The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-12-25 00:00:00

several pieces of iron, it seems. In the lower and '
smaller division he attached a kind of watchwork,
which on being drawn up, would, after a certain time,
it is said three days, set fire to a match and cause the
explosion. His object in perpetrating this devilish
work was for the attainment, after the blowing up of
ths ship, of a sum of money from an insurance com-
pany, where a number of hampers and packages had
been highly insured by him. These cases were to be
taken on board at Southampton, at which port Thomas
intended quitting the vessel. There he also contemp-
lated winding up the watch, so that after three (rays'
journey, when the steamer was on the ocean, every
soul, should perish. - It is not yet known how the ex-
plosion occurred earlier than was calculated.
When the news of this horrible iniquity was circu-
lated in Bremerhafen and Bremen, it was believed
Thomas had secre`ed several of these explosive cases
on board the Mosel, or other transatlantic steamers,
and had for years been carrying on these awful prac-
tices. An adequate reason or proof for this belief has
not been discovered. We consider, therefore, the in-
sinuations of the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of
Thomas being implicated in the loss of the Inman
' steamer, the City of Boston, some four years ago, as
, groundless. Thomas, who during the first twenty-four
hours maintained complete composure, became during
' the night from Monday to Tuesday very excited, and
made another attempt to commit suicide, by tearing
away the bandages from his head.
Judicial researches made in Dresden, the last per-
manent place of abode of Thomas, have given the fol-
lowing details: William R. Thomas is a citizen of
New York, with a wife from New Orleans, and father
of four children. He was living in Dresden from
1868-70, returned there some six months ago, having
this time taken up his residence in Strehlen, a suburb,
but has been away from Dresden the last six weeks.
Previous to this he seems to have been in Leipzic.
From the 4th to the 11th of October, he was staying at
the Great Western Hotel in Liverpool. His lodging
in Strehlen is not one in which business could be carried
on, and his occupation is unknown. By telegraphic offi-
cial requisition from Bremen to the police, :domiciliary
research was made in Dresden, but it ended in no result
throwing any light on the affair. The wife of Thomas,
with her youngest child and a nurse, under official
escort, arrived yesterday at the bedside of her husband.
During the last American war homas is said to have
displayed bold activity as a blockade runner. The
burial of the victims took place on Tuesday. The
train, consisting of thirty hearses, mostly bearing two
bodies, moved through the town to the cemetery, where
, a number of graves had been dug to receive the remains,
all houses and shops displaying flags of mourning.
Several thousands accompanied the sad procession.
The clergyman who spoke at the graves warned his
hearers of the transitoriness of life, recommending the
widows and orphans to the survivors. The lesson de-
rived from the crime, hatched for the attainment of
gain, proved that man, without faith and love, is no-
thing on earth. On the coffins being lowered, the
scene was affecting in the extreme.

BREMERHAVEN, Dec. 16.

Thomson, alias Thomassen, died at 4.25 p.m. to-day
in the hospital. In his confession to the authorities he
gave his name as William king Thomson, professing
to be a native of Brooklyn, New York, and he is be
lieved to be about 35 years of age.

In connection with the above, The Times has published the
following:—

MAGDEBURG, Dec. 16.
It is stated that the Lian Thomson, who has nom-
mitted suicide at Bremerhaven, had the clock-work to
be employed in blowing up the Mosel manufactured by
a mechanician named Fuchs, who resided at Bernburg,
in Anhalt. It went ten days, working noiselessly, and
at the expiration of that time caused a lever to at
which would strike with the force of a hammer weigh-
ing 30113. Twenty similar apparatuses had been ordered.
The negotiations between Thomson and Fuchs had
been carried on since the spring of 1873, at which time
Fuchs was requested to call upon Thomson at his
house, No. 2, August-street, Leipsic. As the object
for which ha wanted the clock-waks Thomson stated
that he required Mr his American silk goods manu-
factory a machine which, after going for ten days,
would, with one stroke, tear a thousand threads.

BERLIN, Dec. 19.

It appears that the real name of the Bremerhaven
assassin, who called himself Thomson, was Alexander,
and that he is well connected in New York and had made
numerous voyages between Germany and America
since his expatriation. In the hospital he first tried to
account for his attempted suicide by apprehensions of
bankruptcy, and only told the truth when the fact of
his having been constantly on board the steamers of
the company had been elicited from several witnesses. A
few days before the explosion he inquired at a Bremen
counting-house what would be the cost of sending some
27 chests to America, but no agreement was concluded.
In September last he ordered two iron chests, con-
taining ziuc boxes of a very peculiar construction, of a
Dresden locksmith, and paid for them on delivery.
One of these boxes was in a wooden frame.

Th.liar, belonging to the North German Lloyd's
Company, sailed from Southampton at midnight on
Saturday with the passengers from Bremen who
had booked by the Mose/, and about sixty others,
first and second class and steerage, survivors from
the wreck of the Deutschland. The passengers
were naturally alarmed by the statements in the
German papers that Thomas, the man who con-
spired to blow up the Mosel, had stated that there
must be an explosive package on board the Salier,
and some effort was made to set their fears at
rest. The matter was, however, brought under the
official notioe of the Mayor and magistrates of South-
ampton, who conferred iVith the Customs authorities
and Captain Franke of the Sher, and Mr. Keller, the
German Consul. Assurances were given that every pre-
caution had been taken to ensure the public safety by
the examination of the cargo transhipped from the
Mosel, and also of that sent via Havre for shipment
at Southampton. The investigation was in the pre-
sence of the Bremen police superintendent.

A Correspondent of the Daily News, writing from
Bremen respecting the explosion, says :

"The author of this appalling catastrophe died at Bremer-
haf en at 4.30 p in. on Thursday last, death resulting from
the self-inflicted wounds. After being trepanned on Thurs-
day morning, his state was such as no longer to admit of his
undergoing a legal examination. The name William King
Thomas, alias TholllBol3, under which he passed for many
years, seems to have been fictitious. He refused to give any
information respecting his past life. In conversation he
once said that he was a native of New York, to which
place his parents had emigrated some thirty years ago.
Another statement is to the effect that they went to New
York some time between the years 1830 and 1840, anti sub-
sequently moved to Virginia, where he was educated. He
fought on the Confederate side during the Secession War,
and is said to have distinguished himself as a blockade
runner between St. Thomas and New Orleans. After
the capitulation of Richmond he came to Europe, and
lived partly in England and partly in Germany: In
1892 he resided with his family in the Hotel de Po-
logne, in Leipsic, in which city he frequented the beat
society, and was particularly intimate with the American
Consul, with whom he one day went to a watchmaker,
of whom he inquired if he could construct him a clock
with a powerful hammer, which would run several days,
but the mechanic could not accommodate him. This
mechanic still possesses the card given to him by Thomas
on that occasion, bearing the inscription, " Mr. Thomas,
August Strasse." About this time came to the Leiosic
Easter Fair a clever maker of turret clocks, named Fuchs,
of Bernelarg, who learned from a friend from Mohrstedt that
an American in the August Strasse could give him some
profitable employment. Fuchs immediately proceeded to
the address of Mr. Thomas, who was then living in
elegantly-furnished apartments. He described Thomas
as being a tall, stately man, with whiskers cut in the
English style. He was commissioned to make a clock
which would run eight days. The order was not executed
at .the time, as Fuchs was unable to understand the
broken German in which Thomas instructed him suffi-
ciently to enable him to perceive clearly what was necessary
in the mechanism of the clock. On the 9th March, 1873,
Thomas visited Fachs in Berneburg, informed him that he
had been in Vienna, where he was told that only Fuchs was
capable of constructing the work. lie wanted the machine
to go for ten days without ticking, and also that the elevator
or hammer which should strike the hour when the clock had
run down should possess a concussion power of thirty pounds.
On being asked for what purpose he required this clock,
Thomas replied that he had many manufactories in America,
principally of silk goods; and that the new piece of machi-
nery was intended to tear simultaneously a thousand threads
It was to be finished in April, and the workman was to
name his own charge. For the better guidance of the work-
man, Mr. Thomas left with him a model clock, which he said
had been prepared in Vienna, On the 20th of April, the
work being completed, Fuchs went with it to Leipsic, and
met Mr Thomas in the Hotel Pologne as arranged. The
latter examined the mechanism thoroughly, listened with
great attention to the explanation of it, and expressed
delight at the noiseless works. He tried the elevator, the
all of which was equivalent to a pressure of thirty
pounds weight, and, indeed, was so powerful that a por-
tion of the veneer of the polished table sprang off. The
clock ran ten days, as ordered, and was the first thing
of the kind that Fuchs had ever constructed, he hav-
ing hitherto only made watches and cloche to go eight
days. Thomas expressed great satisfaction, and paid
him a hundred and twenty-five thalers, although he only
asked one hundred. Thomas subsequently ordered by letter
twenty similar machines, from which it may be inferred that
he did not intend to be satisfied with the commission of one
crime. The model has been handed over by Fuchs to the
Cmrt in Bremerhafen. From Leipsic Thomas made several
journeys, and returned six months ago, when he settled
with his family at Strehlen, near Dresden. Here, too, he
stood in good repute in the American colony. Having taken
Fuchs clock about with him on various expeditions, it seems to
have got out of order as he had it repaired at a shop in Bremen.
The explosive material was probably purchased.in America,
to and from which country he had made many voyages. He
refueed to divulge its character, describing it always as
" polishing-powder " when registering it. He had wound up
the watch on the day on which the Mosel was to depart, so
that, according to his calculations, the ship would have been
blown to pieces in mid-ocean, after he himself had landed at
Southampton—where he intended to put his heavily insured
cases and packages on board. At Brenien, he shipped a value-
lees barrel, stated to contain caviar, which was insured for
8,000 marks. Jadiciel zearches have been made in Dresden,
whieh have trought to light ceveral irou cases which it
, scorns were ordered by Thomas. Thew have, of course,
been taken possession of by the Court. Thomas most
positively denied having any accomplice in his dreadful
design. The suspicion that his wife knew anything of his in-
fernal pints is groundless. Immediately upon the first tele-
graphic report of his being wounded, before it was dreamed
that he was the cause of the explosion, she hurried to his bed-
side, little thinking to arrive in Bremerhafeu at the very
time when forty -three victims of his hellish plot were being
carried to their graves. She tree moved in the very best
society both in Leipsic and Dresden., lier evidence, as
well as her letters, show that she had led a lieppy life
with the deceased. According to the Weser Zeitung she did
not mention her maiden name on account of regard for
her family mid relations. She married Mr. Thoines eleven
years ago, but never knew anything of his family or connec-
tions, and doe not even koow his name to a certainty. She
had looked up to him with love and c mfidence, never inquir-
ing into his affairs. She considered him an honest, good-
hearted man, although he was liable to extremes of temper,
sometimes passing from great kindness to the utmost violence.
He loved his children tenderly. And this is the man
.who for
years has been planning a diabolical crime, and makitig pre-
parations with the greatest nonchalance for the executi ,n of
a deed of hitherto unparalleled iniquity. His journeys
to America separated him much from his wife. He
probably brought his stock with him the last time he came
over. Ho told his wife on leaving for Bremen that lie IVRES
going to Perlin. Mrs. Thomas intended to return to DI esden
after the burial of her husband. The number of the dead
amounts already to more than eighty; altogether, in dead
and wounded, the number of victims exceeds two hundred.
Traces of bodies continue to be found in the outer harbour.
A private letter from Hamburgh states that the explosion
was heard at Oldesloe, in Holstein.

'rho Berlin correspoLdent of The Time, writing on
the subject says :
William King Thomas, the Bremerhaven monster, died on