Built in Detroit

Ch. Eighteen Recovery “...I told my wife I didn’t think that Ken would make it.” Floating in and out of consciousness, Ken remembered little from that first week in Saratoga Hospital. His life passed through his mind during the first couple of days, but as the sedatives were decreased, he began focusing on the question of why he had been attacked and who did it. He had no enemies at Local 212. Bishop was out of power, though still on the International UAW payroll as the director of the union’s skilled trades department, so Ken was sure he would not risk his job by ordering an attack. Then there was Briggs. Ken did not want to believe the company paid someone to attack him, even though the Local’s committee studying the previous beatings was convinced the company had hired mobsters to attack the other Local 212 militants. The Detroit Police and an assistant Wayne County prosecutor interviewed him. He was of little help, as he had no memory of the assailants. The Detroit Police seemed to want to help, but outside of being polite to Ken and Doris they never seemed to do anything. Doris, who did not drive, was nearly always at his side. Usually, she took the Conner Avenue bus to Gratiot, or one of the wives picked her up and brought her to the hospital. It was a week before the doctors allowed Ken to look at his wounds in a mirror – they were afraid of the emotional trauma he might experience when he saw his broken, bruised and swollen face reflecting back at him. Even without seeing himself in a mirror, Ken knew it was bad by the reaction of his visitors. In those first few days, most visitors walked into his hospital room with good cheer, then recoiled in horror when they focused on his face, and quickly recovered and speak about his recovery. Emil or Charlotte Mazey visited him almost every day. When Emil, who had just returned from overseas, saw Ken he just became more incensed about the beating. No one knew better than Emil that being a labor leader was a tough business. On numerous occasions, Emil had been in fights, been pushed around by police, and in turn had pushed back on those police and thugs. Some rough characters had threatened him in the past. He had seen men beaten up by hoodlums and the police, but Emil had never seen a beating administered in such a brutal fashion. George Edwards and his wife Peg visited. George, now the president of Detroit’s Common Council and serving as Ken’s attorney, visited his client. Later, George recalled that: ... [Ken] was conscious but very weak. When I returned to the car, I told my wife that I didn’t think that Ken would make it. [But] Morris’s relative youth and conditioning from his military service stood him in good stead. Others visited him, especially Local 212 stalwarts Pat and Vivian Caruso, and Steve and Emily Despot were constant support for both Ken and Doris. As the sedatives decreased, the pain increased. While Ken was still in critical condition, the doctors told him it would take weeks for his initial recovery and months before he was back to normal. The labor movement was stunned by this blatant attack on a respected UAW leader, a World War II veteran, and a man universally recognized as a good guy. *** Labor leaders and people around Detroit learned the details of the incident from the local newspapers. The first story appeared in the early edition of the Detroit Free Press hours after Ken was taken to the hospital on Saturday June 1, 1946: Kenneth Morris, 30, of 12117 E. Warren, [recording secretary] of Briggs Local 212, UAW-CIO, is in Saratoga General Hospital with injuries he received when two unidentified men attacked him as he parked his car in the rear of his home, police said. Morris told police he did not know the men. Hospital authorities said he had been kicked and beaten severely. The Briggs unit is known as one of the UAW-CIO’s most militant locals. On Sunday, June 2, the Free Press took a different approach as it referred to the Briggs beatings as The Terror: Briggs Local 212 has had its latest visitation of The Terror and again international officers of the UAW (CIO) as well as officials of the local are baffled. Two men – they are always two – struck down Kenneth Morris...Friday night.... ....The attackers, as on four previous attacks in the last 13 months, never spoke a word as they fractured one of Morris arms as well as his nose, skull and wrist. Saturday, Emil Mazey...said he planned to ask a grand jury to investigate the beatings. At the same time homicide squad detectives and the Wayne County prosecutor’s office were searching for two persons said to have witnessed the attack. Morris could provide no clues.... ....The motives for the beatings never have been clear, according to UAW (CIO) officials. The victims have been of diverse union political faiths. On the same day, Sunday, June 2, The Detroit Times wrote: Two known suspects are being sought by detectives as the assailants of Kenneth Morris...who was severely beaten with an iron bar Friday night... Their identity became known while police were denying charges of union leaders that the department was lax in attempting to find the instigators of a series of attacks against officers and members of Local 212.... ....Neighbors who saw two assailants flee obtained the license number of their Packard car, ownership was traced to a member of the union, police said. The owner, detectives said, reported he had loaned his car yesterday to two men whose descriptions correspond with those of the men who attacked Morris. Police Inspector George McLellan replied hotly to charges by Emil Mazey, UAW-CIO regional director, that the “Police either were incompetent or unwilling to act. Mazey said he would ask for a grand jury to investigate the attacks. Police have been hampered by lack of “co-operation from union members and victims,” the inspector said. “We were not notified of the attack on Morris until three hours after it occurred. Maybe a grand jury would force them to cooperate.” George Edwards, president of common council and personal friend of Morris, conferred Saturday with officers of the local about the attack. On June 3, The Detroit Times wrote that the Detroit Police reported that their original theory of the attackers was inaccurate: The clue which led police to believe they knew the two assailants who beat Kenneth Morris...into insensibility Friday night collapsed today and the search for the pair began anew.... Morris...is unable to describe his assailants, the inspector added, and other witnesses gave divergent accounts of the attack. The attack, fifth in a series upon union officers and members of the Briggs union in the last 14 months.... On June 4, Emil Mazey’s plea for a grand jury investigation was successful. The Detroit Free Press reported: An investigation of thug terrorism at Briggs Local 212 UAW (CIO) has been started by the Grand Jury. It will seek to discover the forces behind five attacks and severe beatings with lead pipes administered to four Briggs local officials over a period of 14 months. The new jury action followed a formal petition by the UAW signed by its president, Walter P. Reuther. The union termed the beatings the work of “professional hirelings of anti-labor groups.” Discounting a theory of intra-union trouble. Grand Juror George B. Murphy and special Prosecutor Lester S. Moll formally accepted the new probe in a meeting with union officials Monday. “This is certainly closely enough allied to our purpose to warrant a thorough investigation,” Moll declared. The new jury twist broadened the [Grand Jury’s] investigation, originally aimed at the (AFL) Teamsters’ attempts to organize Detroit’s independent food merchants.... Meantime, the jury moved into permanent headquarters on the nineteenth floor of the National Bank Building, where investigators will start taking formal testimony.