The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1908-04-25
DYNAMITE IS
USED BY THE
BOODLERS
Residence of Chief Wit
ness in San Francisco
is Blown up..family
MiraculousIy Escapes

SAN FRANCISCO. Cal. April "a.
The kouse of James L. Gallagher
in Oakland was dynamited last night
so effectively that the occupants. In
cluding Gallagher. narrowly missed
death. The identity of the dynar
miters is unknown as yet. Who
hired them and why? is the form that
query has taken in the city.
Irresistibly speculation. seeking
the answer to these questions, turns
first to the vital and prominent fact
that Gallagher is the chief witness
for the prosecution in the cases of
Ruef and the higher ups of San
Francisco graft. AT the time of the
explosion the former president of the
San Francisco board of supervisors
and his wife were dressing for the
evening in room Just above and-
to the south of the vestibule where
the explosion took place. The Gal
laghers had been living there sew
eral months.
The force of the explosion tore
away the whole front of the frame
house, rent the sides. split complete
ly in twain the dining table, around
which Schenck and the members of
his family we're gathered. hurled q
pillar from the porch on the side of
the house a distance of $50 feet, and
shiverei every window in the resi-
dence of G. M Mcdonald, which ad-
Joined the scene of the disaster on
the south also badly damaging
Thomas NJ Gardeners home to the
north By strange freak of fate.
not a person in the Schenck house
was injured. although Miss Georgia
Schenck and Lieutenant Guy Brown
of Company A, Fifth regiment. ma
tional guard, were standing next to
the wall in the dining room. only
about 10 feet from the spot where
the dynamite was placed
1t is the theory of the police that
enemies of Gallagher. who concluded
his testimony today in the trial of
TREY L. Ford, the indicted chief
counsel for the United Railroads of
San Francisco, placed an Internal ma
chine in the vestibuie with the pur-
pose OF destroying the chief witness
for the graft prosecution while he
was supposed to be at dinner. or.
possibly. with the belief that he was
occupying the room Immediately
above the vestibule. The plot mis-
carried by scant hairs breadth, for
Gallagher was in the adjoining room.
If he had been in the front room
over the bomb he must inevitably
have been blown to atoms, for here
the full force of the explosion was
directed, and the walls of the room
were hurst asunder and shivered into
splinters of kindling wood and bits
of plaster The room in which GAL
lsgher and his wife were dressing
was badly wrecked also, but the walls
did not collapse, and although both
OF the occupants were hurled from
their feet, neither was injured be-
yond the shock of the explosion and
the fall The stairway leading from
the first floor to the second was de-
molished and Gallagher was Obliged
to lower his wife to the ground and
then leap down himself
The police estimate that at least
so pounds of dynamite was explod-
ed, bu. this is merely speculative.
The whole front of the house was
blown cut, leaving the interior fully
exposed The shock was so severe
that it shattered windows in the
neighborhood and was felt for blocks
around. The explosion was distinct
ly heard in Broadway, two miles dis
tant. Debris Uttered the streets and
the floors of adjoining residences
were covered with splinters and glass.
The furnishings in the Schenck
house were destroyed and there was
not a semblance of the front poreh
of the place left.