The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror

427 Pages·2009·2.96 MB·English

by  Beverly Gage

The Day
Wall Street
Exploded
This page intentionally left blank
The Day
Wall Street
Exploded
A Story of America
in Its First Age
of Terror
Beverly Gage
1
2009
1
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
in research, scholarship, and education.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offi ces in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2009 by Beverly Gage
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gage, Beverly.
The day Wall Street exploded : a story of America
in its fi rst age of terror / Beverly Gage.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN978-0-19-514824-4
1. Terrorism—New York (State)—New York—History.
2. Terrorism—United States—History.
3. Domestic terrorism—United States. I. Title.
HV6432.44.N7G342009
974.7'1—dc22
2008022074
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Dan and Nicholas, for their patience and love
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Introduction 1
Part I
September 16, 1920
1 The Middle of Things 11
2 The End of the World 31
Part II
The Story of Dynamite
3 The First Terrorist Act in America 41
4 American Roughneck 69
5 The War at Home 96
contents
Part III
A National Crime
6 The Great Detectives 125
7 Business as Usual 150
8 Usual Suspects 169
9 A Perfect Alibi 187
Part IV
Faccia a Faccia
10 The Anarchist Fighters 207
11 Illegal Practices 229
12 The Martyr Who Wasn’t 242
Part V
THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION
13 The “Great Detective” Returns 261
14 Triple-Cross 277
15 The Wall Street Curse 291
16 The Roar of the Twenties 309
Appendix: In Memoriam 329
Acknowledgments 331
Note on Sources 333
Abbreviations Used in Notes 335
Notes 339
Index 387
viii
The Day
Wall Street
Exploded