Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-12
INTERNAL MACHINES AND POISON
FEATURES
NEGRO LAD ACCUSED; DENIES
GUILT
Bellboy Arrested-Suspected of At
tempts on Lives of Benefactor
and Whole FamiIy--Ar-
son Hinted

he is the author of one of the most dia-
bolical plots in the history Of crime, Burr
LaPoint Harris, a negro boy 10 years
Of age, is being held by the police while
detectives are seeking additional proof
of his guilt
Harris is charged with having made
three attempts to slay Miss Helen
Mathewson, one of the proprietors of the
Hershey Arms hotel at Wiltshire boule-
ward and Coronado street. of an attempt
to kill all the members of the family of
w. j. Pierce and of having burned the
Coronado hotel, 667 Coronado street, De-
cember 4. 1905.
In the three attempts to slay Miss
Mathewson internal machines, Ingenious
| ly designed and cleverly constructed,
were used. Such an amount of explosive
was in each one that had the cap or
match head which was arranged to set
| 1t off exploded those In the vicinity would
have been blown to pieces.
| Only luck saved Miss Mathewson's life.
| The attempt on the lives of the family
| of w. j. Pierce was made with box
containing poisoned chocolates. In most
of the pieces of candy in the one-pound
box arsenic had been placed Enough of
the powder had been used to kill an en-
| tire family.
Double Purpose
According to members of the Pinker-
ton Detective agency, as well as James
gated the case and made the arrest, the
attempt the lives of the Pierce fam
lily was made for double purpose.
These officers claim that 1t was Harris
inception to not alone slay the Pierce
| family, but that he had planned that
all blame for their death would be cast
lupon Miss Mathewson.
On the bottom of the box containing
the poisoned candy appear the words:
Sold Helen Mathewson. Hershey Arms,
to be delivered at $780,"
| Had the would-be murderer succeeded
| in his purpose and 1t was learned that
the victims had died as result of eat
ing poisoned candy taken from the box,
| Miss Mathewson would probably have
been compelled to defend herself on a
murder charge.
No reason can be assigned by Miss
Mathewson for the wish of the young
man 10 end her life. Since the boy was
8 years of age his mother and uncle
have been in the employee of Miss Ma
thewson, and during that time she has
lcarefuily looked after the welfare OF
Il young Harris and endeavored to make
life easier for him.
Il Until a week ago she did not allow her.
self to believe that he was the one re-
Isponsibe for the attempts on her life, but
recently his actions became so suspicious
she was compelled to pay attention to
| them.
| hGCCivSS 6OfnU
| The first attempt on Miss Mathewsor's
| life was made July 1906. While she
was sitting in the parlor of the Hershey
Arms talking to several women friends
/ a package was brought her. 1t was
wrapped in a heavy paper and securely
| tied 1t was addressed in a mans Slant
| ing handwriting.
while she united the strings and slowly
unfolded the paper. When the package
was unwrapped 1t was found to contain
baking powder can Miss Mathewson
slowly drew the cover off and as she
did so a slender spring fastened to the
center of the box dropped to one Side
She peered into the can and was Mortified
to find that it contained a two ounce bot
tie of potash and nftroglycerine. Had
she taken the cover off quicgly the spring
which dropped would have sprung back.
igniting match head fastened near the
bottle and causing an explosion which
would undoubtedly have killed all who
were present.
Miss Mathewson was greatly fright
ened as the result of the experience and
notified the Pinkerton detectives of 1T.
They warned her that some person was
evidently seeking her life and to instruct
the postal officials to carefully watch and
open every package addressed to her.
Miss Mathewson was confident some
mistake had been made and did not no.
tify the authorities.
Book Is Medium
Three months later a package wrapped
in a clean sheet of white wrapping pa
per, beneath which was copy of the
Denver Post was delivered to Miss Ma
thewson by the postman. The first ex-
perience had almost left the woman's
mind and she did not E"~itate about un-
wrapping the package.
In it she found copy of Little Gem
tlemen,' which Miss Mathewson opened
The cover which she lifted was the
back one. She found herself gazing into
a book from which the center of the
pages had been cut and small tin
tobacco box placed.
This brought her first experience so
vividly to her mind that she hastily
closed the volume and laid 1t gently on
the table She summoned detectives.
who took charge it. Had Miss Mathew
son opened the book from the front she
would have been blown to pieces. as the
tin box contained sufficient nitroglycerine
to have blown the entire section of the
hotel in which she was to pieces
There are about three hundred pages
in the book. From page los to the back
cover about four square inches had been
cut from each page. Into these the to-
bacco box had been placed. On top of 1t
was a small cap and on that a match
head Held in position by the leaves of
the book when closed and tied with a
rubber band was a two-inch piece OF
corset steel The opening of the cover
released this STEEL which flew back on
the rubber band, igniting the match head
and causing the nitroglycerine to ex-
plode.
Misplaced Address
This contrivance is so cleverly ar
ranged that 1t is a cause for wonder to
all who see 1t. The only mistake made
was that the sender, when wrapping the
forgot which was the front and
which the back of the book, and the adj
dress appears on that part of the paper
which covered the back That is the
way 1t was when delivered to Miss
Mathewson and caused her to open the
back part of the book first.
The detectives warned Miss Mathewson
for second time to direct the postofice
authorities to watch for her, and this
time the woman lost no time in following
their instructions.