From April through June 1919, a series of bombings were carried out or attempted across the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

by Galleanists (followers of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

insurrectionary anarchist Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory and tendency within the anarchist movement that emphasizes insurrection as a revolutionary practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based o ...

Luigi Galleani Luigi Galleani (; 12 August 1861 – 4 November 1931) was an Italian insurrectionary anarchism, insurrectionary anarchist and Communism, communist best known for his advocacy of "propaganda of the deed", a strategy of political assassinations ...

). The targets included

anti-immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...

politicians, anti-anarchist officials, and prominent businessmen, as well as a journalist and a church. Almost all of the bombs were sent by mail. The bombings were one of the major factors contributing to the

First Red Scare The first Red Scare was a period during History of the United States (1918–1945), the early 20th-century history of the United States marked by a widespread fear of Far-left politics, far-left movements, including Bolsheviks, Bolshevism a ...

. Two people were killed, including one of the bombers, and two injured.

April mail bomb attacks

In late April 1919, at least 36

booby trap A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or an animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap may b ...

dynamite-filled bombs were mailed to a cross-section of prominent politicians and appointees, including the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

as well as justice officials, newspaper editors and businessmen, including

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...

. Among all the bombs addressed to high-level officials, one bomb was addressed to the home of a Department of Justice

Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is a member of ...

(BOI) field agent once tasked with investigating the Galleanists, Rayme Weston Finch, who in 1918 had arrested two prominent Galleanists while leading a police raid on the offices of their publication ''

Cronaca Sovversiva ''Cronaca Sovversiva'' (Subversive Chronicle) was an Italian-language, anarchism in the United States, United States–based anarchist newspaper associated with Luigi Galleani from 1903 to 1920. It is one of the country's most significant Anarc ...

''. The mail bombs were wrapped in brown paper with similar address and advertising labels. Inside, wrapped in bright green paper and stamped " Gimbel Brothers-Novelty Samples", was a cardboard box with a block of hollowed wood, packed with a stick of

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...

. A small vial of

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, ...

was fastened to the wood block, along with three fulminate-of-mercury

blasting cap A detonator is a device used to make an explosive or explosive device explode. Detonators come in a variety of types, depending on how they are initiated (chemically, mechanically, or electrically) and details of their inner working, which of ...

s. Opening one end of the box (the end marked "open") released a coil spring that caused the acid to drip from its vial onto the blasting caps; the acid ate through the caps, igniting them and detonating the dynamite. The Galleanists intended their bombs to be delivered on

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

. Since 1890 and the

Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...

, May 1 had been celebrated as the international day of communist, anarchist and socialist revolutionary solidarity. Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson, who had recently attained national prominence for opposing a general strike in Seattle, received one of the mailed package bombs, but it was opened by William Langer, a member of his office staff. Langer opened the wrong end of the box and the bottle of acid dropped onto a table without detonation. He took the bomb to the local police, who notified the Post Service and other police agencies. On April 29,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

Senator Thomas W. Hardwick, who had co-sponsored the Alien Anarchists Exclusion Act of 1918, received a similarly disguised bomb. It blew off the hands of his housekeeper when she attempted to open the package. The senator's wife was also injured in the blast, which severely burned her face and neck and a piece of shrapnel cut her lip and loosened several of her teeth. News reports of the Hardwick bomb described its distinctive packaging and an alert post office employee in New York connected this to 16 similar packages which he had set aside a few days earlier for insufficient postage. Another 12 bombs were eventually recovered before reaching their intended targets. The addressees were the following:

June bombings

Mitchell Palmer house in Washington DC 2132 R Street NW after bomb attack June 2 1919

June 3 1919 Newspapers of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings

On the evening of June 2, 1919, the Galleanists managed to detonate nine large bombs nearly simultaneously in eight cities. These bombs were much larger than those sent in April, using up to of dynamite and all were wrapped or packaged with heavy metal slugs designed to act as shrapnel. Addressees included government officials who had endorsed anti-sedition laws and

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...

of immigrants suspected of crimes or associated with illegal movements, as well as judges who had sentenced anarchists to prison. The targets were: * Roman Catholic Church: Our Lady of Victory (Philadelphia) * Harry Klotz, a silk industrialist, whose factories were targets of the 1913 Paterson silk strike (335 East 31st Street) but the bomb damaged the house (331 East 31st Street) of Henry Morris (

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. *

Mayor of Cleveland The mayor of Cleveland is the head of the executive branch of Local government in the United States, government of the Cleveland, City of Cleveland, Ohio. As the chief executive in Cleveland's Mayor–council government#Strong-mayor government fo ...

Harry L. Davis (Cleveland) * Boston Judge Albert F Hayden (Boston) * Massachusetts State Representative Leland Powers (

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...

) * Pittsburgh's Federal Judge W. H. S. Thompson (Pittsburgh) * Immigration Chief W. W. Sibray (Pittsburgh) * Judge Charles C. Nott (New York) * Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer (Washington, D.C.) Palmer, who had already been the recipient of a mail bomb in April, was again attacked in the new wave of violence.''Wreck Judge Nott's Home'', The New York Times, 3 June 1919 None of the targeted men were killed, but one bomb took the life of New York City night watchman William Boehner and the bomb intended for Attorney General Palmer's home prematurely exploded and killed the bomb-setter Carlo Valdinoci, who was a former editor of the Galleanist publication ''

'' and close associate of Galleani.Avrich, Paul, ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America'' (AK Press, 2005) , , 496 Though not seriously injured, Palmer and his family were shaken by the blast and the house itself was largely demolished. Two near-casualties of the same bomb were Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

and his wife

Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It was the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages">Provençal dialect ...

, then living across the street from Palmer. They had passed the house just minutes before the explosion and their residence was close enough that one of the bomber's body parts landed on their doorstep. Each of the bombs was delivered with several copies of a pink flyer, titled "Plain Words", that read as such:

War, Class war, and you were the first to wage it under the cover of the powerful institutions you call order, in the darkness of your laws. There will have to be bloodshed; we will not dodge; there will have to be murder: we will kill, because it is necessary; there will have to be destruction; we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions.

The flyer was later traced to a print shop operated by two anarchists,

typesetter Typesetting is the composition of Written language, text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging metal type, physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing ''char ...

Andrea Salsedo and compositor Roberto Elia, who were both Galleanists according to the later memoirs of other members. Salsedo committed suicide and Elia refused an offer to cancel deportation proceedings if he would testify about his role in the Galleanist organization. Unable to secure enough evidence for criminal trials, authorities continued to use the Anarchist Exclusion Act and related statutes to deport known Galleanists.

Response

Fueled by labor unrest and the anarchist bombings, and then spurred on by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's attempt to suppress radical and non-radical

labor organizations A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

, the response to the bombings was characterized by exaggerated rhetoric, illegal search and seizures, unwarranted arrests and detentions and the deportation of several hundred suspected radicals and anarchists. Palmer, twice targeted by anarchist bombs, organized the nationwide series of police actions known as the

Palmer raids The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchist ...

in November 1919 and January 1920. Under suspicion of violating the Espionage Act, the Sedition Act and/or the Immigration Act of 1918,Theoharis, Athan G., ''The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide'', Greenwood Publishing Group, , 9780897749916 (1999), p. 362 approximately 10,000 people were arrested, of whom 3,500 were held in detention. Of those held in detention, 556 resident aliens were eventually deported.

Media and popular culture

The bombings were dramatized in the 2012 film '' No God, No Master.'' The bombing of the home of Palmer was also dramatized in the 2011 film ''

J. Edgar ''J. Edgar'' is a 2011 American Biographical film, biographical drama film based on the career of Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, directed, produced and scored by Clint Eastwood. Written by Dustin Lance Black, the ...

''. The June Bombings and the "Plain Words" fliers were referenced in the video game ''Arkham Origins'' by Anarky, one of the game’s antagonists.

Notes

References

* Allen, F. L., ''Only yesterday; an informal history of the nineteen-twenties''. New York: Harper & Sons (1957). * * Avrich, Paul (Prof.), '' Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background'', Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press (1991), . * Avrich, Paul (Prof.), '' Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America'', Princeton: Princeton University Press (1996). * * McCormick, Charles H., ''Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers'', University Press of America (2005), , . * Neville, J. F., ''Twentieth-century cause cèlébre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the press, 1920–1927''. Westport, Conn: Praeger (2004). * Post, Louis F., ''The Deportations Delirium of Nineteen-twenty: A Personal Narrative of an Historic Official Experience'' (NY, 1923), reissued: , . {{DEFAULTSORT:United States anarchist bombings Explosions in 1919 April 1919 in the United States May 1919 in the United States June 1919 in the United States History of anarchism Italian-American history Political history of the United States Political violence in the United States Terrorist incidents in the United States in the 1910s Anarchism in the United States Presidency of Woodrow Wilson Improvised explosive device bombings in the United States 1919 crimes in the United States Letter and package bombings Galleanisti Red Scare

April mail bomb attacks

June bombings

Response

Media and popular culture

See also

Notes

References