Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1911-12-07
The N NAMARAS
PLEAD GUILTY
JAMES 3. MCNAMARA ADMITS
CAUSING THE TIMES
ExPLOsIoN.
TRIAL HAS A VERY SUDDEN END
John J. confesses Implication in tho
Blowing Up Of the LIeweIIyn
Iron Works, Also in Los
Angeles.

Los Angeles, Calif.-James B. Nc
Namara pleaded guilty to murder in
the first degree in Judge Walter
fBOrdwell's court. His brother, John
]. Mcnamara, secretary of the Inter
national Association of Bridge and
Structural Iron Workers, entered a
plea of guilty to having dynamited
the Llewellyn Iron Works in Los An
Eeles 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. 1,
1910, wrecked the plant of the Los
Angeles Times at First and Broad
way and caused the death of Fl 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 ].
Haggerty, a machinist whose body
was found nearer than that of any
Dther 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-
sldered saved. The great contention
that the Los Angeles Times was not
dynamited is dead beyond resurrac-
ton or argument.
He was counselled to confess be-
cause that was the best thing he
could do, in the opinion of COUNSEL"
said Attorney Clarence S. barrow,
chief counsel. II will say now that
there was no other reason or motive
In it. I've studied this case for
months. 1t presented stone WALL"
DarrOWs statement was made as
looking squarely 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
situation untenable save by con-
fession of the prisoner.
Darrow 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-
lenses counsel, is candidate for
mayor, carried any weight. It was
learned that Hartman was not con-
suited at all in the deliberations.
The chief crime charged against
the McNanaras 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 1, 1910,
CA0 AO0 1AA5OA0S Auuc0 Uu11O4u6,
which was one of the landmarks of
the southern California metropolis,
was destroyed by an explosion which
startled the city. Twenty-one lives
were lost. The property loss was es.
timated at 100000.
Comparison of an Internal machine
found at Peoria with those picked up
at Los Angeles convinced the detec-
tives the dynamitings had been
planned by the same person and car
ried out by his agent or agents. Will
liam J. Burns, head of the Burns
Agency, and the man who exposed
the San Francisco graft ring,
CHANGED to be in Los Angeles at the
time of the explosion and was called
into conference with Mayor Alexan.
der, the chief of police, other city of.
fcials and representatives Of the
Merchants and Manufacturers as.
sociatiOn.
A connection was soon established
between McManigal and the McNa,
maras, and their connection with q
number of additional dynamite cases
established. Events came rapidly to
q head. James B. Mcnamara and Nc
Manigal being arrested at Detroit on
April IL, 1911, and his brother ten
days later at Indianapolis. The lat
ter was taken from an executive