Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1921-04-25
Prisoner Held
In New York Bomb
Plot Identified
Man Held at Scranton Recog.
nized as Person Seen Talk.
ing to Driver of Wall
Street Death Wagon.

Scranton, Pa, April 24.-Positive
identification of Tito Ligi, arrested
here last Tuesday on suspicion OF
completely in the Wall street explo-
sion last September, was made
by Thomas ]. Smith Of Brooklyn,
employed in the legal department OF
an insurance company having offices
in the financial district of New York.
Smith picked out Ligi from line
of six prisoners. as the man he had
seen arguing with the driver Of the
death wagon shortly before the ex-
plosion. He later told newspaper
men that a few moments after the
blast, he saw Ligi rushing along
Cedar street near Nassau street and
Broadway, urging two companions to
hurry out of the neighborhood.
Smith, who formerly was a lieu-
tenant in the New York police de-
partment, assigned TO investigating
incendiary fires, said he was walking
| in Wall street few minutes before
the explosion.
At about HISS a. m. he said he was
approaching the banking house OF
7. P. Morgan & Co., when he saw a
dilapidated wagon with red and
black striped wheels in front OF the
! United States assay Office. Inside
the wagon, partly covered with news
papers. were two barrels and two
boxes about two or three feet square.
! Attracted by Argument. .
Il thought it was a Junk wagon,
he said. any attention was first
called to it when ! noticed two men
standing near the horses head, argu-
ing. I crossed the street, expecting
to see a fight. One of the men was
about five feet six inches tall, rough
ly dressed, and of stocky build"
Turning to Raymond Clark, fore
man on construction job in the
vicinity of the explosion. Smith
asked if that description fitted the
man that Clark had seen shortly
after the blast. Clark, who also went
to Scranton to see if he could recog-
nize Ligi, but who failed to do so,
admitted that the general descrip'
ton fitted the man who a few mo-
ments after the explosion rushed up
to him and shouted: "My God, my
horse has been killed"
Suicide Leaves Evidence.
| New York, April 23.-Two sharp
developments marked the search for
/ the perpetrators of the Wall street
bomb explosion last September.
In Scranton. Pa, Tito Ligi was
positively identified as man seen
talking to the driver OF the death
wagon shortly before the tragedy,
| by Thomas ]. Smith of Brooklyn.
! employed in the legal department. OF
an insurance company in Manhattan.
The other incident that caused un-
usual police activity was the suicide
of Adolpli La Sar, 81, in his furn-
ished room in Brooklyn. In an in
coherent diary mentioning half a
dozen names of men III New York
| and Chicago, was written:
"They furnished the wagon load
of T. N. T. with which l blew up
Wall street"
| Close examination of the mans
effects and inquiry into his habits
while in the Brooklyn house, con-
vinced the police the suicide was
mentally deranged and none of the
| evidence associated him with the
crime.
i Three wills. leaving his clothing
and few personal effects to per-
sons who could not be located. were
among the papers. In another note
to his landlady he said "hesYai leay-
ling t9ka hsttsx MplaS I