This is a sad day in Wall Street history, for on September 16, 1920, at exactly one minute after twelve noon, a bomb exploded. It happened just outside the J.P. Morgan building at 23 Wall Street and killed 30 people instantly. Later, ten more would die from their wounds. In addition, hundreds of people suffered injuries from the attack.
A horse-drawn carriage pulled up to the spot, carrying approximately 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of heavy, cast-iron sash weights. The whole thing exploded in a timer-set detonation. The blast sent the weights flying through the air in all directions.
There hadn’t been any threats or warnings. The driver of the wagon managed to escape, so there was no lead to follow there. Initially, the investigators thought it might have been an accident, given that there wasn’t really a specific target — a single person or place. Most of the dead were young people working jobs such as messengers, secretaries, and stenographers.
All of this greatly complicated efforts to find the perpetrators. The FBI never decisively concluded who carried out the bombing. It went unsolved at the time.
In my opinion, it remains unsolved, although several historians have speculated on the identity of the bombers. They believe it was the work of anarchists, a group called Galleanists, who were responsible for a series of attacks across America in 1919. They were Italian anarchists who followed Luigi Galleani. It seems Luigi had recently been deported from the United States and the historians speculate the bombing may have been in retaliation for his exit.
But no one really knows.
During the early part of the investigation, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation, BOI (the forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation), did not immediately conclude that the bomb was an act of terrorism.
And the people in charge on Wall Street — the board of governors of the NYSE — decided it would be business as usual the very next day. So, cleaning crews converged and scoured the area clean. Just great. In doing so, they destroyed any physical evidence that might have helped police investigators solve the crime.
But people wanted answers. The New York assistant district attorney stated that the timing, location, and method of delivery all pointed to Wall Street and J.P. Morgan. He said these were the targets of the bomb. He also suggested that the group behind the action had to be radical opponents of capitalism — maybe the Bolsheviks, anarchists, communists, or militant socialists.
That is who officials blamed. They named “anarchists and communists” as responsible for the bombing.
But no one knew or knows, to this day.
There have been plenty of volatile periods in American history. These days, especially since 2016, we have seen our fair share of hate crimes. We’ve witnessed acts of domestic terrorism. Mass shootings have mostly taken the place of bombs because automatic, high-powered weapons are so readily available to any Tom, Dick, or Harry who wants one. And believe me, a lot of Tom, Dick, and Harry types own them.
It seems to me, things have tempered down slightly. Without the daily furor from the Führer, the aggression has waned.
Even still, the underlying hostility exists. I don’t know that there are any answers to this, as these conflicts have been with mankind for thousands of years.
I suppose the best course of action is to be a counter-balance. To be good, good, good. And in the end, hope that the good will outlast the rest.
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Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
— Henry David Thoreau
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Goodness is uneventful. It does not flash, it glows.
— Ray Stannard Baker
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Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
— William Dean Howells
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The big bomb on Wall Street. What is to blame?
