Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-28
None Attributes Times Disaster
to Accident, 1t Is
Declared
BURNS HITS A NEW TRAIL
Detective and Two of His Men
Disappear in WiIds Near
Portland

The special grand jury to investigate
the Times disaster held its first ses-
sion yesterday and examined nearly
twenty witnesses. By these witnesses
the names of those who met death in
the explosion were ascertained and
the manner of their death in a few in
stances described. Considerable evil
dence relative to the cause of the eX-
plosion was also given, w. H. Null
holland, aqueduct engineer and one of
the committee appointed by Mayor
Alexander to investigate the disaster.
being the principal witness along these
lines.
AS far as known none of the evidence
given yesterday would tend to support
a theory that the explosion was an ac-
cident. OF the witnesses examined re-
garding the cause of the disaster all
have heretofore expressed reasons for
believing that the explosion was due
to dynamite. More witnesses will tes-
tify as to the circumstances of the
explosion today, and it is anticipated
by those who have been following the
case that late this afternoon the grand
jury will reach conclusion as to the
cause of the explosion. This will be
followed by the service of subpoenas
on the northern witnesses who are to
testify regarding the dynamite trail
left by Schmidt, BrysOn and Caplan
and as to the past affiliations, connec
tions and movements of the three
suspects.
NEW CLEW TO SUSPECTS
While the grand jury is probing into
the case in the city. Detective Burns
and two of his men have struck out
on a new clew as to the whereabouts
of the suspects. Burns has completely
Co. mi
cation to the police is concerned and is
lost somewhere in the wild country
surrounding Portland. This is the re-
gfon best known to the suspect Caplan.
1t was at Portland that on october 10
a man resembling Caplan and COM
panion with bandaged eyes were seen
to leave a train from San Francisco.
In some Of the papers left by Caplah
at his home In San Francisco there
was mysterious mention of going north.
Caplan's wife declares that when her
husband left her he said he was going
on a peddling expedition. There were
other clews that turned the chase of
Detective Burns from the bay region
to the Oregon city. Developments In
Portland have now led Burns to the
surrounding country, where, armed
with a mass of inmormation concern
ing the suspects friends the detective
will seek to hunt the trio down.
The local authorities are taking lit
tie stock in the theory that the sus-
poets may be aboard the steamer San
Juan, which reached Acapulco, Mexico,
from San Francisco yesterday Before
either the steamers City of Sydney or
San Juan left San Francisco october
15 and 16, respectively, for Mexican
and Central American ports, they were
boarded by detectives and no one an
swering the descriptions of the sus-
pected dynamiters was found. A dis
patch received from Mexico City last
night says that the Acapulco corre-
spondent of the Mexican Herald, in
telegram received in Mexico City late
Yesterday afternoon, denied that any
arrests of persons suspected of being
the Los Angeles dynamiters had been
made there
BREACH is WIDENING
In San Francisco the breach between
the forces headed by Attorney Rogers
of this city and Chief of Police Sey-
mour seems steadily widening, Rogers
had an appointment with the chief
yesterday morning but failed to keep
it, When he finally did meet Seymour
in the afternoon he declared that ne
had been running down some cleWs
of his own in the case and mad served
none of the subpoenas which ne took
from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Rogers, however, denied that any clash
had occurred In a statement made
at his hotel he said:
IAN evident effort has been made
and is still being made by certain
faction in this city to create friction
between myself and Chief of Police
Seymour. There has been no misun-
derstanding between the chief and my
self and l have not complained to the
Los Angeles authorities that I have
not been accorded due courtesy here >
The grand jury probe in this city
Yesterday was lacking in sensational
features and served purely to lay the
foundations for developments which
are expected to come later. The dis
trict attorneys office was represented
before the jury by c. c. McComas,
assistant district attorney, and the
questioning of each witness was very
brief.
VICTIMS WIDOWS TESTIFY
Among the witnesses called yester-
day were four women who lost hus-
bands by death in the explosion. These
were Mrs. Edna M. Johnson, widow of
Charles Johnson Mrs. Charles Gulli-
yer. widow of a linotype operator;
Mrs. r. l.. Sawyer, widow of a tele-
graph operator, and Mrs. Mary Crane.
Several of the women witnesses were
much afecteu curing Inelr eXamlna-
ton and left the jury room with tear
stained eyes. Mrs. Sawyer had an
i'll child at home and was particularly
affected by the ordeal. The testimony
of these four women simply went to-
ward establishing that their husbands
met death in the explosion and fire.
During the noon recess Of the grand
Jury Foreman Charles Wier called the
newspaper men about him and made
- 1fN hot
tain members of the grand jury, after
their names had been made public,
had received threatening letters. The
foreman stated that Immediately after
the jury assembled he had questioned
each member and none had received a
letter or letters of any kind relating
to the case. He declared that the
publication of such story had in
hicted needless alarm on the wives
an Para Thrana