The evening world., 1894-04-23
.FIEND'S CONFESSION.
Blumenthal Tells How he Helped
to Fire a Tenement House.
His Employer, Tailor SiIberburg,
Wanted Insurance Money.
Others Implicated and Startling De-
velopments Expected.

The full story OF the attempt to burn
up the five-story tenement % East
Broadway, about midnight of Saturday.
was told this afternoon in the Essex
Market Police Court to Justice Hogan.
1t was in the form of a confession
from one of the fiends engaged in the
dastardly work. Justice Hogan itting-
ly described II when he said:
This Is the most cold-blooded at
tempt to destroy life and property that
ever came to my notice. You want me
to fix bail for this prisoner. l will do
so. lie must give bonds in $4,000, and
the securities must be OF the gilt-edge
order before l admit him to temporary
liberty"
Lyman .Blumenthal. the nend who
was caught in the act OF setting fire to
the building, was the prisoner, and 1t
was his confession that had startled the
Justice.
Twenty families lived in the house,
comprising, all told, ITO persons. They
We're asleep when the torch was APP
piled, and 1t was no fault of the in
cendiaries that every one OF them was
The ground floor OF the building was
occupied by Herman Silberburg as a
t%ailors' trimming store. Silberburg also
S bx a. a lot to0 of tailor n0r york sn6 being hy R sSs1stea
thai. over the store, floor upon floor,
we're the living apartments of the
The confession charges that Sllber-
burg. nj order to secure the insurance
money on his stock, planned to fire the
building ;, EyerSthing was to be &c,
of 1T. first being removed TO a place OF
safety, The matter of 100 human lives
being In danger was not considered.
Blumenthai was caught in the act Of
morning. lyman Kaiser, who also lived
there. was returning home from a party
OF Kerosene. He awakened the ~janitor,
Michael Shorotsky. and the two went
down to the cellar to Investigate; There
they found Blumenthal engaged in his
tiendish work. Barrels of wood had
been made into a heap and saturated
with kerosene.
ne would nave succeeded in escaping
had not other ,enants who had been
aroused flocked to The scene. Detective
Powers, OF the Madison street police sta
tion, also arrived. and the man was
taken to the station. He was arraigned
lice Court Yesterday morning.
that ,B%lumenthal made the confession,
but IT took him all day yesterday to
maks Up M, MS ! mind snd to ss, do 81 So NJ, r EIre
story.
His story in substance is that on Fri
day morning last his employer, Herman
Silberburg. told him that business had
run down to q great extent, and that IT
was absolutely necessary for him to
setting fire to the building and burning
up his stock, which was insured for
much more than, its value, He asked
according, to his story, %hesitated.,
" Saturday night" Blumenthal con-
tinued, when was at my home, 24
s1ds ssR.s d'r me out s', to drink. % Sa" had Do se %e
eral. which he paid for. and finally. I'M
der the influence Of the liquor. / con-
sented to help him set fire to the build
TT was about 1i.R O'Clock when he
entered The place and got down to The
e eeni b,n se ana hda b e billed EeY to the some Wood Of o she
a can of rosin, a lot Of benzine, kero-
sene and a heap Of trimmings from his
II helped him to ~soturate the wood and
rags with the oil. as well as to lay the
fuses and scatter the matches.
when we had everything ready, he
said he wanted to go upstairs to his
store again, In order to get cut a large
parcel OF cloth which he wanted me to
de was the last OF the stock. the rest
OF t. having been removed. Before GO
ing, he set fire to one Of the fuses, but
It went out; While he was away the
janitor and Kaiser came down upon me
and my arrest followed. silberburg
must have run away
AS soon as the Fire Marshal heard
the confession he at once started after
Silberburg, but the latter could not be
found; AT, the. store early this morn
ing silberburg,s son, Jacob, was, dis;
GqTIered srr and he was promptly placed
the father was secured, and the police
are now searching for him. They hope
to have him before night.
The Fire Marshal also found out the
name Of the man to whose place Silber-
burg had his stock removed, and an
attempt to arrest him vas made, but he
also had disappeared.
At go this afternoon Blumenthal was
arralgned in the Essex Market Police
his behalf, said he was willing TO tell all
he knew. so that the real criminal might
be arrested. The confession was then
gone over, and bail fixed as already
stated The prisoner was remanded for
twenty-four hours to the custody of the
from him.
Silberburg's son, VINO was also In
court. was discharged, on the IRE Mar
shaFs suggestion, because there was no
proof connecting him with the crime.
The Fire Marshal says there will be
some startling DEVELOPMENTS in the case
that many others, who are well known
in insurance circles. are implicated.
II cannot tell you all ] would like to-
he said to an Evening World reporter,
but / expect TO get the gang that has
been at work for years. If we can get
legal proof the story will be a startling
one."