The Durham recorder. [volume] (Durham, N.C.) 1879-19??, 1911-04-28
Burns Tells Detailed Story
of How He Followed Trail

in my possession the dynamiters in
tended to blow up several places in
detroit and Toledo, and that plans
for this work were under way at the
time Of their arrest.
You ask me to tell the secret OF
the method by which | and my men
solved the mystery of this succession
of astounding crimes after the Pink
erton agency had worked on it for
months without glimmer of sue
cess.
We'll, l can only say that the So
luton OF the mystery was due in
part to an intuition
After working long time on the
Peoria, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and
American Bridge company cases 1t
came to me suddenly that all OF these
crimes were part of a labor war
against certain firms in the structural
iron business.
'.The establishing of the surprising
condolences in the kind of nitro
glycerine and dynamite used, in the
similarity OF the clocks. copper wire,
and other apparatus, furnished other
strong clues. When scores of my
men shadowed the labor union sus-
poets day and night for months in
succession, never leaving them, never
tiring, never losing hope, allowing
them, it is true, to go their way even
when they saw them with bags and
packages OF dynamite in their pos
session because they wanted TO get
still more dynamite evidence.
Mass OF Evidence.
The public can form no idea OF
the immense amount of evidence
gathered against these men by my
agents, who slept for scores OF days
and nights at the same hotels with
them, followed them from place to
place, relieving one another, OF
course. so as not to be recognized;
examining hotel registers visiting
dynamite and nitro-glycerine plants,
clock makers and wire factories, at
tending meetings of labor unions,
keeping watch on supposedly doomed
plants. factories and mills; getting
specimens Of handwriting, and con-
ferring with the police and with
threatened manufacturers in many
cities.
Success was won by working and
waiting. When we we're convinced
that we had not only the guilty men,
but the right kind OF proof. and that
there was no chance for them to es-
cape, We made our coup. How sue
cessful II was and rich in tangible
discoveries the events Of the last few
days speak more eloquently than /
can possibly do.
Il want to deny emphatically the
story that McManigal has made a
formal confession and has been grant,
ed or promised immunity because OF
revelations he Is said to have made.
"No Third Degree.
1T is true that after their arrest
had an interview with Mcnamara
and McManigal at Detective Reeds
home In South Chicago. but | did not
use any third degree methods. | de-
spise such coarse trickery as are re-
sorted to by the police Of some cities.
did not need any confession from
McManigal to fix guilt upon him or
the other two, and | was not pre-
pared to offer him immunity, even II
| had had the authority to do so.
He made some very striking ad-
missions to me in the course OF our
conversation; and these will prove
important In the prosecution OF the
case against the three men. but !
am informed that the story Of his
having made a formal confession Of
ninety pages or any other number of
pages Is entirely untrue.
Il may say that ! expect that GER
tain miscalled representatives OF or
ganized labor will try TO persuade the
public that this part OF plot gotten
up by myself aud others to put or
ganizd labor in a false light and to
strike at men having the confidence
Of the working people. Nothing could
be further from the truth.
ut may not be generally known.
but Il is fact, that during the course
OF my investigation Of the scores Of
dynamiting outrages the Office of the
Burns detective agency. we're broken
open, cabinets we're rified and many
papers we're scattered around In an
effort TO find some Of the reports
bearing on these cases but the thieves
failed in their quest, and all the rec
ords and proofs are intact"