Arnold Heightland

Heightland was a union coal miner involved in a bitter labor dispute in eastern Kentucky that escalated beyond picket-line conflict. Federal prosecutors tied him and other striking miners to an armed ambush of coal trucks during the strike, an attack in which rifle fire struck the vehicles and a truck driver was killed.

He was convicted in federal court under a statute aimed at protecting vehicles used in interstate commerce, based on the conclusion that the ambush intentionally damaged the trucks and was carried out with reckless disregard for human safety. The case became emblematic of how labor conflict in the region intersected with aggressive criminal prosecution when violence erupted around strikebreaking operations.