Biography
Robert Leonard was one of the 74 Industrial Workers of the World members held in the Snohomish County jail and charged with murder after the Everett Massacre. On November 5, 1916, some 300 Industrial Workers of the World members sailed from Seattle to Everett, Washington aboard the steamers Verona and Calista to support a shingle-weavers' strike and the IWW's free-speech fight. At the Everett dock, Snohomish County sheriff Donald McRae and a posse of armed vigilantes opened fire on the Verona, killing at least five Wobblies and wounding dozens. The returning IWW members were arrested, and 74 were charged with the murder of two deputies (Jefferson Beard and Charles Curtis) killed in the gunfire. Only Thomas H. Tracy was brought to trial; after his acquittal on May 5, 1917, the charges against the others were dropped. At the time of the massacre he was 24, a farmer, born in Michigan.
