The San Francisco call., 1908-04-30
EXPECT WILH[LMS
TO DIVULGE PLOT
Oakland Police Believe Prisoner
Will Reveal Culprit in
Dynamite Outrage
Petersen Replies to Attack OF
Dargie's Tribune and Slurs
Put on Burns

real culprit In the Gallagher dynamite
outrage, the Oakland police are now
hopeful that Fred Wilhelms will break
down and make a complete confession
The disclosures OF the past two days
have been of a nature which point Sc
strongly to certain interests tnat the
department across the bay believes the
moment opportune for pressing VII
helms for full statement. 1t is real
lied that large obstacles lie in the way
Of clearing up the mystery by this
means, butsso certain are the police tnal
the man under arrest was simply too
that they feel WARRANTED in endeavor-
ing to use him in reaching the rea
source of the crime.
AS a part of this plan, Wilhelms has
been closely guarded by the police, ano
no one but the Oakland detectives have
been allowed to communicate with him
The knowledge that the Oakland de-
tectives have turned their attention &c
the men who employed wilhelms and
that the prisoner is so held as to bt
free from outside influences has. pecu-
liarly enough, brought. forth strons
protest from q single source, Dargie
Oakland Tribune. one of the official
mouthpieces of the United Railroads
of San Francisco.
DARGIE ATTACKS POLICE
Just why the organ of the trolley
corporation should begin to wall as
soon as the announcement was mads
that the police were looking for the
men who directed Wilhelms is SUBJ
ject on which the police have their own
opinion. Dargie has broken into the
open with assertion that Wilhelms has
been kept incemunioado from every
body save "the Burns crowd" Dargie
states further that the Burns men have
been permitted to take charge of the
detective corps of the Oakland police
department. The Oakland editor sent
an employe to Captain of Detectives
Petersen with a message to the effect
that unless Dargie's Tribune were per-
mitted to interview Wilhelms 1t would
roast" Captain Petersen and his men
Roast away" replied Petersen. and
last night the Dargie publication be-
gan an attack not only on Captain
Petersen and the Oakland police de-
partment, but on members of. the
Schenck family. whose house was dyna-
mited, as well. Speaking of the mat
ter last night, Petersen said:
PETERSEN RESENTS CHARGE
when Dargie says that Burns OIL
any other man has taken charge of the
Oakland police detective bureau he is q
liar 1 have had no communication
with any one representing him; neither
have / had communication with the
United Railroads or any one repre-
senting them. SO far as my knowledge
goes. Men representing themselves as
private detectives have come to, me, but
upon their refusal to say whence they
came or by whom they were employed
have refused to talk with them or
this case.
1T is not my purpose to get into any
controversy over this case, but I will
not permit Dargies Tribune or any one
else to insinuate even that my course
is dictated by any jobbery or any
thing that savors of jobbery.'
IMMUNITY MAY HELP
Just how far the police are willing
to go to get a confession from Will
helms has not been officially announced
but it is limited that the hope of i'm
munity will be held out to him IL he
will undertake TO explain the entire
affair.
Some outside elements figure in the
case which may assist the police ir
making a states witness of the pris-
oner. His wife is i'll and he con.
stantly broods in his cell. wilhelms
was arrested at the bedside of his sick
wife, now with her father, A. L. Me
man, of Beulah Heights. She is suffer.
ing from an incurable disease and was
taken to the home OF Wilhelms' father
in law, presumably that she might no,
be alone. at night, by Wilhelms him.
self
wilheims at that time was in dire
straits, for he had only one job, which
paid him but 81 a week, That was act
ing as Sunday watchman in Emery.
vile.
Now that Wilhelms is in the city jail
he is unable to communicate with his
spouse He knows nothing OF her con.
dition. 1t is believed by the police tha,
Wilhelms will be unable to keep silence
under sweating, and will take such i'm.
munity as may be offered The very
circumstances that might have i'm.
PEELED him to take the commission oil
Staying with dynamite must work In
favor of the police who seek the rea
perpetrators; for Wilhelms is held to bs
only tool, the man who made the
bomb. but not the man who fired Ii OF
who actually placed 1t in the Gallaghe,
home.
Detective William H. Burns returned
from Washington D. c.. last night after
an absence sof several weeks. While
stating that he would aid In every way
at his command the efforts to run dowr
the perpetrators of the Gallagher dyna.
miting, he declined to discuss the mat.
ter further than TO say that the origir
of the explosion was no mystery.