MADMAN AT SWITCH

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 32, 7 August 1934, Page 3

MADMAN AT SWITCH

A CARGO OF DYNAMITE

NOVEL SUICIDE PLAN

For '2-i hours a demented mechanic named Bennett sat in a car full of dynamito and nitro-glycerino in a stretch of marsh between Oakland and Aknie, California, waiting for drowsiness to overcome him. When that happened his hand would slip off the switch of an electric battery arranged to detonate explosives, and tho whole thing would blow up, says tho New York correspondent of the London "Times." From time to time policemen nervously parleyed with Benuett in the hope of getting him to abandon his plan. They wero anxious moments, for the madman, though sometimes bland and even jocose, often turned irritable, and there was. nothing to tell when he might decide to let go the switch. As night drew on the searchlights of motor-cars were turned on Bennett. It went on all night, with the police occasionally trying some new persuasion, but always in vain. N In the morning Bennett's 14-year-old daughter was brought to plead with her father. She waved to him and he waved back, but the police were afraid to lot her get close enough to talk to him. Finally one policeman, more daring than others, got near enough to promise Bennett that if he would disconnect the battery and come away he (tho policeman) would get him 2000 dollars and a job and would see that his family was taken care of at a fine hotel. He pondered for a little while, then quietly turned off the battery and surrendered. Ho was taken to gaol. •In.the car"were found 104 sticks of dynamite, which Bennett had accumulated during several months, and five quarts of nitro-glycorine.