Louis Lingg was a self confessed German anarchist, found guilty of his involvement in the Haymarket bombing in Chicago in 1886 that killed a number of police officers. Lingg was one of a number of agitators charged and found guilty. It appears in retrospect that the charges against the other six conspirators were weak to say the least, but against Lingg I think there was some degree of convincing evidence that he built the IED. Not least because of witnesses who testified that they were given IEDs by Lingg, and further, that IEDs were discovered in Linggs lodgings.
Here’s two pictures of an IED discovered in Lingg’s apartment.
The Haymarket bomb is thought to have been of a similar spherical design, but slightly smaller in diameter. The devices were lead spheres filled with dynamite, and initiated by a detonator/blasting cap attached to a burning fuze, inserted into the sphere.
There’s an image here of other devices, all generally filled with dynamite with a burning fuze.
Between the trial and the planned execution two strange things occurred in Linggs prison cell in Cook County jail.
Firstly during a search of his cell on December 6th four IEDs were discovered hidden under his bed. From the description of the devices they appear to have been pipe bombs. How the IEDs got into his prison cell is not known, but visitors to the prisoners had plenty of opportunity, reportedly, to hand over gifts.
Secondly, four days later, in the same cell, Lingg died. It’s the circumstances of his death that is intriguing. His death is described as a suicide, but frankly I think that explanation is unconvincing. The official story is that Lingg obtained a blasting cap, held it in his teeth and initiated it. He died in some agony six hours later from his wounds, his jaw having been blown off. It is believed that the blasting cap was smuggled into the jail by an accomplice, Dyer Lum, who hid it in a cigar.
Here’s my doubts and explanation:
Blasting caps can kill of course, but one could not be certain of death by initiating a detonator or blasting cap in one’s mouth. In a sense this is proven by Lingg’s painful death. Lingg probably knew that a detonator in his mouth would be an uncertain way of committing suicide.
Lum has been accused of planning to break the anarchists out of jail. Could the pipe bombs discovered 4 days earlier have been part of such a plot? Could this detonator have been associated with an attempt to break out of prison?
Crimping. Detonators/blasting caps need crimping onto the fuze. A crimping tool or pliers wouldn’t have been available in Lingg’s cell. Lingg wouldn’t have been the first person in history to resort to using his teeth to crimp a cap onto a fuze. He wouldn’t be the first person, either, for that simple action to go dreadfully wrong.
So, I am not convinced as to the intended suicide. Was he instead preparing an IED in his cell, perhaps big enough to blow the lock on his cell door in an attempt to escape? The truth is we will never know.