In the Midst of Terror She Went out to Her Work -- Part II
Rafalko followed the chase, and when he caught up, Sellins was "scolding" the deputies. Says, Rafalko, "They used abusive language and tried to chase her away." The crowd increased, and Selllinis became more aggressive. Finally, someone brought rifles to the deputies. When a deputy rushed forward to kick Sellins, according to Rafalko she ran into his uncle's yard. Three deputies then fired at her. Joseph Starzeleski, a local steelworker, who came to see what was happening, also was shot and killed.
According to Rafalko, the deputies dispersed, and he approached Sellins "where she lay in the gateway in her wide-rimmed straw hat." The boy went over to her. He picked up her hat up and looked at her face; her false teeth were lying in blood. The boy ran away when he heard a car coming up the hill, but he saw deputies pull Starzeleski into the back of the car. Then, "they grabbed [Sellins] by the back of the neck and threw her into the car." Reportedly, the deputies took the two bodies to their office.
No one was ever punished for the crime. Although ten deputies were charged, no one was ever convicted. Foster claims that many witnesses were hidden away, imprisoned, or intimidated, and the whole matter was hushed up. When the case finally came to trial four years after the killings, the case was thrown out. A coroner's inquest decided the deputies' actions were justified because "Mrs. Sellins, accompanied by women and children, went outside the home of a family she was visiting to stop a fight between steelworkers and some of the deputies." Meyerhuber is not sure the right deputies were even charged, and he describes the trial as a farce. Senseless as Sellins's death may seem, Slomkoski believes some good came of it. Her death was an inspiration to workers. She became a martyr around which they could organize.
In 1920, United Mine Workers of America District 5 members erected a memorial at Sellins's grave in Union Cemetery, at Arnold, Pennsylvania. It's inscription is "In Memory of Fannie Sellins and Joe Starzeleski, killed by the enemies of organized labor, near the Allegheny Steel and Coal Company, at West Natrona, Pa."
Area miners, steelworkers, and other union workers have conducted memorial services, labor day celebrations, and other special events at the memorial site over the years since then.
In 1989, 70 years after her death, Sellins's grave was designated a Pennsylvania state historic landmark, and
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