The Case of the Demented Dynamiter
In the early morning hours of Tuesday May 1, 1888, residents on South Street in Union City were jolted out of their beds by a loud explosion. Many of them rushed to their doors to find out what had exploded. Some of them thought that one of the boilers in the various factories had blown up . Everyone rushed to investigate.
Soon they discovered that the residence of F.M. McClintock, Esq., on South Street, had been considerably damaged by the explosion of a dynamite bomb and he had narrowly escaped being killed. Someone had placed a dynamite bomb under the verandah near the front door of the house, and it had made a large hole in the ground, slightly shattering the foundation of the house. It ruined the verandah and every glass light in front of the building.
Another bomb had been placed in the rear of the house against the foundation, near the bedrooms of Mr. McClintock, his wife, and two children. For some reason, the bomb had failed to explode. The fuse had been lighted and partially burned, but then it went out. Lee Wilson and Joseph Farrington found the fuse placed against the back of the house about eight o'clock the same morning. The bomb was made of a piece of two inch glass pipe, about ten inches long, threaded on each end and plugged with wooden plugs. The part of the fuse that had not burned was about a foot long.
This latest bombing resembled another explosion and fire in which Dr. Biles and other people were seriously injured. It seemed that both were the work of an arsonist who used dynamite to insure the destruction of the buildings.
Union City law enforcement officials decided that they needed to devote full time to catching the person responsible. Their efforts paid off. About noon of the following day, a warrant was sworn out charging Frank Koehler, the baker, with having dynamited the McClintock residence. Officer Drake arrested Koehler and brought him before Squire William Jackson. Judge Jackson set bail in the sum of $1,000 and ordered Koehler to appear for a hearing next Tuesday.
As Frank Koehler was about to leave the court room, County Detective Sullivan stepped up and re-arrested him on the charge of being a fugitive from justice. The warrant claimed that he was sentenced to Sing Sing prison in February 1873, and escaped from the prison four months later by concealing himself in a lime barrel and being carried outside the wall. From 1873 until 1888, he evaded the police officers who were searching for him. After his rearrest, the police took Koehler to Erie and put him in the county jail to wait to be tried.
On Tuesday afternoon, May 8, 1888, Captain Sullivan, County Detective from Erie, brought Frank Koehler from jail in Erie back to Union City, where he had a hearing before Squire Jackson. F.M. McClintock preferred charges against him, alleging that he was the person who had fired the dynamite bomb at his home on the morning of May 1, 1888.
When the train arrived from Erie, a large and anxious crowd met the prisoner at the depot and followed him to the office of justice Jackson. Not even half of them could get into the packed room where the hearing was held. Many stood outside near a window where they could see and hear.
Captain Sullivan and Frank Koehler were accompanied by District Attorney Sisson and Colonel J. Ross Thompson who had been engaged as assistant counsel for the prosecutor. The defendant's counsel, George Olmstead, of Corry and the City Council waited for the rest of the party in the justice's office. Mr. Fisk of the Dispatch and Mr. Kelly of the Graphic were also in the party.
At four o'clock the trial began and F.M. McClintock's testimony was the first evidence that the prosecution presented. He produced the largest part of the exploded bomb as evidence. It was a piece of one and half inch pipe, about 16 inches long. From the witness's description of fragments that were blown off in its explosion, the original length of the bomb must have been at least 20 inches long. The unexploded bomb found near the cellar window was much smaller. It was only nine and three quarter inches long and was loaded with a mixture of powder and dynamite, intended to be exploded by a fuse.
According to F.M. McClintock, there were two lines of tracks showing some person's approach to his house. The tracks were made in fresh earth where the yard in front of his house had been filled a little and raked down level. The tracks indicated that the person who had planted the bomb walked with an ordinary stride on his approach, but the tracks leading from the house, exactly the same size as the others, indicated that the person leaving had left running.
These tracks in two separate and distinct trails were tracked over the newly worked roadway on Second Avenue across an onion bed in Dr. Rockwell's garden and then to within twenty five or thirty feet of Koehler's bake shop in the rear of his residence on Main Street. This trail showed that the person making it knew the area well enough to use the paths in the vicinity.
F.M. McClintock and other witnesses thought that the explosion had occurred about 3:00 o’clock Wednesday morning. Mr. McClintock said that he suspected Koehler because Koehler hated him since he had testified against him at the last term of court on the charge of keeping a disorderly house. From that time on, Koehler had tried to quarrel with Mr. McClintock. Koehler had followed McClintock into the store of Bolard and Hayes and called him hard names and in general, showed an ugly disposition.
L.D. Brown, the night watchman, corroborated Mr. McClintock's testimony in all respects and he fixed the time of the explosion at about 3 o'clock. Monroe Peck was called to the stand and testified that he had handled dynamite cartridges, fuse and caps during several months past and sold some on a percentage to Ed Graves. The caps and fuse came to him in half pound packages, labeled "Dynamite", and were used for blasting stumps, rocks, etc. He swore that Koehler had bought dynamite and fuses from him at different times. On March 29, Koehler bought six cartridges, six feet of fuse and some caps, and about April 24th he had bought more.
Constable C.M. Shreve testified that he opened the unexploded bomb found at McClintock's residence. He said the pipe had a screw thread cut in each end and that one end was fitted with a tight basswood plug and the other end with a plug that had a crease cut in the side to admit the fuse. The fuse in the bomb was about ten inches long and charred at the end for the space of an inch, as if it had been lighted and gone out. The pipe was filled with about equal proportions of gunpowder and dynamite. The powder was mostly at the ends as if to avoid danger of explosion in plugging the shells.
B.F. Camp was with officer Myers when he inspected Koehler's bakery and searched the house. They found no explosive, but some common sporting powder. Camp said that he saw Koehler near McClintock's house about 8 o'clock in the morning of the explosion and later had a talk with him at the bakery. Camp said that he asked Koehler about a report that he had seen a man come out on Main Street by Dr. Rockwell's place soon after the explosion. Koehler said yes, he saw the man walking leisurely and he met another man on Main Street. The two walked away together and Koehler said that he thought they were burglars. Koehler said that he had heard the explosion, but thought it was a "torpedo on the railroad."
Joseph Farrington and Lee Wilson testified about finding the unexploded bomb and moving it from the premises. Their evidence had no direct bearing on the guilt or innocence of Koehler.
Captain Sullivan testified about the unexploded bomb and its contents and told about his search of Koehler's house. He found a metal keg there containing about five pounds of powder. He took about half and pound and compared the powder with that in the bomb. Both were a peculiar grain, and matched exactly. Then Captain Sullivan went to see Mr. Graves, the agent for the dynamite and got a piece of the fuse from which the order to Peck was filled. He compared it with the fuse on the unexploded bomb and found the two fuses were identical in make and appearance. At this point, the counsel for the defense objected to any further supplementary testimony and Captain Sullivan did not continue.
Then the prosecution called Jerome Clemmons to show that Koehler had threatened to harm or kill Dr. Biles or Counsellor McClintock for their prosecution of him in the disorderly house matter. But Clemmons didn't have any evidence damaging to Koehler. The worse he remembered Koehler saying was that the law protected Dr. Biles.
After Mr. Peck, the witnesses testifying did not add anything to the cause. The prosecution rested and counsel for the defense moved for the prisoner's discharge, saying in effect that the accusation of Koehler was an idle tale of village gossip without any basis in the evidence before the court.
Colonel Thompson felt that sufficient evidence had been produced to warrant the holding of the accused and asked that it be done. Squire Jackson held Koehler in the sum of $1,500 for his appearance at the May term of Quarter Sessions Court. The prisoner couldn't post bail, so he was taken back to Erie on the 7:00 o'clock train by Captain Sullivan and lodged in jail.
An ironic coincidence happened in Koehler's case. The handcuffs used in taking him to the Erie jail turned out to be the same pair that had shackled him on his arrest at Port Jarvis in 1873, when he received his unserved sentence at Sing Sing.
J.R. Harrison, a citizen of Union City, had been a New York officer in 1873 who had helped arrest Frank and his gang and took them from Port Jervis to Goshen. The cuffs which had held Koehler then were brought to Union City by Harrison who lent them to Constable Myers. When Koehler was arrested the second time and taken to Erie by Captain Sullivan, he wore the same handcuffs that had bound his wrists fifteen years before.
At the Koehler trial in the Court of Quarter Sessions, the prosecution still could not produce enough evidence to convict Frank Koehler. On October 25,1888, the Erie Dispatch commented on the Koehler case. "Unless there are new developments in the case of the Commonwealth vs. Frank Koehler, the alleged dynamiter of Union City, it is doubtful whether the case will be tried again in this court."
The Dispatch said that if the case would not be tried again, Koehler would be surrendered to the New York State authorities, who had the necessary papers waiting in Erie to return him to Sing Sing prison.
In the meantime, the bakery had to operate. A story in the Union City Times revealed that it did continue to operate. The item said that Fred Koehler hired Bert S. Whiting, a first-class baker of many years experience to take charge of the bakery recently run by Frank Koehler. They continued to keep a full supply of fresh bread, biscuits, cake, pies, etc.
Soon they discovered that the residence of F.M. McClintock, Esq., on South Street, had been considerably damaged by the explosion of a dynamite bomb and he had narrowly escaped being killed. Someone had placed a dynamite bomb under the verandah near the front door of the house, and it had made a large hole in the ground, slightly shattering the foundation of the house. It ruined the verandah and every glass light in front of the building.
Another bomb had been placed in the rear of the house against the foundation, near the bedrooms of Mr. McClintock, his wife, and two children. For some reason, the bomb had failed to explode. The fuse had been lighted and partially burned, but then it went out. Lee Wilson and Joseph Farrington found the fuse placed against the back of the house about eight o'clock the same morning. The bomb was made of a piece of two inch glass pipe, about ten inches long, threaded on each end and plugged with wooden plugs. The part of the fuse that had not burned was about a foot long.
This latest bombing resembled another explosion and fire in which Dr. Biles and other people were seriously injured. It seemed that both were the work of an arsonist who used dynamite to insure the destruction of the buildings.
Union City law enforcement officials decided that they needed to devote full time to catching the person responsible. Their efforts paid off. About noon of the following day, a warrant was sworn out charging Frank Koehler, the baker, with having dynamited the McClintock residence. Officer Drake arrested Koehler and brought him before Squire William Jackson. Judge Jackson set bail in the sum of $1,000 and ordered Koehler to appear for a hearing next Tuesday.
As Frank Koehler was about to leave the court room, County Detective Sullivan stepped up and re-arrested him on the charge of being a fugitive from justice. The warrant claimed that he was sentenced to Sing Sing prison in February 1873, and escaped from the prison four months later by concealing himself in a lime barrel and being carried outside the wall. From 1873 until 1888, he evaded the police officers who were searching for him. After his rearrest, the police took Koehler to Erie and put him in the county jail to wait to be tried.
On Tuesday afternoon, May 8, 1888, Captain Sullivan, County Detective from Erie, brought Frank Koehler from jail in Erie back to Union City, where he had a hearing before Squire Jackson. F.M. McClintock preferred charges against him, alleging that he was the person who had fired the dynamite bomb at his home on the morning of May 1, 1888.
When the train arrived from Erie, a large and anxious crowd met the prisoner at the depot and followed him to the office of justice Jackson. Not even half of them could get into the packed room where the hearing was held. Many stood outside near a window where they could see and hear.
Captain Sullivan and Frank Koehler were accompanied by District Attorney Sisson and Colonel J. Ross Thompson who had been engaged as assistant counsel for the prosecutor. The defendant's counsel, George Olmstead, of Corry and the City Council waited for the rest of the party in the justice's office. Mr. Fisk of the Dispatch and Mr. Kelly of the Graphic were also in the party.
At four o'clock the trial began and F.M. McClintock's testimony was the first evidence that the prosecution presented. He produced the largest part of the exploded bomb as evidence. It was a piece of one and half inch pipe, about 16 inches long. From the witness's description of fragments that were blown off in its explosion, the original length of the bomb must have been at least 20 inches long. The unexploded bomb found near the cellar window was much smaller. It was only nine and three quarter inches long and was loaded with a mixture of powder and dynamite, intended to be exploded by a fuse.
According to F.M. McClintock, there were two lines of tracks showing some person's approach to his house. The tracks were made in fresh earth where the yard in front of his house had been filled a little and raked down level. The tracks indicated that the person who had planted the bomb walked with an ordinary stride on his approach, but the tracks leading from the house, exactly the same size as the others, indicated that the person leaving had left running.
These tracks in two separate and distinct trails were tracked over the newly worked roadway on Second Avenue across an onion bed in Dr. Rockwell's garden and then to within twenty five or thirty feet of Koehler's bake shop in the rear of his residence on Main Street. This trail showed that the person making it knew the area well enough to use the paths in the vicinity.
F.M. McClintock and other witnesses thought that the explosion had occurred about 3:00 o’clock Wednesday morning. Mr. McClintock said that he suspected Koehler because Koehler hated him since he had testified against him at the last term of court on the charge of keeping a disorderly house. From that time on, Koehler had tried to quarrel with Mr. McClintock. Koehler had followed McClintock into the store of Bolard and Hayes and called him hard names and in general, showed an ugly disposition.
L.D. Brown, the night watchman, corroborated Mr. McClintock's testimony in all respects and he fixed the time of the explosion at about 3 o'clock. Monroe Peck was called to the stand and testified that he had handled dynamite cartridges, fuse and caps during several months past and sold some on a percentage to Ed Graves. The caps and fuse came to him in half pound packages, labeled "Dynamite", and were used for blasting stumps, rocks, etc. He swore that Koehler had bought dynamite and fuses from him at different times. On March 29, Koehler bought six cartridges, six feet of fuse and some caps, and about April 24th he had bought more.
Constable C.M. Shreve testified that he opened the unexploded bomb found at McClintock's residence. He said the pipe had a screw thread cut in each end and that one end was fitted with a tight basswood plug and the other end with a plug that had a crease cut in the side to admit the fuse. The fuse in the bomb was about ten inches long and charred at the end for the space of an inch, as if it had been lighted and gone out. The pipe was filled with about equal proportions of gunpowder and dynamite. The powder was mostly at the ends as if to avoid danger of explosion in plugging the shells.
B.F. Camp was with officer Myers when he inspected Koehler's bakery and searched the house. They found no explosive, but some common sporting powder. Camp said that he saw Koehler near McClintock's house about 8 o'clock in the morning of the explosion and later had a talk with him at the bakery. Camp said that he asked Koehler about a report that he had seen a man come out on Main Street by Dr. Rockwell's place soon after the explosion. Koehler said yes, he saw the man walking leisurely and he met another man on Main Street. The two walked away together and Koehler said that he thought they were burglars. Koehler said that he had heard the explosion, but thought it was a "torpedo on the railroad."
Joseph Farrington and Lee Wilson testified about finding the unexploded bomb and moving it from the premises. Their evidence had no direct bearing on the guilt or innocence of Koehler.
Captain Sullivan testified about the unexploded bomb and its contents and told about his search of Koehler's house. He found a metal keg there containing about five pounds of powder. He took about half and pound and compared the powder with that in the bomb. Both were a peculiar grain, and matched exactly. Then Captain Sullivan went to see Mr. Graves, the agent for the dynamite and got a piece of the fuse from which the order to Peck was filled. He compared it with the fuse on the unexploded bomb and found the two fuses were identical in make and appearance. At this point, the counsel for the defense objected to any further supplementary testimony and Captain Sullivan did not continue.
Then the prosecution called Jerome Clemmons to show that Koehler had threatened to harm or kill Dr. Biles or Counsellor McClintock for their prosecution of him in the disorderly house matter. But Clemmons didn't have any evidence damaging to Koehler. The worse he remembered Koehler saying was that the law protected Dr. Biles.
After Mr. Peck, the witnesses testifying did not add anything to the cause. The prosecution rested and counsel for the defense moved for the prisoner's discharge, saying in effect that the accusation of Koehler was an idle tale of village gossip without any basis in the evidence before the court.
Colonel Thompson felt that sufficient evidence had been produced to warrant the holding of the accused and asked that it be done. Squire Jackson held Koehler in the sum of $1,500 for his appearance at the May term of Quarter Sessions Court. The prisoner couldn't post bail, so he was taken back to Erie on the 7:00 o'clock train by Captain Sullivan and lodged in jail.
An ironic coincidence happened in Koehler's case. The handcuffs used in taking him to the Erie jail turned out to be the same pair that had shackled him on his arrest at Port Jarvis in 1873, when he received his unserved sentence at Sing Sing.
J.R. Harrison, a citizen of Union City, had been a New York officer in 1873 who had helped arrest Frank and his gang and took them from Port Jervis to Goshen. The cuffs which had held Koehler then were brought to Union City by Harrison who lent them to Constable Myers. When Koehler was arrested the second time and taken to Erie by Captain Sullivan, he wore the same handcuffs that had bound his wrists fifteen years before.
At the Koehler trial in the Court of Quarter Sessions, the prosecution still could not produce enough evidence to convict Frank Koehler. On October 25,1888, the Erie Dispatch commented on the Koehler case. "Unless there are new developments in the case of the Commonwealth vs. Frank Koehler, the alleged dynamiter of Union City, it is doubtful whether the case will be tried again in this court."
The Dispatch said that if the case would not be tried again, Koehler would be surrendered to the New York State authorities, who had the necessary papers waiting in Erie to return him to Sing Sing prison.
In the meantime, the bakery had to operate. A story in the Union City Times revealed that it did continue to operate. The item said that Fred Koehler hired Bert S. Whiting, a first-class baker of many years experience to take charge of the bakery recently run by Frank Koehler. They continued to keep a full supply of fresh bread, biscuits, cake, pies, etc.