Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-10-29
INDICTMENTS IN
DYNAM|TING CASE
PUZZLE To JURY
Question That Split Times Legal
Forces Now ConfrontS
County PrOberS
CALLING WITNESSES DELAYED
Officials Can't Decide Whether to
Accuse Accessories Before
Catching Principals

With the grand jury investigation
into the Times disaster only two days
old, a big question is already looming
before the inquisitors concerning pos
sible indictments. From the general
trend of the two days proceedings 1t
is becoming evident that the dynamite
theory is to be accepted by the jury as
the cause of the explosion In fact, the
matter of the time of calling the San
Francisco witnesses to testify regard
ing the trail left by dynamite suspects
was discussed yesterday. And in this
connection arose the question concern
ing indictments, a question that has al
ready split the legal forces connected
with the case far apart.
The question hinges on the point as
to whether, with the principals to the
explosion uncaught, it would be wise
to introduce before the jury line of
evidence calculated to involve acces-
sories. Chief of Police Seymour of
San Francisco has informed the local
authorities that he would consider such
a handling OF the case as simply ri
diculous. He declares that the convic-
tion of an accessory without first ar
resting a principal would be impossi-
BILE and has made strenuous protest
against detailing his men to ferret out
witnesses to be used before the grand
jury in an attempt to involve others
than the suspects already sought. In
this stand Seymour is backed by at
least one of the legal authorities in the
case and it is the basis of the exist
ing clash between Seymour and Rog-
erS
CAUSE OF THE DELAY
\Around the matter centers the pres
ent delay in serving subpoenaS on
many of the San Francisco witnesses,
and because of 1t the grand jury is
making haste slowly in the process
of it's investigation. The jury was ad-
journed yesterday afternoon until 10
o'clock Monday morning, but it was
announced that further local witnesses
would be called at that time. AS for
the San Francisco witnesses, they will
certainly not be brought down here
before Tuesday or Wednesday of next
week and even then ii is improbable
that witnesses regarded as possible ac-
cessories will be among their number.
If such witnesses are examined at all
they will be among the last to appear
before the grand jury.
At yesterdays session of the grand
jury two new witnesses gave strong
testimony pointing to dynamite being
the cause of the explosion. The first
of these witnesses was e. Nashold,
winning man from Kern county who
claims to be an expert regarding eX-
plosions and who declared that he
witnessed the Times explosion and
that it was undoubtedly due to dyna-
mite.
TORE HOLE IN ROOF
Nashold declared that he was in his
room on an upper floor of the Nadeau
hotel preparing to go to bed when he
heard the explosion. He says that he
looked out and saw great hole torn
I'm the roof of the Times building and
that through this hole came a burst
of flames and smoke. The witness
claims that both the sound and the
force of the explosion were similar to
that of dynamite. He said that he had
been superintendent of construction
in building the South Park railroad
into Leadville and that he had used all
types of high power explosives in this
work He gave it as his positive eX-
pert opinion that the explosion was not
due to gas and was due to dynamite.
DR.. Julius Koebig, an analytical
chemist was another expert witness
who declared the explosion was due
to dynamite. DR.. Koebig declared that
he had made an examination of the
Times debris, had found strong evil
dence of a dynamite explosion and had
even located the source of it in the
ruins of "ink alley" about thirty-five
feet from Broadway.
FINDS TRACES OF DYNAMITE
DIR. Koebig described the tests he
had made to discover what had caused
the explosion, and mentioned the dis
covery of infusorial earth such as is
left by a dynamite explosion. He had
diagrams of the Times ruins and indi-
Gated with them how the force of the
explosion was directed and gave de-
tailed data as to the phenomena con-
nected with 1t.
William Mulholland, chief engineer of
the auueduct, was recalled as a wit
ness and gave further evidence as to
the investigation made by the commit
tee appointed by Mayor Alexander. He
said that all of the evidence found by
the committee pointed to dynamite as
the cause of the explosion.
The following members of the inves-
tigating committee were also present
to testify but were excused until Mon
day: Gen. o. J. Sweet, u. S. A. (re-
tired); j. S. Carman, p. H. Fosdick
and Charles Wellborp.
John p. Krempel, the architect who
designed the Times building, brought
plans and specifications of the struc-
ture to the jury and explained in de-
tail what the resisting power of the
walls amounted to.
The work of Identifying those who
met death in the disaster was complet-
ed yesterday by the testimony of Mrs.
John Howard, her son and daughter re-
garding John Howard William Was
son regarding his brother Edward
Wasson; George M. Frink regarding
his son, Elmer Frink, and H. r. Nor
ris regarding his cousin, w. G.. Turn
bull.
MORE LOCAL WITNESSES
At the conclusion of the session yes
terday afternoon it was announced that
more local witnesses regarding the ex-
plosion would be called on Monday.
Among the first of the San Francisco
witnesses who will be called to testify
next week will be Mrs. Belle LAWN,
the woman now held in the county Jail
here on a charge of murder in connec-
ton with the Times explosion. Mrs.
LAWN will probably testify directly aft
er testimony is given regarding the
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