FRISCO "GRAFTERS."

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 59, 29 June 1908, Page 2

FRISCO "GRAFTERS."

SAN FRANCISCO, April 23. The residence of James L. Gallagher, the arch-grafter of the late boodle Board of Supervisors, was wrecked last evening by an explosion that was heard from one end of East Oakland to the other, and that shattered every pane of glass ijfiVibe neighborhood. That Gallagher was not horribly mutilated or killed is extraordinary, as the explosion shattered the big residence at 1370 Nineteenth Avenue, leaving it in a tottering ruin. Mrs Gallagher was with her husband in an upper room in the southern side of the house, and almost directly above the vestibule on the front porch, where the explosion occurred. She would have been thrown to the floor had not her husband jumped from his chair, caught her as she was swooning, and carried her down the crumbling stairway in the darkness to the safety of the sidewalk.

Six other ocupants of the house, by good fortune, escaped without injury. They were sitting in the dining room on the main floor, a few feet beneath the place where tne bomb was exploded. All wero thrown to the floor and stunned by the detonation, but only one, Schenck, sustaining a slight bruise on the right temple, caused presumably by a flying stick of wood. The house presents a shocking appearance, the front portion being entirely torn out. t The floor of -the basement is a yawning chasm, and the upper room just above the porch is bored as though a 13in shell had torn through it. Had Gallagher been in this apartment he would have been blown with the floor and furniture straight through the roof. The whole front naif of the residence is hanging in theaaitr t its beams being demolished by the frightful force of the explosion. Even the basement is torn out, the explosion having shattered the boarding so that the whole interior of the house is open to tho olements.

Besides tho destruction .of Gallagher's residence, the explosion damaged several surrounding residences. Gallagher says he has no doubt that it was caused by an infernal machine, intended for him. He regards his escape as miraculous. He nints darkly about his suspicions, declaring that he has very definite ideas as to the origin of the plot to destroy him. He says that he has been frequently warned by his friends, and even by Assistant District Atorney Francis J. Heney to take particular care of himself, aB attempts on his life would bo made by his onomios.

Gallagher is admittedly an important instrument for tho successful prosecution of tho graft cases in the city. His testimony is the essential link to connect the passage of bribe money from Abe Ruef to the Supervisors. The elimination of the ex-Supervisor and handy man of Ruef and Schmitz might mean the crumbling of the case against many of the graft defendants.