In darkness and cold rain, deputies formed two lines from the roadway to the tracks and forced the Wobblies, as IWW members were called, to run a gauntlet ending at a cattle guard. One by one the men were beaten with clubs, guns, and loaded saps. A family living nearby was startled by the shouts, curses, cries, and moans they heard and came to witness the brutal scene. The injured were left to return to Seattle any way they could.
The following morning Everett residents were enraged at the stories told of the previous evening’s atrocities. An investigation committee was formed including Rev. Oscar McGill of Seattle and labor leaders Jake Michel (b. 1866) and Ernest Marsh (1877-1963). Despite continuing heavy rain, the committee found the area heavily stained with blood. Marsh officially reported to the State Federation of Labor, “There can be no excuse for nor extenuation of such an inhuman method of punishment” (Smith, 69-70).
The happenings at Beverly Park hung like a cloud over the city, firming both deputies and IWW members in their resolve to win. On November 5th they met again, this time at Everett’s Bloody Sunday, the Everett Massacre, in which two deputies and five Wobblies died in a gunbattle at an Everett dock.
