Luigi Galleani
Encyclopedia
Luigi Galleani was an Italian
anarchist active in the United States from 1901 to 1919, viewed by historians as an anarchist communist
and an insurrectionary anarchist
. He is best known for his enthusiastic advocacy of "propaganda of the deed
", i.e. the use of violence to eliminate "tyrants" and "oppressors" and to act as a catalyst to the overthrow of existing government institutions. From 1914 to 1932, Galleani's followers in the United States (known as Galleanists), carried out a series of bombings and assassination attempts against institutions and persons they viewed as class enemies. After Galleani was deported from the United States to Italy in June 1919, his followers are alleged to have executed the Wall Street bombing
of 1920, which resulted in the deaths of 38 people.
, Italy, to a family of modest means. Galleani became an anarchist as an adolescent, while studying law at the University of Turin
in northern Italy. Leaving the university before completing his degree, he had already begun a strong advocacy of anarchism and anarchist ideals. Wanted by police in Turin, he fled to France in 1880.
Galleani remained in France for nearly 20 years. He spent some time in Switzerland
, where he was allied with the noted geographer and fellow anarchist, Élisée Reclus
. In addition to assisting him with his masterwork, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, Galleani worked with Reclus to organize a demonstration of students at the University of Geneva
in 1887. The event was held in honor of the Haymarket martyrs of Chicago
, who were killed in labor unrest. For this, he was arrested and later deported from Switzerland. Moving to France, Galleani was deported from that country a few years later.
He returned to Italy, where within a few years, he was arrested and convicted of conspiracy, and sentenced to five years in prison. Beginning in 1894, when he was 33 years old, he spent more than five years in prison and internal exile (domicilio coatto), mostly on the island of Pantelleria
off the coast of Sicily
. On Pantelleria, he met and married Maria, who already had a young son, Salvatore. Luigi and Maria Galleani eventually had four children of their own.
Escaping from Pantelleria in 1900, Galleani fled to Egypt
. It had a large Italian expatriate community, and he stayed with fellow anarchists for several months. Notified by the Egyptian authorities that they would soon begin proceedings to extradite him to Italy, Galleani abruptly left Egypt and took passage via ship to London, England. He immigrated to the United States, arriving in 1901.
In 1902, silk workers at a factory in Paterson went on strike Galleani spoke on behalf of the strikers, urging workers to declare a general strike and overthrow U.S. capitalist society. When police opened fire on the strikers, Galleani was wounded in the face. He was later indicted for inciting a riot. He fled to Canada and was apprehended by authorities there, who expelled him by escorting him just across the U.S. border.
Galleani was attracted to the Italian community in Barre, Vermont
, where immigrants had found work as stonemasons in the area quarries. These laborers formed the bulk of Barre's socialist and anarchist community. Galleani held forth at local anarchist meetings, assailed "timid" socialists, gave fire-breathing speeches, and continued to write essays and polemical treatises. As the foremost proponent of "propaganda by the deed" in the United States, Galleani and was the founder and editor of the anarchist newsletter Cronaca Sovversiva
(Subversive Chronicle), which he published and mailed from offices in Barre. Galleani published the anarchist newsletter for fifteen years until the United States government closed it down under the Sedition Act of 1918
.
Each issue of Cronaca Sovversiva usually had no more than eight pages. At one point the newsletter claimed 5,000 subscribers. It offered perspectives on a variety of radical topics, including arguments against the existence of God, for free love, and against historical and contemporary state tyranny, as well as overly passive Socialists. It frequently published a list of addresses and personal details of businessmen and others identified as "capitalist spies", strikebreakers, and assorted "enemies of the people". Several books that bear Galleani's name, such as La Fine dell'anarchismo? (The End of Anarchism?) (1907) are derived from or are excerpts from essays that appeared first in Cronaca Sovversiva.
In Cronaca Sovversiva, Galleani expounded upon his theory of direct action and armed resistance against the state. He applauded the actions of Gaetano Bresci
, another disciple of direct action who left the United States for Italy to assassinate King Umberto
. Galleani's posthumously-published work, Aneliti e Singulti: Medaglioni ("Sighs and Sobs: Portraits"), was collected from his essays in the Cronaca Sovversiva. It celebrated the lives of several bombers and assassins as heroes of anarchism.
In later issues, Cronaca Sovversiva included a small advertisement for a booklet entitled La Salute è in voi! (Health is in You!), sold for 25 cents and described as a must-have for any proletarian family. The foreword to the booklet, first published in 1905, said it was to remedy the "error" of advocating violence without giving subversives the physical means of destruction. Health Is In You! was an explicit bomb-making manual, in which Galleani supplied to his readers the chemical formula for making nitroglycerine, compiled by a friend and explosives expert, Professor Ettore Molinari. Galleani's handbook was characterized as accurate and practical by the New York City Bomb Squad, though an error Galleani made in transcribing Molinari's explosive formula for nitroglycerine resulted in one or more premature explosions when the bomb-makers failed to notice the mistake. Galleani provided a warning and corrected text to his readers in a 1908 issue of Cronaca Sovversiva.
In 1914, Galleani published his book Faccia a Faccia col Nemico ("Face to Face with the Enemy"), in which he extolled anarchist assassins as martyrs and revolutionary heroes. In 1917 Galleani urged his followers to go to Mexico where they could escape draft registration and await the coming Revolution.
After Mussolini came to power in 1922, the anarchist was charged with sedition and sentenced to 14 months in prison. He was re-arrested in 1926, and sent again to the island of Pantelleria
, then the island of Lipari
, and finally to Messina. Later he was allowed to return to the Italian mainland, where he lived in the village of Caprigliola (Lunigiana
) but the police surveillance continued. Galleani died of a heart attack at age 70 on November 4, 1931.
.
Galleani and his group promoted radical anarchism by speeches, newsletters, labor agitation, political protests, secret meetings, and, above all, direct action. 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 manual, La Salute è in voi!.
Historians believe that Galleani's followers began their bombing attacks in 1914. Galleanists were involved in at least two bombings in New York after police forcibly dispersed a protest at John D. Rockefeller
's home in Tarrytown
. Over the next several months, bombings took place at several New York City sites, including police stations, churches, and courthouses. On November 14, 1914, a bomb was placed in the Tombs police court, under the chair of Magistrate Campbell, who had sentenced an anarchist for inciting to riot. In January 1915, police uncovered a plot to blow up St. Patrick's Cathedral
in New York, and a copy of La Salute è in voi! was found at a suspect's house.
One Chicago
-based Galleanist, chef Nestor Dondoglio, known by the alias Jean Crones, laced soup with arsenic
in an attempt to poison some 100 guests, all figures in industry, business, finance, or law, at a banquet in 1916 to honor Archbishop Mundelein. J.B. Murphy, a doctor among the guests, furnished a hastily prepared emetic that induced vomiting. None of the guests died, though many suffered greatly. Police discovered many phials 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. He survived in abject poverty, hidden in the homes of other Galleanists, until his death in 1932.
On December 6, 1916, the Galleanist Alfonso Fagotti was arrested for stabbing a policeman during a riot in Boston's North Square
. The next day Galleanists exploded a bomb at the Salutation Street station of the Boston harbor police. Fagotti was convicted, imprisoned, and later deported to Italy.
Some historians have also suspected the Galleanists of perpetrating the Preparedness Day bombing
in San Francisco on July 22, 1916. No known Galleanists were among those indicted for the attack, but the time bomb's design and construction – a cast steel pipe packed with explosives, a timing mechanism, and metal slugs designed to act as shrapnel and increase casualties – was typical of later Galleanist bombing campaigns, the work of Mario Buda in particular. 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 headwaiter at the St. Francis Hotel to poison soup served to Police Commissioner James Woods, one of the organizers of the Preparedness Day march.
It is notable that bombings attributable to anarchists largely ceased in the United States in the first part of 1917, when many Galleanists heeded Galleani's advice to avoid draft registration by relocating to Mexico. Most members returned to the U.S. late that year.
Mario Buda is thought to have constructed the large black powder bomb with an acid "delay" detonator that exploded on November 24, 1917 at a Milwaukee police station
. Patrolmen had taken it there after its discovery in a church basement. The blast killed nine policemen and a female civilian, the worst incident of terrorist 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 street revival meeting opposed by local anarchists.
In late 1917 and early 1918, bombings occurred in New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Milwaukee that were later attributed to Galleanists, but no criminal prosecutions followed. In February 1918, U.S. authorities raided the offices of Cronaca 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 with dynamite
, which she had received from Carlo Valdinoci. When questioned, Antolini gave a false name and refused to cooperate with the police; she was imprisoned for fourteen months before being released. While in prison, Antolini met the noted anarchist Emma Goldman
, with whom she became friends.
On December 30, 1918, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
homes of the President of the Chamber of Commerce, the Acting Superintendent 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. A woman standing across the street from Superintendent Mills' home was struck above the eye by a metal slug. 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.
On February 27, 1919, Galleani spoke to an anarchist gathering in Taunton, Massachusetts
. The next night four Galleanists who had attended the rally attempted to place a bomb at the American Woolen Co. mill in nearby Franklin
, whose workers were on strike. The bomb exploded prematurely, killing all four of the men.
In response to the violence and social unrest, in October 1918, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1918
, a law that expanded the list of activities that defined someone as an anarchist and justified deportation. 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!" 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.
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, including John D. Rockefeller, were sent through the mail. An early lead to the identity of the bombers was revealed when one package bomb was found addressed to a Bureau of Investigation (BOI) field agent, Rayme Weston Finch. Finch had been tracking several Galleanists, including Carlo Valdinoci, and the agent's successes, such as leading the raid on Cronacca Sovversiva and his arrest of Raffaele Schiavina and Andrea Ciafolo, were well known to Galleanist militants. The Galleanists intended their bombs to be delivered on May Day
, the international day of communist, anarchist, and socialist revolutionary solidarity. 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 them. 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 Senator Thomas W. Hardwick
, a sponsor of the Immigration Act of 1918.
In June 1919, the Galleanists managed to explode eight 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 packed with metal slugs to act as shrapnel, all contained in a cast steel pipe. Among the intended victims were politicians who had endorsed anti-sedition laws and deportation, or judges such as Charles C. Nott, who had sentenced anarchists to long prison terms. The homes of Mayor Harry L. Davis
of Cleveland, Judge W.H.S. Thompson, Massachusetts State Representative Leland Powers, and Attorney General A. 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 seventy-year old night watchman, who had stopped to investigate the package left on Judge Nott's doorstep, as well as one of the most wanted Galleanists - Carlo Valdinoci, a former editor of Cronaca 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.
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. Valdinoci either 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:
Police eventually traced a flyer accompanying the bombs to the print shop where Andrea Salsedo, a typesetter, and Roberto Elia, a compositor, were arrested. Salsedo was questioned intensively (some say tortured) by federal agents. After providing some information, he was said to become increasingly distraught. He died after jumping or being pushed by his compatriot Elia out of the 14th-story building where he was being held. Although Salsedo had admitted 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".
After Valdinoci's death, Coacci and Recchi appeared to have taken more prominent roles in the group; both were bombmakers. Recchi lost his left hand to a premature explosion, but he kept making bombs.
With the public and the press clamoring for action, US Attorney General Palmer and other government officials began a series of investigations. They used warrantless wiretaps, 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, the Justice Department arrested thousands in a series of coordinated police actions known as the "Palmer Raids
" and deported several hundred of them under the Anarchist 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 the Wall Street bombing
of 1920, which killed 38 people and severely wounded 143. In 1927 more bombings were attributed to Galleanists, especially as several court and prison officials were targeted, including Webster Thayer
, the trial judge in the Sacco-Vanzetti case and their executioner, Robert Elliott
. In 1932 Thayer was a target again; the front of his house was destroyed by a package bomb, and his wife and housekeeper were injured, but he was unscathed.
After being deported to Italy, Coacci and Recchi quickly departed for Argentina
. There Coacci joined forces with the Argentine anarchist Severino Di Giovanni
, another advocate of violence. Di Giovanni was executed for his crimes and Coacci was deported from Argentina. After World War II, he 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.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
anarchist active in the United States from 1901 to 1919, viewed by historians as an anarchist communist
Anarchist communism
Anarchist communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, markets, money, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers' councils with...
and an insurrectionary anarchist
Insurrectionary anarchism
Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory, practice and tendency within the anarchist movement which emphasizes the theme of insurrection within anarchist practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political programme and...
. He is best known for his enthusiastic advocacy of "propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed is a concept that refers to specific political actions meant to be exemplary to others...
", i.e. the use of violence to eliminate "tyrants" and "oppressors" and to act as a catalyst to the overthrow of existing government institutions. From 1914 to 1932, Galleani's followers in the United States (known as Galleanists), carried out a series of bombings and assassination attempts against institutions and persons they viewed as class enemies. After Galleani was deported from the United States to Italy in June 1919, his followers are alleged to have executed the Wall Street bombing
Wall Street bombing
The Wall Street bombing occurred at 12:01 p.m. on Thursday, September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of New York City. The blast killed 38 and seriously injured 143...
of 1920, which resulted in the deaths of 38 people.
Early life and career
Born in the city of VercelliVercelli
Vercelli is a city and comune of about 47,000 inhabitants in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around the year 600 BC.The city is situated on the river Sesia in the plain of the river...
, Italy, to a family of modest means. Galleani became an anarchist as an adolescent, while studying law at the University of Turin
University of Turin
The University of Turin is a university in the city of Turin in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy...
in northern Italy. Leaving the university before completing his degree, he had already begun a strong advocacy of anarchism and anarchist ideals. Wanted by police in Turin, he fled to France in 1880.
Galleani remained in France for nearly 20 years. He spent some time in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, where he was allied with the noted geographer and fellow anarchist, Élisée Reclus
Élisée Reclus
Élisée Reclus , also known as Jacques Élisée Reclus, was a renowned French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes , over a period of nearly 20 years...
. In addition to assisting him with his masterwork, La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, Galleani worked with Reclus to organize a demonstration of students at the University of Geneva
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...
in 1887. The event was held in honor of the Haymarket martyrs of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, who were killed in labor unrest. For this, he was arrested and later deported from Switzerland. Moving to France, Galleani was deported from that country a few years later.
He returned to Italy, where within a few years, he was arrested and convicted of conspiracy, and sentenced to five years in prison. Beginning in 1894, when he was 33 years old, he spent more than five years in prison and internal exile (domicilio coatto), mostly on the island of Pantelleria
Pantelleria
Pantelleria , the ancient Cossyra, is an Italian island in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Sicily and just east of the Tunisian coast. Administratively Pantelleria is a comune belonging to the Sicilian province of Trapani...
off the coast of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. On Pantelleria, he met and married Maria, who already had a young son, Salvatore. Luigi and Maria Galleani eventually had four children of their own.
Escaping from Pantelleria in 1900, Galleani fled to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. It had a large Italian expatriate community, and he stayed with fellow anarchists for several months. Notified by the Egyptian authorities that they would soon begin proceedings to extradite him to Italy, Galleani abruptly left Egypt and took passage via ship to London, England. He immigrated to the United States, arriving in 1901.
Life in the United States
Soon after arriving in the United States at the age of 40, Galleani attracted attention in radical anarchist circles as a charismatic orator; he called for violence as necessary to overthrow the capitalists who oppressed the working man. Settling in Paterson, New Jersey, Galleani became the editor of La Questione Sociale, the leading Italian anarchist periodical in the United States at the time. He took undisguised pride in describing himself as a subversive, a revolutionary propagandist dedicated to subverting established government and institutions by disseminating a political philosophy based on direct action, specifically violence. By all accounts, Galleani was an extremely effective speaker and advocate of his policy of revolutionary violence. Carlo Buda, the brother of Galleanist bombmaker Mario Buda, said of him, "You heard Galleani speak, and you were ready to shoot the first policeman you saw".In 1902, silk workers at a factory in Paterson went on strike Galleani spoke on behalf of the strikers, urging workers to declare a general strike and overthrow U.S. capitalist society. When police opened fire on the strikers, Galleani was wounded in the face. He was later indicted for inciting a riot. He fled to Canada and was apprehended by authorities there, who expelled him by escorting him just across the U.S. border.
Galleani was attracted to the Italian community in Barre, Vermont
Barre, Vermont
Barre, Vermont can refer to:*Barre , Vermont*Barre , Vermont...
, where immigrants had found work as stonemasons in the area quarries. These laborers formed the bulk of Barre's socialist and anarchist community. Galleani held forth at local anarchist meetings, assailed "timid" socialists, gave fire-breathing speeches, and continued to write essays and polemical treatises. As the foremost proponent of "propaganda by the deed" in the United States, Galleani and was the founder and editor of the anarchist newsletter Cronaca Sovversiva
Cronaca Sovversiva
Cronaca Sovversiva was an independent American anarchist newspaper formed by Luigi Galleani on June 6, 1903.The journal was written almost entirely in Italian and usually consisted of no more than eight pages, and, at one point, had a claimed subscription of 5,000...
(Subversive Chronicle), which he published and mailed from offices in Barre. Galleani published the anarchist newsletter for fifteen years until the United States government closed it down under the Sedition Act of 1918
Sedition Act of 1918
The Sedition Act of 1918 was an Act of the United States Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds...
.
Each issue of Cronaca Sovversiva usually had no more than eight pages. At one point the newsletter claimed 5,000 subscribers. It offered perspectives on a variety of radical topics, including arguments against the existence of God, for free love, and against historical and contemporary state tyranny, as well as overly passive Socialists. It frequently published a list of addresses and personal details of businessmen and others identified as "capitalist spies", strikebreakers, and assorted "enemies of the people". Several books that bear Galleani's name, such as La Fine dell'anarchismo? (The End of Anarchism?) (1907) are derived from or are excerpts from essays that appeared first in Cronaca Sovversiva.
In Cronaca Sovversiva, Galleani expounded upon his theory of direct action and armed resistance against the state. He applauded the actions of Gaetano Bresci
Gaetano Bresci
Gaetano Bresci was an Italian American anarchist who assassinated King Umberto I of Italy. Bresci was the first European regicide not to be executed, as capital punishment in Italy had been abolished since 1889.-Militancy:...
, another disciple of direct action who left the United States for Italy to assassinate King Umberto
Umberto I of Italy
Umberto I or Humbert I , nicknamed the Good , was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death. He was deeply loathed in far-left circles, especially among anarchists, because of his conservatism and support of the Bava-Beccaris massacre in Milan...
. Galleani's posthumously-published work, Aneliti e Singulti: Medaglioni ("Sighs and Sobs: Portraits"), was collected from his essays in the Cronaca Sovversiva. It celebrated the lives of several bombers and assassins as heroes of anarchism.
In later issues, Cronaca Sovversiva included a small advertisement for a booklet entitled La Salute è in voi! (Health is in You!), sold for 25 cents and described as a must-have for any proletarian family. The foreword to the booklet, first published in 1905, said it was to remedy the "error" of advocating violence without giving subversives the physical means of destruction. Health Is In You! was an explicit bomb-making manual, in which Galleani supplied to his readers the chemical formula for making nitroglycerine, compiled by a friend and explosives expert, Professor Ettore Molinari. Galleani's handbook was characterized as accurate and practical by the New York City Bomb Squad, though an error Galleani made in transcribing Molinari's explosive formula for nitroglycerine resulted in one or more premature explosions when the bomb-makers failed to notice the mistake. Galleani provided a warning and corrected text to his readers in a 1908 issue of Cronaca Sovversiva.
In 1914, Galleani published his book Faccia a Faccia col Nemico ("Face to Face with the Enemy"), in which he extolled anarchist assassins as martyrs and revolutionary heroes. In 1917 Galleani urged his followers to go to Mexico where they could escape draft registration and await the coming Revolution.
Deportation
The United States deported Luigi Galleani and eight of his adherents to Italy in June 1919, three weeks after the June 2 wave of bombings initiated by the Galleanists but not because of any connection to those bombings. Authorities identified him as a resident alien who had advocated the violent overthrow of the government and authored a bomb-making manual. After landing in Italy, Galleani returned to publishing Cronaca Sovversiva.After Mussolini came to power in 1922, the anarchist was charged with sedition and sentenced to 14 months in prison. He was re-arrested in 1926, and sent again to the island of Pantelleria
Pantelleria
Pantelleria , the ancient Cossyra, is an Italian island in the Strait of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Sicily and just east of the Tunisian coast. Administratively Pantelleria is a comune belonging to the Sicilian province of Trapani...
, then the island of Lipari
Lipari
Lipari is the largest of the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the north coast of Sicily, and the name of the island's main town. It has a permanent population of 11,231; during the May–September tourist season, its population may reach up to 20,000....
, and finally to Messina. Later he was allowed to return to the Italian mainland, where he lived in the village of Caprigliola (Lunigiana
Lunigiana
The Lunigiana is an historical territory of Italy, which today falls within the provinces of La Spezia and Massa Carrara. Its borders derive from the ancient Roman settlement, later the medieval diocese of Luni, which no longer exists....
) but the police surveillance continued. Galleani died of a heart attack at age 70 on November 4, 1931.
Galleanist activities
Galleani attracted numerous radical friends and followers known as "Galleanists", including Frank 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 VanzettiSacco and Vanzetti
Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts, United States...
.
Galleani and his group promoted radical anarchism by speeches, newsletters, labor agitation, political protests, secret meetings, and, above all, direct action. 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 manual, La Salute è in voi!.
Historians believe that Galleani's followers began their bombing attacks in 1914. Galleanists were involved in at least two bombings in New York after police forcibly dispersed a protest at John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
's home in Tarrytown
Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line...
. Over the next several months, bombings took place at several New York City sites, including police stations, churches, and courthouses. On November 14, 1914, a bomb was placed in the Tombs police court, under the chair of Magistrate Campbell, who had sentenced an anarchist for inciting to riot. In January 1915, police uncovered a plot to blow up St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
The Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
in New York, and a copy of La Salute è in voi! was found at a suspect's house.
One Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based Galleanist, chef Nestor Dondoglio, known by the alias Jean Crones, laced soup with arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
in an attempt to poison some 100 guests, all figures in industry, business, finance, or law, at a banquet in 1916 to honor Archbishop Mundelein. J.B. Murphy, a doctor among the guests, furnished a hastily prepared emetic that induced vomiting. None of the guests died, though many suffered greatly. Police discovered many phials 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. He survived in abject poverty, hidden in the homes of other Galleanists, until his death in 1932.
On December 6, 1916, the Galleanist Alfonso Fagotti was arrested for stabbing a policeman during a riot in Boston's North Square
North Square (Boston, Massachusetts)
North Square in the North End, Boston of Boston, Massachusetts sits at the intersection of Moon, Prince, North, Garden Court, and Sun Court Streets. Paul Revere lived here, as did other notables in the 17th and 18th centuries. Prior to July 4, 1788, the area was known as Clark's Square.-History:In...
. The next day Galleanists exploded a bomb at the Salutation Street station of the Boston harbor police. Fagotti was convicted, imprisoned, and later deported to Italy.
Some historians have also suspected the Galleanists of perpetrating the Preparedness Day bombing
Preparedness Day bombing
The Preparedness Day Bombing was a bombing in San Francisco, California on July 22, 1916, when the city held a parade in honor of Preparedness Day, in anticipation of the United States' imminent entry into World War I. During the parade a suitcase bomb was detonated, killing ten and wounding...
in San Francisco on July 22, 1916. No known Galleanists were among those indicted for the attack, but the time bomb's design and construction – a cast steel pipe packed with explosives, a timing mechanism, and metal slugs designed to act as shrapnel and increase casualties – was typical of later Galleanist bombing campaigns, the work of Mario Buda in particular. 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 headwaiter at the St. Francis Hotel to poison soup served to Police Commissioner James Woods, one of the organizers of the Preparedness Day march.
It is notable that bombings attributable to anarchists largely ceased in the United States in the first part of 1917, when many Galleanists heeded Galleani's advice to avoid draft registration by relocating to Mexico. Most members returned to the U.S. late that year.
Mario Buda is thought to have constructed the large black powder bomb with an acid "delay" detonator that exploded on November 24, 1917 at a Milwaukee police station
Milwaukee Police Department
The Milwaukee Police Department is the police department that protects the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The department has a contingent of about 2,000 sworn officers when at full strength. Edward Flynn is the current chief of police.-History:...
. Patrolmen had taken it there after its discovery in a church basement. The blast killed nine policemen and a female civilian, the worst incident of terrorist 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 street revival meeting opposed by local anarchists.
In late 1917 and early 1918, bombings occurred in New York City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Milwaukee that were later attributed to Galleanists, but no criminal prosecutions followed. In February 1918, U.S. authorities raided the offices of Cronaca 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 with dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
, which she had received from Carlo Valdinoci. When questioned, Antolini gave a false name and refused to cooperate with the police; she was imprisoned for fourteen months before being released. While in prison, Antolini met the noted anarchist Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
, with whom she became friends.
On December 30, 1918, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
homes of the President of the Chamber of Commerce, the Acting Superintendent 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. A woman standing across the street from Superintendent Mills' home was struck above the eye by a metal slug. 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.
On February 27, 1919, Galleani spoke to an anarchist gathering in Taunton, Massachusetts
Taunton, Massachusetts
Taunton is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the seat of Bristol County and the hub of the Greater Taunton Area. The city is located south of Boston, east of Providence, north of Fall River and west of Plymouth. The City of Taunton is situated on the Taunton River...
. The next night four Galleanists who had attended the rally attempted to place a bomb at the American Woolen Co. mill in nearby Franklin
Franklin, Massachusetts
The Town of Franklin is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,635 at the 2010 census.-History:Franklin was first settled by Europeans in 1660 and was officially incorporated during the American Revolution. The town was formed from the western part of the town...
, whose workers were on strike. The bomb exploded prematurely, killing all four of the men.
In response to the violence and social unrest, in October 1918, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1918
Immigration Act of 1918
The United States Immigration Act of 1918 was enacted on October 16, 1918. It is also known as the Dillingham-Hardwick Act.-Enactment:...
, a law that expanded the list of activities that defined someone as an anarchist and justified deportation. 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!" 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.
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, including John D. Rockefeller, were sent through the mail. An early lead to the identity of the bombers was revealed when one package bomb was found addressed to a Bureau of Investigation (BOI) field agent, Rayme Weston Finch. Finch had been tracking several Galleanists, including Carlo Valdinoci, and the agent's successes, such as leading the raid on Cronacca Sovversiva and his arrest of Raffaele Schiavina and Andrea Ciafolo, were well known to Galleanist militants. The Galleanists intended their bombs to be delivered on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
, the international day of communist, anarchist, and socialist revolutionary solidarity. 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 them. 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 Senator Thomas W. Hardwick
Thomas W. Hardwick
Thomas William Hardwick was an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia.Hardwick was born in Thomasville, Georgia. He graduated from Mercer University with a bachelor of arts degree in 1892 and received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Georgia in 1893...
, a sponsor of the Immigration Act of 1918.
In June 1919, the Galleanists managed to explode eight 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 packed with metal slugs to act as shrapnel, all contained in a cast steel pipe. Among the intended victims were politicians who had endorsed anti-sedition laws and deportation, or judges such as Charles C. Nott, who had sentenced anarchists to long prison terms. The homes of Mayor Harry L. Davis
Harry L. Davis
Harry Lyman Davis was an American politician of the Republican Party. He served as the 38th and 44th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio and as the 49th Governor of Ohio....
of Cleveland, Judge W.H.S. Thompson, Massachusetts State Representative Leland Powers, and Attorney General A. 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 seventy-year old night watchman, who had stopped to investigate the package left on Judge Nott's doorstep, as well as one of the most wanted Galleanists - Carlo Valdinoci, a former editor of Cronaca 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.
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. Valdinoci either 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:
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.
Police eventually traced a flyer accompanying the bombs to the print shop where Andrea Salsedo, a typesetter, and Roberto Elia, a compositor, were arrested. Salsedo was questioned intensively (some say tortured) by federal agents. After providing some information, he was said to become increasingly distraught. He died after jumping or being pushed by his compatriot Elia out of the 14th-story building where he was being held. Although Salsedo had admitted 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".
After Valdinoci's death, Coacci and Recchi appeared to have taken more prominent roles in the group; both were bombmakers. Recchi lost his left hand to a premature explosion, but he kept making bombs.
With the public and the press clamoring for action, US Attorney General Palmer and other government officials began a series of investigations. They used warrantless wiretaps, 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, the Justice Department arrested thousands in a series of coordinated police actions known as the "Palmer Raids
Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids were attempts by the United States Department of Justice to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States. The raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer...
" and deported several hundred of them under the Anarchist 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 the Wall Street bombing
Wall Street bombing
The Wall Street bombing occurred at 12:01 p.m. on Thursday, September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of New York City. The blast killed 38 and seriously injured 143...
of 1920, which killed 38 people and severely wounded 143. In 1927 more bombings were attributed to Galleanists, especially as several court and prison officials were targeted, including Webster Thayer
Webster Thayer
Webster Thayer was a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, best known as the trial judge in the Sacco and Vanzetti case.-Background:...
, the trial judge in the Sacco-Vanzetti case and their executioner, Robert Elliott
Robert G. Elliott
Robert Greene Elliott was the "state electrician" for the State of New York – and for those neighboring states which used the electric chair, including New Jersey, Vermont, and Massachusetts – during the period 1926-1939.He was born in Hamlin, New York, to an Irish immigrant...
. In 1932 Thayer was a target again; the front of his house was destroyed by a package bomb, and his wife and housekeeper were injured, but he was unscathed.
After being deported to Italy, Coacci and Recchi quickly departed for Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. There Coacci joined forces with the Argentine anarchist Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni , was an Italian anarchist who immigrated to Argentina, where he became the best-known anarchist figure in that country for his campaign of violence in support of Sacco and Vanzetti and antifascism.- Italy :Di Giovanni was born on March 17, 1901, in the town of Chieti, in the...
, another advocate of violence. Di Giovanni was executed for his crimes and Coacci was deported from Argentina. After World War II, he 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.
See also
- First Red ScareFirst Red ScareIn American history, the First Red Scare of 1919–1920 was marked by a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism. Concerns over the effects of radical political agitation in American society and alleged spread in the American labor movement fueled the paranoia that defined the period.The First Red...
- L' Adunata dei refrattariL' Adunata dei refrattariL'Adunata dei refrattari was an Italian American anarchist publication published between 1923 and 1940 in New York City. It was first edited by Osvaldo Maraviglia and later by Max Sartin. It was illegally distributed in Italy during its fascist period...
Sources
- Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background, Princeton University Press (1991)
- Avrich, Paul, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Princeton University Press (1996)
- Davis, Mike Buda's Wagon: A Brief History Of The Car Bomb, United Kingdom: Verso Press (2007)
- Dell'Arte, Giorgio, La Storia di Mario Buda, Io Donna, January 26, 2002
- Manning, Lona, "9/16/20: Terrorists Bomb Wall Street", Crime Magazine, January 15, 2006
- McCormick, Charles H., Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers, University Press of America (2005), ISBN 0761831339, 9780761831334