As clocks struck Noon, and the bells of Trinity Church rang out on September 16th, 1920, a man ran from a wagon on Wall Street. A massive bomb exploded, tearing through New York City’s Financial District. The Wall Street bombing killed 38 people and injured hundreds more.
The corner of Wall & Broad Streets was the epicenter of Manhattan’s Financial District. It was dominated by the headquarters of J.P. Morgan and Co., the most influential bank on the planet, and the very symbol of American capitalism. Just a few steps down Wall Street is the New York Stock Exchange.
Just like today, 1920 Wall Street at lunchtime was a busy hive of activity. Bank clerks and stockbrokers swarmed the sidewalks, and the street was clogged with Studebakers and delivery trucks. A battered, red horse-drawn wagon sat across from the bank at 23 Wall Street. At Noon, the capped driver dropped the reigns and suddenly ran off down the lane.
Inside the wagon were 500 pounds of cast iron bolts packed around 100 pounds of TNT.
At 12:00 PM, the dynamite detonated with an ear-splitting roar. A wall of flames enveloped the entire width of Wall Street. The explosion derailed a streetcar two blocks away. It sent shrapnel flying as high as the 34th floor of surrounding skyscrapers. Bloodied chunks of the wagon’s horse landed over a hundred yards away. Young stockbroker Joseph Kennedy, father of future President Kennedy, was lifted off his feet by the shock wave and knocked to the ground.
Those unlucky to be near the wagon were consumed in flames or cut to pieces by iron shrapnel. A rain of shattered glass windows from the floors above, cut into survivors running on the streets below. Once the smoke lifted, dozens had been killed instantly, their bodies lying in the street. Others ran about with their clothes afire. The J.P. Morgan Bank was raked by debris, blasting through the windows and injuring clerks seated at their desks inside.
Thirty people died instantly from the Wall Street Bombing. Another 8 died from sustained injuries.
Hundreds more were wounded. Much like the French battlefields of World War I, Wall Street had become a war zone of charred bodies and severed limbs. Witnesses said the dead lay “flattened like tenpins” in the gutters. Those still breathing did not live for long. Trading at the NY Stock Exchange stopped as New York City policemen and nurses swarmed down to Wall Street.
Surprisingly, no-one person or group claimed responsibility for the attack. There seemed to be no objective, except to generate public terror. This led many to think the villains were Communist infiltrators from Russia’s recent Bolshevik Revolution. Investigators had no clue as to who had carried it out, or why. The obvious target was the Morgan bank, but J.P. Morgan himself had been in Europe, thousands of miles away.
That evening, thousands of New Yorkers descended on Wall Street and sang patriotic songs like the National Anthem and America the Beautiful. Looming behind them was the Morgan bank’s soot covered walls, pock-marked by fist-deep holes from the shrapnel blast.
The blood of the victims still stained Wall Street beneath their feet.
The New York Stock Exchange reopened the day after the Wall Street bombing. J.P. Morgan quickly returned and was determined to show the world that American business would not be intimidated. All signs of the blast were hastily collected off Wall Street and debris swept away. This including crucial evidence from the wagon that might have helped in the investigation.
Suspicions grew the next day when a postal worker found 5 copies of a flier stuffed in a Financial District mailbox. Printed by hand and riddled with spelling errors, the note read:
“Rimember, We will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death is all of you.”
signed: American Anarchist fighters
Rumors swirled, with political fingers pointing at anarchists, unionists, or socialists – anyone who might not want to see America’s wealthy capitalist empire succeed. Some even blamed Russia’s Communist leader Vladimir Lenin. The national Bureau of Investigation, precursor to the FBI, were quick to find scapegoats in stereotypical, dark-bearded foreigners. This included a new, young division head in Washington, soon to become the famous J. Edgar Hoover.
At least 25 suspects were arrested, but all were released, and none ever charged.
The mysterious fliers were the closest it came to anyone claiming responsibility for the Wall Street Bombing. Investigators pointed at an Italian anarchist Mario Buda as the most likely culprit. They claimed he sought revenge for his compatriots held in prison. Buda managed to flee to Italy, but he too was never charged.
Police and the BOI spent 3 years trying to identify the wagon’s mysterious driver with a cap, but the trail ultimately went cold. What started as an investigation transformed into a cover-up of sorts, after the lack of arrests became a nationwide public embarrassment. The newspapers were encouraged by the government not to “egg on the radicals” by publicizing their causes in print.
The scars of the 1920 Wall Street bombing are still visible today, if one looks close at building walls – the lone reminder of the bombing attack. Unlike the 9/11 Memorial just down the street, no plaque or historical marker exists of the attack. New York would rather just forget it ever occurred.
The Bombing of Wall Street remained the deadliest U.S. terror attack until the Oklahoma City bombing, 75 years later in 1995. While the incident may seem antiquated today, it foretold of a future of terror attacks that would be easily committed by rogue groups upon unknowing cities around the world. It was a fact of life that sadly continued in the U.S – with the 2001 9/11 World Trade Center attack, and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
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