AMERICAN BOMB-THROWER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11934, 23 March 1914, Page 6

AMERICAN BOMB-THROWER.

MUEDER DONE FOR 4s,

"BLACK. 1IAX1. ; CK'rMKS

Murder, bomb-throwing, and a.xluction of girls were amongst the crimes which a mild-mannered you.'ig man admitted last month, wlrlst h, , coolly, and at times eynicalL . Ow>ose>'i tlie workings of the "B-;<k H-t-.l' 7 gang in New York. The new police organisation is trying to "make New York as clean as London, '■' and it is

leeognised that this ambition cannot be achieved until tho gangs which exist in the city Cor tie purpose of violence and irime arc suppressed. The witness relYrr'd t" v , Alfred Lehman, who a-lthough o-'ly -'■'■ is a st If-confessed bor..i>-ti:rov,e ■, nicondi.iry, and mvuderer. lie v,.\ ■'■• "x'i'ience partly to secui'e immunity Cor himself and partly because he is now anxious to ieform. Lehman admitted that ho was a bomb specialist, and had been connected with thii ty-three explosions, Mveral of" which entailed fatal resulrs. Here is a ]>rice list of assorted crimes .summarised from his remarkable '.H'.- ,- (ieiH.e: —Incendiarism, New ork, £;>i); .'itto, Brooklyn, £-_!5; murder of a

<"hir.aman, 4s; bomb. Prince Street, .t'lJ, bomb, Fast I:2th Street, £•>; nbductioa id girls, .Hit); bomb. West 41st Street, .t'if>; bomb, Washington Street. £0; horse-stoaling, £">; bomb to scare stri-t----eis. £1.-.

From the standpoint of the anatomy and psychology, of crime Lehman's .Frank confcssioi.s, it is admitted, ha ."o More than a passing interest. '"How long have you been a. thief.''' he was a.sked. ''Since I. was seven years old. 1 guess 1 was born a thief." "Hid yo'i ever steal horses .''' "'th. yes. I l;a\e I eon in many burglaries and stulen in'- ,- thing that was 100-.c at any time of the ''ay or night. I have been in the State reformatory and other prisons. and v.'hat 1 did not. know about crime I picked up tin re." The latter sniten-v deserves emphasis, because by comtiuui (■•oiis'.'iit the State reformat vi y in Nev ".Yoi'k provides a pn<t-gradu;>te --uu!■> >in (rime. Jkdd-headed .la.-k i; ( ,se. ihe rambling-house kee|ier, wlu.'sc coinp.mjons sei;t a \ew York puliee superinleiidet'? to g:.o!, and other-; have .ill sworn that novices in vice were further ■out. ununited by association with t'l • inmates of the reformatory, and th it whose I'ducarion in cri ne was only partial were fully instruct".l before they 'eft. Lehman confessed thai, bomb-throw-ing was an easy way to earn money. The gang generally worked on the fears ( 1' small-shopkeepers of foreign origin—.ltalian for preference—by letter, by

telephone, and finally but putting a little bomb in :i piac" where it would nut <;o much harm, ■•just to show we meant business," Lehman added. '"Then wu would give him another diance, and . f he still did not pay we would wreck his house. Generally, however, after tli' iirst bomb, he was so scared that h> , would semi inojiey. Uere is a funny itJng, " lie i]iterj'osi-'d, a. i-yuicnl smil. , curling his straight li]>s: "'Nearly e\-e;--.----i-ian we got money out of would tell .:- of .some other man who was making jfiOnev and out of whom we could scar , money with a bomb. He seemed to en vy the escape of some rival in business, i'l'id thought he could square himself with us by felling on his friend.''

"We did a good deal of business I'or ether people,' , continued Lehman. '■ V man would come to us and say he would give us some money, maybe 'Jl'i. i.iaybe £20, to blow up his rival in business. You make a speda l bomb ''<;■

that with siii'js f>i metal that have been soaked in poison; so if you get a wound from that it "will kill you."