1914.07.05: I.W.W. Bomb Kills Four; Injures Score

July 5, 1914

I.W.W. Bomb Kills Four; Injures Score

LEXINGTON AVENUE TENEMENT BUILDING  WRECKED BY ANARCHISTS.

IS AN ACCIDENT

DEADLY MISSILE GOES OFF WHILE IN PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE

UNEARTH BIG PLOT

POLICE DISCOVER EVIDENCE THAT CULPRITS PLANNED AWFUL CRIME.

TO AID ACCUSED

Some of Defendants in Trial to be Begun for Disturbances at Tarrytown are Among Those Killed--Friends Schemed to Help Them.

New York, July 4--Four persons, three men and a woman were killed and a score seriously injured when a dynamite bomb in process of manufacture exploded in an apartment tenanted by Industrial workers of the World. The bomb, said to have been the most powerful ever used in this city exploded with such force as to cause serious property damage within 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 be begun 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. workers and sympathizers, including members of Upton Sinclair's free silence league. Their activities here arose from the coal mine strike troubles in Colorado. As soon as one -- 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 the defendants in Tarrytown, the police began their investigation of the explosion of the theory that a bomb was being constructed by Caron and others for possible use at the I.W.W. hearings in Tarrytown. There have been rumors of threats to town officials if the defendants were not released. 

Make Arrests.

Late today the police escorted from the home of Emma Goldman's publication Mother Earth to a police station, a group of agitators, including Marie Ganz, arrested some time ago for making out of door speeches in which she threatened to shoot John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Miss Ganz was released this morning from the Queens county jail after serving a term of ?? result of her speech-making.

The cross examinations late today disclosed that all the eleven defendants, who are out on bail, met her last night with Alexander Berkman an 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 anti-militarist league, which seeks to discourage workmen from joining the state national guard.

Present at this meeting, according to statement 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 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 was Mary Claves [sic], 35 years old, a cigar maker, who occupied an apartment adjoining the one in which the explosion occurred.

Find Evidence.

A search of Caron's apartment disclosed tow dry batteries, wired for use; a loaded revolver, cartridges and a partly constructed black jack, 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. Caron, Hanson, Berg and a fourth man, Mike Auspenti, who came here from Chicago about two weeks ago, left together and went to the apartment at 1626 Lexington avenue, where the explosion occurred.

There were 35 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 blown down by the shock. 

The entire top of the southeast front of the building crashed into the street and tore a 30 foot hole in the side walk.





No comments:

Post a Comment