Company M: A Mob of Soldiers

An independent film based on historical events in Alabama in the 1920s. Set in the era when coal miners fought for better lives and mine owners had government in their pockets, Company M tells the story of one mine workers death at the hands of soldiers, a single tale that distills a much larger truth. In 1921, their trial was one of the greatest ever staged in the state of Alabama. Nine soldiers from Company M of the Alabama National Guard were charged with murder in the killing of a young Walker County miner. Company commander Sgt. Robert J. Lancaster and others were eventually convicted, then walked free after an appeals court overturned the verdicts. Every one of those soldiers, it is said, died an untimely death. During a lengthy and sometimes violent strike by miners, a young man had been gruesomely killed by a group of active-duty soldiers. Company M of the Alabama National Guard was among several units called to quell the strike, which had attracted national attention. The newspapers of the time called it "The Lynching of Willie Baird." The killing outrages the pro-union populace of Walker County. Arrayed against the miners and in support of the soldiers were the industrialists and mine owners who were committed to breaking the unions. Two trials ended in mistrial. In his thir trial, Lancaster was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 18 years. Not long afterward, an appeals court threw out all the convictions and the soldiers walked free. The State of Alabama, having been through political and economic turmoil and wrenched by racial and class divisions, dropped the case and it faded into history. Kevin Wayne brings "Company M: A Mob of Soldiers" back from the events and the times to life.