Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-05-04
DYNAMITE SUSPECT
MAkESCONFEESS SION
McManigaI Tells Story of Times
Explosion.
]. ]. M'NAMARA THE GENIUS
Prisoner Declares "Srice" Was Man
Who Placed Explosive Under
Newspaper Building When
p Men Were Killed.

lyle confessed here the details of the
most astounding conspiracy to destroy
life and property that has ever been
known in the history of the strife be-
tween labor and capital. For three
hours MECHANICAL rehearsed how and
why he and James Brice Mcnamara
destroyed or attempted to destroy So
structures which were built or under
construction by the members of the
National Erectors' association. Dis
trict Attorney John D. Fredericks.
E. B. Mills and three operatives of the
w. j. Burns National Detective agency,
Sheriff Hammel, Captain of Detectives
Flammer and an official stenographer
heard McManigals amazing confes-
sion
He not only furnished complete
testimony as to the material circum-
stance but also supplied the terms
of the conspiracy and the motive be-
hind its vast and hidden workings.
He directly and specifically accused
j. J. Mcnamara, secretary treasurer
Of the international Bridge and Struc-
tural Iron Workers of being the orig
inator, controlling genius and pay
master of this conspiracy.
He emphaticaIly named J. B. Nc
Namara, alias j. B. Brice, brother of
the secretary, as the man who placed
the dynamite under the Los Angeles
Times building and as Immediately
responsible for the destruction of the
plant and the murder of Fl men
He charged J. J. Mcnamara with
completely in the same crime It was
Secretary Mcnamara, he said, who
conceived the atrocious crime, planned
the details and delegated his brother
to carry them out
He said that J. B. Mcnamara, who
was then known as Brice, placed the
dynamite with alarm clock attach
ment in the link" alley of the Times
building, broke a gas pipe to make it
appear that an explosion of gas had
caused the disaster and hurried away
to take the lark" train of the South
ern Pacific to San Francisco.
The lark" leaves Los Angeles al
eight o'clock in the evening and the
explosion which wrecked the Times
building did not occur until one
o'clock in the morning.
Hence, according to McManigaIs
statement, Mcnamara was five hours
out of Los Angeles before the clock
had licked on to the tragic moment.
The conception of the alarm clock,
he said, was ]. J. McNamara's, who
had pronounced it the most cunningly
arranged agent of destruction ever
invented
McManigal said that ]. B. Mona
mara, using the name of Brice; David
Caplan and NJ. A Schmidt bought the
dynamite from the Dupont Powder
works across the bay from San Fran
cisco, and that Schmidt and Caplan
remained in that city.
AS to his own crimes, McManigal
gave the details of long list of dyna-
mite outrages of which he freely ad-
mitted his guilt
But the man toward whom he point
ed the accusing finger as being pri-
marily responsible was ]. J. Mona
mara.
This man, he said, decided about
three years ago that the only way to
win for union iron workers their fight
against the Erectors' association was
through the agency of dynamite.
1t was at this time, said McManigal,
that he was made acquainted with
McNamara's terrible plans and was
employed by him to do the jobs. His
pay, he said, was to be 5000 in ad-
vance upon undertaking any dynamite
order, and from $500 to $1,000 if he
was successful.
McManigal said he was not present
in Los Angeles when the Times build
ing was dynamited, it having been de-
cided that he should be in a remote
part of the country, so that no suspi-
cion could attach to him. He reached
Los Angeles nearly three months Ia
ter and blew up section of the
Llewellyn Iron works of this city.
That part of his confession relating
to the destruction of the Times build
ing and the participation in that crime
of Schmidt, Caplan and J. B. McNa-
mara was furnished to him by the lat
ter, he said, when they were on
hunting trip early in the year in the
Wisconsin woods.
His knowledge of all the alleged
facts bearing upon that crime, there
fore, came to him through a conf
dence, and his repetition of it is sec
ond-hand evidence.