The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-09-25
DYNAMITE RESORTED TO, WITH
FATAL RESULTS
A Noa-Union Sailors Boarding-House
Badly Wrecked-Four Men Lose
Their Lives and Others Injured.
Two of Whom are Not Expected to
Recover-Three Men Arrested for
Completely In the Crime.
Special to the REcoRD-UNroN.


and as result two men were killed out
right and their bodies terribly mangled,
and six men were severely injured.
The explosion is supposed to have been
caused by dynamite. The fronts of two
buildings are entirely wrecked, and the
sidewalk for a distance Of forty feet along
one side of the street is torn up and splin-
tered.
The police believe that the dynamite
was placed on the sidewalk. By whom
the bomb was fired is not known, but the
owners directly charge the deadly deed
upon some members of the Seamen's
Union.
John Curtin's is a boarding-house for
non-union sailors, and for months back.
so Curtin says, he has been threatened
with the vengeance of the union men.
Only two days ago throng of them en-
tered his dining-room while he rested on
sick bed upstairs, and one of them told
his wI1e that the days of the boarding
house were numbered.
The spectacle appalled, even the fire.
men of the engine-house next door. and
they fell back and waited for the patrol
wagon, while the wounded men. with
shattered limbs and torn faces, roared
and writhed in their agony on the bloody
ground.
than the horror of the destruction was
the fact that the outrage was wrought in
tentionally and that the engine of de-
struction was fired with intent to kill.
At the time of the explosion eight Or
a
in front OF the sailor boarding house.
and all of them were either killed or
injured.
The dead are: George Holmes, Brick
McCinnis. The injured, so far as known,
are: w. t. Mckenzie, Charles Owen,
Edward Murphy, John Curtain, Jr. and
an old man whose name is unknown.
The injuries of the first three may prove
fatal.
George Holmes lived at 346 Beale street
and was a longshoreman. He is a single
man. but has relatives living in this city.
Brick McGinnis was also longShore-
man and unmarried. The bodies of both
men were terribly mangled, McGinnis'
head being blown half way across the
street, while his body remained in the
great hole torn in the sidewalk.
The building occupied by John Curtin.
at 334 Main street, was badly wrecked, the
entire front being splintered and in
nlaces blown completely out. The build
! ing at 332 Main street is occupied by Od-
! din IL Hartman as saloon and grocery
store The front is entirely shattered and
the interior is badly wrecked. Both build
| ings are so badly wrecked that they Will
| have to be torn down.
| At least score of men sleeping in the
| two buildings were more or less seri-
ously injured. All were thrown from
their beds.
| For few minutes after the explosion
! the utmost confusion prevailed. Women
! screamed and men rushed wildly about.
Those who were not too badly injured at
tempted to reach the street, but the
broken stairways made it difficult. Shat
tered glass was thrown in all directions,
and some Of the women were severely
cut about the feet by treating on the
| broken fragments.
Several squads of police we're immedi-
ately on the scene and the work of car
| ing for the wounded began.
/ The dead men were carried to the mid
die of the street and covered temporarily
with blankets. AS quickly as possible
! the more seriously wounded were put in
| the patrol wagons and taken to the Re-
ceiving Hospital.
Details of police were sent to search
every street and alley in the vicinity for
suspicious characters, and several arrests
/ were made.
The first man taken was John Tyrrell,
a union sailor, who was pointed out by
| Mrs. Curtin as man who an hour or two
before had said TO her, Your days are
numbered; Well fix you," or words to
that effect. He was taken to Jail, and it
was lucky for him that he was, as there
was a strong feeling in the crowd.
| A few minutes later another union
sailor, James Woods, was taken into
custody. He was known to have been
with Tyrrell and to have boasted of what
the union sailors intended doing.
/ Terrence Tracy was the last Of the trio
to be taken. He is a deep-sea sailor, but
was with Taylor and Woods.
| Everywhere in the neighborhood of the
| explosion are evidences of the terrific
| power of the explosive. Two apartments
occupied the front of Curtin's boarding
house; one was the office and bar and the
! other the dining-room. OF these there is
| little left save mass of splintered furni-
| ture and woodwork, broken glass and
plaster. Beneath the spot where the
! deadly powder was released is a hole
through the sidewalk over five feet in
| depth. Had the force of the explosion
| extended upward with the same degree,
the loss of life would have been appalling.
| The saloon and grocery next door is al
most wreck, and in the Sailors Home,
across the street, hardly an unbroken
pane of glass remains.
There seems to be but one theory re-
garding the origin of the fiendish crime,
! and that is that it was the result of long
! standing teud between the Coast Sea-
| mans Union and non-union sailors.
1 John Tyrrell, who was arrested last
! night. has been suspended from the Sea-
mems Union for non-payment of dues,
but is not generally regarded as a vicious
| character. The police are hard at work
on the case, but no further arrests have
/ been made.
| The dynamite must have been placed
upon the sidewalk in front Of the board
! ing-house about twenty minutes before
/ the explosion. At this time Mrs. Curtin
| heard footsteps, which paused beneath
| her window. Soon after this came a
crowd of men returning from the theater.
! Johnny Curtin first saw valise. He
/ picked it up, and after moments exam
! ination dropped it, with the exclamation,
'sBoys, it is dynamite" and ran across
I the street. The others drawn by Curl
| osty gathered around the yalise, when
| the explosion occurred. This accounts
for the terrible destruction of life and
mutIlation of the bodies.
LATER-Four men are now dead and a
! fifth dying, and sixth with only a
I chance for his life is now the NOR
/ tality record of the internal ma
| chine William Mckenzie and Edward
! Murphy died at the Receiving Hospital
/ to-day. John Curtain, Jr., son of the pro-
I prietor, was horribly burned. and is
/ suffering from internal injuries, and
/ there is only chance for his recovery.