Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-02
ARRESTS PREVENTED SETTLEMENT

|
 true, for now that the cloak which so
 long concealed these acts of violence
 has been raised, it discloses every ele-
 ment of the machinery of the law to have been hard at work, arm in arm,
 for the apprehension of the guilty par l ties. It is said that Assistant State Attorney Kellogg and Judge Burpee had
 been at work on these matters before
 any mention of offering a reward was
 made, That, in fact, when the re-
 wards were offered Judge Burpee was in possession of many important items of evidence and that the rewards would l not have been offered as soon as they
 were but for the killing of Policeman Mendelssohn. This hastened matters to a climax. It was decided to strike while the iron was in it's hottest state, then rewards were offered.
 But still the missing links of evil l dence in the hands of the authorities could not be found. It was determined at once that the hands that struck Merna and MorrissetteN were the same 1 that struck down Mende1ssohn, or | were deeply implicated in that awful affair. The mystery which the police had on hand was scarcely any deeper or denser than 1t was before the death of the policeman but that last act put up another barrier in the way to clear ing 1t up. It frightened the jaws of those who had shown q disposition to speak before. It frightened them to thorough silence, and a picture of the gallows stood out before them. This was the obstacle that delayed the clear ing up of the assault on the Waterville car crew.
 Then the fear that had silenced those concerned suddenly had contrary ef feet. One of the accused a young fel- low named Joseph Ennis, connected in business way with Thomas Lunny, the hack owner, began to drop 8 word now and again of his whereabouts on the night of February 26 the night the as- sault was made on the Waterville car crew. MT Lunny. is not in the busi- ness of detecting criminals, but his brother, James F., is. and he is associ- ated in business affairs with Sheriff R1gney James F. Lunny got his les sons in police matters when he was a special constable in Waterville and on North Main street during the admins tration of Perry c. Morris as first se- lectman. By this time the town had been full of detectives attracted by the reward of $13, 3,650. Many of them gave up the job as bad one but Rogers and Gillian, supposed to be Pinkerton men, became attached to Judge Bur pee's force. Thus the whole affair came out Lunny played the opening cards on Ennis. Then he dealt to Rig ney, and Rogers and Gillian took a hand in them, and very soon the whole business was in the hands of the au- thorities. In the history of great strikes in the history of the biggest coal strike that ever took place in Eng land, a military man played a very prominent part, and while Judge Bur pee was giving audiences to She strik- CTS committees, their friends and their national officials, he was also laying the wires for the sensation which has been only just closed in the city court.
 Those who played a part in this af- fair are confident that they have the parties who are guilty of the death of Policeman Mendelssohn, and already there is talk of who won the reward. Detective Rogers according to first class authority. placed the information against the accused i'll the hands of Clerk McMahon, who issued the war rants. But before they were issued Detective Dodds called at the office of Prosecutor Durant for warrants for the same purpose, but the prosecutor was not in. There is no doubt of co-opera- tion on the part of the two detectives, | that each one played a part previously l agreed to between them. Local off | cials are always handicapped to some l extent in matters of this kind; but, on the other hand, in some features the | local detectives had the advantage over | the strangers. < The first inkling of the information 1 that lead to the arrests was obtained l by Thomas Lunny, 1t is said, who passed it on to his brother James. | However, no matter how 1t was ob- | tained. the question will in all proba- bility go to the superior court to be set l tied.
 Sheriff Rigney is quoted as saying | that it was striker who struck down Policeman Mendelssohn.
 The strikers executive committee is- sued the following statement this after | noon: ..>
 This is the eighty-second day of our strike and finds us once more standing | firmly together for the unalienable right of justice and freedom. Our | fight is an honest one, there is noth- | ing wrong in asking for shorter hours,
 more pay, more courteous treatment at the hands of our employers than we 1 have received ill the past and have
 we not done everything that was possi- l ble to be done to bring about a fair
 settlement? Have the company done 1 likewise?
 Very true. the company have rights,
 so have we, and would ask every sober
 minded and fair thinking person not to draw conclusions too hastily. We
 would ask the public not to condemn
 our men until they are proven guilty.
 If they should be proven guilty, then
 and not until then should they be con-
 demned, and the punishment they de
 serve meted out to them.
 To our many, very many, friends we
 would say that when the time comes
 for our men to prove to the world their
 entire innocence of the crimes sought
 to be laid against them, that they will come out of the fray with brighter re-
 cords and cleaner hands than the now
 exacting public give them credit for. 1