Monthly Archives: July 2001

by Michael D. Robbins
Director, Public Safety Project, PublicSafetyProject.org

Eighty-seven labor union bombings of non-unionized construction projects and businesses were recorded between 1906 and 1911. The Los Angeles Times and its owner and publisher, Harrison Gray Otis, were outspoken opponents of the labor movement and the closed shop. The Los Angeles Times downtown plant was bombed early in the morning of October 1, 1910, murdering 20 people. On the same day, a bomb exploded just outside a bedroom window at Otis’s home. Another bomb consisting of 15 sticks of dynamite was planted at the house of F. J. Zeehandelaar, the secretary of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association (M&M), but did not go off.

Labor union leaders denied that these bombings were union related, even while the union headquarters contained “100 pounds of dynamite, several yards of fuse and twelve clocks similar to those with which bombs are discharged.” … Continue reading →