1919 United States anarchist bombings
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The 1919 United States bombings were a series of bombings and attempted bombings carried out by anarchist followers of Luigi Galleani from April through June of 1919. These bombings, and the Wall Street bombing of a year later, were among the main causes of the First Red Scare.
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[edit] April attempted bombings
On April 28, Seattle Mayor Ole Hansen received a mailed pipe bomb disguised as a package from the Gimbels department store. The bomb was defused, but the following day Georgia senator Thomas W. Hardwick received a similarly disguised bomb, which exploded in the hands of a maid and burned the senator and his wife. On April 30, a postal worker in New York City, having heard news reports describing the bombs' packaging, discovered sixteen bombs. A further twelve bombs were eventually recovered before reaching their intended targets. All were addressed to prominent businessmen, government officials, and federal agents. The intended recipients were:
- A Mitchell Palmer, Attorney General of the United States
- Albert S. Burleson, Postmaster General of the United States
- William H. Lamar, Solicitor of the Post Office
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, United States Supreme Court justice
- William B. Wilson, United States Secretary of Labor
- Anthony Caminetti, Commissioner General of Immigration
- Fredric C. Howe, Port of New York Commissioner of Immigration
- Lee S. Overman, United States senator, North Carolina
- William H. King, United States senator, Utah
- Reed Smoot, United States senator, Utah
- Thomas W. Hardwick, former United States senator, Georgia
- John L. Burnett, United States congressman, Alabama
- Albert Johnson, United States congressman, Washington
- Kenesaw Mountain Landis, U.S. District Judge, Chicago
- Frank K. Nebeker, Special Assistant to the Attorney General
- Charles M. Fickert, District Attorney, San Francisco
- Edward A. Cunha, Assistant District Attorney, San Francisco
- John F. Hylan, mayor, New York City
- Richard E. Enright, Police Commissioner, New York City
- R.W. Finch, agent, Bureau of Investigation
- Ole Hansen, mayor, Seattle, Washington
- William C. Sproul, Governor of Pennsylvania
- William I. Schaffer, Attorney General, State of Pennsylvania
- T. Larry Eyre, Pennsylvania state senator
- John D. Rockefeller, businessman
- J. P. Morgan, Jr., businessman
- William Madison Wood, president, American Woolen Company
- Theodore G. Bilbo, Governor of Mississippi
- Walter Scott, mayor, Jackson, Mississippi
- Frederick Bullmers, editor, Jackson, Mississippi Daily News
[edit] June bombings
On June 2, Galleanist anarchists bombed the homes of judges, politicians, and law enforcement officials. Bomber Carlo Valdinoci blew himself up at the front of Attorney General A Mitchell Palmer's home. The remains of leaflets signed "Anarchist Fighters" were found nearby. On June 3, a New York City night watchman was killed by a bomb planted at the home of a judge.
[edit] Reaction
The immediate result of the bombing campaign was a backlash against anarchists and communists in the American press and government. Federal Palmer Raids, named for the Attorney General who was both attacked and who organized the raids, arrested hundreds of suspected leftists under the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918.
[edit] References
- Allen, F. L. (1957). Only yesterday; an informal history of the nineteen-twenties. New York: Harper.
- Avrich, P. (1991). Sacco and Vanzetti: the anarchist background. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
- Neville, J. F. (2004). Twentieth-century cause cèlébre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the press, 1920-1927. Westport, Conn: Praeger.
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