| Galleanists | |
|---|---|
| Galleanisti | |
 Luigi Galleani,c. 1912 | |
| Leader | Luigi Galleani |
| Dates of operation | 1914 (1914)–1920 (1920) |
| Country | United States |
| Ideology | Insurrectionary anarchism |
| Political position | Anarchism |
| Notable attacks | Preparedness Day bombing 1919 United States anarchist bombings Wall Street bombing |
Galleanisti (Italian forGalleanists) are followers or supporters of theItalian immigrantinsurrectionaryanarchistLuigi Galleani, who operated most notably in theUnited States following his immigration to the country. The vast majority ofGalleanisti or Galleanists were similarly poor andworking-classItalian immigrants orItalian Americans, especiallyanarchists and those involved in thelabor movement. Galleanists remain the primary suspects in a campaign of bombings between 1914 and 1920 in the United States.
Galleani and his group promoted radical anarchism by speeches, newsletters, labor agitation, political protests, secret meetings, and, above all, direct action, often referred to aspropaganda of the deed. Many used bombs and other violent means to promote their political position, practices that Galleani actively encouraged but in which he apparently did not participate, except for writing the bomb-making manualLa Salute è in voi!.
The Galleanisti were a group of Italian anarchists and radicals in the United States who followedLuigi Galleani and his message of "heroic" violence in the face of capitalist oppression. Galleani was a figurehead in the Italian anarchist movement who, following the violence of the1913 Paterson silk strike, turned from promoting ageneral strike to promoting individual acts of violence against capitalist targets. He believed that the spectacle ofterrorism would trigger popular revolt.[1] For the part of his followers, Galleani prompted a symbolic war that continued after hisdeportation and the raid on the offices of his newspaper,Cronaca Sovversiva.[2]
The police usedLa Salute è in voi, Galleani's Italian-language bomb-making handbook, to profile anarchist accused. Historians later used the handbook as proof of Galleanist responsibility for crimes[1] and detectives referenced it as evidence of Galleanist conspiracy. Its invocation represented power through threat of violence.[3]
Galleani attracted numerous radical friends and/or followers into the Galleanisti, includingFrank Abarno,Gabriella Segata Antolini,Pietro Angelo,Luigi Bacchetti,Mario Buda (also known as "Mike Boda"), Carmine Carbone, Andrea Ciofalo,Ferrucio Coacci,Emilio Coda, Alfredo Conti,Nestor Dondoglio (also known as "Jean Crones"),Roberto Elia, Luigi Falzini,Frank Mandese,Riccardo Orciani,Nicola Recchi,Giuseppe Sberna,Andrea Salsedo,Raffaele Schiavina,Carlo Valdinoci, and, most notably,Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.[4]
Carlo Buda, the brother of Galleanist bombmakerMario Buda, said of him, "You heard Galleani speak, and you were ready to shoot the first policeman you saw."[5]
Galleanists were primary suspects in a campaign of bombings between 1914 and 1920. Instances includedmail bombs to business and government officials and the 1920Wall Street bombing, which killed 38 people.[1] In effect, however, none of the Galleanisti bombs hit their targets: capitalists, police, or judges. Their casualties were themselves and bystanders.[6] Their bombing methods borrowed from the ItalianBlack Handextortionrackets, in which the attacker would write a threat of future violence and place bombs in doorways. These extortionists adaptedfireworks, a popular Italian industry, with shrapnel or stolen dynamite from construction jobs. Anarchists, however, lacked the community experience withhigh explosives and thus overestimated their ability to create working bombs and underestimated their own risk.[6]
New York City Galleanisti formed theBresci Circle in honor ofGaetano Bresci, the anarchist assassin ofUmberto I of Italy.[7] By 1914, almost 600 members met regularly at a rundown house inEast Harlem. A plot to bomb theRockefellers increased police interest in the group.[8]
Several months after the 1914Ludlow Massacre that had incensed Galleanisti, a group of anarchists carried a bomb to theTarrytown estate of the Ludlowcoal mine owner,John D. Rockefeller, in July 1914. They miscalculated, both in failing to trigger the device and since Rockefeller was then out of town.[9] A member of the Circle was arrested[8] and the bomb, which they carried to an East Harlemtenement near the Circle's headquarters, exploded, demolishing half of the building and killing three anarchists.[9]
While no group took responsibility for four additional bombings in 1914, the police continued to suspect the Bresci Circle.[9] In October 1914, bombs exploded atSt. Patrick's Cathedral and the priest's house atSt. Alphonsus Church.[8] There were also attacks on theBronx County Courthouse andthe Tombs, a Manhattan jail.[9] The newly inaugurated New York Citybomb squad[9] sentundercover detectives toinfiltrate the group.[8] The plant coordinated a trap for an attempted bombing at St. Patrick's in March 1915 that involved fifty disguised officers and caught Frank Abarno and Carmine Carbone.[10][11] The anarchists and police differ in their accounts of initial meetings,[11] including Abarno and Carbone accusing the police ofentrapment,[12] since the undercover agent supplied the bomb materials and laboratory.[11] Their trial revolved aroundLa Salute è in voi and the defendants'right to read any books of any kind, including bomb-making handbooks.[13] They ultimately received sentences for six to twelve years.[12] The case rekindled fear of easily accessible bomb-making instructions andsensationalism around anarchism.[2]
OneChicago-based Galleanist, chef Nestor Dondoglio, known by the alias Jean Crones, laced soup witharsenic in an attempt to poison some 100 guests, all figures in industry, business, finance, or law, at a banquet in 1916 to honorArchbishop Mundelein.[4] J.B. Murphy, a doctor among the guests, furnished a hastily preparedemetic that induced vomiting. None of the guests died, though many suffered greatly.[4][14] Police discovered many vials of poison when they searched Dondoglio's rooms, but never apprehended him. Dondoglio left a series of taunts for the police, then fled to the East Coast.[15] He survived in abject poverty, hidden in the homes of other Galleanists, until his death in 1932.[4]
On December 6, 1916, the Galleanist Alfonso Fagotti was arrested for stabbing a policeman during a riot in Boston'sNorth Square. The next day Galleanists exploded a bomb at the Salutation Street station of the Boston harbor police. Fagotti was convicted, imprisoned, and laterdeported to Italy.[4]
Some historians have also suspected the Galleanists of perpetrating thePreparedness Day bombing inSan Francisco on July 22, 1916.[4] No known Galleanists were among those indicted for the attack, but thetime bomb's design and construction – a cast steel pipe packed with explosives, atiming mechanism, and metal slugs designed to act asshrapnel and increase casualties – was typical of later Galleanist bombing campaigns, the work of Mario Buda in particular.[4] Additionally, in an ominous apparent reference to the earlier mass poisoning by the Galleanist Nestor Dondoglio, San Francisco police recovered two unsigned letters urging the head waiter at theSt. Francis Hotel to poison soup served toPolice Commissioner James Woods, one of the organizers of the Preparedness Day march.[16]
About 60 Galleanisti left forMexico following the April 1917American entry into World War I and Galleani's advice to avoiddraft registration. Their motives for emigrating varied fromdraft evasion to fighting the then-ongoingMexican Revolution to preparing for an expected revolutionary moment in Italy. Morale quickly waned as they created new identities but struggled to find work, communicate through language barriers, contribute to the Mexican Revolution, and accept that the Italian revolution would not be forthcoming. Growing increasingly disillusioned, the group split by August, with most traveling north for work and some traveling south for Latin America.[17]
Mario Buda is thought to have constructed[18][19][20] the largeblack powder bomb[21] with an acid "delay" detonator[22] that exploded on November 24, 1917 at aMilwaukee police station. Patrolmen had taken it there after its discovery in a church basement.[18][19][23][24] The blast killed nine policemen and a female civilian, one of the worst incidents ofterrorist violence in the United States up to that time. The bomb appeared to have been directed at Reverend August Giuliana, who had recently led a streetrevival meeting opposed by local anarchists.[25]
In late 1917 and early 1918, bombings occurred inNew York City,San Francisco,Washington, D.C.,Boston, andMilwaukee that were later attributed to Galleanists, but no criminal prosecutions followed. In February 1918, U.S. authorities raided the offices ofCronaca Sovversiva, suppressed publication, and arrested its editors. Although a staff member hid the subscription list, officials gained more than 3,000 names and addresses of subscribers from an issue already prepared for mailing.
On January 17, 1918, a 19-year-old Galleanist,Gabriella Segata Antolini, was arrested for transporting a satchel filled withdynamite, which she had received from Carlo Valdinoci.[26][27] When questioned, Antolini gave a false name and refused to cooperate with the police; she was imprisoned for fourteen months before being released.[27] While in prison, Antolini met the noted anarchistEmma Goldman, with whom she became friends.
On December 30, 1918, thePhiladelphia homes of the President of theChamber of Commerce, the ActingSuperintendent of Police, William B. Mills, and Judge Robert von Moschzisker were heavily damaged by explosive bombs filled with metal slugs, an act later attributed to the Galleanist group.[4] A woman standing across the street from Superintendent Mills' home was struck above the eye by a metal slug.[4] At each site leaflets were scattered denouncing "the priests, the exploiters, the judges and police, and the soldiers" whose time was coming to an end.[4]
In response to the violence and social unrest, in October 1918, Congress passed theImmigration Act of 1918, also known as the Anarchist Exclusion Act, a law that expanded the list of activities that defined someone as an anarchist and justifieddeportation. In turn, Galleani and his followers distributed a flyer in February 1919 that said: "Deportation will not stop the storm from reaching these shores. The storm is within and very soon will leap and crash and annihilate you in blood and fire... We will dynamite you!"[4] A series of bombings of prominent businessmen and officials followed, including a bomb at the home of Judge von Moschzisker, who in 1908 had sentenced four Italian anarchists to long prison terms.[4]
On February 27, 1919, Galleani spoke to an anarchist gathering inTaunton, Massachusetts.[28][29] The next night four Galleanists who had attended the rally attempted to place a bomb at theAmerican Woolen Co. mill in nearbyFranklin, whose workers were on strike.[28][2] The bomb exploded prematurely, killing all four of the men.[28][29][30][2]In late April 1919,approximately 36 dynamite package bombs, all with identical packaging and addressed to a cross-section of politicians, justice officials, and businessmen, includingJohn D. Rockefeller, were sent through the mail.[4] An early lead to the identity of the bombers was revealed when one package bomb was found addressed to aBureau of Investigation (BOI) field agent, Rayme Weston Finch.[4] Finch had been tracking several Galleanists, including Carlo Valdinoci, and the agent's successes, such as leading the raid onCronacca Sovversiva and his arrest of Raffaele Schiavina and Andrea Ciafolo, were well known to Galleanist militants.[4] The Galleanists intended their bombs to be delivered onMay Day, the international day of communist, anarchist, and socialist revolutionary solidarity.[4] Only a few of the packages were delivered. Because the plotters had neglected to add sufficient postage, one of the packages was discovered, and its distinctive markings enabled the interception of most of the rest.[4] No one was killed by the mail bombs that were delivered, but a black housekeeper, Ethel Williams, had her hands blown off when she opened a package sent to the home of SenatorThomas W. Hardwick, a sponsor of the Immigration Act of 1918.[4]
In June 1919, the Galleanists managed to explodeeight large bombs nearly simultaneously in several different U.S. cities. Targets included the homes of judges, businessmen, a mayor, an immigration inspector, and a church. The new bombs used up to twenty-five pounds of dynamite[31] packed with metal slugs to act asshrapnel, all contained in a cast steel pipe.[4] Among the intended victims were politicians who had endorsed anti-sedition laws and deportation, or judges such asCharles C. Nott, who had sentenced anarchists to long prison terms.[31][32] The homes of MayorHarry L. Davis of Cleveland, Judge W.H.S. Thompson, Massachusetts State RepresentativeLeland Powers, and Attorney GeneralA. Mitchell Palmer, already a previous target of a Galleanist mail bomb, were attacked. None of the officials was killed, but the explosions killed William Boehner, a 70-year-oldnight watchman, who had stopped to investigate the package left on Judge Nott's doorstep,[31][32] as well as one of the most wanted Galleanists –Carlo Valdinoci, a former editor ofCronaca Sovversiva, and a close associate of Galleani, who blew himself up as he laid a package bomb at the door of Attorney General Palmer's home.[4][33][34]
Though not injured, Palmer and his family were shaken by the blast and their house was largely destroyed. The blast hurled several neighbors from their beds. Either Valdinoci tripped over his bomb or it went off prematurely as he was placing it on Palmer's porch. The police collected his remains over a two-block area. All of the bombs were accompanied by a flyer that read:[4]
War, Class war, and you were the first to wage it under the cover of the powerful institutions you call order, in the darkness of your laws. There will have to be bloodshed; we will not dodge; there will have to be murder: we will kill, because it is necessary; there will have to be destruction; we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions.
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Police eventually traced a flyer accompanying the bombs to theprint shop whereAndrea Salsedo, atypesetter, and Roberto Elia, acompositor, were arrested. Salsedo was questioned intensively (some say tortured) by federal agents. After providing some information, he was said to have become increasingly distraught. He died after jumping or being pushed by his compatriot Elia out of the window in the 14th-story room where he was being held.[35] Although Salsedo had admitted that he was an anarchist and had printed the flyer, no other arrests for the bombings followed. The police lacked evidence and other Galleanists refused to talk. Elia was deported; according to his lawyer, he turned down an offer to remain in the United States if he would deny his connection to the Galleanists, asserting that his refusal to talk "is my only title of honor".[4]
After Valdinoci's death, Coacci and Recchi appeared to have taken more prominent roles in the group; both were bombmakers.[36] Recchi lost his left hand to a premature explosion, but kept making bombs.[20] Postal workers and police also found bombs before they detonated or failed, including many of the 36 mail bombs in 1919.[6]
With the public and the press clamoring for action,US Attorney General Palmer and other government officials began a series of investigations. They used warrantlesswiretaps, reviews of subscription records to radical publications, and other measures to investigate thousands of anarchists, communists, and other radicals. With evidence in hand and after agreement with the Immigration Department, theJustice Department arrested thousands in a series of coordinated police actions known as the "Palmer Raids" and deported several hundred of them under theAnarchist Exclusion Act.
Following Galleani's deportation and the indictment of Sacco and Vanzetti for murder, more bombings occurred in the U.S. Followers of Galleani, especially Buda, were suspected in theWall Street bombing of 1920, which killed 38 people and severely wounded 143.[37][3] Historians believe Buda to be the bomber, as revenge for the indictment ofSacco and Vanzetti, his friends. Buda possibly had experience with dynamite from work in Michigan. The Wall Street explosion was timed for noon, a busy time of day. An extortionist leaflet found nearby demanded the release ofpolitical prisoners.[3]
In 1927, more bombings were attributed to Galleanists, especially as several court and prison officials were targeted, includingWebster Thayer, the trial judge in the Sacco-Vanzetti case.[38] and their executioner,Robert Elliott. In 1932, Thayer was a target again; the front of his house was destroyed by apackage bomb, and his wife and housekeeper were injured, but he was unscathed.[38] Thayer lived in the Boston University Club until his death, guarded by a private bodyguard and police.
After being deported to Italy, Coacci and Recchi quickly departed forArgentina. There Coacci joined forces with the Argentine anarchistSeverino Di Giovanni, another advocate of revolutionary violence. Di Giovanni would be executed for his crimes and Coacci deported from Argentina. AfterWorld War II, Coacci returned and lived there for the rest of his life. Buda returned to Italy shortly after the Wall Street bombing, and lived there until his death in 1963.[39]
