The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1905-01-16
PATRIOTIC
FANATIC
Gessler Rosseau A Dangerous
Kind OF Crank
MADEINFERNAL MACHINE
Has Confessed that He Attempted
10 Destroy Statue At .
Washington.
MADEINFERNAL MACHINE

PHILADELPHIA. Jan. 1G.-"Gess-
Ter Rosseau," who was arrested in this
city on Thursday with an unloaded in
fernal machine in his possession, has
admitted TO the police that he is the
man who attempted TO destroy the
statue Of Frederick the Great in Wash
ington last Tuesday. and also that it
was he who sent the trunk containing
an internal machine to the British
steamship Umbria at New York in
May. 1903.
The prisoner. whose right name Is
not known, made these admissions in
the Office of Captain DOnaghy of the
Philadelphia detective bureau after he
had been identified 10y persons brought
here from New York and Washington
for that purpose. He gives no reasons
for the attempted outrages. except that
there are too many foreign affairs in
this country" After having Rosseau
under fire all afternoon the police class
ed him MS an American patriotic fana-
tic"
The prisoner gave no information vol
unfairly TO the police, he admitting on
/ ly those things which the police had
fastened on him. Both the Washington
and New York authorities want the
man. and it Is probable that he will he
turned over to the police of the latter
city.
The apprehension Of Rosseau was due
to the disappearance Of Owen Kelly, a
wealthy Irish-American. who is prom
inent in Irish American societies in this
country. Kelly disappeared on Oct. %,
and from time to time the newspapers,
particularly of the east, have published
articles OH the mysterious disappear
ance These, the police believe, un-
doubtedly attracted Rosseaus atten-
ton.
On Thursday he called on Patrick
Kelly, the brother OF the missing man,
and offered to take him to his brother
In New York for $500. He said he and
Owen Kelly belonged to a secret So
ciety that was organized for the pur-
pose Of blowing up British ships in
American ports The valise he carried,
he said, contained explosives. Patrick
Kelly notified the police and Rosseau
was taken into custody.
The valise contained an Internal ma
chine of the clock arrangement variety,
but no explosives About the machine
woc uronnad Al NVnchinuton nnuSnonar
This gave the police the clew that he
might know something of the explosion
at the statue of Frederick the Great.
Captain Robert Boardman of the
Washington detective force and Alfred
Carter, colored, and George H. Hazel,
cabman, of Washington, who saw the
man who attempted to blow mp the
| statue, have arrived here and identi-
fed the prisoner at once. When Ros-
seau was brought in Hazel said:
81 guess you know me?' TO which the
prisoner replied
How do you do?"
In reply to question he admitted the
attempted outrage ON the statue. He
said he had manufactured the internal
machine himself and that II consisted
of a candle fuse and dynamite en-
CINE" Where he made II he would
not say. 1t was his intention, he said,
to blow up the statue at night because
he did not want TO hurt anybody. The
failure to destroy the statue, he said,
must have been due to the melting tai
low spelling the fuse or interfering
with the dynamite Rosseau then gave
the police the interesting information
that he had intended making a second
attempt to blow up the statue, this
time with time clock machine AS 1t
was difficult TO get past the sentries
after nightfall he intended going to the
arsenal at about dusk, arrange the in
ferna machine so that 1t would ex-
plode at about midnight and then hang
1t on the statue
Where he had been between May,
1908, and last week he will not say,
always replying, THAT is for you to
find out"
He said that he made part Of the
Umbria internal machine In Chicago
and then took it to New York in
trunk. The trunk, he said, was not
strong enough, so he purchased one
better suited for the machine, In New
York he obtained a room at Mrs. Cur