Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-15
TRACE DYNAMITE
USED IN effort
TO KILL WOMAN
Officers at Santa Rosa In
vestigate Actions of
Aged Doctor
EVIDENCE STARTLES
Sanitarium Proprietor Pro-
cured Explosive from
Mine Near Oroville
Associated Press1

Y ANIA ROSA, FeD. l4.-StarIllIlS
~ evidence, declared to connect DR..
~ Willard P. Burke, the aged osteo-
pathic physician of Santa Rosa, and
president of the Burke sanitarium,
with the dynamiting of Mrs. Lou
Smith and her baby last week. is said
to have been obtained in OroYille today
by Sheriff ]. M. Chubbuck of Butte
county, District Attorney Lea of Santa
Rosa and Sheriff Smith of Sonoma
county, who, accompanied by stenog-
rapher, obtained important dispositions
here bearing on the attempt to murder
the woman and her child while they
were patients in the PENTHOUSE annex
of the Burke sanitarium.
According to a statement made to-
night by Sheriff Chubbuck and Dis
trict Attorney Lea, DR.. Burke came to
the mines on December 20 last and OBJ
tanned six sticks of dynamite and three
fuses with caps attached from Thomas
Riley, a miner employed there.
DR.. Burke, according to Sheriff
Chubbuck, obtained the dynamite from
Riley on the declaration that he de-
sired to blast out some stumps on the
ground where his sanitarium is located.
Riley, said the sheriff, told him that
DR.. Burke asked him many questions
regarding the use of the explosives
and how to attach the fuse and caps.
DR.. Burke was not satisfied until
Riley had demonstrated to him how to
use the dynamite by preparing and ex-
ploding a charge. Riley, declared
Sheriff Chubbuck, asserted DR.. Burke
carried the dynamite, fuse and caps
away with him.
Said He Used 1t
He returned to the mines on Febru-
ary 1, and on that occasion is alleged
to have stated that he had been sue
cessful in using the dynamite and had
blown up the stump for which he. in
tended it. The explosion at Burke's
sanitarium occurred on February s.
The disappearance of Jack Mullen,
an employe, from Burke's mines the
day before the explosion in which the
Smith woman and her child were
blown out Of the tent house and his
return the day after was investigated
by the authorities.
Mullen, however. established an
alibi.
District Attorney Lea and Sheriff
Smith will return from Burkes mines
tomorrow morning.
Lou Smith, the woman Burke is al
legged to have dynamited, is 40 years
of age. She looks as if she had suf-
fered a hard life. Her thin emaciated
face is drawn and wrinkled.
Her hair is a dark straw color. Her
small eyes are sharp and blue. Her
nose is turned up, and she has i long,
thin chin.
She speaks positively and quickly
and shows clearly that she has a firm
grasp on the things she thinks she
knows. She is nervous, positive and
quick in action.
She is very thin and homely. There
is nothing attractive about her except
it be her neatness She weighs just
107 pounds.
She is neat about her plain dress and
neat about her room.
She reads a good deal of philosophy.
Christian Science and New Thought,
and believes in keeping her body under
the control of her mind.
She has on her book shelf such books
as the WOrhS OE ANNE BeSant ana
Nine. Blavatsky. The only book in her
collection which approaches the stand
ard works is volume of Emerson's
poems.
She has an explosive temper, easily
aroused.
One Died Insane
She is one of eleven children of a
poor rancher of Upper Lake. All of
the family are dead except herself, a
brother and a sister.
Another sister died in an insane
asylum. She is q woman who has al
ways had to make her own way. When
a girl she gained some education. She
attended the Lakeport academy and
associated with girls of good social
position, who seemed to desire her
company on account of her intelli-
gence.
She has known DIR. Burke for fifteen
years. She worked for him 1ntermit-
tently for ten years. 1t was while
working for him that she lost her
health and submitted herself to his
treatment.
She cherishes her baby. She seems
to be proud of 1t and doesn't show any
apparent humiliation when visitors call
to see the child. She says money
couldn't buy her baby. She shows her
love for her child b. the little treas
ures she has saved up, such as baby
shoes, clothes, pictures and other
keepsakes dear to the maternal heart.
While many of his patients and
friends are agitated over the outcome
of the mysterious explosion at the
sanitarium, outwardly DR.. Burke
seems little perturbed. His long flow
ing beard gives him a patriarchal and
benign appearance. He has consist
emily refused to say anything regard
ing the statement by Miss Smith that
he is the father of her child or dis
cuss any of the peculiar aspects Of the
case, but smilingly asserts "all will be
we'll"
It is rather a peculiar colony. of
health seekers at Burkes sanitarium,
with a tendency to mix new thought" !"
"higher life," Spirituality" with
"mechano-t therapv' electric treatments
and dietary rules that incline toward
yegetarianism.
Among many of his people DR.. Burke
Is regarded as a fatherly old man of
unusual intelligence and spirituality.