The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-03-12
BOMBS IN NEW YORK
John Kelly Caught in Har-
lem Carrying a Number
of Them.
ACTED VERY sUSPICIOUSLY
Positively Declines to Make a
Satisfactory Explanation-His
Companion Escaped.

New YORK, March 12, 1s94.-At abous
half-past three o'clock this morning Police
man Connors, while at st. Nicholas avenue,
crossing 120th street, noticed two men acting
in suspicious manner. One of the men
carried bundle under his arm. They were
conversing in low tones when Connors made
dart for the man with the bundle and
grabbed him by the collar. The other man
dashed away in the darkness.
The man whom Conners held tried to pass
the bundle to the other man before he ran,
but was prevented from doing so by the
policeman. Connors took his prisoner to the
station house, where he gave his name as
John Kelly, thirty years old, and his ad-
dress as No 5sS Grand street.
| The bundle was laid upon the sergeant's
desk. When the latter unroled the news.
paper he staggered back and nearly fell of
| tanned nine loaded paper dynamite car
tridges and three dynamite bombs.
The latter were pieces of gas pipe about
three inches in diameter, about foot and a
half long, and were rivetted with bolts at
| the ends. They were bound tightly to-
| gether by wire, and from the end OF each
| long fuse protruded.,
| An expert, after looking at the bombs. de-
clared that they were fully charged and that
| there was sufficient dynamite in them TO
| blow up block of houses. He said that the
fuses had been arranged so that when they
were ignited it would have taken them about
six minutes to have reached the deadly
dynamite. It was said that each of the
paper cartridges contained enough dyna-
mite to blow down an ordinary house.
| THE PRISONER RETIcENT.
| At Police Headquarters this forenoon the
Ea1lx i11fo tod
| erintendent Byrnes,. Inspector Mclaughlin
and Inspector Conlin.
The prisoner had but little to say What
| he did say led the Superintendent and In
| spectors to believe that he knows much more
about the dynamite found in his possession
at Police Headquarters was that he and the
man who escaped were hired by stranger
at Grand street, East River, last night, to
take the package containing the dynamite
cartridges up to Weschester
| He claims that the man who hired him
was perfect stranger to him, and that the
man who helped him to carry the stuff was
also total stranger.
The dynamite cartridge and bombs, or
whatever they are have been sent to the
Bureau of Combustibles ct Fire Headquar-
ters.
From DEVELOPMENTS at Police Headquar-
ters it is thought that the prisoner may
know something of the bomb explosion In
1 Park street on Saturday night,
That Superintendent Byrnes regards the
arrest of Kelly an important one Is evident
from his reticence when questioned about
the capture. He would say nothing beyond
that he was making an investigation.
Inspector Mclaughlin was also close
mouthed, and Inspector Conlin declined to
say anything.
town than the one where the man was
captured There are rows of tall apartment
houses, occupied by wealthy citizens, and In
the immediate vicinity millions of dollars are
invested in buildings; and should the bombs
have been designed for the neighborhood,
there is no doubt that many thousands OF
dollars worth of property would have been
blown up.
THE PRISONER ARRAIGNED.
Later in the day Kelly was arraigned be-
fore Justice Simms in the Harlem Police
Court
On being questioned by Justice Simms, the
prisoner said that at about then minutes
after ten o'clock last night he was coming
out of a cigar store on Grand street, near the
car stables. where he had worked as a
laborer, when he was approached by a
strange man, carrying parcel. The man
asked Kelly, so he said, in what direction
was the Sixth avenue elevated road.
II told him it was quite distance said
the prisoner.
pain in his back and he offered me S1.5Of
| would help him carry the bundle for him
as far as the Harlem Bridge. 1t was a very
heavy bundle and had not the slightest
idea what it contained. We went over to
the Sixth avenue elevated road. On the way
up on the cars the man told me that he was
farmer living in Westchester. He said
nothing to me about what was in the bundle
nor did l ask him.
THE PoLICEMAN's STORY.
Policeman Connors said that when he first
saw the men they were going toward Eighth
avenue This was five hours after Kelly said
that he met the stranger on Grand street. In
explaining why he was going in the opposite
direction, from the Harlem Bridge, the
prisoner said that he did not know where he
was going. Justice Sims remanded the
prisoner in S., 600 bail for examination to-
morrow morning.
1t was subsequently said that Kelly was at
one time employed as a laborer on Wards
Island, and that now he has two children in
the House of Refuge on Randalls Island.
Inspector Conlin refused to be interviewed
on the subject He said that all he knew
about Kelly was that at one time he was
employed in the car stables at the foot OF
Grand street.
never saw bombs of such complete and
deadly make in my experience" he said.
''They would send chill through you to
look at them. There is enough dynamite in
one of them to blow down block Of
houses"
The Bureau of Combustibles was notified
i to go and remove the dynamite from
the vacant lot in front of the police
station.
Anarchist meetings were held throughout
the city last night to celebrate the thirteenth
. 4 Il ~. Gt,,.