The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1915-02-16
SAYS BOMB WAS INTENDED
FOR The ROCKEfELLERS
Victims Of New York Explosion Planned
Deaths Of John D. and Son, De-
clares Alexander Berkman, Who At
tempted to Kill H. O. Prick

Denver, Feb 16.-The bomb that
destroyed Lexington avenue rooming
house in New York last summer, killing
three men, was intended for the assassi-
nation of John ID. Rockefeller and his
son. This was the statement made here
yesterday by Alexander Berkman, an
archist and L. w. W. leader, who served
term in prison for his attempt to kill
H. G. Frick.
Berkman has been in Denver several
weeks, being here to found Ferrer
school. When Matthew A. Schmidt was
arrested a few days ago in New York,
charged with completely in the destruc-
ton of the Los Angeles Times build
ing and other dynamite outrages, the
Burns detectives and Schmidt was one
of the leaders in the plot to blow up
the Rockefellers.
Berkman yesterday declared he would
not say that Schmidt was one of the
plotters, but he did give the names of
four men who, he said, were making
the bombs, three of them having lost
their lives at the time. of the explosion.
The fourth man, an Irishmap. whom
Berkman knew only as Murphy, was
blown through the front of the building
and landed in network of telegraph
wires, finally reaching the ground un-
hurt.
Plotted in Spirit of Vengeance
1.-The plot against the lives of the
Rloekefehers, said Berkman, "was
originated in spirit of vengeance for
the brutality visited upon the |. w. w.
workers at Tarrytown last summer,
when we went up there to protest
against the Outrages that brought on
the battle of Ludlow. 1t was hatehed
by the conspirators after free speech
had been virtually cut off by the ac-
tivity of the Rockefeller guards and
shortly before Rockefeller took perma-
nent refuge in his Forest Hill home
at Cleveland.
''Prior to the elder Rockefeller s
flight to Cleveland there had been sew
eral big demonstrations in front of his
office at 26 Broadway, which Rockefel-
Ter had finally sought to avoid by re-
behind the walls of his estate
at Tarrytown, n. Y.
'AIbout twenty-five or. thirty anarch-
lists, among them the man named Muir
ply, Arthur Caron, Matthew Kahn,
Charles Berg and myself all of whom
had participated in the demonstration
in New York City, followed him there.
As is well known now, we literally laid
siege to the Rockefeller place, with
the result that both the father and
the son employed an army of guards to
protest them. They had about $50 spe-
cial officers to perform this duty, and
old John d. even had another wall built
around his property.
. With all approaches to the Rocke.
teller place cut off, We then commenced
to make public speeches against the
Rockefellers on the street corners. at
the gates of his guarded estate and
wherever we got chance. This method
OF procedure led to campaign of re-
preston and finally to brutal attack
upon the memoers of our organization.
Several of them were terribly beaten.
among them Caron and Kahn. both
ardent young men. 1t was this attack
evidently that determined those men
upon seeking personal vengeance upon
the Rockefellers. But they took no one
into their confidence except Murphy
and Berg, as far as / know. | did not
know anything of their plans until after
the bomb had exploded.
Wanted to Kill Both at Once
When they were driven out of Tar
rytown, Murphy, Berg, Caron and Kahn
went back to New York.
= They rented an apartment there,
at Lexington avenue and One Hundred
and Thirty-third street, and there be.
gan the manufacture of the bomb that
was meant for the Rockefellers.
They had no definite idea when
they would use it, but it was their plan
to wait for an opportunity and hurl it
into the carriage or automobile of the
Rockefellers whenever they Should at
tempt to leave the grounds of the Tar.
rytown estate. They wanted to get
both of them together. if possible. but
would have taken the life of either one.
81 do not know what their bomb
was made of, but the damage it did
when 1T burst prematurely would seem
to indicate that they made it as deadly
as they could. According to the state
ments since made to me by Murphy.
they had the bomb almost finished when
it exploded, killing Kahn, Caron and
Berg, the three who were nearest to it
at the time.''