ROSSEAU FOUND GUILTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12853, 29 April 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROSSEAU FOUND GUILTY.

STORY OF THE MAINE MYSTERY AND THE UMBRIA OUTRAGE. New York, March 28.—After a trial lasting three days Gessler Rosseau, or (Jesner Russell, which he says is his right name, was found guilty yesterday of having sent an infernal machine to the wharf.of the Cunard steamship line for transportation on the Umbria. He smiled as lie' heard the verdict, which may mean imprisonment for five years, and shook hands with his lawyer, as he was remanded for sentence until Friday. The only witness in his own behalf, he told a story which interested those who could hear him. His voice was so low, however, despite frequent admonitions, that even the jurors protested. Examined at one time by Recorder Gaff, question and answer were so low that they had to be read to the jury by the stenographer. Admitting he had sent the machine to the Cunard pier Ro&seau denied it would have caused any injury, saying he had extracted all the uitro-glycerine from tie dynamite, making it non-explosive, while at the same time there was no connection between the mechanism and the dynamite, so that there could have been no explosion. He said he hated Great Britain, and that he seut the box to the pier merely v.) demonstrate what a simple matter it was to place a dangerous machine on an ocean liner which might- wreck the vessel :tl sea. Taking a photograph of the machine, he left his seat, and, directly addressing the jurors, showed how he had disconnected the mechanism so there would be no explosion. "I am a New York boy and was born forty-three years ago," said Rosseau, after his "lawyer, Charles M. Kiefer, had called him to "the witness chair. "I have travelled all over the world and I have crossed the ocean and the Continent, twenty-two times. I have been an actor, a miner, a salesman, a dime museum freak, an editor, a schoolteacher, a book agent, and I know no'- what. " It was after I went with a party of prospectors to Cape Nome that I became familiar with explosives. I made my first infernal machine in 1896, but only for my own amusement. Prior to the Spanish war I furnished several of the machines to the Cubans, with which to blow up the Spanish warships. OFFKRKI) BOMBS TO BOERS. " Afterwards I offered to make some for the Boer representatives here, but they declined to take them, saying their use would not be fair fighting." "Whv did you send the machine to the Cunard line?" asked the recorder. " Principally because I have an undying hatred of Great Britain and everything that is English. That country has been threatening to wipe out many smaller countries and is always bulldozing some country. There were always rumblings of war between England and the United States, and I wanted to show how easy it would be to blow up a vessel if anyone wanted to. I have also a hatred of the Mafia, and that was the reason that I signed 'Mafia'' to the letters I sent to Commissioner Greene, telling him the box was on he Cunard pier." The dynamite he bought of the Climax Company in Park Row and had it delivered at an East River pier. "I took it in a buggy to Larchmont. In a ; shanty in an open lot I placed the dynamite so' the sun could strike it. for it is a scientific fact that the sun will dry out the nitro-glycerine from dynamite. After two days I placed it in a buggy and took itto Mrs. Curry's house in Thirty street. I put. it in the big box I had brought from Chicago. MADB DYNAMITIC HARMLESS. "I wanted to bo sure that all the nitroglycerine would be out of the dynamite, so I "'bought a lamp, filled it with coal oil, lighted it and put it in the box." Rosseau said he had tried to explode the dynamite seventeen miles from Jersey City, but could not do so. "I put the rest of the one hundred pounds in the box,' he continued. "and sent it by ah expressman to the Cunard pier. I put the mechanism, parts of which I had taken from an old clock, on top, but I did not connect it with what had been dynamite." 'Ho mailed letters of warning to Commissioner Greene and the Cunard officials, he said, two days before the Umbria sailed. "The box was "not marked," he added. " There was no consignee's name and I knew it would not be placed aboard the Umbria, but I wrote to the company's officials so there could be no chance of its being plated aboard." ' , " Do you or have you ever belonged to a secret society?" he was asked.

" No, I never have." " Did anyone know you were making this machine to be placed on the Umbria?" " Yes, I did tell one man. He is not in this city now. He did not know exactly what, it was or when I was to send it to the Cunard nier." "Where did you get the money to make these things?" "I worked for it. I always made a good living." THE MAINE MYSTERY. Having failed to convince twelve jurors that in sending an infernal machine to the Umbria's pier he had taken pains to see no one might be injured and intended his demonstration as an object lesson only, Gessler Ross tan, now in the Tombs awaiting sentence, makes a bid for doubtful fame by declaring his belief that it was one of his machines which wrecked the United States battleship Maine in Havana Harbour, and brought about the Spanish-American war. Glibly enough ho told this story, but not until,the suggestion had been made to him, and then he garnished it with names and dates and other artistic details until lie almost seemed to be convinced of the truth of what he was saying. Strangely enough he would not admit tha* others of his infernal machines had been sent to Russia, intended as the instruments of the Tsar's assassination. But lie has a) few days to ponder on this matter before he goes to prison, and then he will have several years in which to give full play to his vivid imagination. " I never dared to tell it before," said Rosseau, hi,s shiftless eyes blinking, " a'nd (lie thought of it lias kept me awake many a night. You see, it was this way." Then he told of making two infernal machines in St. Louis in 1897 and taking them to New Orleans. In Jacksonville he met some Cuban leaders, preparing for a filibustering expedition. They had engaged a vessel appropriately called "the Destroyer to take them to Cuba, They gladly accepted his machines, although he had not installed the dynamite, saying they would use them to blow up some of the Spanish warships. Some of the party were to join the Spanish navy, so a's to get the machines aboard the vessels, failing in this the machines were to be placed on the keels ol the Spanish vessels.

He said lie had delivered his machines to two agents of the Cubans, Jose Villion and Carlos Vanilia, in Tampa, in Deoember, 1897. These men had been captured afterward by the Spaniards, he had heard, and had been executed in Havana. He is positive that one of two conjectures must be right— that the Spanish v got the machine and placed it undei the Maine's keel or that the Cubans, seeking to destroy a Spanish vessel, mistook the Maine for the enemy's battleship. One mam who knew of this plot, Rosseau says, returned to this country and saw him. No pressure could induce him to give the name of this man, who told him of the mistake and that the man who made it, learning of his fearful error, had killed himself. After this recital Rosseau admitted it was he who tried to destroy the statue of Frederick the Great in Washington.