The Bresci Circle was a group of New York City
anarchists
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...
remembered for a failed bombing attempt on
St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1915, in which two of its members were arrested. The group was named after
Gaetano Bresci
Gaetano Bresci (; November 10, 1869May 22, 1901) was an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I of Italy on July 29, 1900. Bresci was the first European regicide not to be executed, as capital punishment in Italy had been a ...
, a New York anarchist who killed King
Umberto I of Italy
Umberto I ( it, Umberto Rainerio Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoia; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination on 29 July 1900.
Umberto's reign saw Italy attempt colo ...
.
Origins
In July 1900, the anarchist
Gaetano Bresci
Gaetano Bresci (; November 10, 1869May 22, 1901) was an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I of Italy on July 29, 1900. Bresci was the first European regicide not to be executed, as capital punishment in Italy had been a ...
assassinated the King
Umberto I of Italy
Umberto I ( it, Umberto Rainerio Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoia; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination on 29 July 1900.
Umberto's reign saw Italy attempt colo ...
. Several months earlier, Bresci had been living in New York City. According to Thomas Tunney of the New York Police Department, Bresci had attended an
Elizabeth Street meeting of anarchists where he accused the others of being cowards and they accused him of being a police spy. The meeting was called off as its heat threatened to attract police attention, but Bresci was incensed and it is implied that this affront precipitated into his plot to return to Italy and become a martyr.
A group of New York City anarchists subsequently formed as the Bresci Circle, in Bresci's honor. By 1914, almost 600 members met regularly at a rundown house in
East Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...
. Their speakers included
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...
and
Alexander Berkman
Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870June 28, 1936) was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing.
B ...
. The group also affiliated with the
Wobblies
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
, who were closely affiliated with anarchism.
Activities
A plot to bomb the Rockefellers increased police interest in the group. Three months following the 1914
Ludlow Massacre, the type of capitalist violence that incensed the
Galleanists
(Italian for Galleanists), followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani, were primary suspects in a campaign of bombings between 1914 and 1920 in the United States.
Composition
The Galleanisti were a group of Italian anarchists and radicals in ...
, a group of anarchists carried a bomb to the
Tarrytown
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hu ...
estate of the Ludlow coal mine owner,
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
. They miscalculated, both in failing to trigger the device and since Rockefeller was out of town. A member of the Circle was arrested near the estate on July 4, 1914. The anarchists carried the bomb back to a tenement in the Italian section of East Harlem (near the Bresci Circle headquarters). Later that day, a bomb's accidental explosion demolished half of the building and killed three anarchists.
While no group took responsibility for four additional bombings in 1914, the police continued to suspect the Bresci Circle. In October 1914, bombs exploded at
St. Patrick's Cathedral and the priest's house at
St. Alphonsus Church. There were also attacks on the
Bronx County Courthouse
The Bronx County Courthouse, also known as the Mario Merola Building, is an historic courthouse building located in the Concourse and Melrose neighborhoods of the Bronx in New York City. It was designed in 1931 and built between 1931 and 1934. ...
and
The Tombs
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
, a jail. The New York City bomb squad, recently inaugurated under Thomas Tunney, sent an undercover detective into the group, but his aggressive behavior and lack of Italian language led him to be twice suspected and unsuccessfully tried for spying. He later withdrew from the group and the police provisioned another detective and Italian speaker, Amedeo Polignani, to infiltrate the group.
Abarno and Carbone
![Abarno and Carbone in court LCCN2014698686](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Abarno_and_Carbone_in_court_LCCN2014698686.jpg)
As the Circle planned a repeat attack for March 1915, the police were ready. Two young men dressed as laborers entered St. Patrick's at Mass with lit and later concealed cigars. One placed a device from his coat pocket on the floor and lit it with his cigar. A woman who had been cleaning the marble floor stopped his exit and a nearby, elderly man smothered the device's fuse. Another nearby large man grabbed the accomplice. The events transpired with such rapidity that few of the service's participants noticed. The scrubwoman, elderly man, and large man had all been planted members of the police. The bomb squad chief had followed the anarchists by limousine, and fifty disguised officers were deployed at the church. The bomb squad stood for photographs. Frank Abarno and Carmine Carbone were convicted for the attempted bombing and were sentenced to
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility, formerly Ossining Correctional Facility, is a maximum-security prison operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York. It is about north of ...
for six to twelve years, half of the maximum. The undercover Polignani received multiple death threats upon his identity's reveal.
Technical expertise was Polignani's entree into the group, where he used the name "Frank Baldo". Polignani's account of meeting Abarno and Carbone differs from their own. Polignani said that he was approached by Carbone, who suggested the church as a target. The police added that Abarno and Carbone were also impatient with their peers' caution. Abarno and Carbone, who accused the police of
entrapment
Entrapment is a practice in which a law enforcement agent or agent of the state induces a person to commit a "crime" that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit.''Sloane'' (1990) 49 A Crim R 270. See also agent provo ...
and
frameup
__NOTOC__
In the United States criminal law, a frame-up (frameup) or setup is the act of framing someone, that is, providing false evidence or false testimony in order to falsely prove someone guilty of a crime. While incriminating those who a ...
, said that Polignani accosted them after a meeting and suggested both the use of dynamite and the church target, that the plot and bombs were of Polignani's own design. In time, the undercover detective purchased supplies and a room in which the three made two bombs of
sulfur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
,
black antimony,
potassium chlorate
Potassium chlorate is a compound containing potassium, chlorine and oxygen, with the molecular formula KClO3. In its pure form, it is a white crystalline substance. After sodium chlorate, it is the second most common chlorate in industrial use. It ...
, and
brown sugar
Brown sugar is unrefined or partially refined soft sugar.
Brown Sugar may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Brown Sugar'' (1922 film), a 1922 British silent film directed by Fred Paul
* ''Brown Sugar'' (1931 film), a 1931 ...
, which they packaged in soap tins and to which they attached iron rods with coat hanger wire as shrapnel. The day of the attack, Carbone said that he had stayed late at work and needed sleep, so Polignani and Abarno walked together to the church, where hundreds congregated. Polignani and Abarno briefly sat in the tenth row and appeared to be praying. Abarno then left his bomb near the north altar, but later claimed to not light the fuse. He was immediately arrested.
National newspapers presented the failed bombing as proof of a larger conspiracy and presented Polignani as a hero. The bomb squad sensationalized the arrests and spoke grandly of the pair's other targets. Photographs of the undercover scrubwomen and the
Fire Department
A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...
Bureau of Combustibles' chief inspector, whose face showed burn marks from a prior bomb, enhanced the proof. An important aspect of the sensationalization and police account was that Abarno and Carbone had received their bomb-making training from a handbook and not from Polignani. Labor activists and anarchists suspected Polignani as an
agent provocateur
An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, the ...
since he featured prominently in the plot and had purchased the bomb components. The police had duplicated Carbone's copy of ''
La Salute è in voi
' was an early 1900s bomb-making handbook associated with the Galleanisti, followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani, particularly in the United States. Translated as "Health Is in You!" or "Salvation Is within You!", its anonymous authors adv ...
'', an Italian-language bomb-making handbook circulated among Galleanists, which Carbone had purchased from the Bresci Circle and passed through Abarno to Polignani. The police insinuated that simple possession of the handbook, which was never mentioned by name, was evidence of both Abarno and Carbone's technical expertise and bad intentions, but the church bomb design was based on that of fireworks and not of the handbook.
Abarno and Carbone's legal defense revolved around ''La Salute è in voi'' and their right to read any books of any kind, including bomb-making handbooks. After their arrests and before receiving lawyers, Abarno told the press that he had learned bombmaking from Carbone's handbook, and Carbone asserted in broken English that he didn't know the handbook's contents upon purchasing it. After Abarno credited the handbook with deranging him, in appeal for clemency during arraignment, the prosecution used seditious books to show the anarchists' intents. A chemist testified that the explosive's power did not exceed that of a firework. Literature professor Ann Larabee concluded that the handbook's role was to sully Abarno and Carbone, having no proof of connection to the crime.
The case rekindled fear of easily accessible bomb-making instructions and sensationalism around anarchism.
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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{{Portal bar, Anarchism, New York City
Anarchism in New York (state)
Galleanisti
Industrial Workers of the World in New York (state)
Italian-American culture in New York City