1915.04.01: SPECTATORS IN COURTROOM FRIGHTENED BY EXPLOSIVE

April 1, 1915

SPECTATORS IN COURTROOM FRIGHTENED BY EXPLOSIVE

LAWYER WAVES BOTTLE OF COMPOSITION--DISARMED.

Thrill Is Furnished in Courtroom During Trial of Two Men at New York Charged With Planting Bombs.

New York, March 31. — The alleged written confession of Frank Abarno and Carmine Carbone, charged with making and placing a lighted bomb in St. Patricks Cathedral, March 2, were offered in evidence at their trial today, but ruled out by the court.

"William J. McCahill, the stenographer who took down the prisoners' statements, was permitted to testify as to what he heard the prisoners say. McCahill failed to remember the salient features of the alleged confessions, and Assistant District Attorney Train went on the stand himself.

Train admitted the prisoners had not been instructed as to their rights in giving information, but said this was unnecessary.

Mr. Train was permitted to say that in his presence Abarno stated Carbone made the bombs and that after they were made it was decided to destroy the cathedral as a protest against capitalism.

Did Not Want to Kill Anyone.

"After we walked into the cathedral I said to my companion we did not want to destroy human life and should leave the bombs unlighted, simply as a protest. When I had placed the bombs and began to walk out the detectives in the women's clothes grabbed us."

 Seventeen witnesses for the other side, including Sweet Marie Ganz, Louise Berger and other anarchist leaders, greeted Polignani with jeers and hisses when he walked from the courtroom, guarded by four detectives, at recess. There was mush hissing and some one spat in his face. Those who participated in the demonstration were hustled out of the building.

The afternoon session was taken up chiefly with the testimony of Captain of Detectives Thomas J. Tunney of the anarchist squad. He told of the arrests at the cathedral and corroborated the testimony of Detective Polignani, who associated with the defendants for weeks in order to learn their plans.

Had Plans All Arranged.

Captain Tunney testified that Abarno had confessed that he intended after the cathedral affair to follow the same course at the homes of Carnegie, Rockefeller and others. Similar action in the chief banks of the city was also a part of the plan of the men, he said, according to their statements.

There was a thrill in the courtroom late today while City Chemist David E. Relkey, who analyzed the explosives in the bombs, was on teh stand. He had testified that he found the composition in the bombs had as great an explosive power as gunpowder, when Lawyer Keir for the defense. In cross-examining the witness, held up a bottle containing a sample of the explosive, and waving it in the air, shouted:

"Isn't it a fact that you could drop a can of this stuff right here in the courtroom and it would not explode?"

Before the witness could answer court attendants sprang at the lawyer and snatched the bottle from his hands. The spectators settled back in their seats when the chemist said he did not think the composition would explode if suddenly dropped.