When we think of famous prostitutes, we usually think of women. Royal mistresses like Madame de Pompadour or Nell Gwynn, the hetaerae of the ancient world like Aspasia or Phryne, the women of the century demimonde like Marie DuPlessis (immortalized in Verdi’s La traviata) or La Belle Otero, or more recent women like Xaviera Hollander (The Happy Hooker) or Brooke Magnanti, writing under the pen name Belle de Jour.

But male prostitutes have made history, too. They’ve inspired poets and artists, led rebellions, brought down powerful political figures, and become infamous serial killers. Two of these men, Lao Ai and Shai Shahar, are famous for their liaisons with women, while the others primarily served other men.

Here are some of the most famous—from ancient times to today.

10 Phaedo Of Elis
Fourth Century BC

Phaedo, a handsome young man from an aristocratic family, was captured in the war between Elis and the allies, Athens and Sparta. He was enslaved in Athens and made to serve as a prostitute.

Phaedo was serving clients at an event where the philosopher Socrates was present and pleaded for his freedom. Socrates’s friends bought Phaedo’s freedom, and he became a philosopher himself.

Plato’s dialogue Phaedo is named for Phaedo, and he was present at Socrates’s death. After Socrates’s death, Phaedo went back to Elis and formed his own school of philosophy.

9 Lao Ai
Died 238 BC

During the regency of Qin Shi Huang, ruler of the Qin state and later the first emperor of China, Lao Ai was recruited to become the queen dowager’s boy toy. He was smuggled into the court as a eunuch, although he was no such thing. In fact, it was the size of his equipment that caught the queen’s eye.

Lao took advantage of his hold over the queen and publicly boasted of his power. Lao and the regent Lu Buwei conspired unsuccessfully against the future emperor with the queen’s tacit approval. After their coup attempt failed, Lao was killed, Lu committed suicide, and the queen was placed under house arrest.

8 Febo di Poggio
1500s

Febo di Poggio was one of Michelangelo’s many male models and lovers. According to Michelangelo’s poetry and contemporary rumor, di Poggio was fickle and mercenary and demanded so many gifts that Michelangelo called him “little blackmailer.”

Michelangelo was so enamored that he wrote two poems to di Poggio, G. 99 and G. 100. In keeping with Renaissance poetic tradition, Michelangelo included several plays on words in these poems, referencing di Poggio’s last name (which means “of the hill”) and his first name (equivalent to “Phoebus,” another name for the god Apollo) in these poems.

However, the relationship ended after a relatively short time and Michelangelo moved on to new loves.

7 John Saul
1857–1904

Although John Saul was born into desperate poverty in a Dublin slum, he became the most famous of London’s male prostitutes and was involved in both major male prostitution scandals of the Victorian period. He might have been the author of the 1881 pornographic novel The Sins of the Cities of the Plain; or, The Recollections of a Mary-Ann, with Short Essays on Sodomy and Tribadism.

In 1884, Irish nationalists alleged that there were homosexual orgies at the castle and named Martin Oranmore Kirwan, the son of a prominent Galway landowner, as one of the participants. Earlier in his career, Kirwan had paid Saul for sexual favors. Saul was brought to London to testify, although he wasn’t actually put on the witness stand.

In 1887, Saul was one of the in-house prostitutes at 19 Cleveland Street, which was involved in a major public scandal in 1890. Saul openly testified during the related trial that he worked there as “a professional Mary-Ann,” the current slang for male prostitutes.

However, he was never prosecuted, possibly because the authorities were afraid that he might name other Cleveland Street clients, including Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria’s grandson and heir to the throne at that time.

6 Herbert Huncke
1915–1996

Herbert Huncke, whose last name is pronounced “hunky,” was one of the most prominent Beats of the post–World War II generation and was indeed the one who named the Beat movement. He came from a middle-class family but found street life far more compelling.

Huncke, who briefly worked for Al Capone’s gang, started his prostitution career in Chicago. But Huncke didn’t make it big until he moved to New York City in 1939, where he was known as the “Mayor of 42nd Street.” He was addicted to drugs, especially morphine, from an early age.

William S. Burroughs wrote his first novel, Junkie, about Huncke and Jack Kerouac later used Huncke as the primary inspiration for the character Elmer Hassel in his famous book On the Road. In addition, Alfred Kinsey used Huncke to recruit subjects for his sexual research.

5 Jean Genet
1910–1986

Jean Genet was one of the best-known dramatists and thinkers behind French Modernism, inspiring Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Derrida, among others. The son of a prostitute, Genet wrote about his experiences servicing sailors in his autobiographical novel, Our Lady of the Flowers.

This book’s frank depiction of life among prostitutes and the criminal classes became an instant scandal and is now considered a classic piece in the literature of gay liberation. Genet followed the book with the plays The Balcony, The Blacks, The Maids, and The Screens. He also wrote the novels Querelle of Brest, Funeral Rites, and The Thief’s Journal, and a short film, A Love Song.

Genet became a political activist as well as a playwright and even inspired a David Bowie song, “The Jean Genie.”

4 Denham Fouts
1914–1948

Denham Fouts led a colorful life. He counted the wealthy, artists, and royalty among his clients as well as many of the period’s most famous authors and Bright Young Things among his friends.

In the 1920s, after Fouts robbed a Greek millionaire client and was sentenced to jail, the Welsh poet Evan Morgan (the 2nd Viscount Tredegar) bailed him out and supported him. Fouts left Tredegar for Prince Paul of Greece, but Paul ended the relationship when he became king.

Fouts then took up with Peter Watson, an industrialist and publisher of the literary magazine Horizon. Christopher Isherwood said Fouts was “the most expensive male prostitute in the world.” He fell in love with a picture of Truman Capote and sent Capote a blank check and his address in Paris. Fouts died young of heart failure in Paris.

3 Shai Shahar
Retired 1999

Shai Shahar, a former soldier in both the United States and Israel, was the first man to go on display in the famous windows in Amsterdam’s red-light district. He claimed that his clientele, there and elsewhere, included royalty, politicians, and movie stars.

Shahar also claimed to have had sex with 500 different women and 40 couples. After retiring from prostitution, he became a singer and promoter for burlesque productions as well as an advocate for legal prostitution and sex worker rights.

2 Mike Jones
20th century

Mike Jones, who prefers to be called an escort rather than a prostitute, became famous for outing his client, Reverend Ted Haggard. Haggard was one of the best-known evangelical leaders in the United States and was a regular adviser to President George W. Bush.

Haggard, a married man, was an active proponent for the Defense of Marriage Act, which banned same-sex marriage. This advocacy made Jones decide to out Haggard, despite knowing that it would almost certainly cost him his career. “This [hypocrisy] is so strong for me, and it hurt me so deeply, that I simply reached the point where I had to say something.”

1 Jeff Gannon
Born 1957

Jeff Gannon (born James Dale Guckert) lived two lives, one as a member of the White House Press Corps during George W. Bush’s administration and the other as a professional escort named “Bulldog” who advertised on websites such as militaryescorts.com. He did not, however, have a military background.

Gannon was able to bypass the standard clearance procedures for White House press passes, which later raised suspicions that he had received special treatment. During a press conference on January 26, 2005, he asked President George W. Bush, “How are you going to work with people [Senate Democrats] who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?”

This overtly partisan question brought him to national attention. Reporters began digging into his background and revealed that he had been a male escort. In 2007, Gannon published a book, The Great Media War, about his experience and the media in general.

+ Andrew Cunanan
1969–1997

Andrew Cunanan was a very successful prostitute on the West Coast of the United States who made a good living off multiple clients. One, Norman Blachford, flew Cunanan around the world and gave him a car, housing, and an allowance.

Cunanan was a habitual liar, exaggerating his background and frequently pretending to be independently wealthy. For some unknown reason, he embarked on a violent murder spree in 1997.

His first victim was Jeff Trail, a former lover, followed by David Madson, an architect. Cunanan then murdered Lee Miglin, a famous and wealthy real estate developer, which put Cunanan on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. He then killed cemetery caretaker William Reese, the first victim who had no apparent preexisting link to Cunanan.

Then Cunanan fled to Miami, where he shot and killed fashion designer Gianni Versace and later shot himself. To date, no investigation has uncovered a motive for the killings.

Ann is a researcher, writer, and currently, a job hunter. Learn more about her on LinkedIn or see more of her writing on Medium.

Often, lunch hour for students—and perhaps adults—is a respite from the pressures of the day. Conversely, this period of tranquility for some may also be a moment of burden for disturbed cafeteria workers who have temporarily lost their minds.

See Also: Top 10 Disastrously Distasteful And Bizarre Food Vendors

The following colorful characters are the epitome of unhinged kitchen staff whose impatience and irrational logical led to both humorous and tragic sets of circumstances.

10 Marsupial Cuisine

The head cook at a Nebraska Panhandle school in Potter was fired after mixing questionable ingredients in the chili he made for students in October 2018. On that fateful fall day, Kevin Frei had the bright idea to augment the chili’s beef with none other than kangaroo meat.

When confronted about the exotic protein that clearly did not taste like chicken, Frei admitted what he had done. But he claimed that the contents of his recipe were leaner and more nutritious than beef. Although the sly chef repeatedly provided documentation about the meat’s nutritional value, Frei was given his walking papers. In the days following his dismissal, reports of students falling ill from the chili began to emerge.^[1]

Coincidentally, the school district’s superintendent, Mike Williams, resigned one week later. The Potter-Dix Board of Education voted unanimously, 5-0, to accept his resignation. In the end, no explanation was given for this action. To date, the school’s cafeteria has been marsupial free—or so they’ve said.

9 Thumbs Up!

In Hyannis, Massachusetts, a cafeteria worker at Barnstable High School was using the vegetable slicer while preparing that day’s meal. At some point, the woman’s attentiveness strayed, causing her to slice the top of her thumb clean off.

With blood spraying the veggies and kitchen hysterics at an all-time high, the staff managed to eventually stop the bleeding. Once assured that the automatic slicing machine was sanitized and all nearby food had been thrown out, the employees carried on prepping for lunch.

Fast-forward to the following day, one that began like any other—free of frenzy and gore. By lunchtime, however, all would change in a disgustingly memorable way.

While biting into her turkey-and-tomato sandwich, a female student tasted something peculiar. Upon spitting out the special ingredient, she came to realize that she was chewing on a small piece of a human thumb.

After losing her appetite, the student became quite offended, causing yet another uproar in the cafeteria. According to one enthusiastic eyewitness, “Our lunch is our most valuable time, and now we have to eat fingers.”

Health inspectors arrived at the school the following day and were shown the delightful appendage, fingernail and all. Tensions eventually subsided when Roseanne Pawelec, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Health, reassured the public that blood-borne diseases cannot be transmitted through food.

“We understand this is very upsetting,” Pawelec said, “but there is no public health risk, and we want to make sure people know that.”^[2]

8 Hand In The Cookie Jar

It is safe to assume that cafeteria workers are not “rolling in dough.” On the other hand, the following greedy green bean providers discovered an effortless way of cashing in on slinging the day’s edibles. Alma Julia Rodriguez, 52, of Butler Elementary School in Arlington, Texas, was taken into custody after it came to light that she had stolen up to $30,000.

Surprisingly, her efforts in undermining the “system” were not as ambitious as a pair of tag team sisters from New Canaan, Connecticut. From 2012 to 2017, 61-year-old Joanne Pascarelli and 67-year-old Marie Wilson funneled $478,588 from Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School by pocketing the cash of children.

After the school district installed new software meant to track cash intake in 2016, the embezzling siblings were fingered and eventually admitted to wrongdoing. Yet they pleaded innocent in court to all charges.^[3]

Still, if $500,000 isn’t enough to satisfy one’s avarice, there’s always North Springs High’s former cafeteria manager Brenda Watts. In January 2014, Watts was fired by the Fulton County school district in Georgia after her profitable, long-running scheme tallied roughly $1.35 million over a 15- to 20-year period.

According to an arrest warrant, Watts conducted her indictable transactions in a “cash-only line” for which there were no records. At one point, she was allegedly stealing up to $500 a day from the cafeteria. Eventually, Watts pleaded guilty to one count of theft by conversion and was sentenced to a lengthy zero days in jail. She was also ordered to repay the money she had stolen.

7 Volatile Frustration

It’s safe to assume that working with children on a daily basis can be quite exhausting and troublesome. But the following cafeteria workers took their aggravation to new heights. After a parent noticed an abrasion on her son’s neck in 2017, authorities were notified, sparking an investigation in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

According to reports, 66-year-old Agnes Catherine Means of Rice Elementary allowed her frustration to get the best of her while scanning children’s lunch cards for payment. Working at the register, Means decided to vent her anger in a logical manner by forcefully yanking on the lanyards of six students, ages seven and eight, which sent two children to the clinic. The no-nonsense senior citizen was subsequently fired and charged with two counts of simple assault and six counts of harassment.

A similar incident occurred in Montville, Connecticut, when 53-year-old Cynthia Ricarla Horsley channeled her inner Chuck Norris during lunch hours in 2018. After purposely shoving an 11-year-old waiting in line for food, Horsley returned at the end of the hour to finish her assault. As the boy was finishing up his meal, the irritated employee casually strolled by the youth and forcefully pushed his head back, causing him to fall out of his seat.

Apparently, this was not the first time that she had unleashed her fury. Previously, she had been reported for grabbing a girl by the neck after she was “asked to move and didn’t.” Horsley was later charged with risk of injury to a child and second-degree breach of peace.

At the time of Horsley’s arrest, Montville High School was already under scrutiny after a teacher was fired for organizing “slap fights” among students in his classroom. In addition, the school district’s superintendent as well as Montville High’s principal and assistant principal were all arrested for failing to report the abuse.^[4]

6 Buzz Before Lunch

In 2017, after-school activities were abruptly cut short for Philadelphia cafeteria worker Robert Lumpkin. The 31-year-old was taken into custody after he was spotted on surveillance video selling marijuana to students at George Washington High.

Even so, one silver lining must be the fact that he did not sell crystal meth to the kids—unlike Deanna Hatley of Charlotte, North Carolina. Working out of her vehicle as if she was Walter White, Hatley was arrested following a raid on her warm and welcoming meth lab, which was her car in the school’s parking lot.

In Muncie, Indiana, 53-year-old Sandra Howard was busted after selling $40 worth of hydrocodone pills to an undercover officer in the parking lot at Northside Middle School. As brazen as the exchange may have been, nothing can overshadow the true crime: Howard impetuously conducted the transaction during lunch service.^[5]

5 Love Is In The Air

If you’ve paid any attention to news outlets over the last two decades, you’ve probably heard reports of teachers fornicating with their students as if it was the end of the world. Frankly, it is not just teachers who have dared to walk (or sleep) on the wild side but neighborhood cafeteria workers as well.

In Hillside, Illinois, 32-year-old Joi Taylor was arrested in 2015 after having sex with a 16-year-old student in a parking lot during school hours. To everyone’s shock and disbelief, their tryst was discovered only after the teen bragged about it later that day at school.

Stepping it up a notch, 40-year-old Aimee Chevalier exchanged more than 100 risque text messages with a student at Hernando Christian Academy before taking it to the next level. In a blissfully romantic setting fit for a cinematic tearjerker, Chevalier hit a home run in the confines of her office: the school’s kitchen.

The baffling beauty of their love is reminiscent of married mother of four Janelle Foley of Massachusetts, who was charged with statutory rape after finding herself in the arms of a 15-year-old boy. That was also the case for 42-year-old Lawanda Ann Cummings of Dutch Fork Middle School. Allegedly, she taught a 13-year-old the true meaning of sex ed. And let’s not forget about Stacey St. Jean, who served up a daily special with multiple students in her Washington High cafeteria.

Nevertheless, none of them compares to the likes of Monica Vinacco. As for the Charlotte County School District cafeteria worker, she found herself unemployed and in handcuffs after it came to light that she had allegedly been molesting a five-year-old boy.^[6]

4 Target Practice

Due to recurrent gun violence in US schools, threats of potential shootings are taken seriously with no room for error or laxity. Such was the case in 2018 at Phillipsburg Middle School in New Jersey after classes were cut short following threats made by a cafeteria employee.

Boasting on social media that she planned to stab students, run them over with her car, poison their food, and blow up the school, cafeteria worker Jennifer Newell was merely dismissed from working in any school district building. Subsequent to an investigation and increased police presence, authorities ultimately concluded that there was no immediate danger to the students.

However, other threats made by a cafeteria worker in Connecticut were taken much more seriously. After making comments to a coworker that he was going to shoot up the school, 69-year-old Leslie Delaney was arrested on school grounds. Specifically, the disturbed senior citizen stated to his coworker that he should run if he ever saw Delaney in his army fatigues. If that happened, Delaney would be armed with an AK-47 to “finish everything and then ‘off’ himself.”

When police arrived at Norwalk High School, they discovered a .22 caliber Mossberg rifle in the trunk of Delaney’s car. Despite being unloaded with no ammunition found elsewhere, Delaney was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds as well as making threats and breaching the peace.

Another cafeteria worker in Coal Township, Pennsylvania, took her built-up agitation a step further. Irritated at the children playing across the street from her home, Marie McWilliams decided to unload a BB gun on the kids. Firing multiple shots toward the playground, the lunch lady for the Shamokin Area School District assured a distressed parent, “If I don’t get [the kids] now, I will get them tomorrow.”^[7]

Fortunately, that wonderful experience never came as McWilliams found herself in the back of a patrol car that evening. Ultimately, the gun-wielding cook was hauled off to jail on charges of simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, harassment, and the sale and use of air rifles.

3 Be Careful What You Drink

In Norwood, North Carolina, two cafeteria staffers at South Stanly High were arrested in 2011 after their malevolent plan to poison their supervisor went awry. Hoping for a toxic spectacle, Eileen Hallamore, 64, and Angela Johnson, 38, shamelessly slipped cleaning solution into their manager’s tea during school hours.

Fortunately for the unsuspecting victim, a fellow employee got wind of the plot and alerted authorities. After detectives became involved, the diabolic duo was arrested for allegedly distributing food containing poison—a class C felony but far less than attempted murder.

Eileen’s husband, Bob, zealously protested the charges. He stated that his wife had no worries and that the two planned to have a party following a not guilty verdict.^[8]

Interestingly enough, the women’s demented plan to off their boss resonated with an 18-year-old high school student weeks later. In Raleigh, North Carolina, Cody Austin Beckett slipped a cleaning substance in his teacher’s soda can, which caused Roseann Marie Monteleone to fall ill.

Suffering from a chemical reaction that caused lesions in her throat as well as loss of consciousness, Monteleone was taken to the hospital where she was successfully treated. Beckett was promptly arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault on a school employee.

2 Crime Of Passion

Soon after beginning his job working in a Singapore cafeteria, Boh Soon Ho became acquainted with fellow employee Zhang Huaxiang. Their friendship quickly flourished as the two met outside of work for meals and shopping, all at the expense of Boh. Though he called Zhang his “Princess Xiang Xiang” and considered her his girlfriend, four years passed without a spark of romance, let alone a kiss.

Then, in early 2016, Boh discovered that he was nothing more than an ATM to his princess and that she was sleeping with two other men. On March 21, 2016, the 48-year-old disheartened cook invited Zhang to his place for a steamboat lunch.

When his attempts to have sex with the 28-year-old were rejected, Boh strangled her to death with a bath towel. While noticing that her face was turning dark as he carried her lifeless body to his bed, he told himself, “Since (the woman) had died and I have never seen her naked before, I should undress her.”^[9]

After removing her clothes and taking pictures of her nude body, Boh attempted to have sex with the corpse but found that he was unable to perform sexually. Instead, he spent the night sleeping next to the cadaver before fleeing to his home country of Malaysia the following day.

About two weeks later, Boh was arrested while eating dinner at a restaurant. He was extradited to Singapore. He faces life imprisonment or death if convicted of murder.

1 Fried Chicken Connoisseur

An ongoing dispute between two school cafeteria workers in Florida finally came to a boil in fall 1993. With nearly 500 students finishing up their lunches, a startling commotion broke out with screams of horror echoing from the kitchen.

Moments earlier, employees Carol Herring and Michelle Crumpler had begun a senseless argument about how to fry chicken the proper way. As the heated spat intensified, 22-year-old Crumpler reached for a knife and plunged it into the heart of her coworker.

At the time, there were eight other employees present, yet not a single person intervened. One witness stated, “It was a large knife, and I think everyone kind of took a step back.”

As Herring lay dying, a deranged Crumpler continued her assault, repeatedly stabbing the 26-year-old in the chest. Surprisingly, Herring was still alive when she was flown from George Washington Carver Middle School to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

Despite medical efforts, Herring succumbed to her wounds on the operating table. In June 1994, Crumpler was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison but was released just six years later.

Unsettling as it is, Herring’s murder was the third time that an employee had been killed on school grounds within a decade.^[10]

Throughout US history, the working class has fought for better wages and working conditions. These struggles often became violent, and it is important to remember the men and women who died to bring us the weekend, the eight-hour workday, the end of child labor, job safety, and so on.

Today, we have very sanitized images of striking workers—folks walking in circles with picket signs while chanting catchy slogans about unfair labor practices. Perhaps after a few days of interrupted business, workers and their bosses will sit down and work out some compromises.

For most of American history, going on strike meant something far more radical. It was an indictment not only of individual work sites but also of a social order in which few were rich and most were desperately poor. Going on strike could—and often did—mean being beaten by strikebreakers, being shot at by National Guardsmen, or even having bombs dropped on you from biplanes.

10 The Great Railroad Strike

On July 14, 1877, railway workers in Martinsburg, Virginia, went on strike to protest the third pay cut within a year. Workers disrupted rail operations and prevented all train traffic. The strike soon spread to Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Missouri. It was the first national strike in US history.

Within six days, first blood was drawn when Maryland National Guard troops confronted striking workers in Baltimore and opened fire on them—killing 11 and wounding 40.^[1] Over the following two days, Pennsylvania National Guard troops killed 40 striking workers in Pittsburgh, firing upon crowds and bayoneting the strikers. At the same time, federal troops killed as many as 18 striking workers on the streets of St. Louis.

This violence proliferated. As many as 44 strikers were killed in Pennsylvania, 30 in Chicago, and eight in New York. By the end of the strike, more than 100 workers had been killed by cops, National Guard troops, and federal soldiers.

In the aftermath of the widespread violence and destruction, both workers and state governments took the events as a sign of a great struggle to come. State governments began growing their National Guard regiments, while labor unions ramped up recruitment and organizing efforts. It would be nearly a century before the bloody contest would come to an end.

9 Bay View Massacre

On May 1, 1886, over 200,000 working-class men and women kicked off a nationwide campaign to win a nationally recognized and enforced eight-hour workday. In Milwaukee, such efforts led to the mobilization of 12,000 workers.

By May 3, the striking workers had managed to shut down every factory in Milwaukee with the exception of the North Chicago Railroad Rolling Mills Steel Foundry in Bay View. Fifteen hundred strikers mobilized to march upon the mills and encourage the workers to join the strike.^[2]

Meanwhile, Milwaukee business owners were growing understandably anxious. Since day one of the strike, they had been pressuring Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah Rusk to call in National Guard troops to end the strike. For three days, Rusk resisted the employers’ demands. However, by the morning of May 4, several companies of the local Guardsmen had arrived at the mill, 250 men in total.

On May 4, the situation grew tense as striking workers hurled rocks and insults at the National Guardsmen. In response, the soldiers fired rounds above the workers’ heads. By this point, the pressure on Rusk had reached a breaking point. That night, he ordered Captain Treaumer, who commanded the National Guard companies, to shoot at any striking worker who attempted to enter the mill.

On May 5, the striking workers again assembled, chanting for an eight-hour workday. They were approaching the line of National Guardsmen when Treaumer gave the order to begin firing upon the crowd of workers. The volley killed 15, including a retired bystander and a 13-year-old schoolboy who had excitedly joined the crowd.

The violence had the intended effect of breaking the strike. As a result, it would be many years before the common implementation of the eight-hour day.

8 Morewood Massacre

On February 2, 1891, more than 10,000 coke oven operators and miners halted all work in the expansive coke fields of Morewood, Pennsylvania. Organized by the United Mine Workers union, the workers demanded better wages and an eight-hour day.

Negotiations between the striking workers and US industrialist Henry Clay Frick continued through the rest of February and into March. The strike nearly ended on March 26 when talks neared a wage agreement. The negotiations did not pan out.

On March 30, over 1,000 striking workers damaged company property, destroying coke ovens and damaging railway lines in Morewood. In response, Pennsylvania Governor Robert E. Pattison ordered in local National Guard troops.

As striking workers began mobilizing again on April 2, the troops opened fire on the unarmed workers. Seven men were killed. When this did not stop the strikes, Frick called upon 100 strikebreakers to regularly attack and harass the strikers. By May, the strike broke and the beaten, bloodied workers returned to the coke mines and furnaces.^[3]

Three years later, conditions had not improved. Matthew J. Welsh, a worker in the coke fields, sent the following letter to the Pittsburgh Times, which was published on April 14, 1894:

The workingmen, and especially the Hungarians, of the coke region are represented as an ignorant class of men. Certainly we are to a certain extent or we would not be toiling our lives out with work that former day slaves never dreamed of on a coke yard or in the mines. Ignorant as we are, we know that it is time to quit work and die of starvation rather than be trying to work and starving at the same time.

7 Pullman Strike

On May 11, 1894, the recently formed American Railway Union went on strike against the Pullman Company in Chicago, Illinois. The workers sought union recognition, a key step in securing fair wages and working hours. Like the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, railroad workers across the country went on strike, partly in solidarity, partly to win an improvement of their own working conditions.

At its zenith, more than 250,000 workers were striking across 27 states, bringing railroad traffic in much of the nation to a grinding halt and disrupting every major industry. This put enormous pressure on local, state, and even the federal government to end the strike swiftly—and brutally, if needed.

In June, President Grover Cleveland mobilized a massive force of thousands of US Marshals as well as 12,000 US Army troops. These marshals and soldiers deployed across Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Oklahoma, California, and Illinois.

Troop responses to the striking workers varied, narrowly avoiding violent clashes in some regions such as Sacramento while killing more than a dozen strikers in Chicago, the heart of the strike. In total, more than 30 workers were gunned down by state and federal troops. Many more were wounded.^[4]

6 Lattimer Massacre

In August 1897, the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company laid off coal miners from the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Those who remained faced wage cuts, increased rent for living on company properties, and cost cutting measures that meant longer hours and increasingly dangerous working conditions.

Such conditions gave rise to a strike. The workforce consisted largely of immigrant workers, primarily of Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian, and German origin. By September, as many as 10,000 workers were on strike. Initially, they were successful in negotiating higher wages. But the company broke the promise, prompting further outrage among the strikers.

By this point, the mine owners, growing increasingly frustrated at the loss of revenue and their inability to dupe workers back into the mines, called upon local Sheriff James L. Martin to disperse the strike.

Initially hesitant, Sheriff Martin organized a posse on September 10 to confront some 300–400 (mostly Slavic and German) unarmed strikers in Lattimer who were on their way to support the unionizing efforts of other local coal miners.

When the sheriff’s demands to disperse were repeatedly ignored, one of his men shouted, “Shoot the sons of bitches.” The posse opened fire on the peaceful, unarmed crowd. Nineteen men were killed, and many were shot in the back.^[5]

The nation immediately understood that this massacre was different. In previous strikebreaking efforts, law enforcement could at least attempt to justify their violence by pointing to the aggression and unarmed violence of striking workers. However, in Lattimer, the strikers were simply walking by. A monument to the slain workers in Lattimer reads:

It was not a battle because they were not aggressive, nor were they defensive because they had no weapons of any kind and were simply shot down like so many worthless objects, each of the licensed life-takers trying to outdo the others in the butchery.

5 Chicago Teamsters’ Strike

In April 1905, workers at the Montgomery Ward department store went on strike in Chicago, Illinois. Their chief complaint was that the owner subcontracted to nonunion workers. This minor labor dispute rapidly grew when the Teamsters Union launched strikes in solidarity with the department store workers.^[6]

The Teamsters had a strong Chicago membership. About 30,000 out of its 45,000 total members were in the Windy City. Soon, nearly every major employer in the metropolitan area of Chicago was affected.

In response, the Employers’ Association of Chicago raised millions of dollars (adjusted for inflation) to hire a massive force of strikebreakers. These men received special protections from the courts, allowing them great leniency in dishing out violence.

The Teamsters and other union strikers often clashed with the strikebreakers. By the time the strike ended in August, more than 20 striking workers had been killed in clashes with strikebreakers (none of whom were killed). More than 400 workers were also injured.

4 Paint Creek–Cabin Creek Strike

On April 18, 1912, West Virginia coal miners at Cabin Creek, under the banner of the United Mine Workers, went on strike. Among their demands were union recognition, better wages, and improved working conditions. Shortly afterward, nearby miners at Paint Creek joined in.

Tensions escalated when the mine owners hired the infamous Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency to end the strike.^[7] Little more than a gang of thugs, the strikebreakers harassed the striking miners for months, often sabotaging their food, beating them, and even shooting at them from afar. By September, after months of standoff, thousands of coal miners from neighboring regions of West Virginia were moving to join the existing strikers.

While skirmishes were frequent, progress toward any resolution was not. Months passed. Frustrated by the impasse and the enormous loss of revenue, mine owners encouraged local law enforcement to increase their violence against the striking workers.

In February 1913, 10 months into the standoff, Kanawha County Sheriff Bonner Hill and a group of detectives resorted to truly desperate and brutal measures of repression. They brought in a heavily armored, weaponized train and assaulted the strikers’ camp with high-powered rifles and machine guns, deliberately targeting the homes of strike leaders.

The vulgar display of violence demoralized the strikers. But they continued to resist for another five months until the strike was completely broken in July 1913. Over the course of the 15-month strike, more than 50 workers were killed and many more were wounded. It is also estimated that many died from starvation, disease, and related causes due to the conditions of the strikers’ camp.

3 Ludlow Massacre

In September 1913, approximately 12,000 coal miners in Ludlow, Colorado, went on strike to protest low wages and unsafe working conditions. Colorado was the deadliest state for coal miners, with a death rate about twice the national average.

The strike had been organized with the help of the United Mine Workers. Along with their other demands, the workers sought union recognition because unionized mines had 40 percent fewer workplace deaths.

Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, which owned and operated the coal mines, began evicting striking workers and their families from the company towns in which they lived. The workers moved with their families into a nearby tent colony that they had set up in anticipation of such an event.

The mine owners hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency—little more than a private gang of armed thugs—to break the strike. For months, the “detectives” harassed the strikers in their camp. At night, the thugs would shine floodlights into the camp, sometimes firing randomly at tents and occasionally maiming and even killing workers.^[8]

In October 1913, after a bloody month of violence, Colorado Governor Elias M. Ammons ordered the National Guard to move into the area. The miners had initially hoped that the arrival of the militiamen would bring peace and end the violent attacks they endured daily at the hands of the strikebreakers.

This proved little more than wishful thinking as the sympathies of the soldiers became clear. They palled around with the strikebreakers, and the two forces became nearly indistinguishable.

Six months passed. Progress toward any resolution was nonexistent. Unable to tolerate the strikers’ colony any longer, the mine owners urged the strikebreakers and militiamen to take drastic measures. So on the morning of April 20, 1914, as 1,000 men, women, and children were getting ready for their day, machine gun fire ripped through the camp.

The volley left 13 immediately dead. The leader of the strike was lured out of the camp to “negotiate a truce,” but he was executed instead by National Guard troops. That evening, the militiamen and strikebreakers moved into the camp, setting fire to it.

By the following day, the camp was mostly abandoned. One worker picking his way through the camp uncovered the burned corpses of two women and 11 children. The massacre sparked national outrage.

In Denver, the United Mine Workers prepared for war. Hundreds of armed strikers from nearby striker colonies marched to the Ludlow region. Thus began the Colorado Coalfield Wars, a brutal period of widespread armed conflict between workers and National Guard troops in the state.

Although the period of intense conflict ended by the beginning of May, the strike would continue until December. It ended in defeat for the workers. By the end of the conflict, nearly 200 people had died.

2 The Battle Of Blair Mountain

In May 1920, agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency went to Logan County, West Virginia, at the behest of local mine owner-operators to prevent efforts by miners to form a union. Upon arrival, the agents began evicting the families of miners suspected of unionization efforts.

As the Baldwin-Felts men worked their way through the town of Matewan, locals began to take notice, along with the mayor and Police Chief Sid Hatfield. Numerous armed miners had also arrived. The ensuing confrontation erupted into gunfire, leaving two miners, the mayor, and seven Baldwin-Felts agents dead. Sid Hatfield became a local hero to the working people.

For the next 15 months, a protracted labor dispute carried on. Miners sabotaged equipment and went on strike, while mine owners continued to fire workers, evict them, and bring in new workers. The extended dispute took a dramatic turn when Sid Hatfield was murdered by the brother of two Baldwin-Felts agents who had been slain in Matewan.

Miners all across the region began pouring out of the mountains to join forces and take up arms, intent on ending the tyranny of mine owners and their hired guns. As many as 13,000 miners marched on Logan and Mingo Counties to unite many more thousands of miners, drive out the hired gunmen who constantly terrorized them, and unionize the southern counties of West Virginia. It was the largest armed insurrection since the US Civil War.

Meanwhile, Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin—securely in the pocket of the regional coal mine owners—was given sizable funds to put together a private military force to stop the workers’ march. Chafin and his men set up on Blair Mountain, a daunting natural obstacle which lay in the strikers’ path.

The first skirmishes broke out between strikers and hired goons on August 20, 1921. A brief agreement to cease the march came to a quick end when Chafin, displeased at letting his assembled force go to waste, murdered several union sympathizers in a nearby town. Infuriated, the strikers continued their siege of Blair Mountain.

Chafin employed pilots to drop surplus munitions (bombs and gas) left over from World War I onto the workers. President Warren Harding ordered federal troops to move into the area and even threatened to deploy Martin MB-1 bombers against the striking workers.^[9]

Instead, under the command of General Billy Mitchell, the planes were used to run reconnaissance. The troops arrived on September 2. Fearing a bloodbath, strike leaders disbanded the march. As many as 100 strikers were killed during the conflict.

1 Memorial Day Massacre

On May 26, 1937, Cleveland steelworkers went on strike when minor steel companies refused to follow the US Steel Corporation in adopting union demands of recognition, eight-hour workdays, and better pay. The work stoppage in Cleveland led to calls for strikes by two major unions—the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)—which took place in many cities across the country.

On May 30, the Memorial Day holiday, approximately 1,500 striking steelworkers and allies in Chicago assembled at the SWOC headquarters. They planned to march to the nonunionized Republic Steel mill nearby in protest.

At the gates of the mill, the unarmed, peaceful crowd—which included women and children—was met by 250 armed Chicago policemen, who were provisioned and paid for by Republic Steel. Without provocation, the assembled policemen fired over 100 shots at the crowd, killing 10 and wounding more than 100. Most were shot in the back.^[10]

Not one officer was indicted for the shooting. Centered in Cleveland, the strike was gradually defeated, with Chicago being the only violent incident during the entire work stoppage. However, the massacre of Chicago workers and the strike brought national attention to the plight of the steelworkers. Five years later, they won union recognition and the fulfillment of their demands.

Zachary is a graduate student in history in Arizona. His work focuses on the struggle of the American working class and labor movement. He runs the American Labor History Facebook page.