At precisely 12:02 pm, a century ago last September 16, a massive bomb exploded on Wall Street in New York. Just before noon, a wagon, driven by person unknown, parked on the curb beside J. P. Morgan at 23 Wall Street. A fuse was lit, and moments later, 100 pounds of dynamite went off, sending 500 pounds of cast-iron sash weights slicing into the lunch crowd. The blast was so powerful it derailed a streetcar a block away and sent shrapnel soaring to the 34th floor of the Equitable Building. Thirty-eight people were killed instantly, and 143 sustained injuries. The only bit of good luck was Joseph P. Kennedy’s survival, father of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Theodore “Teddy” Kennedy. Joseph P. Kennedy was only lifted off his feet by the blast. Had the explosion came seconds later, American history would have been changed substantially.
Perhaps the single most overused word in American vocabulary is “terrorism.” Today, it is used to describe a range of crimes that were defined as murder, attempted murder, arson, battery, and assault two decades ago. But courtesy of the 911 attack in New York, the term has taken on an extended meaning. By comparison, if you had been alive in the teens, 1910 to 1920, terrorism had a far more sinister meaning. It was an act of unprecedented violence perpetrated by faceless persons for an unknown reason. The point of terrorism was to instill fear in the population to achieve an undefined political goal.
Barely mentioned today, the teens were the most violent decade for terrorism in American history. It started with the destruction of the Los Angeles Times in October 1910. The bombing brought down a city-block sized, three-story brick and granite building and killed the 21 employees working in the structure at the time. Six years later, on July 22, 1916, a Preparedness Day Parade in San Francisco was devastated by a bomb killing ten and maimed more than 40 marchers. Eight days later was the Black Tom Explosion in New York Harbor. It was one-megaton in size and is considered one of the most enormous artificial non-nuclear explosions in world history. The blast was equivalent between 5 and 5.5 on the Richter Scale and was so powerful it was felt in Philadelphia and Baltimore.
What makes the Wall Street Bombing so historically memorable is it was never solved. In the immediate aftermath, the authorities were flummoxed. Standard police procedure relies on MOM, “Motive, Opportunity, and Means.” Concrete court cases are built on prosecuting individuals who had a motive (greed, jealously, or personal hatred) combined with opportunity (being in the right place at the right time) and means (having the tools necessary to carry out the criminal activity.) But in this case, only the means was clear. As there was no specific target, there was no identifiable motive, and therefore the concept of opportunity was, at best, flexible. So, at first, the bombing was looked upon as an accident. Then the area was cleaned up, which eliminated quite a bit of forensic evidence.
After the United States Bureau of Investigation – the FBI’s forerunner – had eliminated the murder of a specific individual and an accident as possibilities, it was left with a terrorist act as the most reasonable incentive for the bombing. But who? There were a host of radical organizations in the United States at the time, and many of them had members capable of both building and delivering a bomb. Two hundred forty-nine of the worst radicals in America radicals had been sent to Russia on the Buford the previous year. Still, the bombing made it clear not all of the revolutionaries were deported. Thus there was also a plethora of radicals walking the streets of America, including disgruntled German Americans, because Germany had just lost World War One.
Whoever was responsible, it was an “act of war,” as the Washington Post described it. The Washington Post assessment was strengthened when a cache of handouts was discovered in a Post Office box in the Wall Street area. Printed in red ink, the flyers read, in part, “Remember, we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners, or it will be sure death for all of you.” It was supposedly authored by the American Anarchist Fighters, an unknown organization. This was a strong indication that the bombing was not an act of terror that the New York Police alone could handle.
Within 24 hours, the Bureau of Investigation took control and began working hand-in-glove with the New York City Police Department to find and punish the perpetrators. The joint investigation included the young man who headed up the Bureau of Investigation’s General Intelligence Division: J. Edgar Hoover.
But it did not take long for the investigation to hit a stone wall. None of the victims were the wagon’s driver, and the 100 pounds of explosives had obliterated almost all of the evidence. The only usable clue was a chunk of the horse’s shoe. The farrier who made the horseshoe was eventually located, but he could not definitively identify the perpetrator. At best, the police sketch of the perpetrator could have matched any 30-something male in New York.
A bit of comedy was added to the investigation when it was discovered former tennis champion Edwin Fischer had not only predicted the bombing but had sent postcards to friends warning them to avoid Wall Street on the day of the bombing. He had not been on Wall Street that day and was tracked down to Hamilton, Canada, where he was taken into custody. Humorously, he was wearing two business suits for warmth in a city where September temperatures were in the 70s. And beneath the suits was his tennis outfit. Fischer claimed he was wearing the tennis outfits because, in his words, “to be ready for a tennis match at all times.” He claimed he learned of the impending bombing “through the air from God.” Fischer had a habit of making such outlandish claims, and he was committed to an asylum where he was declared harmless and insane.
After three years of intense investigation, the Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police had made no arrests. A century later, the authorities are no closer to a resolution than they were on the day of the bombing. It is speculated – and alleged by a reputable historian – the most likely suspect was Italian anarchist Mario “Big Nose” Buda. Buda had been part of the Sacco and Vanzetti robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts. The robbery occurred on April 15, 1920, and a guard was killed. Buda was the owner of the car the pair used to escape with the loot. Buda escaped with his life. Sacco and Vanzetti were not so fortunate: they were executed for the murder of the guard seven years later. Buda was also implicated in many terrorist bombings in the United States during the decade but was never convicted of being part of any of them.
Was Buda responsible for the Wall Street bombing? That’s a good question. Though he was in New York at the time, and the Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police knew of his presence, he was never questioned. He left New York for Italy soon after the bombing and never returned. If he was the bomber, his pension for violence did not dissipate in Italy. Five months after the Wall Street bombing, he was arrested in Italy during a clash between Fascists and Anti-Fascists in which he supposedly killed a police sergeant.
The best evidence, though speculative, came from an interview with Buda’s nephew. In 1933 historian Paul Avrich interviewed Buda’s nephew. To Avrich, the nephew stated, “’Let’s drive downtown and see my uncle’s bomb.” Then, stated Avrich, the nephew “took me to Wall Street, where the big explosion took place in September 1920, just before Buda sailed for Italy. You could still see the holes in the Morgan building across the street.” Buda died in Italy in 1963.
Historically speaking, the Wall Street bombing was both odd and unnecessary. The political radicals of the era had been demanding greater pay and union recognition for a decade. By 1920, they had achieved that goal. The giant American industrial war machine, which had made millions selling war material and supplies during the First World War, had to recalibrate for the domestic market. Suddenly commercial goods flooded the market. By the law of supply and demand, price dropped, making working the lower World War One era wages tolerable. Unions were recognized, though begrudgingly, and the economic impact was undeniable. The 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote had passed the previous month. It was the dawn of the Roaring Twenties when, as the expressions went, ‘everyone had money.’ This made the radical bombers dinosaurs in a new age. And with the new generation, terrorism, the act of terrorizing the population for no known reason passed – until 2011 when it was revived as a byword for senseless destruction of life and property.
