The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-07-27
SHOT AND STABBED.
Attempt to Assassinate a. O. Frick
at His Office in Pittsburgh.
The would-be Murderer New York An
archist OF the Most Radical Stripe
MIR. Frick's Wounds Serious, but
May Not Prove Fatal.

SOlute dictator Ol Jllc SICuO NulhSkA ~
iron and steel enterprise, the controller
of the coke industries Of the western
part of the state and the possessor OF a
fortune variously estimated at from So
100000 TO $40, 900, 900, was shot and per-
haps fatally wounded a few seconds be-
fore las o'clock Saturday afternoon, in
his private office on the sixth floor OF
the Chronicle Telegraph building on
Fifth avenue. A moment before the
tragedy. slim, dark complicated young
men, neatly dressed in light clothes, en-
tered the elevator car on the first hoor
and requested TO be let out at the office
of the chairman of the company. Leav-
ing the car, the stranger proceeded across
the hall and entered Mr.. Frick's outer
office, and requested the usher to take
him to Mr.. Fricll. The boy, having rec
ogniZcd his visitor as man who called
Friday and was refused an audience,
complied, and Immediately thereafter
the voice of Mr.. Frick was heard say
ing, let him come in. The man stepped
briskly through the glass door into the
private othce What brief conversation
passed between the two men, is not now
known. bat it was hardly more than a
moment before there was noise like a
scuiile and then shot rang out on the
air. Before the startled clerks in the
other Offices could rush to the scene,
there were three more shots. The first
man to enter the room found Mr.. FriclS
hanging on to his assailant while blood
was streaming from his wounds.
At the sight of the clerk, the would
be assassin shook himself loose from
his victim and dashed out of the door,
but instead of taking to the stairs, made
bound into the elevator car which
was standing there with the door open
at the time. The elevator man had suf-
fcent presence of mind to hold hin in
the cab until the arrival of the officers,
who placed him under arrest. In the
meanwhile an immense crowd began to
gather in the streets and when the
officers appeared with their prisoner,
who was pale and trembling and with
his clothes spattered with blood, there
wero hundreds of groans and howls in
termingled with cries of shoot him, -
lynch the murderer" 1t was with
difficulty that the officers succeeded in
conveying the man in safety to the pa
troll box.
At the Central station he gave tho
name OF Alexander Berkman and said
that he resided on Forty-second street,
New York. He was, he said, a Russian
Jew; had been in America six years,
and in Pittsburgh two days. When
questioned regarding his occupation,
he said he had been a compositor on a
New York paper, but declined to give
its name Upon being searched num-
ber of 3s-calibre cartridges were found
in his coat pocket. Before being locked
up, he was asked IL he knew Mr. Frick
and replied in the affirmative. "Why
did you shoot him2" was asked.
With half hysterical gurgle, he re-
piled, 81 guess you know that"
About o'clock, on the police surgeon
visiting his cell, il was discovered that
Bergman had made plans to commit
suicide as well as murder. lie had been
dressed in prison garb, weighed, meas
ured and had his photograph taken.
While before the camera his facial
movements as II chewing something
had been noticed, but II was attributed
TO nervousness. When it was still con-
tinued in the cell an investigation
resulted, and after being cholied
until black and blue in the face, two
dynamite cartridges were taken from
his mouth. II was evidently the mans
intent to explode them in his mouth
and kill himself in the manner Anar-
chist Ling, the Chicago Haymarket RI
otter, who was condemned to death. did
The caps would not work, and his
scheme failed. Inspector McKelvey
took the caps to Arthur Kinks place to
have them examined Mr.. Kirk, after
an examination of the cartridges. said
they were the same kind used by Ling,
the anarchist. He could not under
stand how they failed to explode.
Bergman is very docile prisoner,
obeying orders cheerfully enough, but
he has no very strong affection for the
police, and he avoids them as much as
he can. Whether he has been two days
or two weeks in Pittsburgh is not
known. The clerk Of the Mechanics
hotel has identified the prisoner as
Simon Roachman, who stayed one night
in his house The suit of clothes in
which Bergman made his furious at
tack on Frick was bought here So was
his hat He says he bought his revolver
on the Bowery in New York, but this
was doubted. Nothing whatever was
found upon him which gives a clue. He
seems to have deliberately taken every
precaution TO conceal his identity be-
fore going to Frick's office, and had his
plan of committing suicide upon arrest
been successful, he would have re-
mained mystery, because the bomb
would have blown his face away, leav-
ing him corpse that no one could rec.
ognize.
Immediately after the tragedy, doors
leading from the Carnegie Office build
ing were closely guarded, and admit
tance was denied to everybody, no mat
ter what the nature Of their business.
The medical aspect of Mr.. Fricks
case was summed up by DIR. Murdoch,
one Of the attending surgeons, and a
practitioner of international repute, in
This form: 81 am of the opinion that
MIR Frick's wounds are serious How.
ever. don't consider them necessarily
dangerous. One Of the balls entered
the left side Of the neck and was taken
out on the right side This ball passed
through the base Of the skull. The
4 A a. n n "a