Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 208, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1915 — BOMB CENTER of the WORLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BOMB CENTER of the WORLD

m E\V YORK is the healthiOne pen, however. Father Knickerbocker battles against in vain—the bomb planter. While comparative statistics are lacking, it is safe to say that no great metropolis approaches this one in its black record of cease-

less dynainitings, with attendant damage to property and human life. The recent explosion in the basement of Manhattan's palatial police headquarters was a great piece of impudence, but in this respect it scarcely exceeded some other points in bomb history here. Many men have been the victims of several successive bombs, with the police striving to give them protection all the time. There are notorious "bomb blocks’’ in the city, where the inhabitants time and again have been thrown from their beds in the middle of the night and descend ad the fire-escapes in barefoot, nightie-clad, squeaking multitudes. _ Bomb explosions fall naturally Into three major groups: First, blackmailers’ crimes, intended to intimidate obstinate intended victims of extortion. Second, anarchists' crimes, meant to protest against society. Third, deeds of private vengeance. Records of bomb explosions here are not carefully kept and it is probable that many frightened victims of minor explosions never bring the matter to the attention of the police. But it is known that in 1914 there were at least fifty bombs set off, or about one a week. The year preceding, 1913, saw more than four times as many, or about 250 crimes of this character, brought to the attention of the authorities and the newspapers. The drop in bombs following this high tide was largely due to the rounding up of the notorious bomb gang which included Antonio Levantino, “Zump” Piccarelle, and "Burkey.” "Zump” confessed touching off 34 bombs in different parts of New York city. He said the band had received from $25 to $75 when it set off bombs for other persons. They had also murdered a Chinese for $2, and stolen a young girl for SSO. With the rounding up of this gang and the ending of the activities of its "bomb factory,” the police thought bomb planting would cease. But it did not, proving that many single criminals or independent bands were operating with explosives. Undoubtedly the ease with which dynamite and other high explosives can be procured and the widespread knowledge of their use in this city is to a large extent to blame for conditions. Enormous rapid transit projects, employing tens of thousands of workmen, are under way, besides the countless other construction jobs, most of which involve blasting into the solid rock base of Manhattan Island. Italian laborers can easily steal a few sticks of dynamite from a contractor for whom they are working. Probably 90 per cent of bomb crimes are committed by Italians, the victims usually being other Italians. The police have never been able to persuade Italians upon whom the blackmailers of their own race have set their mark to co-operate in thwarting the gangs. When an Italian shopkeeper has prospered he is apt to be preyed upon by men coming from his own town or province in Italy. The "Black Handers’* who attacked him probably leave immigrants from other sections of Italy, and, indeed, all other persons In peace. Until the last two years Italian blackmailing bombs were confined to the foreign sections of the city, but recently prosperous Italians have found that moving their residence to a better district has not saved them. There have been several crimes of

this character in the Washington Heights residence section. Anarchist bombs are usually more spectacular than those of blackmailers. Churches, courthouses, the residences of men of wealth and position are their targets. A bomb was found at the door of Andrew Carnegie’s fine mansion upon Fifth avenue a few weeks ago. All well-to-do citizens are being forced to employ bodyguards. In the fine districts east of Fifth avenue the dwellers on a block often clubtogether to hire an armed night patrol. This is a protection against burglars, but the growing danger of the ’ bomb crank has caused the guards to increase in number. Only an insignificant percentage of bomb crimes result In arrests and convictions of the perpetrators. Planting a bomb seems about the safest of outrages. The bomb Itself is almost always so shattered that the fragments are useless as clues. Even where the bomb does not explode It is seldom useful as evidence. On the morning of November 14, 1914, the fuse of a bomb sputtering under a bench in the Tombs police court caught the eye of Policeman George L, O’Connor. He started forward and grabbed the bomb, which had only three inches of fuse visible, and started for the doorway. He tried to rub the fuse out, and failing in that, he jerked the insulated fuse from its fastening in the heart of the explosive. The bomb consisted of two pounds of mixed black and smokeless powder and about thirty loaded cartridges. ~— O’Connor’s quickness and pluck probably saved the lives of Magistrate John Campbell, his wife, and many spectators in the courtroom. The placer of the bomb was never detected. • This bomb was connected In the minds of the police with four others of the same year. On February 6an unexploded bomb had been found in the church of St. Mark’s-in-the-Bouwe-rie after the anarchist Frank Tannenbaum and his followers had spent the night there, having been fed and received a comfortable place to sleep. On October 14 a bomb exploded in beautiful St. Patrick’s cathedral, wrecking several pews and breaking i a memorial window. On October 14 the rectory of the Catholic church of St. Alphonsus was damaged by a bomb placed outside. In the church the preceding winter more than 190 of Tannenbaum’s followers had been arrested and later they were sentenced to the workhouse in Magistrate Campbell’s court. On November 11 the fine new Bronx county courthouse was injured by a bomb, apparently meant for County Judge Gibbs. In this connection also should be mentioned the premature explosion of a bomb July 5, 1914, in the nest of anarchists in upper Lexington avenue, which wrecked a tenement, killed two men and a woman high in anarchist councils, and injured several other persons. The anarchists attempted to give a magnificent funeral for these "martyrs,” but were squelched by the police. With this revelation of anarchist

activities the police made elaborate preparations to trap the malcontents. On March 2 of this year they seized two young anarchists, Frank Ablano and Charles Carbone, in the act of setting off a second bomb In St. Patrick s cathedral. The capture was most dramatic, being r'ade in the midst of a church service. The police had been stationed all over the interior of the edifice, some disguised as scrubwomen and others as ushers. A young detective who had wormed his way into the anarchists’ confidence was there obviously as their confederate, and the bomb planters were allowed actually to light their . fuse before they were arrested and the fuse stamped upon. Among the numerous unexplained mysteries is the bomb received through the mails by Judge Otto Rosalsky In his home on Riverside drive MarcH-J6, 1912. It was meant to explode on opening, but something went wrong in the mechanism and the judge was not injured. The famous bomb expert of the police department, Owen Egan, was summoned to take charge of the bomb, and while he was examining It in the Judge’s library It went off, badly injured Egan’s hands and shattering much of the furniture in the room. Another sad and mysterious case was the death of Ida Anusewitz, a stenographer who was killed December 12, 1913, by the explosion of an infernal machine she received in the mail of her employer, the president of a bottling company. On February 2, 1913, Mrs. Madeline Herrera was killed In her home in the Bronx by the explosion of a bomb which her husband had picked up in the vestibule. On February 3, 1912, Mrs. Helen Taylor was almost instantly killed by a bomb contained in a large cigarette box which she received from a uniformed messenger in her home at No. 103 West Seventy-sev-enth street. An attempt was made to explain the Rosalsky bomb and the Herrera and Taylor murders by the activities of Henry J. Klotz, a city draftsman. Attention was directed to him when he was fatally injured while experimenting with explosives in his home, but these three mysteries remain unsolved. Gamblers’ wars were a fruitful source of bombs before the murder of Herman Rosenthal by Charles Becker and his accomplices, but of late the gentlemen of chance have been less active.