H. F. Krueger, a police officer, heard the cry, “Here they are now, the bloodhounds!” from the wagon at the Haymarket, and thought it was Fielden who uttered it. “I saw Fielden,” said he, “pistol in hand, take cover behind the wagon and fire at the police. I returned his fire and was myself immediately shot in the knee-cap. I saw Fielden in the crowd and shot at him again. He staggered, but did not fall, and I lost him. There were no pistol-shots fired before the bomb exploded.” This testimony was in every detail corroborated by John Wessler, another police officer, the next witness, and by Peter Foley, an officer.
Luther Moulton, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, an officer of the Knights of Labor, testified to a conversation which he had had with August Spies when the latter went to Grand Rapids to deliver a lecture, on February 22, 1885. Spies told the witness that the only manner in which the laborers could get a fair division of the product of their labor was by force and arms. He said they had three thousand men organized in Chicago, with superior weapons of warfare. There might be bloodshed, Spies said to him, for that happened frequently in revolutions. If they failed, it would be a punishable crime. If they succeeded, it would be a revolution. George Washington would have been punished had he failed. “I am quite certain,” Moulton said, “that the term ‘explosives’ was used in connection with arms.” On cross-examination Moulton stated that the Grand Rapids police had furnished him the means to come to Chicago. All of Moulton’s material statements were repeated on the stand by Geo. W. Shook, who had been present at the conversation referred to.
James Bowler, Lieutenant of Police, in command of twenty-seven men, testified that he did not recognize any one firing.
“After the explosion I said to my men: ‘Fire and kill all you can.’ I drew my own revolver; I had it in my breast coat side pocket. In marching, I heard the words: ‘Here come the bloodhounds,’ said by somebody close to the wagon. I fired nine shots myself. I reloaded. While marching, the men had their arms in their pockets. I noticed the lamp at Crane’s alley was out.”
On cross-examination he stated that he heard the remark about bloodhounds, but did not know who uttered it. He continued:
“There was a kind of light on the wagon, a kind of a torch. I saw firing close by the wagon after the explosion, but not from in the wagon. I saw no one either in the wagon or getting out of the wagon do any firing. I saw Mr. Fielden coming off of the wagon very plainly.”
Several officers testified to the scene about the wagon, and Thomas Greif, the occupant of the premises 54 West Lake Street, described the basement where the “Ypsilon” meeting was held. Following him was proffered more direct evidence that Fielden had fired the shot, and then James Bonfield took the stand, and described the search that was made in the Arbeiter-Zeitung office. Said he:
“In Mr. Spies’ office I found a small piece of fuse, a fulminating cap, and a large double-action revolver; about five inches of fuse. I found the revolver under a wash-stand in the office; that dirk file was along with them (indicating), with a paper doubled over them loosely. The fuse is an ordinary fuse; the fulminate is in the end of the cap. The fuse is inserted that way (indicating), and the cap is pinched, and that is inserted in dynamite and the hole closed. I never saw the cap used for anything except dynamite and nitro-glycerine. I have used it in mines for that purpose. The power of the cap itself don’t amount to anything. I found that ‘Revenge’ circular, as it is called, in Spies’ office, where I arrested him. This box (indicating) contains a great many empty shells, evidently for the Winchester improved rifle; there are also some empty and some loaded sporting cartridges. The pistol is a 44-caliber, I think. On the 5th, after the arrest of Spies, that night I took down some reporters. I had a conversation with Spies that night, and I think with Fielden. The reporter carried on the major part of the conversation. Mr. Spies stated there had been a meeting of the Central Labor Union that evening previous to the Haymarket meeting. He mentioned a man by the name of Brown, and a man by the name of Ducey that attended that meeting, and when they adjourned there they went down to the Haymarket. He spoke of the gathering of the crowd, how it threatened to rain, how they went on the side street, and about Fielden speaking at the time the police came. He said he was on the wagon at that time, and a young Turner was there who had told him the police were coming, told him to come down, took him by the hand and helped him down. He afterwards gave his name as Legner; he claimed the police had opened fire on them. He said when he got off the wagon he went in the east alley and came out on Randolph Street. He approved of the method, but thought it was a little premature; that the time had hardly arrived to start the revolution or warfare. After that I took the reporters around to Fielden.
“Fielden said he was there when the police came up; he got wounded in this alley. Then he got a car, and, I think, went around to the corner of Twelfth and Halsted, or Van Buren and Halsted, and then he got another car and went down to the Arbeiter-Zeitung office to see if any of his friends had got back there; that from there he went over to the Haymarket again to see if any more of his comrades were hurt. I know Fischer. I was at his house. He was arrested at the same time, or a few minutes after Spies and Schwab were arrested. His house is 170 or 176 North Wood Street. I went there with Mr. Furthmann and, I think, Officer Doane. It was about nine or ten o’clock. I made a search of the house. In a closet, under the porch at the front door, I found a piece of gas-pipe about three and a half feet long. There was no gas connection in the house. The gas-pipe was an inch or an inch and a quarter in diameter. I laid it down again. I searched around and went back again, and couldn’t find it in a day after. I remember a conversation with Fischer afterwards, in the office. He was asked to explain how he came by a fulminating cap which was found in his pocket at the time of the arrest. He said he got it from a Socialist who used to visit Spies’ office about four months previous. He claimed he didn’t know what it was, and had carried it in his pocket for four months. After some conversation he acknowledged that he knew what it was, and had read an account of it and the use of it in Herr Most’s ‘Science of War.’ That conversation was at a detective’s office. The fulminating cap looked to be perfectly new, and the fulminate was fresh and bright in the inside. There was no fuse attached to it. He told of being at the Haymarket meeting until a few minutes before the explosion of the bomb, and he went from there to Zepf’s Hall, and was there at the time of the explosion. He acknowledged that he had gotten up the circular headed ‘Attention, Workingmen,’ and that it was printed at Wehrer & Klein’s. I think their own office was closed, and he went over to Wehrer & Klein’s and got it printed over there; I think 2,500 copies—25,000 or 2,500.”
On cross-examination witness testified as follows: