The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-12-07

intense bitterness. The state CT Call
fornia added $780, 900 to the reward Of
fered for the capture of the dynamit-
ers, and the Los Angeles city coun-
Gil, at the urgent request OF Mayor
George Alexander, offered an addi-
tional reward of $4,000.
General Otis had long been antici-
pating this very thing in his warfare
with the labor unions, by maintain
ing a fully equipped auxiliary plant
in duplicate in another part of the
city, of which few people knew. BY
this means the Times was enabled
TO get out its regular editions within
4S hours after the explosion.
The arrests marked the end Of n
Of the most thrilling criminal hunts
ever recorded. Many times detec-
tives knew in advance that certain
explosions were to take place and
dared not prevent them lest they
warn@ the quarry of their presence.
For six months, during which more
than a dozen bomb outrages were
staged by the "wrecking crew." its
members are said never to have been
out of sight Of a detective. All this
time the men were being sought by
regular police in the cities in which
they were operating, but never once
despite the omnipresence of posters
describing their appearance accurate
ly, were they molested by the au-
thOrities.
A few weeks before the Times
building vas destroyed an attempt
was made to blow up a bridge at
Peoria, III. This was in the latter
part Of September, 1910. An error
had been made in the adjustment OF
the machine and it failed to explode.
1t was found by a Waterman and
turned over to detectives employed
by the EreCtors' association-the ma
tional body of open-shop contractors,
against whom the hand of the
"~Wrecking crew" had been turned.
The contractors who had been
forced to stand helpless while a prop
erty loss running over 5 1000, 900 had
been inflicted upon them, saw in the
Internal machine their first clew, and
o o a swarm Of detectives went to
work in Peoria. Some worked into
the confidence Of labor men and
learned, it is said, that a Chicago
man had done the job"
Comparison of the machine found
at Peoria and those picked up at Los
Angeles convinced the detectives the
dynamitings had been planned by the
same person and carried out by his
agent or agents. William J. Burns,
head of the Burns Agency and the
man who exposed the San Francisco
graft ring. CHANGED to be in Los An
geles at the time of the explosion
and was called into conference with
Mayor Alexander, the chief of police,
other city officials and representa-
tives of the Merchants and Manufac-
turers' association.
He was offered a reward from the
state, city and private interests which
now totals 100000, in the event thai
he undertook the case and his men
ran down the criminals.
Going back to the peoria plot, he
traced McManigal to his Chicago
home, and then placed a special
squad of shadows on McManigals
trail.
A connection was soon established
between McManigal and the McNa-
maras, and their connection with a
number of additional dynamite cases
established. Events came rapidly to
a head, James B. Mcnamara and Nc
Manigal being arrested at Detroit on
April II, 1911, and his brother ten
days later at Indianapolis. The lat
ter was taken from an executive
meeting of the Iron Workers union,
Of which he was international secre-
tary, and a search of the union head.
quarters revealed a mine of dyna-
mite, bombs, etc, ready for use. The
men were taken to Los Angeles,
where they have since been in Jail.
McManigal's. confession and corro-
borative evidence connected the
brothers with a series OF over one
hundred dynamite %outrages, extend
ing from May 81, 1906, until April 5.