The sentences of two of the seven were commuted to life imprisonment; one committed suicide in his cell by exploding a cartridge in his mouth; and four met death on the scaffold.

While awaiting their fate they were to a startling extent regarded as heroes and bore themselves as martyrs to a noble cause.

Six years later, Illinois elected as governor John P.Altgeld, one of whose first steps was to issue a pardon to the three who were serving terms of imprisonment and to criticize sharply the conduct of the trial which had resulted in the conviction of the anarchists.
The Chicago outbreak and its result stopped the open spread of anarchism.

Organized labor now withdrew from any sort of association with it.

This cleared the field for a revival of the Socialist movement as the agency of social and political reconstruction.