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, Wisconsin. 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.[1]
On September 9, 1917, Rev. Augusto Giuliani of the Milwaukee Italian Evangelical Church held a rally near a local Galleanist 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.[2]
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.[3][4] She dragged the package into the church basement and notified the church janitor, Sam Mazzone.[4] Mazzone took the bomb to the central police station at Oneida and Broadway and turned it over to the Milwaukee Police Department.[3][5] The station keeper was showing it to the shift commander, Lieutenant Robert Flood, right before a scheduled inspection, when it exploded.[4] Nine members of the department were killed in the blast, along with a female civilian who had been there to report a robbery.[3][5] Six additional police personnel were seriously injured: a lieutenant and five detectives.[6] The police detective who faced the full brunt of the explosion was reported to have been found with his body mangled while one officer was killed while on the second floor. The explosion was loud enough to be heard throughout much of the city and attracted a crowd of thousands to the police station.[7]
Casualties
Nine members of the Milwaukee Police Department were killed as well as Catherine Walker, who was in the police station reporting a robbery.[5][8]
Name
Appointed
Years on the force
Henry Deckert
October 21, 1913
4
Frank Caswin
February 1, 1915
2
Frederick Kaiser
February 7, 1905
12
David O'Brien
November 4, 1897
20
Stephen Stecker
December 1, 1899
17
Charles Seehawer
December 1, 1899
17
Edward Spindler
July 1, 1903
14
Al Templin
October 17, 1904
13
Paul Weiler
December 13, 1906
10
Aftermath
It was suspected at the time that the bomb had been placed outside the church by the Galleanist 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 led an appeal that gained freedom for most of the convicted.[9]
While historian of anarchism Paul Avrich has suggested the local Ferrer Circle anarchists may have been responsible, interviews with surviving Galleanist members implicated Mario Buda, chief bombmaker for the Galleanists, and Carlo Valdinoci.[5][10][11][12][13] Buda and Valdinocci had previously fled with many other Galleanists to Mexico in order to evade the draft. At the time, the bombing was the most fatal single event in national law enforcement history, only surpassed later by the September 11 attacks.[1]
Balousek, Marv & Editor J. Allen Kirsch (1997). 50 Wisconsin Crimes of the Century. Badger Books Inc. ISBN9781878569479. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help) - Total pages: 365
Dell’Arti, Giorgio (January 26, 2002). "La Storia di Mario Buda"(PDF). memoteca.it. Archived from the original(PDF) on October 27, 2007. Retrieved November 24, 2017.
