Magnus Olson

Magnus Olson (1881–?), best known by the pseudonym Frank Z. Wilson, was a career criminal who was born in Tromsø, Norway, the youngest of five children.^[1] Olson was arrested for the murder of John G. Morrison, a Salt Lake City area grocer and former policeman, and his son in 1914. This murder is most notable as the crime for which song writer Joe Hill, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, was later executed. Olson was released by the Salt Lake City police, and turned over to the Sheriff of Elko County, Nevada, for a lesser crime (burglary of a boxcar) to which he confessed while in Salt Lake City custody.^[2]

Magnus Olson used many aliases during his life of crime, including Frank Z. Wilson, James Farmer, James Morton, and F.Z. Wheeler.^[3]

Olson worked for Al Capone as a body guard and bill collector. When the Saint Valentine's Day massacre occurred in Chicago in 1929, seven men were killed. The killers left the scene in an automobile registered to Magnus Olson.^[4]

Olson was incarcerated in the Nevada State Penitentiary, and in Folsom State Prison in California, and served time in at least seven other states.^[5]

Writing under the pseudonym James Morton, Olson told of his life of crime in the Saturday Evening Post in 1950.^[6] In 2011, author William M. Adler published a biography, The Man Who Never Died, The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, with new evidence indicating that Joe Hill may have been innocent of the deaths of John G. Morrison and his son, and that Magnus Olson was a more likely suspect.^[7]

Footnotes

1. ^ William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died, The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, Bloomsbury USA, 2011, page 62
2. ^ William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died, The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, Bloomsbury USA, 2011, pages 57-58
3. ^ William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died, The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, Bloomsbury USA, 2011, pages 58-59
4. ^ William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died, The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, Bloomsbury USA, 2011, page 60
5. ^ William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died, The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, Bloomsbury USA, 2011, pages 58-60
6. ^ William M. Adler, The Man Who Never Died, The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, Bloomsbury USA, 2011, pages 59-60
7. ^ Steven Greenhouse (August 26, 2011). "Examining a Labor Hero’s Death". The New York Times: p. A10. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/us/27hill.html. 

Organized labour portal

Persondata
Name	Olson, Magnus
Alternative names	Wilson, Frank Z.
Short description	Criminal involved with Joe Hill
Date of birth	1881
Place of birth	Tromsø, Norway
Date of death
Place of death