“[It was] an unexpected, death-dealing bolt, which in a twinkling turned into a shamble the busiest corner of America’s financial center. […] Almost in front of the steps leading up to the Morgan bank was the mutilated body of a man. Other bodies, most of them silent in death, lay nearby. As I gazed horrorstruck at the sight, one of these forms, half-naked and seared with burns, started to rise. It struggled, then toppled and fell lifeless to the gutter.” George Weston, an Associated Press reporter, described what he had witnessed from the protection of a doorway.
At 12:01 pm on Thursday, September 16, 1920 a wagon filled with 100 pounds of dynamite detonated outside J. P. Morgan building during lunchtime at 23 Wall Street in Manhattan, New York City. The blast, which was the most lethal act of terrorism on U.S. soil up to that point, caused $2 million dollars in damage ($24.5 million today) and killed 38 people, while more than 300 people sustained injuries.
Within one minute of the explosion, William H. Remick, president of the New York Stock Exchange, suspended trading in order to prevent a panic. Yet the following day, the stock market began its work as normal, yielding to give up against terrorism and panic.
The day after the attack, a message was found in a mailbox a block from the attack, which said:
Remember. We will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be death for all of you. American Anarchist Fighters!”
IMAGE: NY Daily News/Getty Images
However, nobody claimed responsibility for the bombing and although all the investigations and police work, the true identity of the perpetrators was never found.
IMAGE: Alex Q. Arbuckle/Mashable
Further Reading
– The Mysterious Wall Street Bombing, 95 Years Ago
– The Wall Street Bombing: Low-Tech Terrorism in Prohibition-Era New York
– A Byte Out of History: Terror on Wall Street
– Sep 16, 1920: The Bombing of Wall Street
– Anger and Anarchy on Wall Street
– Pictures: Wall Street 1920 Bombing
– New York Stories: How a deadly terrorist attack on Wall Street in 1920 still echoes today
– When Wall Street Exploded – In 1920