The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1911-12-08
MNAMARAS
ARE GUILTY
MAKE COMPLETE CONFESSION OF
Los ANGELES DYNAMITE
OUTRAGES.
James B. A MURDERER
For Causing the Deaths Of Tw~enty-one
Employees Of the Times When He
Dynamited the Plant, Oct.
I, 1911.

Los Angeles.-James B. Mcnamara
pleaded guilty to murder in the first
degree in Judge Walter BordwelIs
court. His brother, John J.. McNama-
ra, secretary of the International AS
ISOLATION of Bridge and Structural Iron
Workers, entered a plea of guilty to
having dynamited the Llewellyn Iron
Works in Los Angeles on Christmas
day, 1910.
James B. McNamara's confession
clears up absolutely the tragedy of
the explosion and fire which at /
o'clock on the morning of Oct. l.,
1910, wrecked the plant of the Los
Angeles Times at First and Broad
way and caused the death of 81 per-
sons. For nineteen of these deaths
The Mcnamara brothers were indicted.
j. b. Mcnamara was on trial spe-
officially for the murder Of Charles j..
Haggerty, a machinist whose body
was found neare than that of any
other to the spot where the dynamite
was supposed to have been placed.
1t is expected District Attorney
John D. Fredericks will ask for life
imprisonment for James B. McNa-
mara. the confessed murderer, and
probably fourteen years for his
brother. The mems lives are con-
sidered saved. The great contention
that the Los Angeles Times was not
dynamited is dead beyond resurrec-
ton or argument.
He was %counciled to confess be-
cause that was the best thing he
could do, in the opinion of counsel"
said Attorney Clarence S. barrow,
chief counsel. Il will say now that
in 1t. I've studied this case for
months. 1t presented a stone wall"
Darrow's statement was made as
looking sqtrarely in the faces Of the
charges that the recent arrest Of
Burt H. Franklin. an investigator en-
ployed by the defense, and two 9TH
ers with him, might have precipitated
a situation untenable save by con-
fession Of the prisoner.
barrow also denied that external
pressure was exerted from union la
Dor socialist sources as General
Harrison Gray Otis charged in a for
NAL statement, or that the municipal
election to be held next Tuesday in
which Job Hartman, one of the de-
fense's counsel. is candidate for
mayor, carried any weight. 1t was
learned that Hartman was not con-
suited at all In. the deliberations
A brotherlS affection bordering on
worship. it became known. brought
about James MeNamara's confession.
A desire to save. his brother from the
necessity OF confessing anything at
all held back day after day the word
hat would end the trial.
Artie e. McManigal, the confessed
1ynamiter whose admissions are said
to have been a big factor in the Nc
Namaras pleading guilty, will go vir-
tually free. if the plans of the state
in his behalf do not go wrong.
The chief crime charged against
the McNamaras and the one which
finally led to their undoing was the
destruction of the Los Angeles Times
building. Organized labor opposed
this paper because of it's successful
fight against the unions. There was
much talk of a "gas explosion" at the
time. and Socialist and labor union
papers discussed the theory serious
ly, but men on the inside invariably
smiled when they attributed the de-
struction of the Times to gas.
Shortly after the big presses in the
basement had commenced rumbling
on the morning Of October l, 1910.
the Los Angeles Times building
which was one Of the landmarks of
the southern California metropolis,
was destroyed by an explosion which
startled the city. T~wenty-one lives
were lost. The property loss was es-
timated at $4,000
Twenty minutes after the explosion
which shattered windows and broke
glass in houses many blocks away,
the seven-story brick and stone build
ing was q mass of ruins, under which
the score of victims lay, with the an
CRY flames licking up every bit of in
fammable material in sight, including
several carloads Of print paper stored
in the basement. 1t was believed the
explosion together with two other IN
successful attempts, by which it was
sought to destroy the homes of the
owners of the Times. General Harri-
son Gray Otis, and Harry Zechande-
laar, secretary of the Merchants and
Manufacturers association, was the