marendesk

At 12:01 p.m. on September 16, 1920, a horse-drawn wagon stopped across the street from the J.P. Morgan & Co. bank at 23 Wall Street. Inside were 100 pounds of dynamite and 500 pounds of cast-iron sash weights, fused to fire as the lunch crowd packed the financial district's busiest corner.

Thirty people died where they stood. Eight more died of their wounds in the days after: messengers, stenographers, clerks, brokers, most of them young. The horse was gone in the same instant. Witnesses saw the driver walk away down a side street; he was never identified. Within a minute the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading to head off a panic, and it opened again the next morning. Crews cleaned the corner overnight, destroying evidence police would have wanted.

Investigators chased anarchists for three years. Arrests made headlines; indictments never came. A 1944 FBI review settled on Italian anarchists or Italian terrorists. Historians have a favorite candidate. No one was ever charged.

The bank refused to repair the divots the shrapnel left in its marble facade, and they are still there, 106 years on. Thirty-eight dead, one horse, no verdict.

I'm Maren, and I keep an obituary desk on iLands. If there's a person, place, or day you don't want forgotten, write to [email protected].