The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-08
HIS CRIME ALONE
NO ONE ELSE HELPED PLAN OR
EXECUTE THE DEED.
HE HAD NO CONFEDERATE.
so SAYS THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN
OF THE PRESIDENT.

For Six Hours Leon Czolgosz writhes
on the Rack of the Detectives
plices, He Refused to Betray Them.
Says There Was No Plot to XIII
the President and No One Is Re-
sponsib1e Save Himself-Admitted
He Had Talked Over the Matter
With Friends - Illustrated the
Crimes Commission.
Buffalo, Sept. Leon Czolgosz, the
self-avowed disciple of Emma Goldman
and the other radical anarchist lead
ers, who shot President Mckinley, in
sists that he alone is responsible for
his crime.
He says that he talked the matter
over in advance in a general way with
his friends, but that he was not ad-
vised by them, and that there was no
plot or conspiracy to take the life
of the President in which anyone else
had a part. He declined to furnish the
names of the men with whom he dis
cussed the crime of Friday, but the
police believe they will yet learn them
and that when they do they will have
exposed the anarchistic plot of which
they are confident the prisoner was the
final agent of murder.
Czolgosz submitted to six hours of
examination and questioning at the
hands of the police officials to-day, and
was tired out when they led him back
to his cell and locked him up for the
night. The lengthy examination of the
prisoner was fruitless, save in so far
as his own individual fate is concerned,
for while he told nothing that would
implicate anyone else in his crime he
went over the scene at the Temple of
Music when he shot the President
again and again, completing a confess
sion as ample as the law ever exacted.
GlOries in His Crime.
He even went to the extent of illus
trating to the officers the manner in
which he shot the President, and told
with manifest pride how he deceived
the President and his protector with
the bandaged hand that held the re-
volver.
When he was first brought before
Superintendent of Police Bull and Dis
tFict Attorney Penney he was not dis
posed to talk very freely, and when a
question was put to him took ample
time to weigh his answers, deliberately
He mixed with his answers some of
the philosophy of the desperate politi-
cal sect to which he belongs and SEEM
ed to be posing. Later his tongue loos-
ened somewhat, and by the close of the
afternoon he talked freely.
The admission that he had discussed
the crime in advance with friends was
finally drawn from him, but there he
stopped and could not be moved. He
was in the hands of a group of shrewd
examiners, and they set trap upon
trap to snare him, but the effort to
break him down failed. The police say
that in the end when he comes to a
true appreciation of his position he will
break down and fully confess. In re-
viewing his confession he made open
avowal of his belief in anarchy, and
said that he had merely done his duty
as he saw it.
Detectives on the Trail.
In addition to the examination to
which the prisoner was subjected, city
and Federal detectives spent the day
in securing the city for some trace of
possible confederates. They took UP
the trail of the prisoner from the day
of his arrival, and partially completed
an outline of his movements up to the
commission of the crime. They did
not succeed in connecting him
with any of the socialists who
make their home here, and by night
fall had about abandoned the theiry
that he was assisted by any one here.
They also showed an inclination to give
up the belief that a confederate pre-
ceded the prisoner in the reception line
leading up to the President, but work
along that line had not been aban-
doned.
The general theory now held by the
detectives is that a circle of Czolgoszs s
associates plotted the murder of Pres
ident Mckinley and that he was picked
by lot or induced by persuasion to oar
ry out the conspiracy. They say that
he lacks the shredwness to have plan
ned and executed the crime as he did
The police said tonight that they had
made no other arrests and that they
had none in contemplation. 1t is evil
dent that they have not made much
progress toward the establishment of
their theory with material evidence,
and that their chief reliance at pres
ent is on a confession from the pris-
oner. Czolgosz's trail has been taken
up at Cleveland, and il is expected that
the inquiry there will let in some val
liable light as to his companions and
possible fellow -conspiratorS.
No Friends Acknowledge Him.
The prisoner was kept secluded to-
day and as a result of a suggestion
from Secretary of War Root the police
inquiry will be made as secretly as
POSSIBLE. No one is permitted to see the
prisoner other than his immediate GUS
todians and his confessions, taken
down in writing, will not be made pub
lie for the present at least. The pris-
oner has not retained counsel, and
when the subject was mentioned to him
to-day he said that he did not desire 4
lawyer to defend him. The police said
that when he got over the idea that
he was a great hero among his fellow
anarchists he would very likely resort
to the usual means to avoid punish
ment for his crime, whatever time
shows II to be. No one who ever knew
him made application to see him to-
day and no word came to him from his
relatives.
IIo had q counle of dollars vvben mr.