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Show BOMB PL A CERS A T TEMP T 'fO ASSASSIN A TE FORMER ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: PLOT DEATH OF OFFICIAL IMOF Residence of Prosecutor in Los Angeles Destroyed; De-stroyed; Oscar Lawler and Wife Are Victims. Police Discover Evidence of Deliberate Plan at Murder; Dragnet Is Cast . for Miscreants. LOS ANGELES, Aug. 3 Physicians Phy-sicians attending Oscar Lawler and. Ills wife, victims of a bomb explosion explo-sion here early today, announced tonight that Mr. Lawler's chances , for recovery were about even. Mrs. Lawler, they said, would recover. LOS ANGELES, Aug. 3. Revcngo for the part he played in the prosecution prosecu-tion of a group of dynamiters in tho middle west several years ago, was assigned by the police here aB tho probable motive for an attempt on tho life of Oscar Lawler, former assistant assist-ant attorney general of the l.'nited States. Mr. Lawler's home was practically prac-tically destroyed by a bomb and Subsequent Sub-sequent fire here early today and ho and Mrs. Lawler both seriously burned and otherwise injured. The Lawler home was a largo briek and framo structure in the fashionable 'Wilsliire district in the west part of the city. Mr. and Mrs. Lawler were sleeping on a porch on the south side of the house, opening from a second floor room and screened from the street by an angle of the building. Miss Bessie Bes-sie Mills, a nurse, and Oscar Lawler, Jr., were sleeping on a screened porch nt the rear or east end of the house. ESCAPE IS CUT OFF BY FLAME AND SMOKE. When the explosion came a sheet of flame at once rushed up the side of the house, directly below the porch occupied oc-cupied by the Lawlcrs, and cut off possible pos-sible escape toward the outside. Mr. Lawler and his wife went inlo tho house and tried to make their way to the rear porch, where their son was with the nurse. They were, cut off by smoke and flame and when Mrs. Lawler Law-ler realized this she ' fainted. Mr. Lawler took her in his arms, carried her through flames to the front of the house and dropped her to an awning over the front veranda, whence she rolled to the ground. He then leaped after her. The young son and nurse were rescued res-cued from the porch by neighbors. Another An-other son :ind (laughter were away from home at the time. GASOLINE USED TO INSURE DESTRUCTION. A thorough investigation by city, county, state and federal authorities led to the belief that the bomb was placed between two five-gallon cans filled with gasoline, or some other highly inflammable liquid. Experts working on the case found fragments of the bomb sufficient to reconstruct it. They said it had been made of a piece ot iron pipe about ten inches high and six inches in diameter. Two discs of metal had been placed as ends, apparently held in place by two bolts passing through both ends and the pipe itself. They also found the two five-gallon five-gallon cans that had contained liquid. The bomb and the cans had been placed on a concrete walk, almost directly di-rectly below where the Lawlcrs lay sleeping. One of the discs which th experts believe to have been an end of the honili was hurled through thick (Continued on Page 3. Column 2.) PLOT DEATH OF ! TRIAL OFFICIAL .(Continued from Page One.) lieduca and a tieht board fence and was found imbedded in the brick wall 112 feet from the place of the explosion. ex-plosion. Shreds of metal -which fitted lo the larger pieces of the bomb were found 10(1(1 feet away. A steel door mat that had been under un-der the bomb left a depression in the concrete. The destruction of the home was caused principally by fire; little damage dam-age to the building apparently was done by trie explosion. MAN IN AUTOMOBILE DROPS DEATH BOMB. Shortly before 3 o'clock this morning, morn-ing, according to information gathered by the police, a man driving an automobile auto-mobile stopped in front of the Lawler residence at New Hampshire street and Wilshire boulevard, in an exclusive residential res-idential district. He dropped something, leaped into the car and rapidly drove away. An explosion followed almost immediately. imme-diately. The house burst Into flames. Mr. Lawler, his wife and one child were trapped within. William Lacy, an iron master, and Ed Pulford, who were driving past the house, hurriedly obtained a bidder and rescued Oscar Lawler, Jr., o years old. Mr. Lawler dragged his wife to a window- and in the midst of flames lowered her from an upper story until her feet touched an awning over a window win-dow on the ground floor. Then he leaped to the ground. They were removed re-moved to the Sisters hospital. Two other of the three Lawler children. chil-dren. Charles and Jane, were out of the citj", visiting at the ranch of Dan Murphy, the oil producer, at Pebbly Beach. LAWLER HAS ENJOYED EXTRAORDINARY CAREER. Oscar Lawler achieved prominence through his own endeavors, starting life as a poor boy and concluding his official public activities as assistant attorney general during the Taft administration. ad-ministration. He was born at Marshalltown, Ia April 2, 1875, the son of William and Margaret O'Connor Lawler. He was educated in the public schools and early showed an inclination for flie law. Coming to California as a youth, he worked and studied. Becoming secretary secre-tary to Judge Erskine M. Ross of the United States circuit court, he read law with that jurist and was admitted to the bar in 189b', when only 21 years old. For a time he practiced as a member of a legal firm well known in California Califor-nia and in 1905-7 served as United States attorney for the southern district dis-trict of California. He resigned that position and later became assistant United States attorney general for interior in-terior department, serving from Mav 1, 1909, to May 1, 1911. He resigned from that position also and returned to Los Angeles and the private practice of the law. He w-as a special prosecutor of the alleged dynamiters whose trial at Indianapolis In-dianapolis a few years ago was of international in-ternational interest. He also served locally lo-cally as an investigator and prosecutor of men accused of similar crimes. Political he is a Republican. Mr. Lawler is a director of one of the leading Los Angeles banks, major and judge advocate for a time of the first brigade, national guard of California, grand master of the grand lodge of Masons of California and member of the American Bar association, American Ameri-can Society of International Law and the Los Angeles Bar association. He is a member of the Jonathan and Concordia Con-cordia clubs of Los Angeles and of the Metropolitan of Washington, D. C. On June 17, 1901, he was married to Miss Hilda Erode of Los Angeles. Three children were born to them, Charles, Lady Jane and Oscar, Jr. |