Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-02-12

switched sympathies.
What caused the Times cNplosion?'
| asked one whom | knew to be nell
tra1, before | had been ten minutes i'll
the town.
All the evidence points to gas, :"
was the surprising answer.
What about the bombs at the Otis
house," | offered. thinking had a
poser.
They were found by Rico" he said,
with a meaning emphasis on the found.
Rico "finds" Proof?
At the time it did not have the same
significance it has now; The bombs
seemed conclusive proof, but, as my
informant said, they were found" by
Rico. Rico is the most discredited
member of the Los Angeles police
force. He is a Mexican, and has play
ed an important part in Otis little
world before. 1t was Rico who found
most of the evidence against De Lara
and the other Mexican revolutionsts
whom Otis fought so bitterly, and for
perjury in the Mexican cases Rico
earned reputation that puts question
mark after everything he finds lie was
even derated by the department, and is
today facing charges Of extortion.
Altogether, Rico's record makes this
finding of the bombs at such con-
venient time suspicious occurrence.
Handled "Bombs" knowingly.
A singular thing, also, is the fact
that the bombs were not found" until
after guard had been placed at the
home of Otis and also that the clocks
were stopped. Rico carried the suit
case containing the explosives across
the street before there was any explo-
sion, and a man who would do that
must have knowledge Of the thing he
handles or be courageous fool. Rico's
record does not lead to the latter corr
! clusion.
"But where would Rico get bomb ?"
| asked. "He could not have made such
a bomb between the time of the exDlo-
sion and the hour of its discovery"
| Right: but such men as Rico carry
things like that as their stock-in-trade.
They have done it in other cities. Why
not i'll Los Angeles?" was the answer.
Rico is the man who had previously
found" explosives in other suspicious
places in Los Angeles.
For a time | dropped the question
of the bombs, but frequently afterwartl
when it came up again, someone said
Significantly. "Rico was the man who
found it,
eIacklisted for Talking About Gas.
began asking questions about the
action of gas and dynamite. and found
that i'll Los Angeles there are eighteen
men who were III or near the building
at the time of the explosion who testify
that i'll their opinion the building could
not have been blown up by dynamite
and who are ready to so state under
oath.
Since the beginning no man has beer
allowed to voice aloud the gas theory
without penalty being put upon him
w. H. Thurman, the telegraph opera
tor who left the building short time
before the explosion, testified that he
had smelled gas all evening, and that
gas had been escaping for several days
before the explosion in sucl, quantities
as to make the men sick. Thurman
was discharged for his testimony. and
~" telegraph operator told me that he
had been blacklisted in both CONNER
"ial companies and will not again be
| allowed to work in any city in the
United States unless he takes al as
,",r'~d mare and invcnts a record that
world nit him beyond the suspicion OF
Authorities.
"That Cas- Says Widow.
A woman who is prominent in clul,
and church work told me that she call
eds upon the wife of one of the men
who had been killed in the explosion
Just short time after it occurred
ITS that awful gas that killed him.
| He's been sick for week from it."
said the bereaved woman from the bed
where she was lying. Frustrated by the
! shock and the grief Of it.
From another source | heard that
two telephone operators who had been
sent to the Times to repair wires the
day before the disaster had reported
that the conduit was so full of gas they
could not work unless the leaks were
stopped.
Men Afraid to Speak.
these men are afraid to speak, for
they know it means their jobs" said
my informant, not labor man. "No-
body can afford to speak here. We all
have to make living he added.
A few years ago in Los Angeles
there was building blown tip by gas
and number of persons were killed.
The property was occupied bv rest
aurant and the wreck. which saw
few hours afterward, looks much as
does the wreck of the Times building
Of the 12 men, witnesses to the ex-
plosion, whose opinions | was able to
secure, there is not one whose test
mony differs in any material point from
all the others.
Nearby Windows Not Broken.
O. B. Steen, mining man from
Manhattan. New. who saw the wreck,
declared that charge of dynamite suf-
ficient to create rent through that
building would have shattered all the
windows for a radius of three blocks,
but the windows remain intact. This
opinion was verified by many other
nton familiar with the use of dyna-
mite. Mr.. Steen also declared that in
dynamite explosion, the windows fall
in. while in a gas explosion the VIM
dcws fall out The latter was the case
tbo T:,,ooe o.;o1oc;or Those 12 r,ar,