In trying to present the plea of self defense to the court, Defense attorney Vanderveer stated: 

“There was a rush, men reached the hall under the command of Grimm, and yet counsel asks to have shown a specific overt act of Grimm before we can present the plea of self-defense.  Would he have had the men wait with their lives at stake?  The fact is that Grimm was there and in defending themselves these men shot.  Grimm was killed because he was there.  They could not wait.  Your honor, self defense isn’t much good after a man is dead.”

The prosecution sought to make a point of the fact that the loggers had fired into a street in which there were innocent bystanders as well as paraders.  But the fact remains that the only men hit by bullets were those who were in the forefront of the mob.

Through the Hall Window

How the raid looked from the inside of the hall can best be described from the viewpoint of one of the occupants, Bert Faulkner, a union logger and ex-service man.  Faulkner described how he had dropped in at the hall on Armistice Day and stood watching the parade from the window.  In words all the more startling for their sheer artlessness he told of the events which followed:  First the grimacing faces of the business men, then as the soldiers returned, a muffled order, the smashing of the window, with the splinters of glass falling against the curtain, the crashing open of the door ... and the shots that “made his ears ring,” and made him run for shelter to the rear of the hall, with the shoulder of his overcoat torn with a bullet.  Then how he found himself on the back stairs covered with rifles and commanded to come down with his hands in the air.  Finally how he was frisked to the city jail in an automobile with a business man standing over him armed with a piece of gas pipe.

Eugene Barnett gave a graphic description of the raid as he saw it from the office of the adjoining Roderick hotel.  Barnett said he saw the line go past the hotel.  The business men were ahead of the soldiers and as this detachment passed the hotel returning the soldiers still were going north.  The business men were looking at the hall and pointing it out to the soldiers.  Some of them had their thumbs to their noses and others were saying various things.

[Illustration:  City Park, Centralia

At this place the parade assembled that started out to raid the Union hall and lynch its secretary.]

“When the soldiers turned and came past I saw a man on horseback ride past.  He was giving orders which were repeated along the line by another.  As the rider passed the hotel he gave a command and the second man said:  ‘Bunch up, men!’

“When this order came the men all rushed for the hall.  I heard glass break.  I heard a door slam.  There was another sound and then shooting came.  It started from inside the hall.