The Washington times., 1911-12-02
Tin CAM F|RST CLUE
LEADING BURNS TO
.M'NAMARAS DOOR
Detective Reveals Methods
in Pursuing Participants
in Dynamite War"

william j. Burns. the nemesis of the
| McNamaras, was called into the "dy-
Mantle war" as he termed the conflict
which had been waging for Ave years
between the American Bridge Company
and the International Association OF
Bridge and Structural Iron Workers
| There had been nearly fifty dynamite
outrages against open shop" employees
ana no conclusive evidence of COM
| mon origiD had been unearthed.
I'VE We're called by telegraph to in
vestigate the dynamiting OF some bridge
girders Of the McClintic- Marshall Con-
struction Company. which was building
1 a bridge across the Illinois river at East
| PEORIA said Burns. just before he left
for Los Angeles to attend the trial
This was on September 1, 1910 Nitro
| glycerin had evidently been used and
| we were fortunate enough to discover
| an unexploded clockwork bomb
Clues Not Left.
In many of the explosions that pre-
| ceded this one no vestige of a clue was
| left. This clockwork bomb was a tam
talizing. mute. inscrutable witness for
days. Everything used in making II was
! ordinary stock such as any man might
purchase at any hardware shop. The
only promising clue appeared to be the
can containing the nitroglycerin. The
problem was to find the tinsmith who
| had manufactured the can.
Here the newspapers proved Of great
aid. On the night Of the McClintic-
Marshall explosion the shops of the Lu-
cas- Bridge and Iron Company had been
blown to>peces: six adjacent buildings
were wrecked and the night watchman
seriously injured: N. j. MoIehard. a
| dPgprinffnn pf he in
| pers and came to Peoria. He recog-
nized the cans as having come from his
| factory. This gave us the end of the
string. and soon we were unraveling the
knot piece by piece.
"Morehard recalled one j. w. Nc
| Graw.' who had purchased 100 gallons of
! nitroglycerin ostensibly for use in a
/ quarry In Peoria. McGraw had directed
attention to Indianapolis by telling of a
q. w. Clark. of indianapolis. Our OPP
| eratives went there and got on the track
| Of two men, one answering .McGraw.
| who had been heard talking Familiarity
OF John J. Mcnamara. secretary-treas-
urer of the ironworkers We shadowed
| Mcnamara night and day.
Watching Rewarded.
| 1T was at this point in our investiga-
| ton that the Times explosion occurred.
While the Times building was still on
fire the gardener found bomb in the
| basement Of the residence of General
| Otis. This bomb was exploded in the
1 street and the hole in the ground Il
evidence.
"The bomb placed in the shrubbery of
the home Of the secretary of the Mer-
| chants and Manufacturers Association
| was preserved intact. This bomb was
an exact duplicate of the Peoria bomb.
Back to Indianapolis we went. Our
| watching was soon rewarded McGraw
Dad not been near the Los Angeles job.
| xyAl 60 ha nrtfn II ION No
who later confessed details of the con-
spiracy covering four years. Trailing
McManigal, our men met j. B. Bryce,
the Los Angeles dynamiter. Bryce was
by April last our case appeared to
be complete. Our men trailed Jim Nc
Namara and McManigal from Cincin-
natl TO Detroit. On this trip each man
carried a suit case full of Illuminating
caps. dynamite, alarm clocks. dry bat
teries, wires, tools. etc. They carried
shoot night watchmen without danger.
Their arrest and the arrest of John
]. McNamara (resulting in the discov-
cry of a complete dynamiting outfit in
history.
| Cause of Confession.
what caused these men to confess
today?
1T was the fact OF the locating of
Frank Eckhoff. who lived in Cummins-
vile. a suburb Of Cincinnati. who was
an intimate friend OF J. B. Mcnamara.
Eckhoff had been the constant COM
panion of Mcnamara, and Mcnamara
had endeavored to get him to explode or
accompany him on occasions when he
went out to dynamite places. ]. ].
Mcnamara. after the Times explosion.
sent Eckhoff to Nebraska. One strong
thing against the McNamaras, Is that
Eckhoff corroborated McManigal in all
his important statements, though he did
not himself know McManigal.
The State has Dave Caplan and
Schmidt otherwise known as "Schmit-
ty," and has had them for some time.
The evidence all the way through has
been overwhelming The defense under
took to prove alibis, but found It was
up against a stone wall. 1t was met on
all sides with such overwhelming evil
dence that It was compelled to aban-
don the case"