Czolgosz Was Not of the Paterson Group
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7.—The
secret service headquarters is gradually bringing together every
available bit of information which will show the antecedents of
the assassin of President McKinley at Buffalo and will establish
whether or not he is a member of any anarchistic group.
The information already in hand warrants
the positive statement that he is not connected with the anarchistic
organization at Paterson, N. J. A search of the criminal records
of the secret service fails to disclose anything concerning Czolgosz,
and he does not appear to have been among any of the desperate cranks
who have visited Washington from time to time and have been spotted
by the government officers.
He is referred to in the advices forwarded
to the headquarters here as fairly well dressed, of apparent intelligence
and somewhat pleasing looking under normal conditions. There is
said to be nothing about him to indicate that he was a criminal.
But the manner in which he fired his
revolver through a handkerchief attracted the attention of the officers,
as indicative of unusual criminal shrewdness.
The secret service men are well versed
in the ruses resorted to by assassins, but the device of the handkerchief
appears to be altogether novel, and of a character to baffle detection.
A dispatch has been received stating that Mr. Cortelyou, the President’s
secretary, witnessed the entire affair, and completely exonerates
the secret service agents from any blame.
The men in Buffalo are keeping in
close touch with the headquarters here and having done all that
was possible to apprehend the assassin, are now turning their attention
to such care and protection as may be thrown around the President
during the present hours of great popular agitation. One dispatch
received at headquarters here today states that the President was
resting easily and that the chances were six in ten in favor of
his recovery.
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