July 5, 1914
FOUR DIE, SCORE HURT IN I.W.W. BOMB PLOT
Mightiest Infernal Machine Ever Used in New York City Wrecks Six-story Tenement House and Kills Two of the Conspirators Who Were Involved in Agitation Against Rockefellers.
ANARCHIST RING IS IMPLICATED
Many Blown Out of Beds Across the Street From Explosion and Seriously Injured; Persons Knocked Down Two Blocks Away; Emma Goldman's Assistants Arrested.
NEW YORK, July 4.—Three men and a woman were killed today when a dynamite bomb, said to be the most powerful ever used in this city exploded with tremendous force in an apartment tenanted by Industrial Workers of the World. The upper part of the six-story tenement house in which the bomb was being made, was wrecked.
A score of persons were seriously injured and much property damage was done in a wide radius from the scene of the explosion. Those dead and those who escaped injury in the apartment included I.W.W. men who were defendants in the trial to begin Monday in Tarrytown, N.Y., where they were arrested for creating a disturbance a few weeks ago. They went to the village to make demonstrations outside the Pocantico Hills estate of John D. Rockefeller, where John d. Rockefeller, Jr., had retired after being heckled in front of his office at 26 Broadway, in this city, by I.W.W. members and sympathizers, including members of Upton Sinclair's Free Silence league. Their activities here arose from the coal mine strike troubles in Colorado, where Mr. Rockefeller, Jr., had mining interests.
Bombs Meant for Officials?
As soon as one of the bodies of those killed in the explosion had been identified as that of Arthur Caron, who came here from Boston and who was one of tho defendants in Tarrytown, the police began their investigation of the explosion on the theory that a bomb was being constructed by Caron and others for possible use at the I. W. W. hearings in Tarrytown on Monday. Since the arrest of the agitators in that
village there have been rumors of threats against town officials if the defendants were not released.
Late today the police escorted from the office of Emma Goldman's publication. Mother Earth, to a police station a group of agitators, including Marie Ganz, arrested some time ago for making outdoor speeches in which she threatened to shoot John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Miss Ganz was released this morning from the Queen's county jail after serving a term as the result of her speechmaking.
Blown to Pieces.
The cross examination today disclosed that all the eleven defendants, who are out on bail, met her last eight,
with Alexander Berkman. anarchist, and others at the headquarters of the Francisco Ferrer school, to devise a way to aid the persons facing trial Monday. The conferees included leaders of the so-called Antimilitant [sic] league, which seeks to discourage workmen from joining the state National Guard.
Present at this meeting, according to statements to the authorities, were Carl Hanson, a member of the staff of Mother Earth, and Carl Berg, 24, a carpenter, one of the Tarrytown defendants. Hanson was blown to pieces in the explosion. Part of his body was
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BOMB MAKER KILLED BY HIS INVENTION
(Continued from Page One)found on a church roof and part on car tracks, in the street. Berg is missing and is counted among the victims. The other person known to have been killed is Mary Claves [sic], 26 years old, a cigar maker, who occupied an apartment adjoining the one in which the explosion occurred.
Find Dry Batteries.
In support of the police theory that a bomb was being made for use in Tarrytown, a search of Caron's apartment disclosed two dry batteries, wired for use, a loaded revolver, cartridges and a partly constructed blackjack, together with a bowl of yellow substance thought to have been used in bomb construction.
Statements to the police indicated that the group at the Francisco Ferrer school disbanded about midnight last night. Earon [sic], Hanson, Berg and a fourth man, Mike Auspenti, who came here from Chicago about two weeks ago, left together and went to the apartment where the explosion occurred at 1626 Lexington avenue, between One Hundred and Second and One Hundred and Third streets on the upper east side.
Hanson's half sister, Miss Louise Berger, who rented the top floor apartment occupied by herself, Hanson and Caron, told the inquisitors that the four men reached home at 1 o'clock this morning. At 7 o'clock when she left her home, she said, Berg and Caron were asleep and Hanson was washing dishes, and Auspenti was lying on a couch.
Anarchists Involved.
All were dressed. There were no traces of an explosive or of the material for making a bomb anywhere in the apartment, she said. The explosion occurred at 9:25 a.m. and she was notified of it, she declared, while at the Mother Earth office.
Alexander Berkman explained how the group allied with him happened to be at the Mother Earth office when the police arrived. He said they had gathered to go on a Fourth of July picnic in a New Jersey town.
Berkman smoked cigarettes and answered sharp questioning. He denied he had counseled violence at the coming Tarrytown trials. He and others planned to go to Tarrytown, he said, and listen to the proceedings.
"We were prepared," he explained, "to utter protests if our comrades were not given a fair trial, but that was all we contemplated."
Berkman denied that he had written threatening letters to Tarrytown officials.
"You did send a telegram some time ago to the judge at Tarrytown demanding the release of the I.W.W. prisoners, didn't you?" asked Deputy Police Commissioner Rubin.
"Yes, I sent a telegram containing resolutions condemning the arrest and brutal treatment of the men and women," replied Berkman.
"The resolution was adopted at the Ferrer group and I was instructed to forward them to the judge. I simply carried out instructions."
Berkman said he was unable to account for the presence of the explosive. He volunteered to produce himself and his followers at the coroner's inquest.
Many Blown From Beds.
There were thirty-five apartments in the Lexington avenue building. All except two were occupied and the tenants were made homeless. The loss of life was not greater, according to the police, because so many of the dwellers had started off early to spend the holiday at various resorts. The Lexington avenue front of the structure was wrecked as far down as the second story.
Of the many known to have been injured, seven were removed to hospitals. Some of those who received minor hurts were occupants of buildings across the street. They were blown from their beds or otherwise hurled about violently by the concussion. As far distant as two blocks from the wrecked tenement persons were thrown down by the shock.
The entire top of the southeast front of the building crashed into the street, tore a thirty-foot hole in the sidewalk and partly filled a stretch of the new Lexington avenue subway excavation.
The police threw a strict guard about the building after ordering everybody out. Not a shovelful of earth was allowed to be moved. Every precaution was taken to prevent the destruction of any possible clew [sic] that might be contained in the debris. Tomorrow a systematic examination will be made in search of evidence which may support the police theory that a bomb was to be taken into the Tarrytown courtroom. It is thought Berg's body may be in the ruins, unless it was blown to bits. It is not believed other bodies are there. Already the firemen have come across parts of a human body. It is thought they are portions of the body of Hanson, who, according to the police was a staff writer on Mother Earth, an anarchistic publication with which Berkman and Emma Goldman are associated.
With Caron and Berg dead from the explosion of the bomb apparently of their own making, nine defendants remain to be tried in Tarrytown Monday.
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