The Milwaukee Police Bomb

Robert Tanzilo,  “The Milwaukee Police Bomb 1917”, History Press, 2010, (Kindle Version), 160 pp.

This is a book that is probably of most interest to those who have lived in Milwaukee, WI.  I lived there for many years and remember walking by a monument in Bay View that referred to a 1917 terrorist incident of some kind or other.  This was before the days of the internet which now offer easy access to looking-up this kind of thing; at the time, I never did investigate any further.  However, the other day when I was browsing books available for my Kindle through my library, I came across this short book on that very same subject.

The book states that prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the November 24, 1917 bomb in the Milwaukee Police station claimed the distinction of causing the largest loss of life in U.S. Police history and the police had not even been the target of the bomb. Surprisingly, the bomb was meant to destroy a small Italian Protestant (yes, that’s correct, Evangelical Protestant) church located in the Third Ward and it’s outspoken, pastor, Rev, August Giuliana.

There is no explanation in the book of just what was supposed to trigger this bomb which was found at St. Anne’s, an Italian Church in Milwaukee's Third Ward, a question that occurs to the reader many times as the bomb is bumped along in its travels to the police station.   The janitor for the church, Sam Mazzone, carried the 20-pound bomb into the Central Police Station on November 24, 1917, from the Italian Evangelical Church, 535 Van Buren Street.    Shortly after its arrival at the station, the bomb exploded, killing nine officers and one civilian. 

Prior to the bombs delivery to the police station,  Josie Spicciatti, the 10-year old daughter of the cleaning lady at the Church, discovered the bomb in a narrow passage next to the church. She carried the package into the church, knowing that inside the paper wrapping was a bomb. She did not remove the wrapping and continued working until 11:30AM. Later, at about 4PM, Miss Maude L. Richter, a worker at the church dragged the bomb to the church basement, banging it on the steps along the way. "I saw the vial, which contained a brown fluid (sulfuric acid) and took it out," she told a reporter. "In the hole, where it had been placed, was a yellow substance like powder." But then Miss Richter carefully reassembled the deadly device, believing that things should be left as they are found. At 6PM, Miss Richter sent Mazzone, the church janitor to the police station with the bomb.

It is likely that the bomb is linked to a near-riot several months prior when two Italians were killed and five wounded, including two police officers in Bay View (this is the monument I saw years ago). Rev, August Giuliana, the Protestant Italian (ex Catholic priest) minister,  had persisted in preaching from a street corner in this Italian district (near today’s Cactus Club) despite harassment and warnings to stay away.  On his third weekend on this street corner, this Bay View “near-riot” occurred.   

My Notes:
  "It looked like a big dinner pail and innocent enough," According to Captain of Detectives John T. Sullivan's account of the event. But Desk Sergeant Deckert determined otherwise and took the bomb into the office of Lieutenant Robert Flood, pointed it toward Detective Arthur Burns and said, "Look at the new kind of bomb I've got." Flood, who was in charge of the station, said, "Get that thing out of here. Don't fool around with anything like that!" Deckert then brought the bomb into the squad assembly room, where the group of detectives examined the device.

The bomb exploded, rocking the station and wreaking deadly havoc. Edward Spindler, working the switchboard on the second floor, was killed at his desk when a piece of shrapnel blasted through the floor, passing between the seat and arm on his chair, entering his body at the waist and exiting through his head. The other eight officers killed were in the assembly room, as was Catherine Walker, who had come to the station with a complaint against her boyfriend.

It was never determined who was responsible for the bombing.  Of course, those involved in the Bay View incident some months before were prime suspects and a trial was held for those involved in that prior incident.  On December 20, 1917, after deliberating just seventeen minutes, the jury found all eleven defendants guilty of conspiracy to “assault with the intent to kill and murder.”  Each was sentenced to serve twenty-five years at the state prison in Waupun.  In early 1918 Clarence Darrow was enlisted to handle the appeal.  The Appeals Court overturned all of the convictions except two involving defendants who had been armed at that street-corner public meeting and had failed to disperse when trouble ignited.  They were remanded for new trials, which appear to have never been pursued.

Loc 928:  WWI inflamed Americans’ fear of radicals and foreigners alike.  Just before the U.S. entered the war, Congress allowed for the deportation of aliens “found advocating or teaching the unlawful destruction of property, or advocating or teaching anarchy…or the assassination of public officials.”  That law was expanded just before war’s end to include any alien who believed in anarchy or was affiliated with an organization that espoused such beliefs.  These laws were the same ones that would allow the government to herd Emma Goldman and 248 other radicals aboard the Buford in New York Harbor on December 21, 1919, and ship them off to the Soviet Union, much to the delight of xenophobes and editorial writers across the country.  Although records of all the deportations have not been located, it is presumed that all of those implicated in the bombings were ultimately deported to Italy.