On December 25, 1908, a 38-year-old White male named John C. Mullins, a Deputy U.S. Marshal, was killed in the line of duty during a violent confrontation in the coal mining town of Stearns, Kentucky. The incident occurred amidst a tense labor dispute between the Stearns Coal Company and the United Mine Workers, who were attempting to organize miners in the region. Tensions had escalated after a federal judge issued an injunction prohibiting union men from interfering with mine operations.
While most miners complied with the court order, a defiant group led by strike organizer Berry Simpson refused to accept the papers and barricaded themselves inside the McFerran Hotel, a prominent local establishment situated in Whitley County.
On Christmas morning, Deputy Marshal Mullins, accompanied by a posse of lawman, approached the hotel to serve the warrants on Simpson and his associates. The officers had learned that the ringleaders were holed up inside the building, which had become a stronghold for the resisting strikers. As Mullins stepped onto the veranda and attempted to open the front door to the miners' room, the occupants unleashed a volley of gunfire from rifles and revolvers. Mullins was struck and killed instantly, falling at the scene. Another man, Richard Ross, identified as a miner and union organizer, was also killed in the initial exchange of gunfire.
Following the death of Mullins, a fierce gun battle ensued between the remaining marshals outside and the miners trapped within. The shootout lasted for some time, with the marshals returning fire into the hotel structure. Determining that the miners would not surrender, the surviving deputies ordered the hotel to be set ablaze to force the occupants out. As the flames consumed the McFerran Hotel, the heat and smoke eventually drove the miners from their cover. Some of the men were arrested as they fled the burning building, while others managed to escape into the surrounding hills during the chaos. Reports from the time indicated that the fire completely destroyed the hotel and that several miners may have perished inside, though exact numbers of those lost to the fire remained uncertain.
The aftermath of the Christmas Day bloodshed led to a manhunt for the surviving ringleaders who had evaded immediate capture. A federal grand jury in Richmond, Kentucky, subsequently indicted Berry Simpson, along with Reuben West and George Stanley, for their roles in the riot and the death of the marshal. The pressure of the indictments and the pursuit by federal authorities eventually brought the fugitives to justice. On February 6, 1909, Simpson, West, and Stanley surrendered to a U.S. Marshal in Oneida, Tennessee. They were taken into custody to face charges related to the violent insurrection and the murder of Deputy Mullins, marking the legal conclusion to one of the deadliest episodes in the region's labor history.
