WALL STREET BOMBING HM.qxd 6/29/2011 12:39 PM Page 1

TERRORISM Terror on : The Bombing of 1920

Chuck Lyons examines the unsolved bombing that tore through City’s Financial District

ON 16 SEPTEMBER 1920, a wagon horrorstruck at the sight, one of Governor’s Island, were also dis- pulled by an old, dark bay horse these forms, half-naked and patched to the scene, and bodies passed through the lunch time seared with burns, started to rise. were laid out on the sidewalk and crowds in ’s Finan- It struggled, then toppled and fell covered with white sheets. cial District and stopped across lifeless to the gutter,” wrote Associ- later the street from , the ated Press reporter George Weston referred to the bombing as an “act headquarters of the J.P. Morgan & who witnessed the blast. “(The of war.” Co. bank. It was the Financial Dis- bomb) turned into a shamble the By 3:30 PM the day of the trict’s busiest corner. A few sec- onds later, as the bells of the nearby Trinity Church tolled noon, the wagon exploded, the 100 pounds (45 kg) of dynamite inside the wagon demolishing the 500 pounds (230 kg) of heavy, cast iron sash weights packed against it, unleashing thousands of shards of razor sharp iron shrapnel. The cast iron shrapnel and glass from the windows of nearby office buildings flew everywhere, tearing into pedestrians, other wagons, motor cars, and the fronts of buildings, including into the Morgan building, where several of the bank’s partners were injured. (Morgan himself was traveling in Europe that day.) Thirty-nine peo- ple were killed, mostly young peo- ple who worked as messengers, stenographers, clerks, and brokers in the area. Thomas Joyce, the chief Morgan clerk, died at his desk. Another 143 people, includ- ing Morgan’s son, Junius, were wounded, and the blast caused The aftermath of the explosion; is on the right. more than $2 million in property damage ($21.5 million in 2011 dol- lars). Most of the interior space of busiest corner of America’s finan- attack, the New York Stock the Morgan building was cial center.” Exchange’s board of governors destroyed. Trading on the exchange floor had met and set in motion plans Smoke mixed with greenish was stopped, the first time it had to open for business the next day. flames and swirled along the ever been halted due to violence, Included in those plans was dis- street and into the narrow lanes and within minutes, 1,700 New patching workers to clean the area running off it. York City policemen and 75 Red overnight. Investigators later said “Almost in front of the steps Cross nurses, many of who had that cleanup may have removed leading up to the Morgan bank served in World War I, were work- evidence that could have been was the mutilated body of a man. ing to secure the situation and helpful in solving the crime. Other bodies, most of them silent tend to the wounded. Troops from The investigation into the in death, lay nearby. As I gazed the 22nd Infantry, garrisoned on attack began almost immediately. History Magazine • August/September 2011 33 HM.qxd 6/29/2011 12:39 PM Page 2

TERRORISM

The Federal Bureau of Investi- lian, 25-30 years old”. the Wall Street bomb, were com- gation (FBI) began by looking into The investigation continued posed of dynamite and metal that the possibility that the explosion for three more years without any created devastating shrapnel. The was an accident, but were soon success. eight bombs killed a night watch- forced to abandon this theory. The Early on, however, suspicion man, a woman who had been timing and location of the blast had crystallized around the Gal- passing by one of the victim’s seemed too precise and the nature leanists, a group of Italian anar- homes, and one of the . of the bomb seemed to be aimed chists, who had been held All of the bombs were accompa- at causing the maximum amount responsible for some 30 package nied by a flyer that read: “War, of damage. bombs that had been sent to politi- Class war, and you were the first The focus began to shift to cians, justice officials, and to wage it under the cover of the anarchist and communist groups, financiers (including financier powerful institutions you call and within days of the attack, John D. Rockefeller) the previous order, in the darkness of your there were calls on Congress and year. laws. There will have to be blood- the Department of Justice to Group members were follow- shed; we will not dodge; there will increase funding to counter the ers of , an Italian have to be murder: we will kill, perceived threat of these groups to the citizens of the United States. That suspicion was strength- ened the day after the attack when a note was found in a mail- box a block from the attack which said: “Remember. We will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be death for all of you. American Anarchist Fighters!” Eyewitnesses reported seeing an “Italian man” fleeing the scene, and another witness described seeing an “East Side peddler.” On the day following the attack, thousands of people gath- ered for a previously-scheduled rally of the Sons of the American Revolution at the same corner. What had originally been Victims of the bombing in front of J.P. Morgan & Co. The September 16th Wall planned as a patriotic celebration Street bomb killed 38 people, the city’s worst disaster since the 1911 Triangle Shirt- of Constitution Day turned into a waist Factory fire. rally against whoever had bombed the corner and in memory anarchist, who resided in the because it is necessary; there will of those killed and injured. United States from 1901 to 1919. have to be destruction; we will The investigation slowed Galleani had settled in Patterson, destroy to rid the world of your when an examination of the dead New Jersey, where he was active tyrannical institutions.” revealed that none of them as a speaker and an editor of an Galleani died of a heart attack appeared to be the driver of the anarchist journal, La Questione at age 70 in 1931. wagon. Two charred horse’s Sociale. He constantly advocated It was also suggested the hooves were found near the front the overthrow of governments by attack may have been revenge for of Trinity Church, however, and violent means and was said to be the indictment, several days ear- showed the horse had recently an extremely charismatic speaker. lier, of Italian anarchists Nicola been shod. Believing the hooves According to one Italian immi- Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for may have come from the horse grant, “You heard Galleani speak, the murder of two men during an that pulled the bomb-laden and you were ready to shoot the April 1920 armed robbery in South wagon, investigators began can- first policeman you saw”. Braintree, Massachusetts. The two vassing every blacksmith in the Galleani and eight of his men, who had ties to the Gal- city and then along the Atlantic adherents were deported to Italy leanists, had been arrested in May seaboard. In October, they finally in June 1919, three weeks after the and indicted shortly before the located the blacksmith who had Galleanists managed to blow up September 16 attack. They were done the work. He recalled the eight large bombs in several differ- eventually executed. It could also man and described him as “Sicil- ent US cities. These bombs, like have been in revenge for Gal- 34 History Magazine • August/September 2011 WALL STREET BOMBING HM.qxd 6/29/2011 12:39 PM Page 3

Damage from the devastating 1920 Wall Street bombing is still visible today on the walls of 23 Wall Street. Hand shows the scale of the marks. (Image used courtesy of Norton Juster, wikipedia)

leani’s deportation, which had tigators (and historians who have quarters is still there and parts of occurred about 15 months before examined the bombing over the the building still show damage the Wall Street attack. years) was a man named Mario from the bombing — marks in the The Wall Street bombing, Buda (also known as Mike Boda), building’s marble facing caused however, was never solved. a known Galleanist and an associ- by flying shards of cast iron sash The investigation had ate of . Boda weights on a September day 90 involved government officials in was known to be experienced in years ago. the investigation of political and the use of dynamite and is sus- anti-American groups including pected of having built large pack- the Soviets and the Communist age bombs for the Galleanists, Party USA. As late as 1944, the FBI including one that killed nine again investigated the bombing. It policemen and a civilian woman HM also looked at a number of radical in , Wisconsin in 1917. groups, including the Industrial Boda was also known to be in Chuck Lyons is a retired newspa- Workers of the World (IWW), a New York City at the time of the per editor and a freelance writer leftist labor organization, and bombing. who has written extensively on Communists groups but could He was never detained and historical subjects. His work has find no evidence linking any of questioned in connection with the appeared in national and interna- them with the bombing. Wall Street bombing, however, tional periodicals, and he was the “It would appear,” the 1941 and later left the country returning 2008 winner of the Harryman FBI report concluded, “that the to his native Italy. He never Dorsey Award for an outstanding explosion was the work of either returned to the United States. article on Colonial American his- Italian anarchists or Italian terror- J.P. Morgan & Co. no longer tory. Lyons resides in Rochester, NY with his wife, Brenda, and ists.” exists, at least not as a separate their beagle, Gus. Especially of interest to inves- entity, but its 23 Wall Street head- History Magazine • August/September 2011 35 Copyright of History Magazine is the property of Moorshead Magazines Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.