Another Call for Presidential Intervention While Governor William Spry of Utah was besieged with demands to stop the execution of Joe Hill, President Woodrow Wilson was receiving similar pleas from throughout the nation. Many of the more astute correspondents selected a "political back door" to Wilson through the President's personal assistant, Joseph Tumulty. Tumulty was a shrewd politician committed to engineering a successful re-election campaign for Wilson in 1916. One aspect of his strategy was to pull together the small but potentially pivotal vote of organized labor. Tumulty offered a sympathetic ear to labor leaders seeking to save Joe Hill's life. In this telegram, Hill's attorney Orrin N. Hilton of Denver, a noted defender of labor figures, pleads with Tumulty to convince the President that Hill's looming execution is "judicial murder." (Courtesy: Library of Congress) Read this historical document's full text                   About the Program || Joe Hill Home || PBS Home