Hill, Joe, 1879–1915, Swedish-American union organizer; b. Sweden, as Joseph Hillstrom. He came to the United States in 1902 and, as a maritime worker, joined the Industrial Workers of the World Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), revolutionary industrial union organized in Chicago in 1905 by delegates from the Western Federation of Mines, which formed the nucleus of the IWW, and 42 other labor organizations.
..... Click the link for more information. in 1910. He wrote many labor songs, including "Casey Jones" and "The Union Scab." Found guilty in 1915 of murdering a prominent Salt Lake City man, Hill was executed. He has become a legendary hero of radical labor.

Hill, Joe

orig. Joel Emmanuel Hägglund

(born Oct. 7, 1879, Gävle, Swed.—died Nov. 19, 1915, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.) Swedish-U.S. songwriter and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Hill immigrated to the U.S. c. 1902 and joined the IWW in 1910. His songs of protest and solidarity—including “The Preacher and the Slave,” in which he coined the phrase pie in the sky to mock the “reward” awaiting the meek in the next world—became widely popular. In 1914 he was arrested in Salt Lake City and charged with the murder of a grocer and his son during a robbery. Convicted on circumstantial evidence despite mass demonstrations on his behalf, Hill was executed by a firing squad. His death made him a martyr in the eyes of the radical U.S. labour movement.