The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-11
NfeNANfARAs IN STRIPES.
Doors of san Quentin Close on til
Convicted Dynamiters.

Convicted Dynamiters.
4 San Quentin. Cal, Dec. 1.-THE
! Mcnamara brothers have entered Sar
! Quentin penitentiary, where James b
/ is condemned TO spend the remainder
of his life for the confessed crime OF
murder. and where John J., secretary
of the International Association OF
Bridge and Structural Iron Workers,
/ is sentenced to 1 5 years Imprisonment
for dynamiting. 1t was James B. who
blew up the Los Angeles Times build
ing October /. 1910, with the loss of
21 lives, and John J. who abetted in
wrecking part of the Llewellyn iron
works in Los Angeles the following
Christmas day. The pleas of guilty
entered by these men closed these two
cases and opened up a nationwide
investigation. including probes by two
federal grand juries, into a series of
dynamitings reaching from coast to
| coast and perpetrated generally where
labor differences existed to a marked
degree.
The men entered the prison. if is
fairly authenticated, believing that
they had achieved much for the cause
of union labor and had been cruelty
misund erstood in their effort and the
results they obtained. John J. Nc
Nanara, those who have talked with
him for many hours say. donned his
convict garb a devoted admirer Of
life's little simple kindly deeds and q
firm believer in the psychological ef-
fcacy of dynamite. James B. habitu-
ally believes a good deal as his brother
believes. For themselves, the men
would say nothing at all.
Put into Stripes.
Whirled from Los Angeles on a fast
night tram. the men were taken from
it at sunrise sunday, put on a little
river steamer and landed two hours
and a half later at San Quentin prison
wharf on the shores of San Pablo bay.
The shackles which bound them to-
gether on the boat trip were slipped
off and they toiled up the prison hill
beside Sheriff William A. Hammen,
of Los Angeles county. AS the prison
clock struck 10, John J. Mcnamara,
preceded by Warden John Hoyle.
stepped over the threshold of the jail
door, with his brother directly behind
him. In five minutes James B. Nc
Namara had become convict No.
25.S14 and John J. Mcnamara No.
25.S15
They were measured for Jail cloth
ing, photographed in two positions
given a carbolic tinctured bath. put
into stripes, shaved and cropped and
photographed within an hour and
turned over to John Murray, lieuten
ant Of the yard, who took them to
cell IS in a stone tier looking out over
the PRISONS upper yard" great
flower garden. Cell IS adjoins the
tier of cells in which condemned muir
derers are kept, and the balcony out
side is cut off by a little gate. Fur
ther down the row, toward the other
end. is TIE cell of Abraham Ruef, who
is serving a 14-year sentence for bri-
berry in connection with the so-called
San Francisco graft cases.
Soon after the men entered the Jail,
the prison band began to play and con-
tinued until 1 p. m. At 2 o'clock Sunday
dinner was served. The McNa maras
were furnished with a prison-made din
ner card, done in three eolors and mark
ed San Quentin grill The prisoners
who devised it had taken occasion to
point out she attrac tions of the place
Never since the opening in 1852 has the
San Quentin grill enjoyed q better rep
utation or greater patronage than I'M
der the present mana cement, wrote the
wag in stripes. There are at present
over 1910 regular boarders taking their
meals at the grill. The cuisine and
service are unsurpassed Some of the
boarders return six, eight and even ten
times after trying other establishments.
The location and climate are the fin
est in the world Situated at the foot
of Mount Tamalpais, baslzed in the