Mexicans obtain continuance and are sent to jail.

Nº 66

AHSRE L-E-921 FF. 055 a 056 2

St. Louis Globe Democrat, St. Louis, Missouri

23 de noviembre de 1906

Mexicans obtain continuance and are sent to jail.

One held without bond

Rivera is charged with attempted murder and robbery in México.

Aaron Lopez Manzano, or A.L. Apple, as he was known in St. Louis, and Librado Rivera, the two Mexicans arrested several days ago, was arraigned yesterday before the federal authorities. Both asked continuances of their hearings, which were granted. Manzano was before Commissioner Morsey, who set his hearing for December 1. Rivera was before Commissioner Gray. He asked for a postponement, and the case was set for November 30. Rivera was held without bond, and Manzano was unable to give a $1000 bond. Both were committed to the St. Louis jail.

Except that the identity of the men was established by their own statements, practically nothing of the case was brought out yesterday. When Rivera, who gave the name of Koro when arrested, was asked by the reporters who he was, he wrote on a pad in a good hand:

My name is Herbert Koro.

Manzano was looking over his shoulder and corrected him in Spanish. Then Rivera wrote:

My real name is Librado Rivera.

Asked to explain why he had two names, he said that he had assumed the name of Koro to avoid being persecuted by the Mexican government, which wanted to get hold of him on account of various alleged political offenses. He admitted being active in the liberal party movement in Mexico, and an enemy of the Diaz government, but denied being implicated in any murder or robbery plot, such as he is charged with.

New charge against Manzano.

A new charge was placed against Manzano yesterday. It is similar to the old charge of taking a letter from the mails addresser to another man. The new warrant alleges that on November 7 he took out a registered letter addressed to P.F. Magón, at 2645 Lafayette Avenue. The letter contained $2 and was sent by E.F. Williams of El Paso, Tex. The notice of the letter was forwarded by the letter carrier from 2645 Lafayette Avenue to 125 Convent Street. Manzano came to the post office with an order purporting to be signed by Magón, authorizing the delivery of the letter to him as A. L. Apple. It is alleged that the asignature of Magón was a forgery. Magón was one of the junta leaders. Manzano claimed yesterday that he would establish that Magón had given him authority to receive his mail. He said he did not know where Magón was.

Louis L. Boehnen and A.L. Hirsch appeared as attorneys for both men. Mr. Boehnen stated that he was Manzano's attorney in a suit he had some time ago in the circuit court. Mexican Consul Diebold acted as interpreter at Rivera's hearing. The warrant against Rivera, for whom extradition papers have been issued by the Mexican government, charges him with attempted murder and robbery in the state of Sonora. The warrant is lacking in the particulars of just when or where the offense occurred, who was the intended victim or victims of the plot and who the other conspirators were. Under the treaty with Mexico, Rivera is entitled to thirty days in which to present his defense.

Rivera denies guilt.

Rivera declares that he is guilty of no criminal offense in Mexico and that the charge is a subterfuge under which the Mexican government seeks to have him taken back in order to punish him as a political offender for his connection with the junta. He is 42 years old and has a wife and two children living at 125 Convent Street. He says he has lived in St. Louis for five years.

Manzano is the more intelligent of the two. He is 22 years old and speaks English fairly well. When it comes to leading questions, however he has a way of saying he does not understand and evading a direct answer. He stated that both he and Rivera had no connection with the junta except as printers on the paper issued here. He told about talking with former Senator Burton of Kansas in the Iron county jail, and said that Burton had advised him about his case. He stated that Rivera had been in jail in Mexico for political offenses; that Rivera came from San Luis Potosi, and that his own home was the City of Mexico.

The women relatives and friends of the two men did not appear at the marshal's office yesterday afternoon, where Manzano and Rivera stayed several hours before being sent to jail.

Mexicans held by Commissioner.

Librado Rivera, poorly clad, looking little like the well dressed editor of Regeneracion, the revolutionary paper published by the St. Louis junta at Nº 2647 Lafayette avenue until two months ago, told a reporter for The Republic at the charge of attempted murder and robbery placed against him was a subterfuge to get him back into Mexico, where, he believes, he will be shot, as will Antonio Villarreal, now in jail at El Paso, Tex.

Rivera was brought yesterday to the United States Marshall's office from Ironton, where he had been taken secretly November 12.

After admitting that he was Rivera, and not Koro, as he had maintained, the hearing before Commissioner Gray was adjourned to November 30.

Aaron Lopez Manzano, otherwise Aaron Apple, charged with unlawfully opening mail, was held for further hearing December 1. Both men were taken to the city jail. They will not go back to Ironton.

Rivera says arrest a trick.

My case is like that of Villarreal, said Rivera, We were both editors of the paper. Both of us are accused of political offenses in urging a revolution to free the poor of Mexico. If we are taken across the border we will be shot. They could not extradite us a political offender and have resorted to a trick to get us into that country.

Rivera is short in stature, a typical Mexican in appearance and unprepossessing. His misshapen chin, with its week's covering of beard, is surmounted by black eyes, penetrating and a little shifty. He is the opposite of the desperado type; indeed, he looks quite harmless.

I never attempted to kill anybody in Mexico continued Rivera. I never committed robbery. I have been in this country six years. I have committed no crime. This is just a game to get me back.

After Regeneracion ceased to issue went away from Nº 2647 Lafayette Avenue, but remained in the city. I was arrested when I visited my wife and my children. October 30. I said my name was Koro. They thought I was crazy and sent me to the observation ward.

I was first in the city jail as Koro for two days, and then out at the hospital ten days. They said I was Rivera, and held me on the trumped up charges.

Attorneys will fight case.

At this point A.L. Hirsch, a lawyer representing Rivera, said: The real charge is that he is a political offender, and they want to get him into Mexico. Diaz is an arbitrary Czar, and Rivera will be shot down if he is taken back there.

A new charge was placed against Manzano when he was arraigned before Commissioner Chase L. Morsey that on November 7 he opened and took $2 from a letter addressed to P.F. Magón, another member of the junta.

I had authority said Manzano, to open that letter or any letters addressed to the box for which I held the key. I was given that key by Magón before he fied. I could take out money and use it to buy food for the women down on Convent Street, who re left partly without support. I can produce my authority.

Inside of two hours from the time I was arrested a week ago Monday in the Post Office I was sent off to Ironton. I was given to opportunity to furnish bail. The arrest was kept secret.

They can't do anything with me, but if they ever get Rivera into Mexico they will kill him sure.

Hirsh and L. L. Boehmer, lawyer, both say they will fight extradition to the last, and will prevent, if possible, what they term an unwarranted, arbitrary proceeding.