Frank Little Lynched: IWW Executive Board Member Murdered by Vigilantes in Butte

In the early morning hours of August 1, 1917, six masked men dragged IWW executive board member Frank Little from his Butte, Montana boarding house, tied him to the rear bumper of an automobile, dragged him through the streets, and hanged him from a railroad trestle. A note pinned to his body read “3-7-77,” a reference to Montana vigilante violence, along with the first initial and names of six other union organizers targeted for death.

Little, a half-Cherokee organizer who had led strikes across the West, arrived in Butte to support copper miners striking against Anaconda Copper Mining Company following a devastating mine fire that killed 168 workers. He was an outspoken opponent of World War I, calling it a capitalist war and urging workers not to fight. His antiwar speeches and effective organizing made him a target. Little was walking on crutches at the time of his murder, having broken his leg weeks earlier.

No one was ever arrested or prosecuted for the murder, despite witnesses and substantial evidence pointing to company thugs and local businessmen. Montana’s governor and attorney general made perfunctory statements but no investigation occurred. The Anaconda Company-controlled press portrayed Little as an agitator who invited his fate. The lynching served as a warning to labor organizers throughout the West and demonstrated that corporate-backed violence against union leaders would face no legal consequences. The murder of Frank Little preceded federal crackdowns on the IWW by just weeks, with nationwide raids on September 5, 1917.