If you’re of a certain age or older you’ve probably heard Joan Baez sing this song.

You may have wondered “Just what’s the story behind this Joe Hill guy and why is there a famous song about him?”

The Salt Lake Tribune has put together a comprehensive package of stories explaining how it came to be that laborer and composer Joe Hill was executed by the State of Utah in 1915, despite a lack of evidence.

District Attorney Elmer O. Leatherwood didn’t have a murder weapon. He didn’t have a motive.

He didn’t even have a witness who would conclusively place Joe Hill inside the Salt Lake City grocery store where John G. Morrison and his son Arling were murdered.

His case was built on this reasoning: Someone who looked like Hill was in the neighborhood and inside the store on the night of Jan. 10, 1914. Someone was shot by young Arling Morrison. Hill was shot that night.

The jury followed his trail of circumstantial evidence to a guilty verdict — a conviction immediately assailed as unfair by Hill’s supporters and scrutinized for the past 100 years.

Given that ludicrous line of reasoning, who could be surprised there’s been a lot of suspicion and conspiracy theorizing about Hill’s death and the reasons for it?

It’s an excellent series of articles. If you’re interested in American labor history you should read it.