The Wall Street bombing happened on Thursday, September 16, at 12:01 1920. The blast killed 38 people and seriously injured 143. The bombing was never solved, although investigators and historians think it likely the Wall Street bombing was carried out by the Gallenanists. (Italian anarchists) The group was responsible for bombings the previous year. The attack was related to postwar social unrest, labor struggles and anti-capitalist agitation in the United States. The Wall Street bomb caused more fatalities than the 1910 bombing of Los Angeles Times, and was the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil up to that point.
At noon a horse drawn wagon passed crowds on Wall Street and stopped across from the headquarters of the J.P Morgan bank at 23 Wall Street on the Financial District's busiest corner. Inside there was 100 pounds of dynamite with 500 pounds of heavy cast iron sash weights exploded in a timer-set detonator. The horse and wagon were blasted into small fragments, but the driver was believed to have left the vehicle and escaped. The bomb caused more than $2 million in property damage ($23 million inflation adjusted) and destroyed most of the interior spaces of the Morgan building. Many of the wounded suffered severe injuries.
The justice department Bureau of Investigation (BOI) did not immediately conclude that the bomb was an act of terrorism. Investigators were puzzled by the number of innocent people killed and the lack of a specific target, other than buildings that suffered relatively superficial, non-structural damage. Exploring the possibility of an accident, police contacted businesses that sold and transported explosives. Crews cleaned up the area overnight to allow for normal business hours the next day. The bombing stimulated renewed efforts by police and federal investigators to track the activities and movements of foreign radicals. Public demands to track down the perpetrators led to an expanded role for the U.S justice department Bureau of Investigation.
The investigation conducted by the Bureau of Investigation stalled when none of the victims turned out to be the driver of the wagon. Though the horse was newly shod, investigators could not locate the stable responsible for the work. When the blacksmith was found he could give little information.
It was very tragic and most of the people were saded. They never did find out who did the Wall Street bombing. It was the worst terrorist attack before 9/11.
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