of the violence many hop workers immediately vacated the Durst Ranch, scattering in every direction. Meanwhile, Wheatland and Marysville authorities immediately contacted Governor Hiram Johnson requesting rapid dispatch of units of the National Guard to maintain order. Local law enforcement authorities themselves rushed into action, making about 100 arrests of seasonal agricultural workers. Those arrested were subjected to starvation and physical beating in an effort to gain testimony to be used against strike leaders. One such prisoner, a field worker named Alfred Nelson, was hauled from county to county where he was held incommunicado, sweated, starved, beaten, and repeatedly threatened with death unless he confessed to participation in the killings. In Martinez, Nelson was taken from jail to a room in a hotel where he was beaten by a sheriff and a private detective with pistol butts and a rubber hose and threatened with summary execution. Nelson refused to confess and was eventually returned to jail. The treatment of Nelson shocked Martinez District Attorney A.B. McKenzie, who declared Nelson's treatment to have been "one of the biggest outrages that has ever been perpetuated in this state." The Swedish consulate in San Francisco lodged a formal protest on behalf of Nelson, a Swedish national. A coroner's inquest was conducted which concluded that the IWW strike leadership had caused the riot which led to the death of District Attorney Manwell. Arrest warrants were hastily issued for Ford and Suhr on charges of murder. The pair were soon detained, as were their fellow workers Walter Bagan and William Beck, all of whom were held over for trial. The psychological pressure was so severe that Nels Nelson, the picker who lost his arm to a gunshot wound, hanged himself to death in his cell. Another prisoner unsuccessfully attempted to do the same. A third prisoner suffered a breakdown and had to be committed to a mental hospital. Trial The defense of the IWW defendants was conducted by Socialist attorney Austin Lewis, a friend of the organization. Two legal defense funds were established to raise funds for the trial — the Wheatland Hop Picker's Defense League, launched by the IWW itself, and the International Workers' Defense League, which was a coalition effort. By the middle of February 1914 the groups had raised a combined $5,575 to aid the defense effort. Newspapers around the state tarred the IWW defendants as fanatics committed to violence and local