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Wall Street bombing

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Wall Street Bombing
The aftermath of the explosion.
Federal Hall is at the right.
LocationNew York City, New York
DateSeptember 16, 1920
12:01 pm (local time)
TargetWall Street
Attack type
bomb concealed in horse-drawn wagon
Deaths38
Injured400
PerpetratorsGalleanist anarchists are suspected
MotivePossible revenge for arrest of Sacco and Vanzetti

The Wall Street bombing occurred at 12:01 p.m. on September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of New York City. The blast killed 38 and seriously injured 143.[1] Although the bombing was never solved, investigators and historians think it likely the Wall Street bombing was done by Galleanists (Italian anarchists), a group responsible for the bombings in 1919. The attack was believed related to postwar social unrest, labor struggles and anti-capitalist agitation in the United States.

It was more deadly than the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in 1910 and caused the most fatalities on U.S. soil until the Bath School bombings in Michigan seven years later. It was the worst disaster in New York since the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Attack

At noon, a horse-drawn wagon passed by lunchtime crowds on Wall Street in New York City and stopped across the street from the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan bank at 23 Wall Street, on the Financial District's busiest corner. Inside, 100 pounds (45 kg) of dynamite with 500 pounds (230 kg) of heavy, cast-iron sash weights exploded in a timer-set detonation,[2] sending the slugs tearing through the air.[3] The horse and wagon were blasted into small fragments, but the driver was believed to have left the vehicle and escaped.

The 38 victims, most of whom died within moments of the blast, were mostly young people who worked as messengers, stenographers, clerks and brokers. Many of the wounded suffered severe injuries.[4] The bomb caused more than $2 million in property damage and destroyed most of the interior spaces of the Morgan building.[5]

Reaction

The Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation (BOI) did not immediately conclude that the bomb was an act of terrorism. Investigators were puzzled by the number of innocent people killed and the lack of a specific target, other than buildings that suffered relatively superficial, non-structural damage. Exploring the possibility of an accident, police contacted businesses that sold and transported explosives.[6] By 3:30 pm, the board of governors of the asses New York Stock Exchange had met and decided to open for business the next day. Crews cleaned up the area overnight to allow for normal business operations the next day, but in doing so they destroyed physical evidence that might have helped police investigators solve the crime.[7] The local assistant district attorneys noted that the timing and location were too precise for the explosion to have been an accident, and given the target, he suspected Bolsheviks, anarchists, communists, or socialists.[8] Investigators soon focused on radical groups opposed to the U.S. government and capitalism. Authorities noted that the Wall Street bomb was detonated in a public place and used shrapnel to increase casualties among financial workers and institutions during the busy lunch hour. Officials eventually blamed anarchists and communists. The Washington Post called the bombing an "act of war."[9] The Sons of the American Revolution had previously scheduled a rally on September 17 to celebrate Constitution Day at the same intersection. Thousands attended in a show of patriotism and in defiance of the previous day's attack.[10]

The bombing caused renewed police and governmental investigation into the activities and movements of foreign radicals. It stimulated the development of the U.S. Justice Department's General Intelligence Division of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), forerunner of the FBI.[citation needed]

The same day, the BOI released the contents of flyers found in a post office box in the Wall Street area just before the explosion. Printed in red ink on white paper, they said: "Remember, we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners, or it will be sure death for all of you." At the bottom was: "American Anarchist Fighters."[11] The BOI quickly decided that the flyer eliminated the possibility of an accidental explosion. William J. Flynn, Director of the BOI, suggested the flyers were similar to those found at the June 1919 anarchist bombings.[12]

The September 16th Wall Street bomb killed 38 people, the city's worst disaster since the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Investigations

The investigation conducted by the Bureau of Investigation stalled when none of the victims turned out to be the driver of the wagon. Though the horse was newly shod, investigators could not locate the stable responsible for the work.[13] When the blacksmith was located in October, he could offer the police little information.[14]

The Bureau of Investigation and local police investigated the case for over three years without success. Occasional arrests garnered headlines but each time they failed to support indictments.[15] Most of the investigation focused on the same network of Galleanist anarchists which law enforcement claimed was tied to the 1919 bombings and to Sacco and Vanzetti.[16] During President Warren G. Harding's administration, officials evaluated the Soviets as possible masterminds of the Wall Street bombing[17] and then the Communist Party USA.[18] In 1944, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, successor to the BOI, investigated again. It concluded that its agents had explored many radical groups, "such as the Union of Russian Workers, the I.W.W., Communist, etc....and from the result of the investigations to date it would appear that none of the aforementioned organizations had any hand in the matter and that the explosion was the work of either Italian anarchists or Italian terrorists."[19]

One Galleanist in particular, Mario Buda (1884–1963), an associate of Sacco and Vanzetti whose car led to the arrest of the latter for a separate robbery and murder, is alleged by some historians, including Paul Avrich, to have planted the bomb. Avrich believes Buda acted in revenge for the arrest and indictment of his fellow Galleanists.[20] Buda's involvement was confirmed by statements made by his nephew Frank Maffi and the writer Charles Poggi, who interviewed Buda in Savignano, Italy, in 1955.[20] Buda (at that time known by the alias of Mike Boda) had eluded authorities at the time of the arrests of Sacco and Vanzetti, was experienced in the use of dynamite and other explosives, and is believed to have constructed several of the largest package bombs for the Galleanists. These included a large black powder bomb that killed nine policemen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1917.[21][22][23][24][25] Buda was in New York City at the time of the bombing, but he was neither arrested nor questioned by police.

After leaving New York, Buda resumed the use of his real name in order to secure a passport from the Italian vice-consul, then promptly sailed for Naples. By November he was back in his native Italy, never to return to the United States. But Galleanists in the US attempted several more assassinations, ending with a 1932 bomb that targeted Webster Thayer, judge in the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, who survived the attack that destroyed his house and injured his wife and housekeeper.[26]

Remnants of the damage from the 1920 bombing are still visible on 23 Wall Street.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009; pp. 160-161.
  2. ^ Bruce Watson, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind (NY: Viking Press, 2007) 77
  3. ^ Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 132-3
  4. ^ Gage, 329-30.
  5. ^ New York Times: "Havoc Wrought in Morgan Offices," September 17, 1920, accessed February 4, 2010
  6. ^ New York Times: "Explosives Stores All Accounted For," September 17, 1920, accessed February 4, 2010
  7. ^ Beverly Gage, The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror, New York: Oxford University Press (2009), pp. 160-161
  8. ^ Gage, 150-1
  9. ^ History News Service: Beverly Gage, "The First Wall Street Bomb", accessed September 16, 2010
  10. ^ Gage, 166-8
  11. ^ Gage, 171
  12. ^ Gage, 172; see also New York Times: "Funds are Needed in Fight on Reds," September 19, 1920, accessed February 4, 2010
  13. ^ Gage, 174-5
  14. ^ Gage, 225-6
  15. ^ Gage, 217-9, 249-53
  16. ^ Gage, 207-28
  17. ^ Gage, 261-90
  18. ^ Gage, 295-308
  19. ^ Gage, 325
  20. ^ a b Avrich, Paul, Anarchist Voices, An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Princeton: Princeton University Press (1996), Interview of Charles Poggi, pp. 132-133: Among other interesting admissions, Buda acknowledged that Niccola Sacco was in fact present ("Sacco c'era") at the South Braintree payroll robbery and murder for which he was eventually executed. Cite error: The named reference "avrich96p132" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  21. ^ Milwaukee Police Department Officer Memorial Page from the City of Milwaukee website
  22. ^ Watson, Bruce, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind, Viking Press (2007), ISBN 0670063533, 9780670063536, p. 15
  23. ^ Balousek, Marv, and Kirsh, J. Allen, 50 Wisconsin Crimes of the Century, Badger Books Inc. (1997) ISBN 1878569473, 9781878569479, p. 113: The 1917 bomb used black powder with a homemade sulfuric acid/metal plate "time" fuse, which failed to explode until the package was opened at the police station. By 1920, it is notable that Galleanist bombmaker(s) had apparently discontinued the use of the unreliable acid detonators in favor of dynamite with an electric blasting cap and a clock wired to a battery as a timed detonator.
  24. ^ Avrich, Paul, Anarchist Voices, pp. 130-132
  25. ^ Dell’Arti, Giorgio, La Storia di Mario Buda, Io Donna, 26 gennaio 2002, http://www.memoteca.it/upload/dl/E-Book/Mario_Buda.pdf
  26. ^ Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, Princeton University Press (1991), ISBN 0691026041, 9780691026046, 213

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