St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-12
It Involved the Probable Loss
Of One Hundred and Fifty
Lives.
The Scheme Embraced the
Blowing Up Of Shufeldt's
Distillery,
And Twenty-Five Thousand
Dollars Was the Amount
Of Blood Money.


iayolving great loss Of life and prop
esty, has been discovered and Its con-
summation prevented just on the eve
OF putting it into effect. The Western
Distillers and Cattle Feeders association,
better known as the whisky trust" is
a corporation with capital stock OF
S35, ,O00,OO and controls the price of
high-wines throughout the country, as
il controls all of the distilleries, with
two OF three exceptions. The most
Important distillery. outside Of the
combination is that of II. III. Shuffeldt
in this city, and 1t was against
this concern that the plot was ar
The exposure of the
occurred this morn
ing. George j. Gibson, of Peoria, ILL.,,
arrived here at 6 O'Clock, and, on COM
piaint of Solicitor General Hart, OF the
treasury department, who came here
from Washington for the purpose, was
arrested as he alighted from carriage
at the door of the Grand Pacific hotel
and hurried acr)Ss the street into the
government building. where he was
locked up. The arrest was made as
Vuletly DIS pOSSlDlC, anu tliO l0Ct Woo hOD
made public till some hours afterward.
The charge laid at Gibson's door is that
he offered government Gauger L. 5.
Dewar, who is on duty at Shufeldt's
distjllery, bribe to blow up the distil
Iery with dynamite. Solicitor Hart tells
the story of the plot as follows:
A Diabolical Plot.
"Some months ago the Washington
department were assured that things
We're not just straight, from the fact
that the trust had tried their best to
have a certain man appointed Inspector
of the department for this district. He
set. a watch. Soon T. S. Dewar was
communicated with, and this man Glib
son opened up a correspondence with
GIBSON felt his man cautiously, telling
in the way, and that they were trying
to get it out Of the way. He got little
belder soon, and, finally, led on by
Dewar. who was all the time in con-
sultation with the department.. he made
a. straight proposition He offered
Dewar $4,000. and then increased
the offer to $4,000. to blow
up the concern. Gibson stated
that he had dynamite machine that
could be located just outside of one OF
the large tanks so that few moments
after it was placed it would explode.
There would be plenty of time, Gibson
told Dewar, for him to get away, and
that he was the only man who could
place it because of the fact that as
government officer he had access to all
parts of the building. "Tne result of
the success of the conspiracy" con-
tfnued Mr.. Lart, would have been that
the machine would have exploded be-
tween Two Of the immense tanks, max
ing
Terrible Destruc ton
and leaving sea of alcohol on.fire.
Gibson lied when he told Dewar that the
machine wouldn't 90 off until he had
time to get out, for it would have ex-
ptoded at once, killing the man who
placed it the very instant be-
fore he could possibly get away.
thus destroying the only evidence
against the trust people, and at the
same time saving to them the S25, 600
that Dewar was to have received. In
addition to the destruction of Dewar
and the buildings the success of the
plot meant unquestiOnably the death of
l5o men working In the place. As 1
say. Mr.. Dewar, under our instructions.
went the length of the conspiracy 10
the point of doing the diabolical deed,
and when Gibson was arrested he was
waiting uneasily, expecting to hear of
the explosion and the destruction of all
those lives and all that property We
have in our possession all the evidence
to substantiate Dewar's story: the dy
Mantle machine, the letters. the cOn-
tract between Dewar and Gibson, in
fact everything. The case is practi-
cally over as far as our department is
the case is made"
Have you any evidence TO show that
others beside Gibson were implicated in the
Mr.. Hart was asked.
ssAir Gibson is the secretary OF the trust,
and while we might reason that Gibson was
not alone in this. and that somebody higher
min the trust was the responsible party we
cate any one else. Everything we have
points TO Gibson and to no other person."
Two Previous Attempts.
The machine, the materials to make
it effective and the inculpating docu-
carried at the time OF his arrest. Some
unknown person who had knowledge of
the conspiracy warned the owners of
the distillery Monday of the danger
which beset them and fixing the date
for the explosion for yesterday or to-
day, and they were carefully guard
ing the premises day and night.
Two previous attempts, which were
attributed to the whisky trust, but not
were made to destroy Shufeldt's
with dynamite. One Of them occurred
two years ago last fall. Detective Dan
CoughIin, of the city police force, was
detailed on the case, and it was while
at work on it that he made the acquaint-
ance of the little German, John P.
Kunze. Both of them were afterward
tried for completely in the assassination
of DIR. Cronin. Coughlin is serving a
life sentence for the crime, but KunZe
was acquitted. This afternoon Gibson
was taken before United States Com
missioner HOyne and released on bail of
$40, 900. He declined to make any state
ment in regard to the matter.
Thomas Lynch, one of the proprietors
of the Shufefdt distillery, in an inter-
view this afternoon, said:
..Since the last attempted outrage on
our property we have received COM
from an unknown friend
whom we believe is member of the
whisky trust, giving US hints Of ap-
danger. Monday last we re-
ceiyed brief note giving US definite in
formations of what was coming. It read
like this:
Is Look out. An attempt will be made to
blow you up either tomorrow Tuesday Or
next day.
OF course we paid strict attention to
the friendly warning. and at once COM
punicated with the authorities. We