Jack Battuello Memoir #1 - University of Illinois Springfield

Jack Battuellu
Q . Which cemeteries?
A. There at Zeigler. At Zeigler, One day we took over, three of us
hemmed in there, me, Pat Asbray and Joc Prell. We were hemmed in
there for three days and couldn't get out and not only slept in
cemeteries but we took a person's home over, There was nobody home
and they wcsc getting pretty close to us, catching up with US and
all we had was two little pistols, damn lit~lc old pistols I think
-32 they were and they had rifles, of course, high powered rifles and
machine guns and they were looking for us and they caught up pretty
close to us and we took over a house. Them was nobody homr. We
knocked on the door and this was not too far from the Zeigler cemetery
and there was nobody home so we went in.
Now, this house is built on a hill side and the bottom part is basement,
you know, and we could see to the south and we manned that as
a fort w i ~ h our two 1ittl.e pistols and we had prccty good protection,
the concrete wall. But nobody would attack us then. But this lady
came home and found us in the house, there was three of us and we had
taken possession of the house. She walked in. She was big red-headed,
plump, overly plumply, and she was friendly. And she wanted to know,
"What you doing here?" And wc said, "Wel.l, we gor to tell you. Wc're
Progressive miners and they're hunting for us. And they've just about
caught up with us here and we run inro your house." "Ah," she said,
"that 's all right, I'm a Progressive Miner too. It I s okay .'I SO we
stayed there. WE stayed there that day and that night and then during
the next night we got out under cover of darkness. We moved again.
Q. When was this, now?
A. That was after the march that happened.
Q. What were you doing in Zciglcr?
A. Trying to get the miners to come out. Ray Edmund caught us in
DuQuoin one night. Caught us with his thugs. Incidentally, Ray
Ednunds and I became good friends out of this srruggle and he killed
two, three, men, you know in this, in the Progressive Miners.
Q. He killed Progressives?
A. The latest one was Ed Ma.bic right on the Square in Springfield.
Right on the square in Springfield. Right off the square we had a
hall light on the corner of North . . .
Q. Fourth and Manroe? No, no, that was . .
A. Northeast corner. Northeast corner,
Q. Where was that again?
Jack Battuello Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield