Anarchy and Anarchists: A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe; Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed; The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy and the Detection and Trial of the ConspiratorsSchaack, Michael J.
History
Anarchy and Anarchists: A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe; Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed; The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy and the Detection and Trial of the Conspirators
Officer Stift meantime had kept his eye on the individual across the
street, with instructions not to arrest him so long as he hovered
about the station, but, in the event of his going away any distance,
to take him in charge. The man at no time went far from his post; he
was too anxious to hear from the women. The moment Officer Loewenstein
had secured the information about his identity, he posted across the
street, and, hailing the man, said:
“John, I think you have been ‘ransacking’ around here long enough. Come
with me; the boys want to see you.”
“Who are the boys?” inquired Thielen.
“Capt. Schaack,” answered the officer.
“I don’t want to see him or have anything to do with him.” Thielen was
surprised as well as indignant.
“Well,” said the officer, “he would like to make your acquaintance.”
“You tell him that he don’t know me and I don’t know him; so what the
d——d does he want? Good-day, I am going home.”
“You must come in first and give an account of yourself.”
“I am a good man; I am not afraid.”
He went to the station rather reluctantly, still with an air of
innocence and bravery. The moment he stepped inside the office, I said
to him:
“John, you are an Anarchist. You are one of the rioters. You were at
the Haymarket meeting. You knew about the bombs. You are under arrest.”
“I am no Anarchist,” responded John, rather warmly. “I am a carpenter.”
“Yes,” said I, “you are both, and you live at 509 North Halsted Street.
I have no time now to talk to you. Whenever you want to see me send
word by the turnkey.”
On the second day, John sent word that he wanted to see me. He was
taken up into the office, and there he asked what benefit it would
be to him if he told all he knew. He was informed that we would
expect him to tell only the truth and not lie about any one or shield
any one who was guilty of wrong-doing. If he did all this honestly
and conscientiously the State would, no doubt, reward him for his
information. Thielen assented to the proposition, but he told very
little at this interview. He was brought up again the next day, and
from the questions put he soon discovered that some one had been
telling the truth about him.
“Now I will tell you all I know,” he said, “and let it fall where it
belongs. What I say I will swear to. I see every one is trying to get
out. First I will tell you what I did myself, and then what the others
did.”
He accordingly made a long statement, but as substantially the same
facts were brought out in the trial by other witnesses, he was never
called on to testify. Since then Thielen has abandoned Anarchy and is a
better man.
The statement Thielen made runs as follows, and it will be noticed by
reference to the trial proceedings that, had he been a witness, he
would have fully corroborated the testimony given by Seliger and his
wife. On being shown, at the station, some round lead bombs, he said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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