The 1920 Wall Street Bombing

0:00At 12.01 pm on Thursday, September 16, 1920, a large explosion went off in the heart of America's financial industry. 30 people were killed instantly, another 8 people died later from wounds, and 150 others were seriously injured. No one was ever brought to justice for this attack, leading people to wonder who the culprit or culprits were to this day. Learn more about the 1920 Wall Street bombing on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Comprehensive. Witty. Speculative. Critical. Insightful. Profound. Wide-ranging. I'm David Remnick, and each week on the New Yorker Radio Hour, my colleagues and I try to make sense of what's happening in this chaotic world. I hope you'll join us for the New Yorker Radio Hour, wherever you listen to podcasts.

1:03The thoughtful, exquisite, just, you know, real. I've been having a hard time trying to explain what Midnight Burger is. How about I let them give it a shot? Your podcast is amazing. Such an amazing show altogether. There is a fact of Lee Ruin, all other audio dramas for me. You can't get people to understand the human being that happens in the Stam Show. Keep doing what you're doing, because it's awesome. You might not think it, but you are far more important than you realize. Thank you. At the nexus of all things, there is a diner. Look for Midnight Burger on your favorite podcasting app, or just go to www.weopenat6.com. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, violent attacks by anarchists were becoming commonplace. They targeted heads of state like US President William McKinley, as well as symbols of bourgeoisie society, like the French Chamber of Deputies, which was the victim of a bombing attack in 1893.

2:06These violent anarchists were part of a radical fringe of the anarchist movement. Anarchism rejects coercive hierarchies, especially the state, in favors voluntary cooperation and self-governance. Anarchists generally argue that society can be organized through decentralized communities, mutual aid, and freely formed associations rather than central authority. Many anarchists view capitalism as an evil system that operates off of threatened coercion. They believe that private property and wage labor exploit the workers and the masses. Anarchists at the time also promoted what was known as propaganda of the deed, a type of direct action intended to influence public opinion. The idea was that a person's action serve as a direct example for others to follow. This was most commonly manifested in acts of violence. The theory was that people witnessed bombings and assassinations aimed at the state or the ruling class, would then be inspired to perpetuate this violence themselves, catalyzing social revolution.

3:07Wall Street represents the pinnacle of American and global capitalism, corporate power, and the financial industry, all of which anarchists wanted to destroy. Also, Wall Street had strong connections to the government. With the state's involvement in major financial firms, anarchists believed the state showed how deeply intertwined it was with capitalism. For many anarchists, this connection was a political threat as financial power translates to political control. With that political control, financial firms could influence policy-making, completely neutralizing the country's democratic systems. At noon on September 16, 1920, a horse-drawn wagon passed crowds on Wall Street and stopped across the street from the JP Morgan and Company Bank. Located at 23 Wall Street, the bank sat on the financial district's busiest corner. Around lunchtime, many people had left work for their break, making it a perfect target. Inside the horse-drawn wagon were 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of cast iron sash window weights.

4:12These weights were designed to act as shrapnel to injure as many people as possible. They were set to explode on a timer, sending the weights tearing through the air. When the explosion went off at 1201, the horse and wagon were completely obliterated. However, the driver of the wagon had escaped the vehicle unharmed. There were 30 people on Wall Street who were killed immediately and eight more who died of their injuries later on. Most of these fatalities were of young people who worked as brokers, clerks, stenographers, and messengers. They were not the high-level power brokers of Wall Street. The victims were common, regular people who just happened to have jobs on Wall Street and were probably going to lunch. 143 people suffered serious injuries and hundreds more head-minor injuries. In addition to its impact on the public, the bomb caused $2 million in damage in 1920s money. That's the equivalent to about $32.1 million today.

5:14The bomb also destroyed most of the interior of the JP Morgan building. Within minutes following the explosion, the New York Stock Exchange President William H. Remnick suspended trading to prevent a panic. Meanwhile, rescuers arrived at the scene trying to transport the wounded to a hospital as quickly as possible. One of the heroes of the day was James Saul, a 17-year-old messenger. He took control of a parked car and brought 30 people to a nearby hospital. Those at the scene did their best to help. Police officers arrived providing first aid to the injured and turning nearby cars and other vehicles into emergency transportation. Following the explosion, officials began in investigation. Initially, it wasn't obvious that it was an intentional act of terrorism. They explored the possibility that it might have been an accident. They were suspicious that it might have been an accident because the explosion appeared to have no clear target. The nearby buildings had superficial, non-structural damage leading investigators to suspect that something might have gone off accidentally.

6:21The police contacted nearby businesses that had transported or sold explosives in the past. And while this was occurring, the board of governors of the New York Stock Exchange met around 3.30 pm. During that meeting, they decided it was okay to open for business the next day. To allow business to resume, cleanup crews arrived overnight and removed the damage. But by cleaning up the scene, they likely destroyed physical evidence that would have been crucial for investigators to identify the perpetrator and solve the crime. The next morning, Wall Street returned to normal. Broken windows were draped in canvas and many of the workers arrived in bandages, but everyone went back to functioning as normal. While life for people working on Wall Street appeared normal. The New York police, fire department, secret service and Bureau of Investigation, the precursor to the FBI, worked to solve the crime. Each group pursued leads, interviewing hundreds of people who had been in the area before, during and after the explosion. Despite the extensive interviews, they found a little information of value.

7:24Those who saw the driver in the wagon had essentially useless information. The only real progress came from the New York police department, which was able to reconstruct the bomb and fuse mechanism. However, knowing the bomb's construction did little to narrow down who could have done it, as all of the materials were commonly available. The New York District Attorney believed that due to the timing, location and method of the explosion, the target was Wall Street generally and JPMorgan in particular. Because the bomb was packed full of trapdoll and was set to go off during the lunch hour, investigators determined that it was highly likely that the purpose of the explosion was to cause as many casualties as possible. The investigators focused on radical groups in the United States, such as Bolsheviks, Communist, Militants, Socialists and Anarchists. Officials eventually concluded that anarchists were at fault for the Wall Street bombing. The media framed the attack as an act of war and led to a more intense effort by federal investigators and the police to track the activities of foreign radicals.

8:26Suspicion towards anarchists grew as the investigation continued. One of the best leads came from a letter carrier who found four printed flyers in the area before the explosion. The flyers were put up by a group known as the American anarchist fighters who were demanding that political prisoners be released. After investigators heard about the flyers, their suspicion that the explosion was purposeful was further confirmed. Investigators concluded that the anarchist group flyers and the explosion were highly unlikely to have been a coincidence. Investigators attempted to follow every lead possible. This included attempting to locate the owner of the stable where the horse came from. They also went to Blacksmiths and asked anyone for information that they might have about the horse or the cart. Despite all of this, the case stalled. Even though there were occasional arrests, no indictment was ever issued. There was suspicion that the bombing could be connected to an earlier campaign carried out by Italian anarchists. Suspicion fell on an Italian anarchist named Luigi Gelliani and his followers.

9:31The members were known as Gellianis, who were a group of militant Italian immigrants who believed that destroying government and capital systems would be best done through immediate violent action. They were previously suspected in a series of package bombs in 1919 that were sent to politicians and businessmen. The investigators eventually settled on another Italian immigrant as their primary suspect, Mario Buddha. Buddha had been arrested for robbery and murder and is suspected by many historians to be the man who is most likely to have planted the bomb. They believed that Buddha may have committed the bombing in revenge. Buddha was a close associate of two other Italian anarchists, Nicolai Sacco and Bartolombo Venzetti, who had just been arrested for murder a few months before. Buddha, wanting to free his associates and frustrated by the authorities, may have channeled that frustration into a bomb. Buddha's prospects as the perpetrator were further bolstered by known associates and family members. Suspicion of Buddha increased after his nephew made statements confirming his involvement.

10:38Additionally, other known anarchists made statements in 1955 about his propensity for developing bombs and claimed that he was likely the culprit. The anarchists said that Buddha had previous experience using dynamite and other explosives. He was also known to use sash weights in his bombs, and he was believed to have been the main constructor of several of the large package bombs that had been used the previous year. However, the police never arrested or questioned him. Buddha actually went back to Italy and never returned to the United States. However, many gallianists still resided in the United States and continued to attempt bombing and assassination plots for the next 12 years. Despite the heavy suspicions of Buddha and the gallianists, no one was ever formally identified as the bomber by the police. Despite never finding out who was responsible for the 1920 Wall Street bombing, there were still wide reaching impacts of the event. Its most immediate legacy was to intensify the first red scare. The bombing seemed to confirm widespread fears that anarchists, communists, and other radicals posed a violent threat to the United States.

11:49It reinforced public support for aggressive government measures already underway, including deportations, surveillance, raids on radical organizations, and tighter restrictions on immigration. The attack also contributed to the development of modern American counterterrorism and domestic intelligence practices. Federal and local authorities expanded efforts to track political radicals, shared information, infiltrated organizations, and investigated ideological violence. These efforts eventually became part of the broader institutional growth of the Bureau of Investigation, which eventually became the FBI. The attack also began to change anarchist attitudes towards terrorism as they realized that it didn't advance the goals of their movement and if anything, it backfired spectacularly. Damage from the explosion is still visible on the facade of 23 Wall Street, the former J.P. Morgan headquarters, to this day. The marks were deliberately left unrepaird, making a physical testament to the events of September 16, 1920.

12:54The Wall Street bombing of 1920 remains one of the biggest unsolved acts of terrorism in American history. It killed dozens, injured hundreds, and deepened the fears of the first red scare, and helped justify a broader government crackdown on political radicals. The executive producer for everything everywhere daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Keifer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports a show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, you too can have it read in the show.