Evening star., 1897-06-02
MANUFACTURED SENSATION
Wrote Threatening Letters to Speaker
Reed.
Then Went Around and Told Cores
pOndents About It-LOcated
by the Police.

Speaker Reed. like other public men in
high official station. has received threaten
ing letters from time to time. but has
lever paid any attention to them. Yester-
day however, one was received of such a
nature that 1t seemed to command more
than ordinary attention, and the Speak
erS private secretary, without Mr.. Reed s
knowledge, deemed it his duty to turn it
over to the proper authorities for investi-
CATION, and that precautions might be
taken to prevent a possible catastrophe.
The letter was mailed in Washington. 1t
stated that the "one-man power must
stop and threatened both the Speaker and
Mr.. Dingley with assassination. 1t was
sig1 ed "A Cuban" The letter stated that
the writer would be in the House gallery,
and that If the Speaker did not do his bid
ding, he the Speaker) would never leave
the chair alive.
1t was not this letter which created the
alarm. 1t was the fact that it was the
last of a series of letters written on the
same paper, in the same handwriting, and
of the same general tenor The others had
been mailed from New York. This one
showed that the writer had come to Wash
ingtcn. and the possibility that he might
carry out his threat led the Speakers sec
retary, Mr.. Allen, to notify Sergeant-at-
arms Russell. The latter Immediately COM
municated with Inspector of Police Hol-
linferger, and after some Investigation
both he and the sergeant-at- arms came to
the conclusion that the letters had not
been written by crank, but by some one
deSirous of perpetrating sensational hoax
When Detectives Boyd and Boardman
We're assigned to the case they had ar idea
that the latest letter was sent either by a
crank or by some one who wanted to manu-
facture story to sell to the newspapers
Soon after they started the investigation
they became satisfied that the affair was
fake similar to the sending of the harm
less bomb to the late Chief Justice Waite
some years ago. Following Speaker Reed
from the Capitol, in the hopes of discover
ing clue, the detectives observed a man
whom they knew and quickly suspected
that he was the sender of the letter. In
vestigation showed that this man had given
Information about the threatening letters
to certain newspaper correspondents and
that he had called at police headquarters
and made inquiries. The detectives were
working on orders from Inspector Hoilin-
berger, and had their chief given the order
they would have arrested the man. But IN
the absence of such an order they dropped
the case temporarily.
No Law Against 1t.
This afternoon Inspector Hollinberger
held a conference with District Attorney
Davis, and the latter failed to find any
law under which the writer Of the letter
could be prosecuted. The sending of a
postal card or letter with threatening
language written on the envelope is Illegal,
but no law against the sending of letter
of this character could be found. This
came question arose some time ago, when
threatening letters were sent to Secretary
Sherman, who was then a senator. Presi-
dent Cleveland and Senator Mills. In the
case Of Senator Mills the threatening
language Was written on a postal card and
the offender was arrested and sentenced to
prison in Baltimore for eighteen months.
Hawked the Matter on the Row.
1t Is understood that the man who wrote
the threatening letters took a duplicate
copy of them. and when he was assured
that the originals had been received by
Mr.. Reed proceeded to hawk the duplicates
aicng newspaper row last night, Offering
for sale this great sensation which he him.
self had manufactured. Copies of the let
ters were put in evidence 10 give "veri-
similitude to an otherwise bald and uncon-
vincing narrative" Some OF the corre-
spondents who recalled the hoax on Chief
Justice Waite refused to take the story. 1t
is understood, however, that the young
man succeeded in selling his homemade
sensation to one or two papers.