Albert Edward Horsley (March 18, 1866 – April 13, 1954), best known by the pseudonym Harry Orchard, was a miner convicted of the 1905 political assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg.

The case was one of the most sensational and widely reported of the first decade of the 20th century, involving three prominent leaders of the radical Western Federation of Miners as co-defendants in an alleged conspiracy to commit murder.

Albert Edward Horsley was born March 18, 1866, in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, the son of English and Irish parentage.

His wife gave birth to a daughter, removing her from their cheese factory, while Albert later recalled that he "lived away beyond my means, and was some in debt, and my credit was not so good.

[1]: 14  Horsley abandoned his family and, together with his girlfriend, headed west to Pilot Bay, about twenty miles from Nelson, British Columbia.

[1]: 23  In the spring of 1898 Horsley had to sell his share of the Hercules mine in order to pay the debts he had incurred, also taking a partner into his business to raise funds.

[1]: 24  His accumulated gambling debts forced him to sell out his share of his business in March 1899, and he had to take a job as a "mucker" (shoveler) in the Tiger-Poorman mine near Burke.

[3][4]: 118  Orchard had burglarized a railroad depot, rifled a cash register, stolen sheep, and had planned to kidnap children over a debt.

After midnight on the evening of Steunenberg's murder, Harry Orchard (as Tom Hogan) walked with Clinton Wood, the desk clerk at the hotel in Caldwell, to the site of the assassination at 1602 Dearborn Street (43°39′27″N 116°40′56″W / 43.6576°N 116.6823°W / 43.6576; -116.6823), now hours past.

Although he didn't seem to know the way to the murder scene, Orchard expressed the belief that the governor had been given a "big wad" of money by Idaho mine owners after he had left office.

[10] He raised suspicion when a detective for the Mine Owners' Association recognized him as Orchard; he responded that his name was Hogan; and, it was discovered that he was registered at the Saratoga Hotel.

Historian Melvyn Dubofsky has theorized that Orchard suffered from a "psychotic personality disorder" that caused him not only to engage in a life of violence, but also, perhaps subconsciously, to set up the circumstances of his own arrest.

[15] Minutes before his death, Steunenberg had been sitting in the hotel, so Orchard retrieved the bomb from his room and rushed out to the residence to set it, about a dozen blocks away.

The fatal bomb was detonated by rigging the gate so that as it was opened, a bottle of sulfuric acid was spilled onto giant blasting caps.

[4]: 90  Orchard testified that the murder of Steunenberg was ordered by William Dudley Haywood, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone, all leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.

His gnarled physical appearance, being blind in one eye, combined with his propensity to use politically radical language, made Haywood more likely to be associated with conspiracy and murder in the minds of the jurors, the prosecution believed.

Chief prosecuting attorneys were William Borah and James H. Hawley, who were paid in part by money secretly supplied by western mine operators and industrialists.

Defense attorneys Clarence Darrow and Edmund F. Richardson argued that if Orchard hadn't been forced to sell his one-sixteenth share of the mine because of the martial law decree, he would have become wealthy.

Orchard admitted that one of his uncles was "demented" over family problems and had hanged himself, but testified to knowing nothing about his maternal grandfather, who died before his birth.

In Wood's experience, no one could have fabricated such a convoluted story, covering many years, in many locations, and including so many different people, and withstand such thorough cross-examination without materially contradicting himself.

[30] An appeal was made by the prosecution to Idaho Governor Gooding, urging the commutation of Orchard's death sentence for his previous cooperation in the trials of the union leaders.

After his sentencing in March 1908, he served more than 46 years at the Old Idaho State Penitentiary, its longest-ever term, and is buried in Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise.