with murder.
Speaker 1: Shock rippled across the community. Tensions had been high, yes,
Speaker 1: but murder it seemed unthinkable. Now people wondered what would
Speaker 1: happen when the Banks went to trial. Given the situation
Speaker 1: in Jackson County, no one was surprised when the Banks's
Speaker 1: lawyers asked for a change of venue. The inhabitants of
Speaker 1: the county are so biased and prejudiced. The defense told
Speaker 1: Circuit Court Judge George Skipworth that a fair and impartial
Speaker 1: jury cannot be selected. Judge Skipworth, an experienced jurist who
Speaker 1: had previously ruled on the sheriff's recount and would now
Speaker 1: be presiding over the Bank's trial, concurred. He moved the
Speaker 1: trial to Lane County, a county several hours drive away.
Speaker 1: May third was set as the trial date. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: both sides prepared for trial. The bankses had five defense lawyers,
Speaker 1: whose fees were paid in part by Llewellyn, Banks's wealthy
Speaker 1: brother in law, and in part by donations raised from
Speaker 1: GGC members. The team consisted of two Jackson County lawyers,
Speaker 1: Thomas Enwright and William Fay, as well as three experienced
Speaker 1: trial lawyers from out of county, Frank Lonergan, Joseph Hammersley,
Speaker 1: and Charles Hardy. Lonargan's name was especially well known the
Speaker 1: former Speaker of the Oregon House. Lonergan was also an
Speaker 1: accomplished athlete and one of the best defense attorneys in
Speaker 1: the state. The prosecution team began with three lawyers, led
Speaker 1: by Assistant Oregon Attorney General William S. Levins, Jackson County
Speaker 1: District Attorney George Cotting and Special Assistant Attorney General Ralph
Speaker 1: Moody assisted Levins, but on May second, as Levin's examiners,
Speaker 1: he began complaining of heart pains. Several hours later, he
Speaker 1: was dead. Moody took the lead role on the prosecution
Speaker 1: only the day before the trial was set to begin.
Speaker 1: It was a large task, but Moody had the necessary experience.
Speaker 1: A former assistant US Attorney General, he had spent the
Speaker 1: past several years as a highly successful corporate lawyer. He
Speaker 1: had been specially appointed as an Oregon Assistant Attorney General
Speaker 1: for the trial. Besides the notable exception of while an
Speaker 1: attorney dying, jury selection was largely uneventful. Six men and
Speaker 1: six women were seated. Wonder would take ill late in
Speaker 1: the trial and be replaced by an alternate, making the
Speaker 1: final composition seven men and six women. On May third,
Speaker 1: the trial began in the Lane County Courthouse. As the
Speaker 1: lawyers presented their opening statements, a three foot tall statue
Speaker 1: of Lady Justice looked imperiously down at them, a sword
Speaker 1: in her right hand, the scales of Justice in her left,
Speaker 1: as per usual in Oregon. And I say this lovingly
Speaker 1: as an Oregonian. It was raining. Ralph Moody delivered the
Speaker 1: opening statement for the prosecution. He did not be around
Speaker 1: the bush. Banks killed Prescott, he said. Missus Banks assisted him.
Speaker 1: They knew he was an officer of the law, serving
Speaker 1: legal papers, and his death had been carefully mapped out
Speaker 1: in advance. They had warned Prescott against coming, and he
Speaker 1: came anyway in the line of duty. There can be
Speaker 1: but one conclusion from the evidence the witnesses will present.
Speaker 1: Prescott was wilfully and maliciously killed according to a premeditated plan,
Speaker 1: it is murder in the first degree. Defense lawyer Joseph
Speaker 1: Hammersley said that the case was indeed a simple one,
Speaker 1: but not in the way that Moody had presented it.
Speaker 1: The story was not one of premeditated murder, Hammersley argued,
Speaker 1: but instead a story about a persecuted man fighting back
Speaker 1: against his attackers. Banks, in the defense's view, was a
Speaker 1: thorn in the side of the power, and the powerful
Speaker 1: had tried to punish him for daring to speak out
Speaker 1: against them. When Banks shot Prescott, it was not a
Speaker 1: cold blooded murder. It was quote the gesture of a
Speaker 1: cornered creature defending his home. It was a warning to
Speaker 1: marauders who were trying to force their way in. Hammersley
Speaker 1: also claimed that Prescott's death was an accident that Banks
Speaker 1: had not aimed to kill. With their parade of witnesses,
Speaker 1: they would call more than sixty over the next two weeks.
Speaker 1: The prosecution hoped to rebut these defense claims. The state
Speaker 1: called E. A. Fleming, a GGC member who had been
Speaker 1: at the Bank's home on the morning of the murder.
Speaker 1: Fleming had stopped by unexpectedly to discuss some GGC business
Speaker 1: with Banks. During their conversation, the matter of Banks's arrest
Speaker 1: came up. No man can come up here with their
Speaker 1: trumped up warrants and serve on me, for I will
Speaker 1: not go. They will take me out feet first, Fleming
Speaker 1: recalled Banks, saying when he warned Banks to be careful,
Speaker 1: Banks doubled down. I will do it, he allegedly told Fleming.
Speaker 1: I have said I will do it, and no man
Speaker 1: can come through that door and take me. They will
Speaker 1: take me over their dead bodies feet first. When the
Speaker 1: officers knocked on Banks's door, Banks told Fleming to leave
Speaker 1: out the back. As Fleming fled, he testified he heard
Speaker 1: someone say look out or get out, and then, almost simultaneously,
Speaker 1: a loud clap, which Fleming thought was the blast of
Speaker 1: a gun. Fleming's account of the sequence of events aligned
Speaker 1: with that of another witness, Oregon State Police detective Sergeant
Speaker 1: James O'Brien, who had been beside Prescott at the time
Speaker 1: of the shooting. As Prescott reached for the warrant, O'Brien testified,
Speaker 1: I saw mister Banks appear and he had this rifle
Speaker 1: leveled to his shoulder and he called out, lookout, and
Speaker 1: I cried look out George at the same instant and
Speaker 1: tried to pull Prescott away, and just as I did so,
Speaker 1: the shot was fired. On cross examination, Frank Lonergan asked
Speaker 1: O'Brien questions about Prescott's use of force. O'Brien confirmed that
Speaker 1: Prescott had quickly stuck his foot in the door as
Speaker 1: Edith Banks tried to close it, but he said that
Speaker 1: Prescott never put his shoulder against the door and forcefully
Speaker 1: denied Lonargan's claim that he and Prescott were quote pushing
Speaker 1: on the door to force it open. With their next
Speaker 1: witnesses a string of law enforcement officials who searched the
Speaker 1: Bank's house after the murder, the prosecution worked to establish premeditation.
Speaker 1: Deputy Sheriff Phil Loud testified to the contents of the
Speaker 1: letter that Banks had written to him before the murder,
Speaker 1: the one in which the defendant had written, quote, any
Speaker 1: effort to arrest me will result in bloodshed and probably
Speaker 1: my own death. Edward H. Thomas, an auditor for the
Speaker 1: State Industrial Accident Commission, testified about a disturbing encounter he'd
Speaker 1: had with Banks on March fourteenth, two days before the murder.
Speaker 1: Thomas came to Banks's home. Thomas was trying to get
Speaker 1: records from Banks about an unrelated labor matter, and Warren
Speaker 1: Banks that if he did not get the record soon,
Speaker 1: he would have to issue a subpoena. Banks's reaction to
Speaker 1: this shocked Thomas. He began swearing and told Thomas, quote,
Speaker 1: I will pluck your heart or any other man's heart
Speaker 1: out that comes to this door to serve papers on me,
Speaker 1: miming picking up a rifle. Banks said again, I can
Speaker 1: pluck any man's heart out that comes up to this door. Thomas, dumbfounded, responded,
Speaker 1: surely you wouldn't be foolish enough to do anything like that.
Speaker 1: Events two days later would prove otherwise. More evidence of
Speaker 1: premeditation came from Rodney Roach, an Oregon State Police officer.
Speaker 1: Roach testified to finding a loaded revolver inside the Bank's
Speaker 1: house after the shooting, as well as extra ammunition, all
Speaker 1: concealed underneath a woman's coat on a cot. The defense,
Speaker 1: in an argument held out of the jury's hearing, objected
Speaker 1: to this testimony. Frank Lannigan said that there was no
Speaker 1: evidence that the revolver even belonged to Banks, and pointed
Speaker 1: out that Roach had found it more than six hours
Speaker 1: after the shooting. The evidence, Lonargan said, was being quote
Speaker 1: introduced here by this state in an effort to show
Speaker 1: that an arsenal existed in the bank's home and to
Speaker 1: lead the jury into the realms of conjecture and speculation.
Speaker 1: The information presented here is done for prejudicial purposes and
Speaker 1: to inflame the minds of the jury. Ralph Moody said
Speaker 1: that the evidence was important for the jury in reaching
Speaker 1: a conclusion about premeditation. The revolver, he argued, demonstrated quote
Speaker 1: the existence of a conspiracy backed by a deliberate and
Speaker 1: premeditated plan in which both defendants took part. Judge Skipworth
Speaker 1: agreed with the prosecution's argument, ruling that the testimony was
Speaker 1: admissible because quote, under the charge of first degree murder,
Speaker 1: the state must show intent, preparedness, and premeditation. While it
Speaker 1: is admitted the weapon was not the one used in
Speaker 1: the alleged slaying of Prescott, it still has a bearing
Speaker 1: on the purported preparedness for battle of the defendants. The
Speaker 1: state was less successful in introducing another piece of evidence. C. A. Warren,
Speaker 1: a sergeant with the State Police, testified that he found
Speaker 1: a letter in the pocket of a coat in llew
Speaker 1: Allen Banks's bedroom. When the prosecution tried to admit this
Speaker 1: letter into evidence, the defense objected, saying that nothing in
Speaker 1: the letter indicated who it was written by or when
Speaker 1: it was written. As such, there was no way to
Speaker 1: connect it to the crime. Judge Skipworth agreed the prosecution
Speaker 1: would try multiple times to get this letter admitted. Why
Speaker 1: was it so important to them? Because it was their
Speaker 1: strongest evidence of Edith Banks's involvement in the case. We
Speaker 1: haven't talked much about Edith yet. Fifty one years old,
Speaker 1: with strong features and round spectacles, Edith cut an imposing figure.
Speaker 1: She wore a mink coat to jury selection and a
Speaker 1: sealskin coat to the trial's opening. She had once been
Speaker 1: Banks's secretary and was now his second wife. They had
Speaker 1: a daughter, Ruth May, who was twelve years old. Edith
Speaker 1: was very involved in the Good Government Congress and well
Speaker 1: aware of her husband's potentially violent plans. In the letter
Speaker 1: that the prosecution wanted to introduce, Edith had counseled Llewellyn
Speaker 1: not to write down any of his instructions for the
Speaker 1: gunmen he planned to assemble. Don't use a written bulletin
Speaker 1: Edith wrote, use word of mouth instead. That way she
Speaker 1: thought he could avoid being charged should legal issues arise.
Speaker 1: She also said quote, if you are going to fight,
Speaker 1: that should be from home. Unfortunately for the prosecution, they
Speaker 1: could not prove that Edith had written the letter. It
Speaker 1: was addressed to Daddy and signed mother. The prosecution brought
Speaker 1: on Llewellyn Banks's former secretary, Marjorie Satterly, who stated that
Speaker 1: Edith and Llewellyn frequently called one another Daddy, dear, daddy,
Speaker 1: and mother, both verbally and in writing. Satterly, who said
Speaker 1: that she was very familiar with Edith Banks's handwriting, also
Speaker 1: identified the writer of the letter as Edith Banks. But
Speaker 1: Judge Skipworth again ruled against admitting the letter, telling the
Speaker 1: lawyers out of the hearing of the jury that the
Speaker 1: letter was too general and vague. If the letter was
Speaker 1: dated and identified specific circuitcumstances of a threat, or indicated
Speaker 1: a specific target, its informative value might outweigh its prejudicial impact.
Speaker 1: But the letter did not have any of those things.
Speaker 1: He therefore ruled that it would not be admitted. The
Speaker 1: prosecution satisfied that they had introduced enough other evidence to
Speaker 1: prove the Banks's guilt gave up the issue. They rested
Speaker 1: their case on the afternoon of May eleventh. As historian
Speaker 1: Joe Blakelee points out in his book Rebellion, Murder, and
Speaker 1: a Pulitzer Prize, the prosecution had presented a solid case,
Speaker 1: but a dry one. The defense, if they could sway
Speaker 1: the jury's emotions, might have a chance. The next morning,
Speaker 1: the defense began their presentation. They came out swinging, calling
Speaker 1: Llewellyn Banks as their first witness. Banks, as usual, presented
Speaker 1: a polished figure, now sixty two years old. He wore
Speaker 1: wire framed spectacles and a gray three piece suit. On
Speaker 1: stage at Giugi c Rally's, Banks seemed larger than life.
Speaker 1: One observer recalled how Banks quote knew how to work
Speaker 1: the crowd. He'd get the tempo going, get them to
Speaker 1: nod their heads. He could get them to do anything.
Speaker 1: But on the stand, Banks appeared nervous and awkward as
Speaker 1: Lanagan walked him through his testimony. Though Banks grew more comfortable,
Speaker 1: he began to gesticulate more, occasionally pounding on the arms
Speaker 1: of his chair for emphasis and even standing up. He
Speaker 1: said that he had been targeted and harassed by law
Speaker 1: enforcement in the county for his political work. He said
Speaker 1: that George Prescott had threatened to shoot him on site,
Speaker 1: and he claimed that on the day of the shooting,
Speaker 1: he quote saw what I believed to be a pistol
Speaker 1: in Prescott's hand. This claim of self defense had not
Speaker 1: been Banks's first idea for a defense strategy. While in
Speaker 1: jail before the trial, he had presented another theory of
Speaker 1: the case, both to his defense attorneys and to Oregon
Speaker 1: State Police Captain Lee Bone. He told them that he
Speaker 1: had not fired the fatal shot at all. The real
Speaker 1: murderer was another man, a private detective he had hired
Speaker 1: to work as his bodyguard. The man, whose name Banks
Speaker 1: would or could not give, had shot Prescott and then
Speaker 1: escaped the police by running out of the back door
Speaker 1: and hiding amongst the gathering crowd. His defense attorneys strongly
Speaker 1: counseled Banks against trying to use this story in court,
Speaker 1: instead convincing him that a self defense and temporary insanity
Speaker 1: defense would work better. Banks initially objected to the insanity defense,
Speaker 1: but eventually agreed to it. To this end, the defense
Speaker 1: called several doctors to the stand to testify to Banks's
Speaker 1: mental condition. Doctor S. E. Josepfi, a specialist in quote
Speaker 1: nervous and mental diseases, examined Banks for several hours in jail.
Speaker 1: From this examination, doctor Josef concluded that quote, at the
Speaker 1: time of the shooting, Banks was insane. He was affected
Speaker 1: with what is known as transitory mania. Under cross examination
Speaker 1: by Moody, doctor Josefe expanded on this condition, quote, mister
Speaker 1: Banks was so confused in thought by the very disturbing
Speaker 1: circumstances of the episode that his mental stability was broken
Speaker 1: down for a time, varying from a few moments to
Speaker 1: several minutes. Doctor B. F. Scaife, another doctor and defense witness,
Speaker 1: concurred with doctor Josefi's conclusions, describing transitory mania as quote
Speaker 1: a frenzied, excited, explosive mania. A patient in that condition
Speaker 1: seems to have an irresistible impulse to accomplish something, whether
Speaker 1: it is homicide, suicide, or whatever flashes into his mind
Speaker 1: at that time. Aside from these expert witnesses, the defense's
Speaker 1: case mainly consisted of two types of witnesses. The first
Speaker 1: group were character witnesses, prominent Jackson County residents who testified
Speaker 1: to Banks being a good man. The second group were
Speaker 1: witnesses who tried to establish the threat against Banks. Several
Speaker 1: testified to hearing George Prescott threatened to kill Banks, while
Speaker 1: others claims to have seen Prescott aiming a gun at
Speaker 1: the bank's house while he walked up the stairs on
Speaker 1: the morning of the murder. The testimony of these witnesses
Speaker 1: was not convincing. They were all GGC members and no
Speaker 1: one could corroborate any of their evidence. The prosecution also
Speaker 1: introduced impartial rebuttal witnesses who disputed accounts of Prescott holding
Speaker 1: a gun. After calling twenty four witnesses, the defense rested
Speaker 1: on May sixteenth. The prosecution called several rebuttal witnesses, ding
Speaker 1: character witnesses who spoke about Officer Prescott's calm nature, as
Speaker 1: well as medical witnesses of their own who disputed the
Speaker 1: diagnosis of transitory mania. On Thursday, the case concluded. Before
Speaker 1: closing arguments could begin, Judge Skipworth spoke to the lawyers
Speaker 1: once more out of the hearing of the jurors he wanted,
Speaker 1: he said, to be sure that the right interpretation is
Speaker 1: placed on the law by both sides of the case
Speaker 1: in appealing to the jury. He then went on to
Speaker 1: explain that the law allows an officer with an arrest
Speaker 1: warrant to quote break open any door or portal if
Speaker 1: entrance is refused. Thus, any self defense arguments would need
Speaker 1: to prove that quote the officer was using more force
Speaker 1: than necessary, or had threatened the defendant and was attempting
Speaker 1: to commit a felony on his person. With that, the
Speaker 1: jury was brought back in and closing arguments began. Ralph
Speaker 1: Moody presented the state's first argument. He disputed the defense's
Speaker 1: self defense argument, saying, quote, nobody was pestering Banks but
Speaker 1: his creditors. That is no justification for Banks to murder Prescott.
Speaker 1: He said that both lew Ellen and Edith Banks had
Speaker 1: planned and prepared for violence. Frank Lnergan and Charles Hardy
Speaker 1: presented a different version of events in their defense closings.
Speaker 1: Hardy called Banks a victim of quote, organized persecution. Lonergan
Speaker 1: described Banks's state of mind on the day of the murder, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: Banks was a hounded man, staying in his home for
Speaker 1: ten days before the tragedy to avoid trouble, planning to
Speaker 1: leave for the mountains to save his own life. Finally,
Speaker 1: when he saw Prescott trying to break into his home
Speaker 1: to get him. Banks lost his reason. He asked the
Speaker 1: jurors to be merciful to the Banks's, who he described
Speaker 1: as an an elderly couple who just wanted to raise
Speaker 1: their daughter, Ruth May in peace. Moody returned to deliver
Speaker 1: the prosecution's final closing argument. Throughout the trial, he wrote
Speaker 1: in a letter he had tried to be quote polite
Speaker 1: but unmistakably firm, and to handle myself in the court
Speaker 1: in a lawyer like manner. But now, perhaps inspired by
Speaker 1: Lonargan's more emotional approach, Moody let loose. He picked up
Speaker 1: Banks's arrest warrant. The warrant had been retrieved from Prescott's
Speaker 1: dead body and was soaked in the man's blood. Moody
Speaker 1: waved it in front of the jury. He said that
Speaker 1: Llewellyn Banks had cold bloodedly murdered George Prescott and Edith
Speaker 1: Banks had helped him do it. He asked the jury
Speaker 1: to find the pair guilty and sentence them to death.
Speaker 1: With that, the trial concluded. Judge Skipworth's instructions to the
Speaker 1: jury were straightforward. He explained the laws regarding self defense
Speaker 1: and insanity He told jurors that the guilt or innocence
Speaker 1: of each defendant should be decided separately, and he provided
Speaker 1: the jurors with six possible verdicts. First degree murder requiring
Speaker 1: the death penalty, first degree murder with a recommendation for
Speaker 1: life in prison, second degree murder, third degree murder, not
Speaker 1: guilty by reason of insanity, or not guilty. When he
Speaker 1: had finished his instructions, he dismissed the jury to deliberate.
Speaker 1: It was three thirty pm on Saturday, May twentieth. The
Speaker 1: jury deliberated all afternoon and into the evening. At nine pm,
Speaker 1: they adjourned. The next day after breakfast in the hotel
Speaker 1: they had been sequestered in during the trial, they resumed
Speaker 1: their discussion at one thirty pm, after approximately ten total
Speaker 1: hours of deliberation, they noticed the court that they had
Speaker 1: reached a verdict. People rushed into the courtroom to hear
Speaker 1: the verdict, reporters, GDC members, local residents just there for
Speaker 1: the show. The jury foreman delivered their decision to Judge Skipworth,
Speaker 1: who asked the defendants to stand. Then he read the
Speaker 1: verdict aloud on the charge of murder in the death
Speaker 1: of George Prescott. The defendant Edith Banks was found not guilty.
Speaker 1: The defendant Llewellyn Banks was found guilty. The jury had
Speaker 1: found Banks guilty of second degree murder. Under Oregon law,
Speaker 1: the mandatory sentence for second degree murder was life in prison.
Speaker 1: Despite this, Banks seemed unemotional, telling reporters quote, I am undismayed.
Speaker 1: I have implicit faith in the eternal cause of righteousness.
Speaker 1: I have been persecuted, prosecuted and convicted by the special
Speaker 1: privilege interests at his side, Edith Banks wept. Banks's crime
Speaker 1: and conviction produced a mixed reaction amongst GGC members. Most
Speaker 1: members were horrified and quickly renounced any affiliation with Banks
Speaker 1: or the group. Shortly after the shooting, many GGC members
Speaker 1: called the District Attorney's office and denounced the murder. DA
Speaker 1: Cotting told people to publicly withdraw their membership, and the
Speaker 1: Medford Mail Tribune printed many withdrawals over the following days. However,
Speaker 1: some die hard numbers supported Banks and believed that the
Speaker 1: murder was just the beginning of the rebellion. One woman
Speaker 1: said publicly that Prescott quote got what was coming to
Speaker 1: him and said quote, there will be more of this
Speaker 1: in Gold Hill. One man said he was going to
Speaker 1: quote take twenty five men to Medford and clean out
Speaker 1: the gang. In Rogue River, a group of hardcore GGC
Speaker 1: loyalists allegedly planned to dynamite a mining operation and a
Speaker 1: hydroelectric plant. But by the end of nineteen thirty three,
Speaker 1: the GGC was on its last legs. Much of the
Speaker 1: organization's leadership faced trials of their own. GGC president Henrietta
Speaker 1: Martin was convicted of variotous, violent and disorderly conduct for
Speaker 1: horsewhipping newspaper editor Leonard Hall, and over the summer, many men,
Speaker 1: including Earl Fayle and former sheriff Gordon Skemmerhorn, were found
Speaker 1: guilty for their roles in the ballot thefts. Skemerhorn was
Speaker 1: sentenced to three years in prison, while Fayle received the
Speaker 1: maximum sentence four years. This sentencing provoked one last eruption
Speaker 1: of GGC violence. The day after the sentencing, a GGC
Speaker 1: supporter named Joe Joseph Johnston got into a fight with
Speaker 1: Chuck Davis, a Fail appointed county employee who had testified
Speaker 1: against fail in his trial. In the ensuing fight, Davis
Speaker 1: knocked Johnston down. Johnston hit his head on a concrete
Speaker 1: curb and died soon after. Writing about these events, the
Speaker 1: Oregonian said, quote, the Johnston tragedy must be counted as
Speaker 1: another to be laid on the doorsteps of Banks. Going further,
Speaker 1: the newspaper behind quote, never has there been in the
Speaker 1: life of Oregon another man who has done such widespread
Speaker 1: harm as Banks. His megalomania, his obsession of persecution, his
Speaker 1: violent hatred of all who crossed his purposes, his terrifically
Speaker 1: perverted leadership have spread untold harm. The Oregonian was not wrong.
Speaker 1: In his quest to escape responsibility for his financial failings,
Speaker 1: Banks had become a demagogue, leading his followers to violence.
Speaker 1: He preyed on people's insecurities and fears for his own ends,
Speaker 1: with deadly results. But Banks was not the only one
Speaker 1: whose behavior in nineteen thirty three was troubling. In their
Speaker 1: quest to defeat the GGC, some elected officials did trample
Speaker 1: on people's rights. The Medford police held the Sexton brothers
Speaker 1: in jail for four days without allowing them to contact anyone,
Speaker 1: and the District attorney's office as they prepared for the
Speaker 1: ballot theft trials in the spring and summer of nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty three, engaged in a variety of underhanded and even
Speaker 1: illegal activities. They placed audio surveillance in the courthouse, using
Speaker 1: it to listen in to privileged attorney client conversations. They
Speaker 1: tapped phones and intercepted letters and telegrams. These measures were
Speaker 1: not just used on defendants, but also on possible jurors, witnesses,
Speaker 1: and attorneys. The District Attorney's office did not use evidence
Speaker 1: obtained the surveillance in any trials, but it certainly informed
Speaker 1: their legal strategy. As Jeffrey Leland notes quote in using
Speaker 1: such measures, Da Cotting gave at least some, albeit after
Speaker 1: the fact, substance to the ggc's charges of a conspiracy
Speaker 1: by the legal officers, And there was a grain of
Speaker 1: truth and banks and fails claims about the need for
Speaker 1: better representation in government. There was no gang, of course,
Speaker 1: no secret cabal of government officials conspiring to oppress the public.
Speaker 1: But there were deep inequalities within the county. The county
Speaker 1: had an elite political class who regularly overlooked the less fortunate.
Speaker 1: People across the county deserved to have their voices heard
Speaker 1: and their needs met. That being said, the Good Government
Speaker 1: Congress was never going to help its members because its
Speaker 1: leaders were not interested in doing so. They were interested
Speaker 1: in personal gain, in being proved right, in putting themselves
Speaker 1: above the law, in grasping power and deploying it for
Speaker 1: their own ends. Fortunately, though their defeat came at the
Speaker 1: cost of George Prescott's life, Llewellyn Banks and Earl Fayle
Speaker 1: did not succeed. Banks refused to accept failure. He still
Speaker 1: claimed that he had been framed. He said that people
Speaker 1: were trying to kill him in prison, going so far
Speaker 1: as to poison himself to try to prove his point.
Speaker 1: He tried to bribe a parole officer. A psychologist who
Speaker 1: examined him reported that Banks dreamed of running Oregon as
Speaker 1: a military dictatorship. All of these things are not looked
Speaker 1: on favorably by parole boards. Banks spent the rest of
Speaker 1: his life in prison. Edith and Ruth May visited him
Speaker 1: for the first two years, but after Banks accus used
Speaker 1: Edith of stealing money from him, Edith stopped coming. Banks
Speaker 1: died of cancer in a prison hospital on September twenty first,
Speaker 1: nineteen forty five, aged seventy five. Edith moved back to California,
Speaker 1: dying at age eighty six on November tenth, nineteen sixty seven.
Speaker 1: Earl Fayle also refused to admit his guilt. Fayle was
Speaker 1: released from prison in late nineteen thirty six and quickly
Speaker 1: resumed his old antics, suing the county to try to
Speaker 1: get his position as county judge back. He and his wife,
Speaker 1: Electa started publishing broadsides which libeled various government officials. He
Speaker 1: filed multiple lawsuits against anyone he could think of. He'd
Speaker 1: tried to buy a rifle and rally the troops. Within
Speaker 1: three months of his return to Jackson County, the county
Speaker 1: had filed a notice of insanity against Fayle, and in
Speaker 1: December nineteen thirty seven, he was committed to the Oregon
Speaker 1: State hospit. After his release four years later, fail quieted
Speaker 1: down somewhat, though he kept up his favorite hobby of
Speaker 1: suing people for the rest of his life. He died
Speaker 1: in his home in Medford on January twenty ninth, nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty two, aged seventy six. By this time, the Good
Speaker 1: Government Congress was long gone, but its legacy can still
Speaker 1: be felt in moments where charismatic leaders feed on the
Speaker 1: fears of their followers and in sight violence in those moments.
Speaker 1: We can learn from the example of those who stand
Speaker 1: up to such violence, including Jackson County newspaper editors Leonard
Speaker 1: Hall and Robert Rule. Both men had been outspoken against
Speaker 1: the GGC, even when it came at a personal cost.
Speaker 1: Hall was horsewhipped and beaten several times, while Rule faced
Speaker 1: threats to himself and his family and had to post
Speaker 1: armed guards outside his newspaper's office. In May nineteen thirty four,
Speaker 1: Rule's paper, the Medford Mail Tribune, was awarded the Pulitzer
Speaker 1: Prize for Public Service reporting. Hall, whose newspaper was a
Speaker 1: little less respectable, did not get such recognition, though even
Speaker 1: Rule thought he deserved it. Another Oregon newspaper, the Eugene
Speaker 1: Register Guard, congratulated the Mail Tribune on its prize and
Speaker 1: hope that the win would send a message, writing quote,
Speaker 1: there are times when the easiest course, often for editors
Speaker 1: and politicians, is to cater to public prejudices and suspicions.
Speaker 1: The Pulletzer award to the Mail Tribune is a warning
Speaker 1: to demagogues that quackery has become a tiresome fashion. Ninety
Speaker 1: years later, it is still a warning that ought to
Speaker 1: be heeded. That's the story of Oregon v. Llewellyn and
Speaker 1: Edith Banks. Stick around after the break for a look
Speaker 1: at how a program of real political reform helped preserve
Speaker 1: George Prescott's memory. In nineteen thirty three, just as the
Speaker 1: ballot theft trials were wrapping up, the first effects of
Speaker 1: the New Deal made themselves felt in Jackson County. President
Speaker 1: Franklin Roosevelt had promised to bring America out of the
Speaker 1: Great Depression, saying in his presidential nomination speech quote, I
Speaker 1: pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for
Speaker 1: the American people. Over the next seven years, that new
Speaker 1: deal took shape via an ambitious set of laws, relief programs,
Speaker 1: and public works. Many of these programs benefited Jackson County.
Speaker 1: Highway construction projects provided jobs, while price control codes allowed
Speaker 1: local industries like timber and fruit to get back on
Speaker 1: their feet. Medford also became the regional administrative head quarters
Speaker 1: for the Civilian Conservation Court. The CCC hired more than
Speaker 1: three million young men across the country to work on
Speaker 1: improving public lands. One of the CCC's projects in Medford
Speaker 1: was creating a trail system on land that had been
Speaker 1: donated to the city. The resulting park, with an area
Speaker 1: of seventeen hundred acres, is the second largest park in Oregon.
Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty seven, the park was dedicated to the
Speaker 1: memory of George Prescott. The park Prescott Park still bears
Speaker 1: his name today. Thank you for listening to History on Trial.
Speaker 1: My main sources for this episode were Jeffrey max Leland's
Speaker 1: book The Jackson County Rebellion, A Populist Uprising and Depression
Speaker 1: era Oregon, and Joe R. Blakelee's book Rebellion Murder and
Speaker 1: a Pulitzer Prize. For a full bibliography, as well as
Speaker 1: a transcript of this episode with citations, please visit our
Speaker 1: website History on Trial podcast dot com. History on Trial
Speaker 1: is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward. The show
Speaker 1: is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer
Speaker 1: Trevor Young and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick,
Speaker 1: and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show at History
Speaker 1: on Trial podcast dot com and follow us on Instagram
Speaker 1: at History on Trial and on Twitter at Underscore History
Speaker 1: on Trial. Find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the
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Speaker 1: favorite shows.