The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1911-10-09
MCNAMARAS
TO Be TRIED
SEPARATELY
Report That James B. Will Be
Tried First, Though Pros
ecutiOn Is NOncommittaI
Defense Expected to Lay Stress
on Theory That Explosion
Was Caused by Gas
By ARTHUR L. PRICE
Especial Dispatch to The Call


Y 0S ANGELES, Oct. S.-Clarence
Darrow. senior counsel for John
IJ. Mcnamara, secretary treasurer
of the International association
and the Structural Ironworkers and his
brother James B. Mcnamara, announced
today that the two brothers would not
go to trial together. but would formally
ask for a severance of their defense
While the district attorneys Office has
been prepared for that development,
District Attorney J. D. Fredericks and
his force has not yet decided which one
of the two brothers will be tried first
1t is generally believed that J. B.
Mcnamara, the one who. in the theory
of the prosecution, actually placed the
dynamite that destroyed the Los An
geles Times. will be the first one of the
brothers to face the jury, leaving the
fate of the high union official to be
decided later. This theory is given sup
port by the recent action of the courts
Of Indiana in refusing to permit the re-
moval to Los Angeles of evidence dis
covered in Indiana which, it is alleged
connects John J. Mcnamara with the
Los Angeles crime. Its absence might
weaken the case against John.
PROSECUTION NONCOMMITAL
No one of the district attorneys Of
fee who was seen tonight would dis
cuss the severance of the defendants
beyond saying that the officials were
considering the selection of the fated
prisoner.
The defendants themselves in the
county Jail seemed unconcerned with
the approach OF the day of their trial.
They spent the time cheerfully. read
ing a large mail of Chicago and In
dianapolis newspapers.
NOTHING CONCEDED
We have decided to ask for a sew
erance' said Darrow this evening. ut
is for the district attorney to decide
who shall be put on trial. We are
ready to defend either. This trial is
different in one fundamental respect
from the Haywood -Moyer trial There
we conceded that Harry Orchard killed
the governor of Idaho. Here we do not
concede anything. not even the explo-
sion of dynamite. We shall fight every
point The trial should last six months
or more
The attitude of the district attorneys
Office seems to be that it makes little
difference which defendant is first
placed on trial. There is ample evil
dence to convict in either case. it con-
tends
Two iuries of Los Angeles county will
be somewhat concerned with the McNa-
mara trial today A venire of the trial
jury of the superior court will assemble
before Judge Walter Bordwell and offer
their preliminary excuses for not want
ing to be drafted into a service that
will last for months-the service of
deciding whether John ]. Mcnamara or
James B. Mcnamara, or both, We're in
volved in the disaster to the Los An
geles Times building.
The trial of the selected one McNa-
mara brother will not start until Wed
nesday morning, but Judge Bordwell
wants to get his army OF veniremen
clean of all who have unquestioned
legal excuses for not serving at the
trial. so that on Wednesday the work
may start with greater expedition.
HARRINGTON TO BE HEARD
At the same time the judge of the
Los Angeles county will listen to ]. r.
Harrington of the Mcnamara defense
answer certain questions to be put him
covering his activities in the case. Har-
ringtons position might be the topic of
a. legal thesis. He is lawyer by pro-
fession. However, under the theory of
the district attorneys Office his activi-
ties in the McNamara case were not as
lawyer, but as private detective. 1t
is maintained that he attempted to in
timidate d. H. Ingersoll. a state wit
ness. He was cited before the grand
jury to answer certain questions. He
refused. He fed to San Francisco.
warrant was issued for his arrest. and
Judge Bordwell ordered him to appear
before the grand jury and answer the
questions.
An interesting feature of the trial, of
which Darrow spoke tonight, will be
his attack on the prosecutions efforts
to convince the jury that the Times
building was destroyed by an extra
neous explosive wantonly placed, and
not by an explosion of Illuminating gas.
Certain heirs of the victims of the Los
Angeles explosion have taken advan-
tage of the gas theory of the defense
to sue the Los Angeles Times and the
local gas company for damages for the
death of their kim
HAYWOOD CASE RECALLED
in that detail there is a direct anal
ogy between the present case and a
feature of the Haywood Meyer case OF
Idaho, which Clarence Darrow defended
successfully. Before that case was tried
the flats of Walter Linforth in Leaven-
worth street, San Francisco, were part
" destroyed by a mysterious explosion
Linforth sued the gas company and
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