The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1911-12-08
THE M'NAMARAS
PLEAD GUILTY
JAMES 3. MCNAMARA ADMITS
CAUSING THE TIMES
EXPLOSION.
TRIAL HAS A SUDDEN end
Iohn J. Confesses Implication In the
Blowing Up OF the LleWellyn
from Works, Also in Los
Angeles.

Los Angeles, Calif-James b. Nc
Namara pleaded guilty to murder in
the first degree in Judge Walter
BordwelPs 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
geles on Christmas day, 1910.
James Il. McNamara's confession
clears up absolutely the tragedy of
The explosion and fire which at l
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 q per-
sons. For nineteen of these deaths
the Mcnamara brothers were
indicted.
j. B. Mcnamara was on trial spe-
ciiically for the murder OF Charles j.
Haggerty, a machinist whose body
was found nearer than that of any
other to the spot where the dynamite
was supposed to have been placed
1t is expected District Attorney
John ID. 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
sideree saved The great contention
that the Los Angeles Times was not
dynamited is dead beyond resurrec-
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. Darrow
chief counsel. Il will say now that
there was no other reason or motive
in it. I've studied this case for
months. It presented stone wall"
Darrow's statement was made as
looking squarely in the faces of the
charges that the recent arrest of
Burt II. 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
bor socialist sources as General
Harrison Gray Otis charged in for
NAL statement, or that the municipal
election to be held next Tuesday in
which Job Hartman, one of the de-
fense's counsel, Is candidate for
mayor, carried any weight. 1t was
learned that Hartman was not con.
suited at all in the deliberations.
The chief crime charged against
the McNamaras 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 ''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 !, 1910
the Los Angeles Times building
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
at vyit 1inlr
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. Viii
liam j. Burns, head of the Burns
Agency, and the man who exposed
the San Francisco graft ring
chanced to be in Los Angeles at the
time Of the explosion and was called
into conference with M;sor Alexan
der, the chief Of police, other city Of
ficials and representatives of the
Merchants and Manufacturers as
sociation.
A connection was soon established
between McManigal and the McNa
maras. and their connection with a
number Of additional dynamite cases
established Events came rapidly tc
a head. James b. Mcnamara and Nc
Manigal being arrested at Detroit Oh
April IL, 1911, and his brother ter
lays later at Indianapolis. The lat
ter was taken from an executive
meeting of the Iron Workers union
oi which he was international secre
tary, and a search of the union head
quarters revealed a mine Of dyna
mite, bombs, ETC., ready for use. The
men were taken to Los Angeles
where they have since been in Jail.