The Best Historical Corner of the State  (needed: perhaps a better title)

(Draft 0.5)

 

When Idaho State historian and editor Judy Austin found what amounted to the closed captioning of the "Trial of the Century," that meant I didn’t have to guess what prosecutor William Borah said. I knew exactly what he orated/said/argued in the stifling courtroom that summer of 1907.

Securing the amazing transcript of the trial was the single most important discovery that made me think we could create an unusual hour program on the murder of Governor Frank Steunenberg, that would be a cut above anything done of this fascinating part of Idaho’s history.

We didn’t have to rely upon old black and white photos to tell the story. We knew that William Borah actually said>>>>

William Borah, who would soon become known as the Lion of the U.S. Senate really did say/argue  >>>>

 

And when West law man and co-prosecutor James Hawley spoke for __ hours -- __ hours longer than Borah--  he really did argue/say/  >>>>>

 

No one doubted that between Borah and Hawley, the State of Idaho had found the two best orators and experienced Old West prosecutors in the intermountain west.

Their evidence might have been circumstantial, but their oratory wasn’t... it cut to the bone and must have dazzled the jurors, who were farmers and merchants from the growing Boise village. If nothing else, it wore them down.

A slam dunk verdict/case, one would think.

What everyone agreed upon was that Harry Orchard, a neer do well miner had actually placed the bomb at the gate to Stuenenberg’s yard. Orchard confessed as much, and he would go to prison for his deed.

After much backroom prodding, Orchard also let it be known that the orders to kill the Governor came directly from the leadership of the Western Federation of Miners. It was in response to the Governor rounding up Silver Valley and putting them into what at the time was known as the 'bull pen.' 

 

It was the leaders of the labor union that William Borah and James Hawley wanted. They hoped to cut off the head of the snake to stop the dynamiting of Silver Valley's largest mines. And if it meant sneaking down to Reno?  kidnapping >>> and >>> hauling them back to Idaho in a midnight? train before anyone knew what happened, well, it was only fair.

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The other thing that pretty much guaranteed that IdahoPTV would tackle the largest project in its history was the tenacity of Byron Johnson. As a teenager he had been enthralled with the Trial of the Century. The defense attorney and soon-to-be Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court had grown up with Clarence Darrow as one of his personal heroes.

When he approached IdahoPTV with a suggestion that we create a program on what one book called "the battle for the heart and soul of America," (find exact quote on cover of book)  he said he would help raise the money.

At first I was skeptical. When they put a $100,000 price tag on the project, management felt confident that Bryon would blink first.

I had known Byron for 20? Years because of his involvement in various Idaho City activities, and we had forged a solid friendship. I remember visiting him at his home when he was dying of cancer and in hospice. He touchingly told me I was a true friend; kind words from the Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court.

 

But Byron did not blink, and I had already begun scheming. With that amount of money we didn’t have to kick out the usual documentary. We could use real actors and pay them scale wages. We could enlist an audience of Boise citizens, dress them in period costumes to sit in the wooden seats for a week, in a real old-time court room, as we created television under their watchful eyes.

We could make this the biggest production of its kind in Idaho.

 

As luck would have it, there was a gentleman traveling around the country, speaking to students in law schools, giving them a taste of the power of persuasion from the “attorney for the damned,” using the words of Clarence Darrow himself, from national trials like the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a Dayton, Tennessee trial about teaching evolution in public schools.

When >> heard what we were planning, he naturally wanted a piece of the action. And since he even looked like Clarence Darrow, we brought him on board. The other major actors we procured/borrowed from the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, making sure we conducted the shooting between their other duties and paying them Actors' Guild wages. That $100,000 was starting to look spot-on.

 

Several of us decided that the jurors all had to have beards. There were only 8 seats in the juror’s section of the old court room on the second/third floor of the old post office building (name of building). So it would have to be shot in a way that viewers wouldn’t catch on that we were four jurors short. Videographers Pat Metzler and Jeff Tucker, with assistance from Ric Ochoa and >>> made sure that only a perceptive viewer would recognize what trickery we had used to hide that unfortunate matter/overlook/?

I have to say, the eight distinguished older gentlemen could have walked right out of the 19^th century. They were a highlight for me. Pretty much everyone that I knew with a beard spent 5 days? On hard wooden benches. And no one complained.

 (more to come, about the trial, about the history of Silver Valley and OI’s various shows)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After producing several shows on the area, I don't think there's a more interesting corner of the state than the Silver Valley.

We've tackled it several ways over the years, in particular with a program called "Silver Valley Rising" and "Assassination: Trial of the Century."

A dream team of gifted lawyers descent on an Idaho courtroom in 1907. Criminal lawyer James Hawley and newly elected United States Senator William Borah, clashed with legendary defense attorney Clarence Darrow in a "struggle for the soul of America."

 Byron Johnson, himself a famous lawyer who became an Idaho Supreme Court Justice, raised $100,000, allowing us to put this documentary on with some of the state's gifted actors.