The Assassin Is Recognized in Cleveland
CLEVELAND, Sept. 7.—Leon
Czolgosz, the man who shot President McKinley, is said to have formerly
kept a saloon at the corner of Third avenue and Tod street, this
city. Later he was employed in one of the mills of the American
Steel and Wire Co. Foreman Frank Halser of the galvanized department
of the consolidated mill of the latter company said today:
“I know Leon Czolgosz very well. His
father, I believe, lives in the vicinity of Warrensville, O., on
a farm. There are five sons, I think, all residing in this city,
two or three of them living on Hosmer street. Leon at one time was
employed as a blacksmith in the consolidated mill. Later he kept
a saloon at the corner of Third avenue and Tod street. Later he
sold out the saloon and lived on the farm with his father.
“I know that Leon is, or was, an anarchist.
He attended socialist and anarchist meetings very frequently. He
is a man of rather small stature, about 26 years of age. The last
time I saw him he had a light brown mustache.”
Information was received by the local
police from Buffalo that perhaps the plot to kill the President
was hatched in this city. Chief Corner, Detectives Lohrer and Doran
and the plain-clothes men held a sweat-box session which lasted
until an early hour this morning.
At the close the chief would make
only the following statement:
“I am positive Czolgosz is a Clevelander;
that he is well known here and has a large circle of friends.”
The would-be assassin had on him a
letter of recommendation signed by a Cleveland man. The Buffalo
police transmitted this name and other information to local officers
last night by telegraph.
This man was examined rigidly last
night. He was in the sweat-box for two hours. The police will not
tell his name.
It is known that at the close of the
sweat-box session he promised to help the police find and arrest
all of Czolgosz’s friends in the city.
Michael Goldsmith, a local labor agitator,
and socialist, was also examined. He is supposed to know something
about the would-be assassin and his friends. On Czolgosz were also
found several names and addresses of Cleveland parties. These were
looked up by the plain-clothes men last night. Some were found to
be fictitious. One was No. 170 Superior street. This number has
been the meeting place of anarchistic societies.
The Buffalo police openly claim that
the plot to kill the President was hatched here. When asked about
this the local officials would say nothing.
Czolgosz’s father is said to live
on a farm eight miles from this city. He has brothers and sisters
in Cleveland.
Among the addresses telegraphed to
the Cleveland police by those of Buffalo was one given as No. 170
Superior street or Ontario street. This number on Superior street
is Memorial Post hall, of the Grand Army organization, and the corresponding
number on Ontario street is a store.
Memorial Hall building is occupied
by a number of tenants and it was in this building that Emma Goldman
once lectured.
A dozen or more addresses found on
the man under arrest by the Buffalo police were telegraphed to the
Cleveland police and each of these is being run down. None of them
have yet led to anything that the police have given out, but it
is thought the tall man in the sweat box was brought in on such
information.
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