The Milwaukee Police Department bombing was a November 24, 1917, bomb attack that killed nine members of
local law enforcement and a civilian in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, United States. The perpetrators were never caught but are suspected to be an
anarchist terrorist cell operating in the United States in the early 20th century. The target was initially an evangelical church in
the Third Ward and only killed the police officers when the bomb was taken to the police station by a concerned civilian. The bombing remained the most fatal single event in national law enforcement history for over 80 years until the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
.
Background
On September 9th, 1917, Rev. Augusto Giuliani of the Milwaukee Italian Evangelical Church held a rally near a local
Galleanist
(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 t ...
meeting spot in Milwaukee's
Bay View neighborhood. When the anarchists disrupted the rally, police fired on the demonstrators, killing two, arresting 11, and leading to a raid on the Galleanists.
The bombing
A little over two months later, on November 24, 1917, a large black powder bomb wrapped as a package was discovered by Maude L. Richter, a
social worker, next to Rev. Giuliani's church in
the Third Ward.
She dragged the package into the church basement and notified the church janitor, Sam Mazzone.
Mazzone took the bomb to the central police station at Oneida and Broadway and turned it over to the
Milwaukee Police Department
The Milwaukee Police Department is the police department organized under the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The department has a contingent of about 1,800 sworn officers when at full strength and is divided into seven districts. Jeffrey B. Norm ...
.
The station keeper was showing it to the shift commander, Lieutenant Flood, right before a scheduled inspection, when it exploded.
Nine members of the department were killed in the blast, along with a female civilian.
Casualties
Nine members of the
Milwaukee Police Department
The Milwaukee Police Department is the police department organized under the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The department has a contingent of about 1,800 sworn officers when at full strength and is divided into seven districts. Jeffrey B. Norm ...
were killed as well as Catherine Walker, who was in the police station reporting a robbery.
Aftermath
It was suspected at the time that the bomb had been placed outside the church by the
Galleanist
(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 t ...
anarchists who had been involved in the
Bay View incident. Those responsible were never apprehended, but days later the eleven alleged Italian anarchists previously arrested went to trial on charges stemming from the Bay View incident. The specter of the larger, uncharged crime of the bombing haunted the proceedings and assured convictions of all eleven. However, in 1918,
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
led an appeal that gained freedom for most of the convicted.
Many years later, interviews with surviving Galleanist members revealed that Croatian national
Mario Buda
Mario Buda (1883–1963) was an Italian anarchist active among the militant American Galleanists in the late 1910s and best known for being the likely assailant of the 1920 Wall Street bombing, which killed 40 people and injured hundreds. Hi ...
, chief bombmaker for the Galleanists, may have constructed the Milwaukee bomb.
At the time, the bombing was the most fatal single event in national law enforcement history, only surpassed later by the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
.
See also
*
List of unsolved murders (20th century)
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a white supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted 19 sticks of dynami ...
*
Anarchism and violence
Anarchism and violence have been linked together by events in anarchist history such as violent revolution, terrorism, assassination attempts and propaganda of the deed. Propaganda of the deed, or ''attentát'', was espoused by leading anarchis ...
*
Propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed (or propaganda by the deed, from the French ) is specific political direct action meant to be exemplary to others and serve as a catalyst for revolution.
It is primarily associated with acts of violence perpetrated by pr ...
* September 1920
Wall Street bombing
The Wall Street bombing occurred at 12:01 pm on Thursday, September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. The blast killed thirty people immediately, and another ten died later of wounds sustained in the blast. T ...
*
Palmer Raids
*
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (War ...
*
1919 United States anarchist bombings
The 1919 United States anarchist bombings were a series of bombings and attempted bombings carried out by followers of the Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani from April through June 1919.
These bombings were one of the major factors contributin ...
Bibliography
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Milwaukee
1917 murders in the United States
1917 in Wisconsin
Explosions in 1917
November 1917 events
1910s in Milwaukee
Atheism and violence
Terrorist incidents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Terrorist incidents in the United States in the 1910s
Building bombings in the United States
Political violence in the United States
History of anarchism
Unsolved mass murders in the United States
Terrorist incidents by unknown perpetrators
Attacks on bank buildings
Attacks on churches in North America
Attacks on religious buildings and structures in the United States
Milwaukee Police Department