Frank Steunenberg was the fourth governor of the State of Idaho, serving from 1897 until 1901. He was assassinated in 1905 by one-time union member Harry Orchard, who was also a paid informant for the Cripple Creek Mine Owners' Association. Orchard attempted to implicate leaders of the radical Western Federation of Miners in the assassination. The labor leaders were found not guilty in two trials, but Orchard spent the rest of his life in prison.
Frank Steunenberg
Statue of Steunenberg in front of the Idaho State Capitol in Downtown Boise
Albert Edward Horsley, best known by the pseudonym Harry Orchard, was a miner convicted of the 1905 political assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. The case was one of the most sensational and widely reported of the first decade of the 20th century, involving three prominent leaders of the radical Western Federation of Miners as co-defendants in an alleged conspiracy to commit murder.
"Harry Orchard from a photograph taken in January 1906, shortly after his arrest for the murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg."
Miners playing faro in a saloon in 1895
Harry Orchard c. 1907
Idaho's ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg, victim of a bomb blast at his home in 1905