# Has anyone ever actually been killed by hired corporate goons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394 "2008-10-24T17:41:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/1 "2008-10-24T17:41:23Z")
You know the standard plot device in movies like The Firm or Michael Clayton or On Deadly Ground or hundreds of others where some evil corporate bigwig hires some goons to make some inconvenient problem “disappear”. Has there actually ever been a case like that? Also, keep in mind I’m not talking about “private security” companies like Blackwater. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/2 "2008-10-24T17:49:42Z")
Check out a history of the Debeers diamond concern. Also, depending on where and when you are, there’s sometimes no difference between hired goons and private security. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/3 "2008-10-24T17:51:34Z")
Do the [Pinkertons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Steel_Strike) count? ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/4 "2008-10-24T17:55:21Z")
What about [Karen Silkwood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Silkwood)? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/5 "2008-10-24T18:05:20Z")
Henry Ford kept a bunch of ex-pinkerton thugs on his payroll, I think this group was headed by a guy named Sorenson? Anyway, I don’t think the killed anybody, but a couple of UAW orgaizers got roughed up a bit by this group. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/6 "2008-10-24T18:21:07Z")
There’s the [Battle of Matewan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Matewan), and the subsequent assassination of Police Chief [Sid Hatfield](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Hatfield) by coal company goons. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/7 "2008-10-24T18:26:10Z")
I think existing UMW president Tony Boyle dispatched union goons to dispatch rival Jock Yablonski (@1970). ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/8 "2008-10-24T18:26:46Z")
… and of course, if you think people outside of the U.S. count, there are plenty of cases in Central and South America, Africa, etc. I’m not sure how many of them would strictly meet the OP, as there often wasn’t a lot of difference between a thug working for the factory owner directly and the secret police working for the dictator, so the lines are going to be very fuzzy. Not that the labor activist really cared who exactly it was that shot him and dumped him in a ditch. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/9 "2008-10-24T18:30:15Z")
The Homestead Strike and the Battle of Matewan have already been referenced. Look into the early attempts to organize labor in the US and you’ll find plenty of accounts of people being murdered by corporate thugs. See also the Anaconda Road Massacre, the Ludlow Massacre (the thugs were technically National Guardsmen), and the Columbine Mine Massacre. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/10 "2008-10-24T18:44:46Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > What about [Karen Silkwood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Silkwood)? First one I thought of. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/11 "2008-10-24T19:25:44Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > The Homestead Strike and the Battle of Matewan have already been referenced. Look into the early attempts to organize labor in the US and you’ll find plenty of accounts of people being murdered by corporate thugs. See also the Anaconda Road Massacre, the Ludlow Massacre (the thugs were technically National Guardsmen), and the Columbine Mine Massacre. Those are ones I thought of. I’m reading the biography of Earl Warren (14th chief justice of SCOTUS and the court that brought us Brown v Board of Education) In his career as a DA he successfully prosecuted at least one murder ordered by union bosses. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/12 "2008-10-24T19:40:00Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Has there actually ever been a case like that? There is the case of Coca Cole allegedly using paramilitaries to assassinate union workers in Columbia: > [@](#): > > Among the suit’s many claims is a 1996 incident in which Ariosto Milan Mosquera, plant manager at Bebidas y Alimentos’ bottling facility in Carepa, Colombia, made public pronouncements that “he had given an order to the paramilitaries to carry out the task of destroying the union.” Union members claim that Mosquera often socialized with paramilitary fighters and even provided them with Coca-Cola products for their fiestas. Shortly after Mosquera’s pronouncement, local members of SINALTRAINAL began receiving threats from the paramilitaries. > > On September 27, 1996, SINALTRAINAL sent a letter to the Colombian headquarters of both Bebidas y Alimentos and Coca-Cola Colombia informing them of Mosquera’s threats against the union and requesting that they intervene to prevent further human rights abuses against employees and union leaders. > > Two and a half months later, on the morning of December 5, 1996, Bebidas y Alimentos employee and local SINALTRAINAL executive board member Isidro Segundo Gil was killed by paramilitaries inside the Carepa bottling plant. [http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia73.htm](http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia73.htm) The case in Miami was ultimately [dismissed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinaltrainal_v._Coca-Cola#Miami_lawsuit_filed), but because “the alleged wrongdoing either occurred in the United States but was too removed from the alleged injury or occurred abroad but did not have a substantial origin within the United States.” Not because of an factual dispute of the charges. ---
**Author:** ![History\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b19c9b/32.png) [@History\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/History_Geek)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/13 "2008-10-24T22:33:29Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > There’s the [Battle of Matewan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Matewan), and the subsequent assassination of Police Chief [Sid Hatfield](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Hatfield) by coal company goons. Heheh. I popped in to mention this too. I read _The Battle of Blair Mountain_ by Robert Shogan a couple years ago. I was amazed at the scale of this conflict and the audacity of the mining company. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/14 "2008-10-24T22:35:33Z")
Jimmy Hoffa? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/15 "2008-10-24T22:37:54Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > .. and of course, if you think people outside of the U.S. count, there are plenty of cases in Central and South America, Africa, etc. > I’m not sure how many of them would strictly meet the OP, as there often wasn’t a lot of difference between a thug working for the factory owner directly and the secret police working for the dictator, so the lines are going to be very fuzzy. Not that the labor activist really cared who exactly it was that shot him and dumped him in a ditch. Don’t forget that in at least a couple of cases, the hired goons didn’t merely whack people their corporate bosses didn’t like, but overthrew entire governments. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/16 "2008-10-25T04:06:01Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > Those are ones I thought of. I’m reading the biography of Earl Warren (14th chief justice of SCOTUS… Nitpick (and a pet peeve of mine): Warren was Chief Justice of the United States, not of the Supreme Court. See 28 U.S.C. 1. The Molly Maguires of NE Penna. saw some bad craziness at the hands of the Pinkerton agents: [Molly Maguires - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires) The Pullman Strike was also rather unpleasant: [Pullman Strike - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_strike) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/17 "2008-10-25T14:53:02Z")
Only the largest corporations maintain “in-house” goon squads. Most simply subcontract with the Mafia. ---
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/18 "2008-10-25T19:53:24Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > There is the case of Coca Cole allegedly using paramilitaries to assassinate union workers in Columbia: 1. It’s Coca Cola 2. They did not have direct control over the facility at the time. It was run on their behalf though. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/19 "2008-10-26T06:27:30Z")
Another example: the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis\_Teamsters\_Strike\_of\_1934](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis_Teamsters_Strike_of_1934) But the “corporate goons” there were members of the Minneapolis Police force, or hundreds of corporate employees who were hastily ‘deputized’ into the police force. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2008, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-actually-been-killed-by-hired-corporate-goons/469394/20 "2008-10-26T06:53:34Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > 1. It’s Coca Cola > 2. They did not have direct control over the facility at the time. It was run on their behalf though. Yeah, from my reading on the matter (someone on the Dope actually sent me a long file about this once because I was curious) even the unions pretty much say that even though Coca-Cola could probably have done some things to reduce the violence, they aren’t actually legally or morally culpable for what happened. I was all ready to join the Coke boycott before I read more about it.