The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-12-07
.MNAMARAS MAKE FULL CONFESSION

Scene in Courtroom.
Seated with District Attorney
| Fredericks was his entire staff. Fac
ing him was Clarence S. Darrow and
three associate counsel for the de-
PENDANTS.
The people versus Mcnamara"
remarked the court, and Attorney lie
Compile Davis of the defense arose.
Your honor" he declared, the de-
PENDANT is in court. In this case, peo-
pie VS.. Mcnamara, that is now on
trial, may it please the court, after a
long consideration Of the matter and
final consultation between counsel
for the defendant, we have concluded
to withdraw the plea of not guilty
and have the defendant enter in this
case a plea of guilty and we intend
to pursue the like course with refer
ence to j. l.. Mcnamara in the case
of the people against him wherein he
is charged with having destroyed the
Llewellyn Iron Works or with hav-
ing placed dynamite at the Level
Ign Iron Works"
Mr.. FREDERICKSBURG this indict-
ment charging you with the crime of
murder, do you plead guilty or not
guilty?"
The Defendant-"Guilty."
Mr.. FTedericks-"J. J.. Mcnamara,
you have heretofore been arraigned
on indictment No. 6953 in which you
are charged with the crime of ex-
ploding or attempting to explode dy-
Mantle, nitro-glyCerine. etc, in the
buildings or near the buildings ad-
jaCent to the Llewellyn Iron Works.
You have been arraigned on that in
dictment and entered your plea of not
guilty. Do you now want to plead
guilty or not guilty?"
The Defendant-"Guilty."
Ortie E. MCManigal, the confessed
dynamiter whose admissions are said
to have been a big factor in the Nc
Namaras pleading guilty, will go vir-
tually free, if the plans Of the state
in his behalf do not go wrong.
Death Penalty Demanded.
st. Joseph, Mo.-At a meeting OF
the central labor council of St. Jo-
seph, representing nearly all the la
Dor unions of the city, resolutions
were adopted unanimously demanding
the death penalty for the McNama-
ras. Indignation is at a high pitch
among the union men on account Of
the affair.
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 its 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 l, 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 $500, 900.
Twenty minutes after the explosion
which shattered windows and broke
glass in houses many blocks away,
the seven-story brick and stone build
ing was a mass of ruins, under which
the score of victims lay, with the an
cry flames licking up every bit of in
tlammable material in sight, including
several carloads OF print paper stored
In the basement. 1t was believed the
explosion together with two other n.
successful attempts, by which it was
sought to destroy the homes of the
owner of the Times, General Harri-
son Gray Otis. and Harry Zechande-
laar, secretary of the Merchants and
Manufacturers association, was the
result Of a conspiracy Of certain
union labor leaders who were known
t be antagonistic to the Times and
the merchants organization.
For many years General Otis has
been waging a relentless warfare
against labor unions, commencing
with his fight against the Interna-
tional Typographical union. He had
enlisted the support of the Merchants
and Manufacturers association, a
powerful and influential body Of Los
Angeles business men. who stood by
the Times publisher in it's campaign
against organized labor.
Feeling Very Bitter.
The feeling between the labor or
CARNATIONS and the Times was *
tremely bitter. General Otis openly
and strongly attacked unionism on
every possible occasion, and the
unionists were equally bold in de-
nouncing him and his allied forces.
On several occasions the newspaper
publishers life has been threatened
by men whom he had fought through
the columns of his paper.
A disavowal of labor union respon-
sibility was also made by the strike
committee of the metal trades unions,
which had then been on strike for
several months, and which had been
attacked in the columns OF the
Times. Between these organizations
Shoots Sweetheart, Their Self.