Karl Linderfelt

Karl E. Linderfelt (November 7, 1876 – June 3, 1957) was a soldier, mine worker, soldier of fortune, and officer in the Colorado National Guard. He was reported to have been responsible for an attack upon, and the ultimate death of, strike leader Louis Tikas during the Ludlow Massacre. He was the son of librarian Klas August Linderfelt.

Most of what is known from Linderfelt's life is from a congressional testimony after the events at Ludlow.

Linderfelt was originally from rural Wisconsin. His father immigrated from Sweden after obtaining a doctorate and his mother was a Vermont native.

Karl Linderfelt enlisted in the Cavalry of the Colorado National Guard at the age of 21, after a life-long interest in the military, exemplified by several youth cadet groups. He transferred to Jacksonville Florida and also served in California before being transferred to the Philippines by 1899. He returned to the US after time in China in 1901 and by 1903 had reenlisted to his original troop of the Colorado National Guard. By 1906 he has risen to the rank of second lieutenant. Additionally, Linderfelt also served with the Mexican Army and was discharged in 1911

At the time of his testimony Linderfelt had been in the mining business in Colorado for 21 years. Linderfelt had worked in Cripple Creek on and off since he was 17. He never finished high school, but often claimed to have spent some time in college, while ignoring the fact that this was a program in his prep school. He also stated that his father was a professor at his college, although there are no records of this. Linderfelt was working as a mine guard in Cripple Creek at the time of the beginning of the 1913 Southern Colorado Coal Field strike.

Upon his persistent requests to General Chase, whom he had worked with in the Northern Coal Field Strikes, he served as the deputy sheriff at Ludlow for two weeks before the militia was called in. He was placed by the sheriff and, according to him, was instructed to arrest anyone who caused trouble, strikers or guards. Before the Colorado National Guard was called to the strikes, Linderfelt was involved in a battle centralized in Berwind Canyon. Under the impression that marshal law had been declared, Linderfelt took military command. Armed conflict continued between the Colorado Fuel and Iron sponsored sheriffs in the area and the strikers until a small national guard unit was deployed and ambushed the strikers with machine guns. Linderfelt began running his portion of the Colorado National Guard throughout the Ludlow, Berwind and Hastings area even though the guard had not yet been officially sent into the situation. This mostly included illegal searches of private local homes for ammunition.

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