Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1888 — PLOTTING ANARCHISTS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PLOTTING ANARCHISTS.

Alarming Disclosures Show that the Anarchists Are Still Planning for Murder and Rerenge. A Fiendish Plan to Assassinate Judges Grinnell and Gary and Capt. Bonfield Foiled. [Chicago special telegram.] A wicked and murderous conspiracy to assassinate the chief officers of the court and several prominent pesple who assisted in the prosecution of the case of the Chicago anarchists who «uttered death at the hands of the law last fall, came to light by Inspector Bonfield and his assistants arresting three Bohemians named John Hronek, Frank Chapek, and Frank Chebowa. Hronek was the chief conspirator, and their principal prey was Judgs Gary, who presided at the anarchist trial; Judge GrirmeO, who ’conducted the prosecution; and Insi>ector Bonfield, who worked up the evidence. The plot was to be carried out regardless of the destructsan of property. It was generally supposed that when the knots closed around the necks ■of the instigators of the Haymarkot riot that Chicago would not be troubled for a while -with the dull-brained and blood-thirsty villains -who prey upon their victims unawares. The citizens of Chicago have lived in comparative peace, but to read of another conspiracy adds fresh horror. As the news of the arrests passed from mouth to mouth on the streets it was received with greatest surprise. Considerable dynamite, knives, and other destructive weapons were found in possession of the trio, but the form of destruction had not been determined. 'That part of the plot, so far as the three men -whose blood they desired was concerned, seems to have been left to circumstances. The manner of death might be a thrust from a knife, a bullet from a pistol, or the explosion of a dynamite bomb. Anarchy killed when Its chiefs were executed. It was not even scotchod. Shortly after the first conspirators were convicted the Inrge groups of the International disbanded. Their members gave public notice that the anarchists were disorganized. They united in quite a different manner on a much more dangerous plan. They organized In small groups. Inmost instances three sworn friends and determined unarchists constituted a group. No one outside the trio was made acquainted with the plans of the group, and the opportunities for detection were reduced to a minimum. Each anarchist

'knew his fellow-members and it became next to impossible for a detective to get into a group. The anarchists also proposed to operate on a different plan. No wholesale murders-dike the Haymarket massacre were to be attempted. They selected their victims and arranged to kill them singly. The that makes men tender-hearted in desperate deeds saved Judge Grinnell’s life, aud kept Judge Gary and Capt. Bonfield from assassination. In the group arrested were John Hrone'c of 29.V2 Farrell street; Frank Chapek, 498 Twentieth street; and a,man named Frank Chebowa, Kving on Zion’s place, a short street between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, running from Throop to Loomis. John Hronek is one of the dare-devil Lingg type, a relentlessly vicious anarchist and a notoriety seeker. He was No. lof the group, and the evil spirit of it. He has boasted that he was at the Haymarket riot and ithat he was one of the anarchists who sought to destroy the police on the night of May 4. Among his anarchist friends he has declared that he was supported by the anarchist organizations. Until recently he has been unemployed, ■except in a desultory manner. His occupation as a wood-worker has been prosecuted within the last week or two for the purpose, as he has said, of averting suspicion and of provihg an alibi should he be suspected of tho murders he had planned. The two others were drawn into his plans by Hronek’s vehement and persistent talk of vengeance. Hronek said that the cause of anarchy demanded the lives-of Judge Grinnell, who as Prosecuting Attorney convicted the eight anarchists; Judge Gary, who tried and sen.tenced them ; and Inspector John Bonfield, who ■worked up the cases against them. They agreed tto kill these men in the order named. Grinnell was to be assassinated first, Gary next, and the third sacrifice to their vengeance was ■to be Capt. Bonfield. The methods of disSosing of their victims were freely canvassed, ut the minuter details have not yet been devel- • oped. After deciding upon the general plan of their murderous campaign the conspirators began to arrange its details. On July 4 they visited Aldine Square; the pretty park on whioh Mr. Grinneil’s house fronds, and observed the location. They discussed the question as to whether it •would be better to place a dynamite bomb under the house or to execute the deed with a revolver. ’The conspirators Were armed with dynamite bombs, revolvers, and poisoned daggers. The ■circumstances and the opportunity were to decide which should be used. Hronek carried bomba in bis pockets', a 38-caliber self-acting revolver, and apoisoned dagger when on his mission of revenge. Chebowa is a pleasant-faced man of 27 years, and his countenance indicates too much milk of human kindness in his heart for cold-blooded, treacherous murder. Until their plana had reaohed the 4th of July point of preparation, Che-

y bowa had been carried along by the blood-thirsty impetuosity of Hronek. Chebowa said that Hronek's plan meant murder—deliberate, dastardly . assassination. He 'was shocked at the prospect. The conspirators had arranged to assassinate .Mr. Grinnell July 14. The mode of the killving had not been decided, but either a dyna-

mite bomb was to be thrown into his bed-room or exploded beneath his residence, or he was to be enticed to the door and shot or stabbed to death. Mr. Chebowa considered what to do for a day or two, and then made a complete confession to a prominent Bohemian, of which nationality all the conspirators were. He immediately called on Mr. Bonfield and repeated Chebowa’s story. C»pt. Bonfield pushed his investigations as rapidly as possible, with the assistance of the

Bohemian gentleman and two or three members of the force who speak the Bohemian language. Hronek’s love of notoriety and his desperate resolve to avenge the fate of his anarchist friends led Capt. Bonfield to precipitate matters rather than risk Hronek beooming suspicious and murdering one of his victims before he could be apprehended. The Cap .ain with a number of officers surrounded Hronek’s house. Captain Bonfield would not risk the lives of his men in attempting to eapture Hronek in his own fortified castle, so waited until Hronek came out, when Wfyj immediately arrested. He was completely taken by emprise, and made little show of resistance. A search of his house was made. In his bed were found a JB-C’Uber revolver and a knife with a se'ven-ilich blade which Hronek has boasted is tipped with poison. A half-dozen bombs—some loaded, others empty—were found in tbo room. The bomb? were made of a cast-iron pipe, cut in pieces four inches long. They are an inch anti u half in diameter and differ from the gas-pipe bomb in being considerable shorter. Some were closed at the ends with wooden plugs and had apertures • for fuses or caps. A small portion of dynamite In the original packages, labeled “.Etna No. 2," was also fospd in the room. , , Chapektwas captured while in bed, and made no resistance. Chebowa was arrested at his home. Gn his premises were found eight onehalf pound packages of A£tna No. 2 dynamite, a loaded liomb of the pattern found with Hronek, and a fulminating cap. After the men had been secured Capt. Bonfield undertook to pump Hronek. “He at first denied that he knew where Aldine Square was. I asked him what he was‘doing there July 4. He replied at first that he wasn’t there. I sold: ‘Chapek ought to know, and he says you were there.’ He at once admitted that he had been seen there, and then said ihey had taken a walk and got over there and were just looking around. It isn’t likely thev would come a mile and a half or two miles just to stroll around a little park like Aldine Square. “I asked him where he got that dynamite. He said a friend who got it in May, 1880, got scared after the Hajfmarket riot, and gave it to him, ‘How much was there of It ?’ 1 asked. “‘A whole box,’ he answered. As it comes in boxes which weigh twenty-five pounds, and we only found a small quantity, I asked what he had done * with it. He said he hail thrown it . into the river. We had ascertained previously that he

JUDGE GARY.

had distributed it among other anarchistic groups. 1 then asked him where he got his bombs, and he told me that they had been given him by some friend—the one -who gave him the dynamite. He said he had thrown them into the river, also. Hronek did not at the time know that his house had been searched and large quantities of dynamite found in and about the house, especially beneath the floor of the room in the rear of the house.” Mr. Bonfield says that, little by little, he has picked up the story of the plot, and many of its details remained to be unearthed. A number of persons, he thought, would be implicated. but he declined to indicate whence they would cotne. The distribution of twenty pounds of dynamite gives the detectives a clew to further detailß. This dynamite was distributed June 3, and it is said that .many of the old anarchists received it. Captain Bonfield thought some of it might be traced very close to members of the Central Labor Union, which interested itself in money and sympathy for the anarchists during their trial. It is claimed by the detectives that the present plot will implicate the whole brood of anarchists. Some of the early plans of the friends of the convicted and executed men have been in the possession of the police for some time, and this development is expected to lay bare the entire plans of the schemers and plotters. In the ramifications of the plots are included as proposed victims, Edmund Furthmann, Copt. Shaack, Frank Walker, M. E. Stone, Witness Seliger, and members of the jury which convicted the anarchists. For months after the trial and execution the persons and residences of Judge Gary, Mr. Grinnell, ( apt. Bonfield, and Capt. Schaack were guarded. Since the present revelations were made the houses of the three victims have been protected by police surveillance. John Hronek, “No. 1," is a small man with an intelligent lace. Back of his boastful air and savage talk is said to be a recklessness of spirit that makes people feel uncomfortable in his presence. He wears a scraggly, faded-out blonde, mustache and a little goatee. Hits nose is sharp and thin, his face pinched and decisive in expression. A lathe that had seen little recent use was found in a shed in his yard and a small turning machine in his house. He has worked little at his trade in the last year or two. He is about 35 years old, is well educated, and speaks German and Bohemian fluently and English fairly. He got his anarchistic ideas in Vienna and brought them with him to this country. He is an admirer of Louis Lingg and as rabid in his notions respecting theories of government. Frank Chapek is a small man, with a bold head and a full beard, and is about 40 years old. He is also a wood-worker. His anarchism is of a less rampant type than that of Hronek.

JOHN HRONEK, ALIAS "NUMBER ONE.”

CAPT. SCHAACK.

JUDGE GRINNELL.