The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1911-12-08
THE M'NAMARAS
PLEAD GUILTY
J. B. Placed Bomb That Killed
Fl in the Times Building.
]. J. DID THE IRON PLANT JOB
Agreement Supposed TO Have Been
Reached That James BIS Life Will
Be Spared, Which Was All CIar-
ence Darrow Gould Hope For.

Los Angeles, Cal.-One year and
two months TO the day after the dis
aster, James b. Mcnamara confessed
TO the dynamiting of the Los Angeles
Times Building, in which tWentyone
lives were lost, and his brother, John
j. Mcnamara, SecretaryTreasurer of
the International Association of
Bridge and Structural Ironworkers,
confessed TO wrecking the plant OF
the Llewellyn Iron Works OF this city
on Dec. 20, 1910.
These confessions came in open
court before a roomful OF astounded
spectators as Lecompte Davis, Of
counsel for the defense asked leave
to withdraw the pleas Of not guilty,
which had been entered by the pris-
oners, and change them TO that OF
guilty.
Judge Bordwell, not the least sur
prised among those present announc-
ed that he would sentence the prison
ers. 1t is practically certain that
James b. Mcnamara will be sen
fenced TO life Imprisonment instead Of
death, and his brother 10 at least four
teen years at hard labor in the State
prison.
Both men were in court and both
seemed prepared to face the ordeal.
J. j. Mcnamara, the stronger Of the
pair, occupied the seat given up TO
him by Clarence Darrow and kept his
eyes Fixed on the Trailer form of his
younger brother, who stood during
the arraignment, chewing gum and
never raising his eyes from the table
before him.
There was no full, detailed confes-
sion made by the accused men. but
Clarence Darrow, chief counsel for the
defense, has promised that James b.
Mcnamara will make one, and that
John j. will make another.
James b. McNamaras confession
clears up absolutely the tragedy Of the
explosion and fire which at l.07 o'clock
on the morning of Oct. !, 1910, wreck
ed the plant of the Los Angeles Times
at First street and Broadway, and
caused the death Of twenty-one per-
sons
In his cell in the county Jail James
b. Mcnamara, who dynamited the Los
Angeles Times Building killing TWEEN.
ty-one persons, made this confession:
They say / shall swing for this. If
| swing, it will be for a principle.
They could never have got me on the
evidence they had, but ! was afraid
for John. Besides, ! could not sleep.
| am not afraid and ! shall remain un-
afraid, for myself, but | do fear for
John. He and DarrOw and Davis and
Scott all feel pretty bad about this.
They are all In it, too, too deep, but |
have turned the uick, for have
pleaded guilty.
Please say to the papers that ! am
guilty, but did what | did for princi,
pie, and that | did not intend to muir
der man. We put that bomb in Ink
Alley, just as the papers have said,
and we set il to go off after all the
men in the building had gone home,
in the early morning, but the clock
went back on US, and you know what
followed
Think what all this means to us,
who have been fighting, fighting al
ways for a right TO live. When | set
that bomb | meant only to throw
scare into those fellows who owned
the Times. The paper had been fight
ing us for years The situation
throughout the country was critical,
and SO we decided that something
must be done, and we were sent to
do it. / was horribly shocked when
l learned of the deaths that followed,
but am prepared to pay the price for
my crime, if it can be called that,
when it was done for principle"