Louis Lingg
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Louis Lingg (September 9, 1864 — November 10, 1887) was an anarchist who committed suicide while in jail, after being arrested as an agitator during the Haymarket Riot.
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[edit] Birth
He was born in Mannheim, Germany to Friedrich Lingg. Lingg's parents made just enough money to meet the needs of both Louis and his younger sister, until his father, Friedrich had a tragic accident in the lumber mill where he worked. He was willing to perform many tasks at the mill that the other workers did not have the nerve to even attempt. Friedrich was doing just such a task one day as he moved logs down an icy river. The logs started to create a jam and in his effort to get the lumber moving again, he fell through a section of the ice and remained trapped for quite some time. Although his father was saved, Louis believed that the accident actually caused his father's eventual death. This is because the incident destroyed his father's courageous nature. He was no longer able to undertake the same tasks at the lumber mill and he became just like all the other workers, expendable. After 20 years of service his boss fired Friedrich as other workers became more important. Three years later Louis's father died. Louis wrote in his autobiography: "At this time I was thirteen and my sister seven years old, and at this age I received my first impressions of the prevailing unjust social institutions, i.e., the exploitation of men by men."
[edit] Carpenter
Lingg became an apprentice carpenter from 1869 to 1882. He then took a job in Strasbourg, in Alsace, then moved on to Fribourg, Germany where he joined the Working Men's Educational Society, a socialist organization.
[edit] Switzerland
To avoid military service, he moved to Switzerland, but in the spring of 1885, the police in Zurich ordered him to leave the country. He then received a letter from his mother telling him that her new husband was willing to provide him with enough money to move to the United States.
[edit] United States
In July of 1885, Lingg arrived in New York City then departed for Chicago where he joined the International Carpenters and Joiners' Union.
[edit] Haymarket Square
On May 4, 1886, Lingg was at Haymarket Square for what would be known as the Haymarket Riot. A bomb was thrown into the crowd of policemen by a unidentified person. Lingg and seven other men were arrested in connection with the bombing.
[edit] Trial and suicide
There was no evidence that any of the men arrested had participated in the bombing, but they were all charged with criminal conspiracy, on the theory that their anarchistic writings incited the bomber. Lingg and six others were convicted and sentenced to death. Oscar Neebe was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Lingg took his own life on November 10, 1887, the day before he was scheduled to hang. He used a small bomb that was smuggled in to him. He put it in his mouth and lit it, blowing off his lower jaw, and killing him.
[edit] Posthumous pardon
On June 26, 1893 the Illinois governor, John Peter Altgeld, posthumously pardoned all six men who had been hanged; Neebe, who was inprisoned; and Lingg, who had taken hos own life.
[edit] Selected coverage in the New York Times
- New York Times; November 07, 1887. Chicago, November 6, 1887. Four bombs were taken this morning from the cell of Louis Lingg, the condemned Anarchist, in Cook County Jail. They were found under his cot, hidden beneath a mass of papers and odd and ends of various kinds, and were inclosed in a harmless-looking ...
- New York Times; November 10, 1887. Louis Lingg was the most daring and desperate of the Anarchists. From the time of his arrival in Chicago, about seven months before the riot, he devoted his leisure to spreading the doctrines of which Fielden, Spies, and Parsons were the recognized champions.
