"The Shaft" by C.D. Stelzer

The Illinois Times published this article on the mine war by C.D. Stelzer on June 21, 2007:

"Bill Warner never knew how close he came to dying. After clocking out at the Mount Olive, Ill., waterworks around midnight, he decided to walk home by way of the Union Miners Cemetery. Entering the graveyard, he ambled past the tombstones, pausing to gaze from afar at the silhouette of a shrouded monument. He then strode to within a couple of feet of the cloaked obelisk and again stopped in his tracks.

Warner had no idea that every move he made was being watched by eight men, each aiming a shotgun in his direction, finger on the trigger. Nor would the former coal miner ever learn that his near-death experience would become part of the region’s storied labor history..." full article