Lynching of Olli Kinkkonen

{{short description|Finnish-American dockworker who was lynched in 1918}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Olli (Olof) Kiukkonen Kinkkonen

| image = Olli Kinkkonen 1881-1918 grave.jpg

| alt = Photo of headstone, which reads "Olli Kinkkonen, 1881–1918, victim of warmongers"

| caption = "Olli Kinkkonen, 1881–1918, victim of warmongers."

| other_names = Olli Wirta

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1880|06|10}}

| birth_place = Finland

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1918|09|18|1880|06|10}}

| death_place = Duluth, Minnesota, United States

| death_cause = Lynching

| body_discovered = Lester Park, Duluth, Minnesota, United States

| burial_place = Park Hill Cemetery, Duluth, Minnesota, United States

}}

Olli (Olof) Kiukkonen Kinkkonen (June 10, 1880 – September 18, 1918){{Cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLV4-GVGC|title=Olli Matinp. Kiukkonen in Finland, Church Census and Pre-Confirmation Books, 1657-1915|date=1909|page=694|via=FamilySearch|url-access=registration|access-date=2019-05-21}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLK3-TGHX|title=Olof in household of Katrina Kiukkanen, "Finland, Church Census and Pre-Confirmation Books, 1657-1915"|date=1890|page=260|via=FamilySearch|url-access=registration|access-date=2019-05-21}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V4ZM-694|title=Olli Kinkkonen, Minnesota Death Index, 1908-2002|date=1918|via=FamilySearch|url-access=registration|access-date=2019-05-23}} was a Finnish-American dockworker and logger. He was lynched in Duluth, Minnesota, by the Knights of Liberty on September 18, 1918, for renouncing his American citizenship because he wanted to avoid fighting in World War I.

Death

On September 11, 1918, Kinkkonen{{Cite web|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K87X-TQH|title=Olli Kiukkonen, United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918|date=1918|page=|via=FamilySearch|url-access=registration|access-date=2019-05-21}} (who also went by the name Olli Wirta) and five others renounced their rights to U.S. citizenship because they did not want to fight in World War I.{{Cite news |date=September 19, 1918 |title=Knights of Liberty Tar and Feather Slacker |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-09-19/ed-1/seq-4 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=4 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}}{{Cite news |date=September 17, 1918 |title=Two More Slackers Relinquish Citizenship |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-09-17/ed-1/seq-15 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=15 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}} The night of September 18, a small vigilante mob formed and went searching for him, one man dressed in a military uniform. They found him in his boarding house, preparing to return to Finland. They demanded the registration papers of the other residents and told Kinkkonen he was wanted by the draft board.{{Citation |title=Old German Files, 1909–21, victim of Knights of Loyalty: Olli Kiukkonen |work=US, FBI Case Files, 1908–1922 |publisher=The National Archives |via=Fold3}} He was taken to Congdon Park where he was interrogated regarding his loyalty to the country; according to those who knew him, he did not know enough English to be able to answer all the questions.{{Cite news |date=September 20, 1918 |title=Suomalainen mies tervattu Duluth'issa |url=https://digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi/sanomalehti/binding/2798025?page=1 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |newspaper=Industrialisti |location=Duluth |pages=1 |language=fi |issue=219}} Kinkkonen was then tarred and feathered.{{Cite web |last=Lovrien |first=Jimmy |date=September 17, 2018 |title=Finnish immigrant was 'victim of warmongers' 100 years ago in Duluth |url=https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/finnish-immigrant-was-victim-of-warmongers-100-years-ago-in-duluth |access-date=February 6, 2024 |website=Duluth News Tribune}} The local newspaper received an anonymous phone call at midnight stating Kinkkonen had been tarred and feathered. They later published a letter from a group called the Knights of Loyalty or Knights of Liberty, a nationalist secret society and vigilante organization and possibly part of the Ku Klux Klan{{Cite journal |last=Lubotina |first=Paul |date=2015 |title=Corporate Supported Ethnic Conflict on the Mesabi Range, 1890-1930 |url=https://commons.nmu.edu/upper_country/vol3/iss1/2 |journal=Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=45 |access-date=February 6, 2024}}) saying that Kinkkonen had been tarred and feathered to serve as "a warning to all slackers", a term used for men who refused to join the military. The Knights sent the same list of questions and a warning to the other five men who had renounced their citizenship as well. Kinkkonen was not seen after the event.{{Cite news |date=October 1, 1918 |title=Tarred Alien is Suicide |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-10-01/ed-1/seq-6 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=6 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}}

His body was found by a nearby resident two weeks later on September 30, hanging from a tree outside Duluth in Lester Park.{{cite web |last=Julin |first=Chris |date=June 2001 |title=The other lynching in Duluth |url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2001/06/lynching/olli.shtml |accessdate=17 June 2015 |publisher=Minnesota Public Radio |language=}}{{cite web |date=April 2017 |title=Lynching in Lester Park |url=http://zenithcity.com/archive/legendary-tales/lynching-in-lester-park/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004105306/https://zenithcity.com/archive/legendary-tales/lynching-in-lester-park/ |archive-date=October 4, 2023 |accessdate=August 16, 2018 |website=Zenith City Online |language=}}{{Cite news |date=October 8, 1918 |title=Clews to Knights of Loyalty Crew |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-10-08/ed-1/seq-2 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=6 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}} Several hundred dollars and war savings stamps were found on his body. Duluth authorities declared his death a suicide, triggered by his humiliation at the event. Governor Joseph Burnquist offered a $500 reward for further information, though the alleged murderers were never charged. The Nonpartisan League took issue with what they saw as the government's inaction, "[claiming] no real effort was made to determine whether {{Sic|Kiikonen}} was really a suicide or whether he was strung up by the mob."{{cite news |date=October 6, 1918 |title=Governor Offers Reward |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108282916/olli-kinkkonen-1880-1918/ |accessdate=August 25, 2022 |work=Star Tribune |location=Minneapolis, MN |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{Cite news |date=October 12, 1918 |title=League Candidates are Now Busy on the Stump |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-10-12/ed-1/seq-2 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=2 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}} The Truth, a local socialist newspaper, also argued that Kinkkonen was killed by the Knights of Liberty, "[calling] the chief of police 'unfit for office' and [suggesting] that the Duluth News Tribune knew the truth behind Kinkkonen's hanging."{{Cite news |date=October 4, 1918 |title=Olli Kiukkonen Did Not Commit Suicide |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn89081142/1918-10-04/ed-1/seq-1 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Truth |location=Duluth |pages=1 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}} Others in the media stated the governor should have done more to stop vigilante violence and "to check the attempt to create a northern Ku-Klux".{{Cite magazine |date=November 2, 1918 |title=The Week |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_nation_1918-11-02_107_2783/ |access-date=February 18, 2024 |magazine=The Nation |publisher=Nation Company |pages=501 |via=Archive.org |volume=107 |issue=2783}}{{Cite book |last=Chrislock |first=Carl H. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_873410674/ |title=The Progressive Era in Minnesota 1899-1918 |date=1971 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |isbn=9780873510677 |location=St. Paul |pages=174–175 |access-date=February 16, 2024 |url-access=registration |via=Archive.org}}

Kinkkonen was known to be an easygoing man and was not involved in the labor movement or anti-war movement; some have questioned whether his death was due to anti-Finnish sentiment or mistaken identity.

Kinkkonen was buried in an unmarked grave in the indigent section of Park Hill Cemetery in Duluth, a few rows from where the victims of the 1920 Duluth lynchings would later be buried.{{Cite book |last=Thornley |first=Stew |url=https://archive.org/details/sixfeetundergrav0000thor/ |title=Six feet under: a graveyard guide to Minnesota |date=2004 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press |isbn=9780873515146 |location=St. Paul |pages=20 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |url-access=registration |via=Archive.org}} In 1993, the Finnish-American cultural society, Työmies, placed a marker on Kinkkonen's grave. It reads:{{quote|Olli Kinkkonen. 1881–1918. Victim of Warmongers.}}

Knights of Liberty and related events

The Knights' actions were part of broader vigilante violence at the time targeting those considered potentially disloyal. They were one of many voluntary nationalist vigilante organizations, including the American Protective League and Boy Spies of America, encouraged by local, state, and federal government.{{Cite book |last=Hochschild |first=Adam |url=https://california.degruyter.com/view/title/555894 |title=Lessons from a Dark Time and Other Essays |date=October 2, 2018 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-96967-4 |pages=13 |chapter=1. Lessons from a Dark Time |doi=10.1525/9780520969674-fm}}{{Cite book |last=Dailey |first=Jane |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226300962.001.0001 |title=Building the American Republic |date=2018 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-30082-5 |volume=2 |pages=86 |chapter=3. War, 1914–1924|doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226300962.001.0001 }}{{Cite book |last=Hannigan |first=Robert E. |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.9783/9780812293289-006/html |title=The Great War and American Foreign Policy, 1914–24 |date=December 31, 2017 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-9328-9 |pages=102 |chapter=5. The Whole Force of the Nation |doi=10.9783/9780812293289-006 |access-date=2024-02-08}} At the time of Kinkkonen's death, the organization stated it had 2000 members in Duluth, 75,000 members in Minnesota, and over 2,000,000 members nationwide.

In March 1918, several months before Kinkkonen's death, The Duluth Herald reported on the Knights of Liberty's Duluth branch threatening men considered to have pro-German sympathies. The threats "disclosed the existence in Duluth of an organization called the Knights of Liberty, a branch of a nation-wide society whose purpose is to stamp out pro-Germanism by the quickest and most effective methods, without recourse to legal procedure;"{{Cite news |date=March 23, 1918 |title=Pro-Germans are Warned by Knights of Liberty |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-03-23/ed-1/seq-18 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=18 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}} "its members are almost wholly business and professional men of high standing, men who beyond the draft age and unfitted by years or physical condition to join the military forces of the nation, are determined to do their bit by suppressing disloyalty and seeing to it that the nation shall not be assailed from within."{{Cite news |date=March 25, 1918 |title=Gustaf Landin Tarred and Feathered for Disloyalty |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-03-25/ed-1/seq-6 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=5 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}} Their first victim in Duluth was tarred and feathered days later.

The Knights perpetrated a number of other similar tarring-and-feathering incidents around the same time both in nearby northern Wisconsin,{{Cite thesis |last=Levi |first=William |date=May 12, 2022 |title=Badger state nationalism: World War I, the Ku Klux Klan, and the politics of 'Americanism' in 1915-1930 Wisconsin |url=https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/masters202029/179 |pages=45–47 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |publisher=James Madison University}}{{Cite news |date=July 3, 1918 |title=Tar and Feathers in Bayfield County |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-07-03/ed-1/seq-1 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=1 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}} and Bemidji, Minnesota,{{Cite news |date=March 30, 1918 |title=Bemidji Store Painted Yellow |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-03-30/ed-1/seq-11 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=11 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}} as well as in California, where they hanged a man.{{Cite news |date=May 2, 1918 |title=Disloyalists are Punished |url=https://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/lccn/sn83016458/1918-05-02/ed-1/seq-1 |access-date=February 6, 2024 |work=The Duluth Herald |pages=1 |via=Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub}}{{Cite news |date=May 3, 1918 |title=Pro-Germans Tarred and Feathered, Then Hanged |url=https://latimes.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-the-la-times-0/27604388/ |access-date=February 12, 2024 |work=The L.A. Times}}

Legacy

A fictionalized account of Kinkkonen's life is featured in Mark Munger's book {{Lang|fi|Suomalaiset}}: People of the Marsh. A song entitled "Ballad of Olli Kinkkonen" was performed at the release of the final book in the series.{{Cite web |last1=Sundquist |first1=Karl |last2=Burkes |first2=Jill |title=Ballad of Olli Kinkkonen |url=https://researchtv.vhx.tv/videos/ballad-of-olli-kinkkonen |access-date=February 6, 2024 |website=ResearchTV}} A poem about his life was published by Lynette Reini-Grandell in 2014.{{Cite book |last=Reini-Grandell |first=Lynette |url=https://archive.org/details/approachinggatep0000lyne/ |title=Approaching the Gate: Poems |publisher=Holy Cow! Press |year=2014 |isbn=9780985981853 |pages=58, 63 |access-date=February 16, 2024 |url-access=registration |via=Archive.org}} Artist Charvis Harrell's painting of Kinkkonen was on display at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center in 2021.{{Cite web |title=Welcome Visiting Artist Charvis Harrell |url=https://www.kulcher.org/welcome-visiting-charvis-harrell/ |access-date=February 6, 2024 |website=New York Mills Regional Cultural Center}}