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Our History
A Union is Born
The Turbulent Years
The Conspiracy Trials
The Beginning of the
Morrin Era
The Depression and a New
Deal For Labor
World War II
Ironworkers Grow in the
1950's Part Two Part Three
John H. Lyons Jr.
Elected President
The Tradition Continues
Pathways to the 21st
Century Under The Leadership of General President Jake West
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Part Three WHAT CAUSED THE EXPLOSION? For weeks before the explosion there reports of a gas leak in the area around the Times building. Because of this the insurance company had raised the rates on the old printing plant. Otis had already moved his business papers out of the old building. A satellite printing plant had been estsblished, and even afterthe explosion had occurred the paper was able to print the morning edition, as if nothing had happened. Supposedly sixteen sticks of dynamite were placed in the Times alleyway, known as "ink alley" near drums of highly flammable materials. Later James B. McNamara, brother of Ironworkers Secretary/Treasurer John J. McNamara, and Ortie McManigal would be blamed for the bombing. There are many unanswered questions about the cause of the explosion. The dynamite could never have caused the kind of explosion that destroyed the entire block. Ironically, both "General" Otis and his son-in-law and future heir, Harry Chandler, were in the building that evening and left only a short time before the explosion. If it was negligence on the part of Otis in not correcting the gas leak, he could have faced criminal charges and would not have been able to collect a half million dollars in insurance money. Could blaming it all on the union have been his way of covering up his own negligence? Could he and his son-in-law have set the charges themselves knowing that the explosion would set off the gas and the insurance would pay for his new plant and the whole affair would discredit unions? Also, it is difficult to understand why the police did not see someone entering "ink alley" to place dynamite charges there since the alley was clearly visible from the Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters directly across the street!
THE INVESTIGATION AND
ARREST OF Ironically, William J. Burns, head of the Chicago based Burns Detective Agency, arrived in Los Angeles the same morning as the bombing. Up to this point Burns had been a friend of the Progressive Movement and men such as Lincoln Steffens, who had exposed corruption all over the country. Several years before, Burns had exposed corporate graft in San Francisco and illegal take-overs of federal forest lands. "General" Otis did not like Burns at the time he first came to Los Angeles. However, Burns was now in the employ of the National Erectors Association. He would also be hired by the Mayor of Los Angeles, George B. Alexander, to find the perpetrators of the Times explosion. Mayor Alexander offered Burns a reward of $100,000. The labor movement in California was disgusted with the fact that without any evidence, Otis had immediately blamed the unions for the explosion. Therefore the California State Federation of Labor asked a distinguished panel to look into the cause of the explosion. This panel found no evidence that the explosion was caused by a bomb, and concluded that it was caused by the gas leak. Then a bomb exploded in Los Angeles on Christmas day at the anti-union Llewellyn Iron Works. This was set by Ortie McManigal, who would later become the star witness against our International Union. The Llewellyn bomb caused $25,000 damage and the nation became even more aroused. There were reports, although unconfirmed, that Ortie McManigal developed his dynamiting skills working in a quarry before his Ironworker career. McManigal was supposedly recruited by Herbert S. Hockin of Detroit Local 25 . He was also an International Executive board member and paid $125 and expenses for each job. Hockin used their mutual memberships in the Knights of Pythias to bring in McManigal - "do it for a lodge brother", as the saying goes. McManigal had difficulty finding and holding a job. Hockin figured correctly that McManigal was perfect for the kind of work he had in mind. McManigal was a better dynamiter than he was an Ironworker. Hockin had his man. William Burns seemed to disappear from January to April of 1911, and the public was beginning to see the Times explosion as just a terrible tragedy. In March, Mayor Alexander even stopped paying Burns. Could Burns have then decided to combine the interests of several of his employers? The National Erectors Association would forever be indebted to Burns if he could blame the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers for the Llewellyn Iron Works bombing as well as all the others between 1906 and 1911. If he could find someone to pin the Times explosion on he would receive the $100,000 reward from the businessmen of Los Angeles. The The enemies he had made when was fighting with the muckrakers and progressives, such as Otis and other corporate interests throughout the United States, would now see him as a friend of big business instead of its enemy. There certainly was a great deal more money to be made if, like the Pinkerton Detective Agency, he fought unionism. Then on Saturday, April 22, 1911 at 5:30 p.m., Burns and a squad of police burst into a meeting of the General Executive Board of our International at our headquarters in the American Central Life Building in Indianapolis. The Superintendent of Police requested that John J. McNamara , our Secretary/Treasurer , and General Executive Board Member Herbert Hockin accompany them to Police Headquarters. Both agreed willingly to go with the police. John McNamara closed the office safe before leaving with the officers. International President Frank M. Ryan then tried to continue the Executive Board meeting, but the police and Burns refused to leave. When President Ryan tried to adjourn the meeting the police refused to allow anyone to leave. When Herbert Hockin returned alone, he informed the Executive Board that Secretary/Treasurer John J. McNamara had been kidnapped. McNamara was very popular with the membership and the labor movement in general, therefore, it is logical that he would be the target of Burns.
Starting in October, 1911 all the "assessment" stamps issued to the local unions had a picture of McNamara.
THE KIDNAPPING OF JOHN J. McNAMARA What actually happened was that John J. McNamara was handcuffed, allowed no bail or trial, and rushed by car to Terra Haute, Indiana. The seven passenger Owen Motor Car that could travel 75 miles an hour held John McNamara and several detectives. At Terra Haute, John McNamara and the detectives boarded the 1:40 a.m. Pennsylvania Flyer which stopped at St. Louis. Here they had a very public breakfast in front of all the reporters. They let reporters see them buying tickets for another train, but they then re-boarded the Pennsylvania Flyer and traveled to kansas City and then to Holsington, Kansas where another car was waiting. They then traveled across wild country to catch a local at Dodge City. At Dodge City they checked into a hotel where they waited for the California limited, the fastest train into Los Angeles. John J. McNamara did not know that his brother, James, was aboard the same train, but the entire nation knew it. Also aboard was Ortie McManigal, who was prepared to betray the Iron Workers. Burns saw to it that this cross country race to Los Angeles was well publicized. At the same time Burns claimed that the train might be blown up and that someone might help the McNamara brothers escape, therefore secrecy was needed. Actually, all of this secrecy was because the entire abduction of John J. McNamara was illegal. There should have been a proper court hearing in Indiana before he could be removed from the state. Neither a judge or even the Governor of Indiana had the right to sign extradition papers in this case. According to Indiana law, John J. McNamara would have had to have committed a crime in California and then fled to Indiana. Then the Governor could have ordered his immediate extradition without a hearing. But John J. McNamara hadnever been in Los Angeles at the time of the explosion. Another story that came up during the case, probably from McManigal, was that James McNamara claimed to have invented an "infernal machine", which he used to time the explosion of charges; a simple, cheap alarm clock wired with a battery so that when the alarm was set to strike, it would close an electrical circuit that would discharge a blasting cap. This impressed McManigal, who had timed explosives by splicing fuses to burn up in thirty minutes or so. But McNamaras "infernal machine" provided hours of delay and permitted the setter to be miles away, even in an adjoining state, when the explosion occurred. The new device would now be their preferred technology.
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