The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-24
BURNS PURSUED
MEN FOR MONTHS
Dynamiters'Tr Led Sleuth
Across Continent.

New York, April 3.-At tssssSs.s ~
the dynamiting Of the Times plant in
Los Angeles last October. when twenty
one persons lost their lives, Detective
Burns was in Los Angeles attending the
convention of the American Bankers
Association.
He was called in by Mayor Alexander
and the committee Of the Merchants AS
ISOLATION to investigate. So many. re-
wards were offered fop the finding of
the dynamiters that they were made a
Jumped pool Of $780, cutting of about
sec, 900 more than was offered.
Burns first found that three men had
q few days previous to the Times explo-
sion chartered a little steam yacht from
a man in Oakland for three days &C
cording to men in the local bureau The
name Of the yacht, the Pastime, was
charged for another. In this little yacht
the three men. headed by one who called
himself Bryce, bought several hundred
pounds OF dynamite from the Du Point
Powder Works at Du Pont, Cal, and
took the powder to South San Francisco.
Here he lost trace OF them for a time.
Font people he obtained good descrip-
ton Of the three.
About this time he disappeared for two
months. not even his offices knowing
where he was; nor did ne communicate
with them. He knew that he was being
Swallowed and that officers Of the iron
workers association were calling up his
various offices to find where he was
Some Of his efforts at this time were to
throw off shadowers.
Labor Men Watched.
In two months Burns had made the
rounds of all the labor headquarters In
the United States to satisfy himself as to
how the men he was after lived. He
made trips to their headquarters and
their haunts. He was suspicious of the
horror expressed in certain labor circles
over the dynamite outrage. At the end
Of these two months he was practically
sure of two OF his men.
He found Bryce" in James w. Nc
Namara. in Chicago. MECHANICAL. who
passed under the name of Kaplan. was
with Mcnamara. From time to time the
men would jump into Pennsylvania, Ohio.
to Indianapolis, Pittsburg. Cleveland, and
elsewhere.
Some dynamite blow-up always followed
these little jaunts. Burns men fore
stalled the destruction of a new bridge
in Kansas City by arriving on the scene
and grabbing the clock arrangement. The
clock found on this occasion will be used
by Burns at the trial in California to
show how these jobs are done.
II was found that Mcnamara and Nc
Manigal had correspondence and that this
correspondence was addressed to John
J. Mcnamara. the secretary Of the iron
workers association in Indianapolis. On
watching Mcnamara and from inside
sources, Burns practically assured him
self of his third man.
Detective Reappears.
After his two months incognito. Burns
and attended TO other matters.
He had made his theories and was only
waiting to get evidence against his men.
He found that they had bought dynamite
in several different places; in Annapolis,
Md; some near Cincinnati. and some in
Illinois He now considers that he has
evidence to connect the two men. James
w. Mcnamara and Ottie B. MECHANICAL.
with several other explosions and dyna-
mite outrages.
The time clock which Burns men
found on the Kansas City bridge, at
which they arrived in time to stop the
planned explosion, and which Burns will
use in the trial at Los Angeles, is just
an ordinary alarm clock. with alarm at
the top, such as might be bought for
70 cents anywhere.
To the clapper Of the alarm is soldered
a wire and to the bell another wire. The
two are connected with a battery and
lead to a Illuminating cap inserted in a
fuse leading to the explosive When the
clock rings, the striking Of the clapper
on the bell completes the electrical cir
cult and the charge is exploded. Thus
If the dynamiters set their clock for nine
hours, they can hop on a train to any
spot, and prove alibis that they We're in
another place from the explosion hours
before 1t occurred.
Burns has a story to tell about the
clock apparatus found near the residence
of Felix J. Zeehandelaar, secretary Of
the Merchants and Manufacturers Asso-
citation of Los Angeles. This apparatus
was picked up by a local police officer
intact and carried down the street Later.
becoming a bit scared of the machine in
the box he carried, the officer dropped
II and ran. Soon after the outfit eI-
ploded and tore UP fifteen feet of the
roadway.