Pipe Bomb Explodes in Dorm at Trinity College, Jan. 5, 1922

Bomb Thrown Into Dormitory at Trinity. . . It Exploded in Unused Room in Alspaugh Hall and Did Little Damage

Durham, Jan. 5—A lead pipe bomb thrown into an unused room at Alspaugh hall, Trinity college dormitory this morning at o’clock (number omitted) shattered two window panes of the building and damaged a wall seat in the room. R.L. Humphries, night watchman at Trinity, discovered the place of the explosion 45 minutes later when he chased a thick, heavy set man from off a roof in the rear of the building. Of the young men sleeping in the dormitory only two were awakened by the noise. No motive can be assigned for the act. Mr. Humphries is sure that the person chased from the roof was not a student.

According to the story told by the night watchman, he was in his room at 3 o’clock when he heard a muffled explosion. Immediately he went to the Crewell science hall to investigate, thinking that some chemical apparatus had exploded. His search revealed nothing. Forty-five minutes later, he says, he started on his hourly tour of inspection of the college buildings. While going through the library he heard a peculiar sound at the rear and outside of the building. Hastening in the direction of the sound, he discovered a man standing on a roof which projects over a flight of steps leading to the basement of Alspaugh hall. This roof is on a level with the first story windows of the building and hemmed in on either side by wings of the dormitory. The man plunged through the window on the level of the roof and escaped through the building.

The explosion was explained when a crudely constructed bomb was found on the floor beneath the window through which the man had plunged. It was made from a lead pipe six inches long and an inch in diameter.

From the Greensboro News, January 5, 1922, as reprinted in The Smithfield Herald, January 10, 1922. Trinity College would later became Duke University.