Two of the principal defendants in the Christian Front seditious conspiracy trial once discussed the advisability of “recommending the shooting of Congressmen from a platform,” FBI Agent Roy H. Barnard testified today on the basis of a conversation he listened to by detectaphone. The defendants were identified as John F. Cassidy and William Gerald Bishop.
A statement by William Henry Bushnell Jr., youngest of the defendants, was read to the court by FBI Agent Walter J. Higgins, who had arrested him. The 18-year-old defendant said he had joined the Christian Front and “since then I have come to believe the Government of the United States is controlled by the Jewish race.”
On Bushnell’s person when he was arrested, Higgins testified, was a pencilled sketch of the floor plan of the Dally Worker, Communist newspaper, and also the floor plan of the Morning Freiheit, Yiddish Communist publication in the same building. Other witnesses have testified to hearing the defendants discuss plans for bombing the Daily Worker, but this was the first mention of the Freiheit.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
