While publisher of "The Agitator" at Home Fox became involved in two legal controversies. The first involved the sensational Los Angeles Times bombing of 1910, in which 21 people had been killed. Private detective William J. Burns sought the arrest of a former resident of Home Colony, David Caplin, and his associate Matt Schmidt in connection with the case, believing the two to have been conspirators. Burns established headquarters in Tacoma early in October 1911 and began staking out the house of Jay Fox and searching his mail, convinced that as editor of "The Agitator" he knew the whereabouts of the two fugitives.