100 Years Ago Today: The Wall Street bombing

Possibly in revenge for the indictments of Sacco and Vanzetti, one of the deadliest bombings on U.S. soil, up to that point, took place one hundred years ago today on 16 September 1920. At 12:01pm a horse-drawn wagon, carrying 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of cast-iron sash weights, exploded in front of the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan bank at 23 Wall Street. The blast killed 40 people and injured hundreds.

Among other things, this led to an expansion of the General Intelligence Division of the BOI (later the FBI), which was led by J Edgar Hoover.

Much of the later analysis suggests that Mario Buda carried out the bombing, though officially the case was never solved.

Related:

• Wall Street Bombing
• The First Red Scare
• The 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times
• The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti