William Julius Barney was born to William Miles Barney and Millison J. "Melissa" Rannells, on August 14, 1867. William J. may have led a normal life, conducting normal business and living as a member of a normal family, but for one act: he quit a job as a Telluride, Colorado

Telluride, Colorado

The town of Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains...

 mine guard during a labor dispute without letting anyone know that he was doing so.
As a result of subsequent conspiracies and false accusations, William J. Barney's disappearance came to national attention, and played a role not only in local intrigue, but also in maneuvering over the assassination trials of accused conspirators charged with the murder of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg

Frank Steunenberg

Frank Steunenberg was the fourth Governor of the State of Idaho, serving from 1897 until 1901. He is perhaps best known for his 1905 assassination by one-time union member Harry Orchard, who was also a paid informant for the Cripple Creek Mine Owners' Association...

.

History

On May 1, 1901, 350 union miners walked off their jobs at the Smuggler-Union mine in Telluride. Their walkout was a protest of a new method of payment, called "contracting," or "fathoms," which could sometimes result in a miner doing thirty days worth of digging, and getting paid nothing for the work. The strike was settled, but in some quarters animosity against union leaders continued.

Bulkeley Wells

Bulkeley Wells

Bulkeley Wells was born in Chicago on March 10, 1872, to businessman Samuel Edgar Wells and Marry Agnes Bulkeley. He was educated at Roxbury Latin School and at Harvard University. He married into the wealthy family of Colonel Thomas L. Livermore, to daughter Grace Livermore...

, a Telluride mining company president and manager who, according to writer MaryJoy Martin, was "born to privilege... [and was] convinced laborers were beneath him," was intent upon hanging Vincent St. John

Vincent Saint John

Vincent Saint John was an American labor leader and a prominent Wobbly.-Biography:He was born in Newport, Kentucky and was the only son of New York native Silas St. John and Irish immigrant Marian "Mary" Cecilia Magee...

, the head of the local miners union. According to Martin, Wells colluded with others, including Pinkerton Agent James McParland

James McParland

James McParland,There are various spellings of James McParland's name. His stenographer, Morris Friedman, wrote a book about him — as "McParland." The Pinkerton Labor Spy, New York, Wilshire Book Co., 1907). also known as James McParlan,The Corpse On Boomerang Road, Telluride's War On Labor...

, and the Colorado Mine Owners' Association

Mine Owners' Association

In the United States a Mine Owners' Association, also sometimes referred to as a Mine Operators' Association or a Mine Owners' Protective Association, is the combination of individual mining companies, or groups of mining companies, into an association, established for the purpose of promoting the...

, to accuse St. John of conducting a "reign of terror" — and in particular, of murdering William J. Barney, a mine guard who had disappeared from his post. McParland, who decades earlier had been the special agent

Labor spies

Labor spies are persons recruited or employed for the purpose of gathering intelligence, committing sabotage, sowing dissent, or engaging in other similar activities, typically within the context of an employer/labor organization relationship....

 assigned to infiltrate the Molly Maguires

Molly Maguires

The Molly Maguires were members of an Irish-American secret society, whose members consisted mainly of coal miners. Many historians believe the "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States from approximately the time of the American Civil War until a...

 in Pennsylvania, contributed his belief that an "Inner Circle" within the Western Federation of Miners

Western Federation of Miners

The Western Federation of Miners was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles...

 was responsible for widespread assassinations. Former McParland stenographer Morris Friedman

Morris Friedman

Morris Friedman was, until 1905, the private stenographer for Pinkerton detective James McParland. Friedman came to the attention of the public when he published an exposé of anti-union actions by the private detective industry which was called The Pinkerton Labor Spy.The book focused in particular...

 wrote that McParland gained considerable income from Colorado's mining interests for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency

Pinkerton National Detective Agency

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, is a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired...

by making such unproved accusations.
At the time of his disappearance, the Telluride authorities didn't know any details of Will Barney's age, marital status, family, or where he came from. But they found some remains, and they drew conclusions. Wells placed a skull in a shop window, adorned with a sign decrying the "Grewsome Work" of the Telluride Miners' Union. There was one complicating factor: William Julius Barney wasn't dead.