Nitro-glycerin caps discovered on Bennett Farm

This story was published by The Ypsilanti Daily Press on Wednesday, January 30, 1930.

What is believed to have been a plot against the life a Clarence E. Bennett or other members of his household at Rawsonville was uncovered late Tuessday with the discovery of five nitro-glycerin caps and a coil of fuse, such as are used in exploding dynamite in a barn a short distance behind the Bennett home.

The five caps had been wrapped in paper and with the fuse were placed on one of a pile of small titles in the barn. They were discovered by Bennett as he was moving things about in the barn Tuesday and he at once informed Dick Elliott, deputy state commissioner of public safety, of the find.

This morning Deputy Sheriff Lynn Squires and two members of the state police post at Wayne visited the Bennett home and exploded the caps in a field. A search for further explosives, particularly dynamite which the plotters may have intended using, failed. The fact that the caps and the fuse were laid separately in the tile has led to the belief that they were not intended to do their deadly work alone, but that they had been planted there until a chare of dynamite could be brought to the place.

The caps appeared fresh as though they had only recently been placed where they were found although Bennett was unable today to recall any indications of persons having been around his property. He was unable to furnish the officers with definite information as to possible suspects who may have formed the plot against his life.

There was power enough in the caps themselves to tear a deep hole in a tree against which they were hung while the officers stood off at a distance and discharged them with bullets from a rifle.