WEBVTT - Rebellion in Jackson County 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:06.160 You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:15.160 Listener Discretion advised the first sign of something amiss was 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:19.560 the broken window from the back of the courthouse. The 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:25.520 damage was obvious. One of the tall, thin ground floor 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:30.920 windows was shattered, long cracks radiating out from the window handle. 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.560 The group of officials stared at the window, worry blossoming 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:42.640 in their minds. That broken window, they knew, led into 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:47.760 the courthouse records vault. They had actually been on their 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.960 way to the vault when they briefly stopped outside to 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:55.760 survey the construction. The Jackson County Courthouse in Medford, Oregon, 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.960 had technically been completed the year before, in nineteen thirty two, 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.680 but there were some small projects left to complete. One 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:09.280 of those projects not yet begun was adding bars to 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:13.120 the windows of the courthouse's record vault to prevent a 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:17.600 break in. County Clerk Naida Neil led the group back 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.440 inside and down the hallway to the vault. The room 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:26.600 looked undisturbed from the outside. Neil entered the combination locks 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:33.560 code and swung open the heavy door. Inside, the damage 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:40.280 was obvious. Neil stared in horror. Only the day before 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.680 she had secured the pouches of ballots in the vault. 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:49.120 The men behind her, including attorneys, county officials, and a 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:54.440 circuit court judge, were aghast. They were there to look 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:58.640 at those very ballots, which were crucial in a hotly 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:04.480 contested sheriff's After months of political fighting, Circuit Court Judge 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.600 George Skipworth had ruled that a recount needed to take place, 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:15.000 but now many of the ballots were gone. This was 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.480 only the latest drama to bubble up in Jackson County, 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.640 located in southern Oregon on the California border. The county 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:29.320 had recently become a hotbed of political intrigue. Governor Julius 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.680 Meyer dispatched the Oregon State Police to help the Medford 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:37.280 Police investigate. The team found burnt scraps of ballots in 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:42.119 the courthouse's furnace. Further out, they found water logged ballots 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.919 caught in an eddy under a bridge. Whoever had taken 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:50.840 these ballots did not want them counted. Back at the courthouse, 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:55.320 detectives found a clue a piece of fabric had snagged 0:02:55.320 --> 0:03:00.000 on the broken vault window. Cladus MacCready, the Medford Chief 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:05.560 of Police, surveyed the crowd gathered outside. His eyes caught 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:10.200 on a torn pant leg. The pants, he thought, looked 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:12.959 to be made of the same material as the fabric 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.720 scrap from the window. He fixed his gaze on the 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:22.560 pants owner, twenty year old Mason Sexton. Mason and his 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:26.760 younger brother Milton were temporarily living in a spare room 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:31.760 at the courthouse, doing chores in exchange for lodging. Quietly, 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:37.160 Macready and the detectives took the Sextons into custody. The 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.280 Medford police held the brothers in jail for four days 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:45.440 without bail or access to a lawyer. On the fourth day, 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:50.560 Mason Sexton confessed he and Milton had broken into the 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:58.240 courthouse faultroom and stolen the ballots, and they hadn't been alone. 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:02.880 The Sextons were members of Good Government Congress, a controversial 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:08.120 local political organization founded by two Medford men, Llewellyn Banks 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:13.560 and Earl Fayle. The Good Government Congress, or GGC, had 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:18.000 begun as a populist political movement, but had evolved into 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:23.040 something more dangerous. One of the candidates in the contested 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:29.440 sheriff's race, Gordon Skemmerhorn, was affiliated with the group Skemerhorn 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.719 had taken office months earlier despite the close race, and 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.120 had been trying to put off the recount for as 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.240 long as possible, But once Judge Skipworth ruled that the 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:45.880 recount would happen, the GGC had moved into action. The 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:49.760 night of February twentieth, the GGC held a rally in 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.599 front of the courthouse. At the same time, a small 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.960 crew of men gathered behind the building on a pre 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.760 arranged signal. As the crowd cheered for a speaker, a 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:06.280 supporter parked nearby loudly revved his engine. With the noise 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:11.160 covering him, Mason Sexton smashed the vault window with an axe. 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.680 The men passed the ballots from the locked room out 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.360 into waiting vehicles, which ferried them to the outer reaches 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.680 of the county, where the ballot pouches were split open, 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.479 their contents dumped in the river or burned in fires. 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.800 The Sexton's story was shocking. They implicated a number of 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.599 important local figures, including the mayor of a nearby town, 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:40.960 Sheriff Skemmerhorn, and the ggc's leaders, Llewellyn Banks and Earl Fayle. 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:46.600 Fayle had recently won election to county government. The political 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.840 situation had been tense in Jackson County before, but this 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:55.680 was a whole new level and things were about to 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.840 get worse. As the police pursued the ballot thieves, the 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:05.880 GGC upped its violent rhetoric, and then they acted on it. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.400 Less than a month later, when Medford Constable George Prescott 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.840 tried to arrest GGC leader Llewellyn Banks for his part 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:21.039 in the robbery, Banks shot Prescott dead. The murder would 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.560 lead to a trial that had the potential to extinguish 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:30.120 the burning ember of insurrection in Jackson County or fan 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:37.280 the flames into an inferno. Welcome to History on Trial. 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:43.719 I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week Oregon v. Llewellyn 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:51.120 and Edith Banks. At two thousand, eight hundred and one 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.599 square miles, Jackson County is slightly larger than the state 0:06:55.720 --> 0:07:00.880 of Delaware. It sits atop the Oregon California border, its 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.960 western border shooting northward through the Siskiyou Mountains, and its 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:10.160 eastern through the Cascade Range. Between these heavily forested mountains 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.040 lies a wedge of fertile valley nourished by the Rogue 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:20.280 River and Bear Creek. The modoc Amqua, Shasta, Takelma, and 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:23.240 La Gawa tribes lived on the land that is today 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:28.040 Jackson County. In the eighteen fifties, white settlers began arriving. 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.960 Throughout the decade, these settlers, with assistance from the United 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:37.640 States Army, attacked the native inhabitants, killing hundreds of people 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:42.520 and eventually driving them from the land onto reservations. With 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.880 the native peoples removed, white settlers began transforming the land 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.800 for commercial use. Wheat was the first staple product of 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:55.680 the region, but by nineteen hundred, fruit was king. Acres 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.800 of pear and apple trees sprung up across the valley, 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.480 bringing with them more money and a new kind of farmer, 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:07.920 wealthy outsiders with large holdings. As the fruit industry grew, 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.600 so too did the economic and class divides in the county. 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.280 Golf courses and country clubs and private hotels sprung up 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:21.760 in the county's largest cities, Medford and Ashland. Alongside this 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:26.920 orchard elite existed smaller farmers, ranchers, and dairy owners, as 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.600 well as the county's most rural residents who lived in 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:35.480 the forested foothills of the mountains and mainly worked in mining, logging, 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:40.160 or construction. The class, wealth and cultural divides in the 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.880 county made it fertile territory for political movements. Before the 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:48.600 Good Government Congress in the nineteen thirties, there were two 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:53.240 major political upheavals in Jackson County, both during times of 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:58.120 economic turmoil. In the eighteen nineties, farmers across the country 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:01.480 found themselves suffering under the com bind burdens of low 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:07.520 crop prices, high railroad shipping rates, and unaffordable mortgages. These 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.920 difficulties led to the rise of a populous political party, 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.840 the People's Party, which largely consisted of agrarian workers who 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:21.679 opposed industrialists, bankers, and monopolists. A chapter of the People's 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:26.120 Party was established in southern Oregon in eighteen ninety one. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.720 Jackson County voters were drawn to the party for its 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:32.240 promises to root out corruption and to return power to 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:36.920 the people, the people in this case being white Protestant farmers. 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:42.520 The movement had undercurrents of nativism and religious prejudices. Officials 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.840 hosted rallies, picnics, and other events that attracted large crowds. 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.720 By eighteen ninety four, the party had won enough support 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:55.559 to begin to win elections. Though the movement lost momentum 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.720 within a few years, it left a mark on Jackson County. 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.560 As Jeffrey la Land writes in his book The Jackson 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:08.559 County Rebellion, quote local farmer's time of struggle enabled solidarity 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:14.080 to overcome individual rural communities extreme localism by focusing their 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.640 attention on an identifiable enemy. This was a formula that 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:22.200 would prove to be successful time and again in the county. 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.800 It was another economic downturn that led to Jackson County's 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:31.400 second political upheaval. In the nineteen tens, the fruit industry 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:36.560 was gravely impacted by a drought, a pest infestation, and 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:40.440 World War One, which led to lowered fruit prices. The 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:44.080 difficult times continued throughout the decade, and by the early 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:49.000 nineteen twenties, tensions in the county were high. In nineteen 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:54.559 twenty one, dissatisfied Jacksonians found a political outlet for their unhappiness. 0:10:55.400 --> 0:11:01.320 The ku Klux Klan, how delightful, attracted members with its 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.319 appeals for political reform, support for causes such as prohibition, 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.920 and of course, its attacks on Jews, Catholics, and anyone 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.880 who wasn't white. By nineteen twenty two, the KKK was 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.439 a powerful presence in the county. A series of night 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:21.600 riding attacks in which clan members abducted people and threatened 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:26.080 to lynch them drew national attention to Jackson County. The 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:29.480 clan continued to influence events in the county, as well 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.800 as across the country, well into the nineteen twenties. Though 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.760 many in the regions supported the KKK, many others opposed it, 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:42.040 and the conflict divided the county for years, But by 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.439 the end of the decade a new concern had arisen. 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.280 In the autumn of nineteen twenty nine, the stock market crashed, 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:55.560 signaling the beginning of the Great Depression. The depression's effects 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.160 quickly rippled out into Jackson County, and the timber and 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:04.120 fruit industry struggled to stay afloat. Unemployment was rampant, and 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:09.760 public services experienced huge cuts. That same year, a man 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.280 named llu Ellen Banks bought a local newspaper called the 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:17.120 Medford Daily News. The fifty nine year old Banks was 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:20.120 new to the area. He and his wife Edith, had 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.439 only moved to Medford three years earlier, but he had 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.640 made quite a splash. Born into a modest fruit growing 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:32.200 family from Ohio, Banks now owned citrus groves in California 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.440 and orchards across Jackson County. Having been in the fruit 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:40.000 business his whole life, he had strong ideas about the 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:44.440 industry's future and what changes ought to be made. His 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:49.280 controversial views on direct selling quickly earned him enemies amongst 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:55.079 Jackson County's established fruit consignment sellers. Buying the Medford Daily 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:59.319 News gave Banks another platform for his beliefs. He began 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.160 writing a ca for the paper in which he attacked 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:06.040 the fruit sellers, but over time the scope of his 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:11.720 political opinions increased, as did his columns frequency. He espoused 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:16.480 conspiracy theories about bankers, regulatory agencies, and the Federal Reserve. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:21.640 By nineteen thirty one, he was publishing his column every day, 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:27.360 his angry diatribes filling up a whole page. Banks was 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:31.360 not the only controversial publisher in the area. Earl Fayle, 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:35.400 a general contractor and real estate developer in his mid forties, 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:39.280 was the owner of the Pacific Record Herald, a weekly paper. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.080 Like Banks, he went in for conspiracy theories, but his 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:48.199 focus was more local. Fayle was obsessed with what he 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.319 called the Gang, a cabal of elites who he believed 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:56.480 ran city and county government. Fail did more than just 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.480 write about government, He also tried to join it, running 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:04.840 for Medford mayor four times throughout the nineteen twenties. Another 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:09.440 newspaper editor, Robert Rule of the Medford Mayle Tribune, called 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.120 Fayle quote the hardy perennial who has been running for 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.760 mayor for this city since the Neolithic age. Banks and 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:22.400 Fayle might seem like fringe figures, and in other times, 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:26.800 in other places they may very well have been, But 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:30.520 in a county with deep veins of populis sentiment, in 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:36.520 a time of great suffering, their voices resonated. The two 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.800 men became political allies in nineteen thirty, when Banks ran 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.360 for the United States Senate and Fayle again ran for 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:49.640 Medford mayor. Banks's campaign went nowhere, at least outside of 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:54.040 Jackson County. Inside the county, he received forty percent of 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:57.360 the vote. Fail who was running for mayor for the 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:02.600 fifth time, did even better. Though he ultimately lost the race, 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.280 it was only by a margin of fourteen votes out 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.160 of three thousand, two hundred and forty Over the next 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:15.400 two years, conditions worsened in the county. In nineteen thirty two, 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:20.320 the county's second largest bank failed, and while banks were failing, 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:27.440 Banks and Fail were also failing, but seriously, both men 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.040 were facing bankruptcy. They were also facing a number of 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.440 libel suits from people who they had published unsubstantiated damaging 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:40.600 conspiracies about Fail. And Banks seemed to be at their 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:46.080 lowest points, but they were, if nothing else, canny men. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:51.320 In the dire conditions of the depression. They saw an opportunity. 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:57.160 People wanted change. Banks and Fail thought that they could 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:01.720 provide that change. Their plan was this, they would take 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.160 control of the local Republican party, choose candidates that aligned 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.880 with their political views, and use their newspapers to get 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:15.040 those candidates elected. If everything worked out, Banks and Fail 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:19.400 would be running Jackson County. The two men had different 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:25.160 motivations in creating a movement. Llewellyn Banks frankly needed the money. 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:30.280 A man accustomed to wealth, he drove cadillacs, wore finely 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:34.040 tailored suits, and lived in a beautiful house. He was 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:38.680 now barely scraping by. To Banks, the path to power 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.240 was also a path to money. He could use his 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:46.120 government connections to dismiss the suits against him and reduce 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:51.400 his taxes. For Earl Fayle, power was the goal itself. 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.600 He dreamed of taking down the so called gang and 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.960 getting revenge for the injustices he believed he had suffered 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:03.840 at their hands. Though their motivations differed, the men shared 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:08.960 a sense of unbridled determination. They would stop at nothing 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:17.200 to win, even if that meant breaking the law. Earl 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:22.040 Fayle wasn't satisfied with just electing allies to political office. 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:27.480 He wanted to run himself. Fayle, of course, had previously 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:31.480 tried to become mayor of Medford. This time he picked 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:36.000 an even more powerful office. He declared his intention to 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.399 become county judge. A county judge is akin to a 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.560 county commissioner. The judge and the other commissioners make important 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:50.480 decisions about local taxes, infrastructure, and boundaries of election districts. 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.960 Faile ran an aggressive campaign for the Republican primary nomination. 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.560 He toured the farthest reaches of Jackson County, speaking in 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:03.560 school rules and churches, vowing to root out the elite 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:07.000 political gang that he said was oppressing the common man. 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.800 Watch your step, folks, he told a crowd in Shady Cove, 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:15.560 or they will have you in jail if you can't 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.720 account for every ten minutes of your life. Faile campaigned 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:25.080 alongside his and Banks's chosen candidates for other positions, Thomas 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:29.240 j Enwright running for district attorney and Phil Loud running 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:34.120 for sheriff. Both were young political newcomers and their lack 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:39.760 of name recognition hurt them. Both men lost their primary races. However, 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:44.760 another ally, Gordon Skemmerhorn, did win the Democratic primary for sheriff, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:51.679 beating the longtime incumbent Ralph Jennings, and most importantly, Faile 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:57.880 won his own primary handily. Then on November eighth, nineteen 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:03.280 thirty two, fail won the general election, and though other 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:08.159 Faile backed candidates lost their races, incumbent George Cotting managed 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:12.720 to hold onto the district Attorney's office, Fayle's ally, Gordon Skemmerhorn, 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:17.360 won the county sheriff election. This should have been a 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.840 thrilling moment for Fayle, after years of failure, he had 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:26.840 finally won and one perhaps the most politically powerful position 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.760 in the county at that but behind the scenes, his 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:35.919 personal woes were only increasing. Fayle had lost a number 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:40.359 of libel cases, including one whose judgment entailed seizing his 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:43.919 printing press. He now had to share a printing press 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:47.800 with Banks. The two men were also facing yet more 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:53.040 lawsuits when State Circuit Court Judge Harold D. Norton, who 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.840 happened to be Fayle's neighbor, refused to dismiss the pending 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.760 libel cases. In the summer of nineteen thirty two, Banks 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:05.240 and Fayle began an aggressive recall campaign against Norton, though 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.480 they kept their involvement with this campaign a secret. Banks 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.480 and Fayle's political gains were also not quite as solid 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.960 as they might have wished. Though their ally skemmer Horn, 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.280 had won the sheriff's selection, it had been a tight 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.879 race against the incumbent Ralph Jennings, who had run a 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:28.200 write in campaign. After losing the primary, Jennings was now 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.119 asking for a recount. Skemmer Horn was doing his best 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.359 to delay the recount, but it was entirely possible that 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:38.360 he could lose his position if the recount went forward. 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:45.119 Over the summer, tensions in the area rose. Though Fayle 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:50.840 had many supporters, he faced criticism. Two other local newspaper editors, 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.160 Robert Rule of the Medford Mail Tribune and Leonard Hall 0:20:55.359 --> 0:21:00.159 of the Jacksonville Minor, spoke out against Fayle. Hall was 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.919 an irreverent, bold writer with a gift for parody, and 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.280 his attacks on Fayle riled people up so much that 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:11.639 he was physically attacked in the street. Threats of violence 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:16.520 hung over the county like thunder clouds. Comparing the situation 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.760 in Jackson County to that of Europe before the First 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:25.480 World War. The Oregonian called the area a Balkan powder keg. 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:31.080 Banks and Fayle were central to creating this atmosphere. Banks 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:35.520 publicly called for a citizen's vigilance committee to remove District 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:39.199 Attorney Cotting and Circuit Court Judge Norton from their offices, 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:45.800 even going so far as referencing the hangman's noose. In response, 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.760 the American Legion, a veterans organization, posted guards outside county 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:55.320 officials homes. Armed guards became the norm for prominent Jackson 0:21:55.359 --> 0:22:00.160 County citizens. County Commissioner Ralph Billings posted them in his yard, 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:04.080 and Mail Tribune editor Robert Ruhle stationed them outside his 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:09.040 printing press. A whole gang of ragtag guards, mainly young 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:13.040 unemployed men who called themselves the Green Springs Mountain Boys, 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:17.800 took to patrolling banks and Fayle's shared press, and eventually 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:23.680 began personally guarding banks. They swore to quote shoot anybody 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:28.000 who came through the door. Tensions were so high when 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:33.359 Medford Residence said that quote. Every time a car backfired 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:37.159 at night, they crawled under the bed. Things did not 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:41.439 calm down once Earl Fayle took office. Hundreds of his 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:45.080 supporters would show up at County commission meetings and harass 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:49.520 the other commissioners. At one meeting, Fayle called for opening 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:53.760 the County Commissary, typically only a resource for unemployed residents, 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.840 to everyone. The other commissioners said that this just wouldn't 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:03.560 be possible. In response, the crowd of Fayle's supporters shouted, 0:23:04.080 --> 0:23:08.480 hang them, throw them in the river. As residents became 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:14.200 increasingly concerned about Banks and faals embrace of extremes, opposition 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:18.639 to their political efforts grew. In mid January, the American 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.080 Legion and the County Bar Association organized a meeting for 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:27.040 concerned citizens at the Medford Armory some fifteen hundred people 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:31.040 showed up. The group voted to endorse the integrity of 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:35.240 county officials like District Attorney Cotting. A smaller subgroup of 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:39.480 attendees formed an anti Banks Fail committee, which they called 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:42.639 the Committee of the one Hundred. At the same time, 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:47.679 Banks and Fail were formally organizing their supporters. In January, 0:23:48.080 --> 0:23:53.240 they established the Good Government Congress. Banks became the group's 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:58.840 honorary president with the final say on all decisions. Membership 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:02.040 was open to anya county voter who paid the fifty 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:07.840 cent monthly dues. The organization grew quickly. Soon the GGC 0:24:08.040 --> 0:24:12.520 claimed to have over six thousand members. Six thousand is 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:16.080 an impressive number in a county with a total population 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:21.080 of only thirty thousand, including children. The membership roles have 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:24.520 been lost, so it's hard to verify this number, but 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:27.879 Jeffrey L. Land notes that nearly six thousand people voted 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:31.280 for Earl Fayle in his county judge election, and pictures 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:35.520 of GGC meetings show large crowds. That the group's first 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:40.800 general assembly on February fourth, approximately two thousand people showed up. 0:24:41.800 --> 0:24:45.520 Like past political movements in the county, the GGC appealed 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:50.800 to people's sense of disenfranchisement and unfairness. The group's preamble, 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:56.520 printed on every membership card, began quote, we, the citizens, 0:24:56.600 --> 0:25:01.320 property owners, and taxpayers of Jackson County, Oregon, are faced 0:25:01.359 --> 0:25:05.320 with economic conditions which, under the existing order of things, 0:25:05.720 --> 0:25:13.280 have passed beyond individual control. After listing these conditions unemployment, foreclosures, 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:18.920 high taxes, low crop prices, the pre ample concluded quote, 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:22.919 we find it necessary to form ourselves into an organization 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:27.120 for the protection of our lives, our homes, and our properties. 0:25:28.119 --> 0:25:33.119 The GGC explicitly tied themselves to the American tradition of protest. 0:25:33.480 --> 0:25:37.680 Their mission statements reference the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. 0:25:38.640 --> 0:25:44.199 Banks compared GGC members to Revolutionary War minutemen. Many members 0:25:44.280 --> 0:25:48.000 of the GGC saw themselves as patriots who wanted to 0:25:48.000 --> 0:25:51.800 bring the county's government back to its representative, democratic roots. 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:58.200 Opponents of the GGC saw them differently. Critics called members hillbillies, 0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:03.280 describing them as un educated, unsophisticated rural voters who had 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:08.000 fallen under the sway of two charismatic demagogues who were 0:26:08.080 --> 0:26:13.119 the GGC members. Actually, it's hard to generalize them. Not 0:26:13.240 --> 0:26:16.719 all members of the GGC lived in rural areas. Not 0:26:16.880 --> 0:26:20.720 all rural residents were GGC members. Not all members of 0:26:20.720 --> 0:26:24.920 the GGC were well intentioned advocates of good government. Some 0:26:25.040 --> 0:26:28.000 saw it as a channel for jobs or personal advancement. 0:26:29.040 --> 0:26:32.879 Like all political movements, the GGC attracted a varied group. 0:26:33.840 --> 0:26:36.960 The main thing that these people shared was economic status 0:26:37.880 --> 0:26:42.600 rural or urban, male or female, farmer or small business owner. 0:26:43.240 --> 0:26:47.480 Most GGC members had been devastated by the depression they 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:52.919 wanted change. Their motives are understandable, but banks and fail 0:26:53.119 --> 0:26:56.560 were not the men they needed, and the group's appeals 0:26:56.600 --> 0:27:01.399 to racism, xenophobia, and anti Catholic and Wish prejudices should 0:27:01.400 --> 0:27:06.080 also not be overlooked. By mid February, the GGC leadership 0:27:06.200 --> 0:27:11.120 was increasingly concerned about the impending sheriff's recount. It seemed 0:27:11.280 --> 0:27:15.919 entirely possible that George Skemmerhorn, the GGC ally and current sheriff, 0:27:16.320 --> 0:27:20.080 would be ousted by their recount's results. It was then 0:27:20.160 --> 0:27:23.680 that planning for the courthouse break in began. Though most 0:27:23.680 --> 0:27:26.480 of the group's rank and file members had no idea 0:27:26.560 --> 0:27:29.880 about the break in, the group's leadership used a planned 0:27:29.920 --> 0:27:33.520 courthouse rally on February twentieth as cover for the crime. 0:27:35.320 --> 0:27:39.480 After the Sexton brothers arrest and subsequent confession and implication 0:27:39.640 --> 0:27:43.760 of the GGC in the crime, local officials moved quickly. 0:27:44.800 --> 0:27:48.199 On February twenty seventh, only seven days after the break in, 0:27:48.800 --> 0:27:52.800 a large group of robbery participants were arrested, including Earl 0:27:52.880 --> 0:27:57.040 Fayle and Gordon Skemmerhorn. The police used the Sexons to 0:27:57.080 --> 0:28:00.760 elicit confessions from many of the arrested men. They placed 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:03.840 each man in turn in a ward alone with the 0:28:03.880 --> 0:28:07.800 Sextons and listened in on the subsequent conversations about the 0:28:07.880 --> 0:28:11.879 break in. Skemmerhorn did not fall for this trap, and 0:28:12.000 --> 0:28:15.880 Fayle also escaped it. His followers had posted bond for him. 0:28:15.920 --> 0:28:20.479 Shortly after his arrest. Outside the jail, trouble was brewing. 0:28:21.400 --> 0:28:27.480 Diehard GGC members, feeling threatened, went on the attack. Men 0:28:27.520 --> 0:28:31.800 seized newspaper editor Leonard Hall, who opposed the GGC, and 0:28:31.920 --> 0:28:36.240 held him fast while GGC president Henrietta Martin hit his 0:28:36.320 --> 0:28:40.440 face repeatedly with a horsewhip. A large group of GGC 0:28:40.600 --> 0:28:44.040 members assembled outside the courtroom and threatened to break their 0:28:44.080 --> 0:28:47.720 friends out of jail. In response, the National Guards sent 0:28:47.920 --> 0:28:51.680 armed men to guard the jail, and Earl Phayle, once 0:28:51.760 --> 0:28:54.800 released from jail, tried to use the powers of his 0:28:54.880 --> 0:28:58.840 office to subvert the justice process. He issued writs for 0:28:58.880 --> 0:29:02.160 the release of all the jailed men and also issued 0:29:02.200 --> 0:29:06.840 an arrest warrant for Medford Police Chief Claydus MacCready. On 0:29:06.880 --> 0:29:10.160 March sixth, the GGC held a rally at the courthouse 0:29:10.840 --> 0:29:14.960 in front of approximately two thousand people. The ggc's leadership 0:29:15.080 --> 0:29:20.680 railed against their opponents and called for action. Llewellyn Banks, 0:29:20.760 --> 0:29:24.640 who spoke last, was explicit in his calls for a revolt. 0:29:25.640 --> 0:29:29.520 Banks was growing desperate. He needed control of the county 0:29:29.560 --> 0:29:32.880 government in order to escape the large number of lawsuits 0:29:32.880 --> 0:29:37.320 and creditors claims against him, and now that control was 0:29:37.360 --> 0:29:42.360 slipping through his fingers. Unless we can have justice, he 0:29:42.440 --> 0:29:45.360 told a group of anti GGC observers at the back 0:29:45.400 --> 0:29:49.560 of the crowd, I will take the field of revolution 0:29:49.800 --> 0:29:54.800 against you people. As March war on, Banks's plans for 0:29:54.920 --> 0:30:01.320 revolution became more concrete, his world was crumbling. On March fifteenth, 0:30:01.640 --> 0:30:06.200 law enforcement officials seized his fruit packing house, his orchards, and, 0:30:06.360 --> 0:30:11.040 most devastatingly his newspaper. The ownership of these assets would 0:30:11.040 --> 0:30:14.120 be transferred to the creditors. Banks was deeply in debt 0:30:14.160 --> 0:30:17.680 to and although Banks had not been arrested in the 0:30:17.720 --> 0:30:21.560 first roundup of ballot thieves, he had been intimately involved 0:30:21.600 --> 0:30:25.080 with the crime. He knew it was only a matter 0:30:25.160 --> 0:30:30.040 of time before he too was brought in. Banks was 0:30:30.080 --> 0:30:34.320 not going to go down without a fight. For some time, 0:30:34.560 --> 0:30:37.640