VIRGINIA, Minn. — At the head of a hearse carrying the bullet-ridled body of John Alar, Rosa Liberatti clutched a huge wreath of flowers, holding it high until her shoulders ached. She followed women and children displaying a red banner that read “Murdered by Oliver Gunmen.”

She was only one woman in the “largest and longest funeral procession ever held in the city of Virginia” in June 1916, and at 16 years old, she was on her honeymoon.

Defying city ordinances, a mourning dirge from an accompanying band quieted the tempers — for a day — of thousands of grim-faced Iron Range miners, their wives and their children.

They were on strike. They were angry. They wanted vengeance, reported the Duluth News Tribune. All had sworn an oath to Carlo Tresca, a leader of the Industrial Workers of th

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