Bresci Circle
The Bresci Circle was a group of New York City
Origins
In July 1900, the anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated King Umberto I of Italy. Several months earlier, Bresci had been living in New York City. According to Thomas Tunney of the New York Police Department, Bresci had attended an Elizabeth Street meeting of anarchists where he accused the others of being cowards and they accused him of being a police spy. The meeting was called off as its heat threatened to attract police attention, but Bresci was incensed and it is implied that this affront precipitated into his plot to return to Italy and become a martyr.[1]
A group of New York City anarchists subsequently formed as the Bresci Circle, in Bresci's honor. By 1914, almost 600 members met regularly at a rundown house in
Activities
A plot to bomb the Rockefellers increased police interest in the group.
While no group took responsibility for four additional bombings in 1914, the police continued to suspect the Bresci Circle.
Abarno and Carbone
As the Circle planned a repeat attack for March 1915, the police were ready. Two young men dressed as laborers entered St. Patrick's at Mass with lit and later concealed cigars. One placed a device from his coat pocket on the floor and lit it with his cigar. A woman who had been cleaning the marble floor stopped his exit and a nearby, elderly man smothered the device's fuse. Another nearby large man grabbed the accomplice. The events transpired with such rapidity that few of the service's participants noticed. The scrubwoman, elderly man, and large man had all been planted members of the police.[3] The bomb squad chief had followed the anarchists by limousine, and fifty disguised officers were deployed at the church. The bomb squad stood for photographs.[4] Frank Abarno and Carmine Carbone were convicted for the attempted bombing and were sentenced to Sing Sing for six to twelve years,[5] half of the maximum.[6] The undercover Polignani received multiple death threats upon his identity's reveal.[7]
Technical expertise was Polignani's entree into the group, where he used the name "Frank Baldo". Polignani's account of meeting Abarno and Carbone differs from their own. Polignani said that he was approached by Carbone, who suggested the church as a target.
National newspapers presented the failed bombing as proof of a larger conspiracy and presented Polignani as a hero. The bomb squad sensationalized the arrests and spoke grandly of the pair's other targets. Photographs of the undercover scrubwomen and the
Abarno and Carbone's legal defense revolved around La Salute è in voi and their right to read any books of any kind,[8] including bomb-making handbooks.[6] After their arrests and before receiving lawyers, Abarno told the press that he had learned bombmaking from Carbone's handbook, and Carbone asserted in broken English that he didn't know the handbook's contents upon purchasing it. After Abarno credited the handbook with deranging him, in appeal for clemency during arraignment, the prosecution used seditious books to show the anarchists' intents.[8] A chemist testified that the explosive's power did not exceed that of a firework. Literature professor Ann Larabee concluded that the handbook's role was to sully Abarno and Carbone, having no proof of connection to the crime.[6]
The case rekindled fear of easily accessible bomb-making instructions and sensationalism around anarchism.[6]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8050-6737-8.
- ^ a b c d e Larabee 2015, p. 41.
- ^ Lardner & Reppetto 2001, pp. 173–174.
- ^ a b c d e f g Larabee 2015, p. 42.
- ^ ISBN 0-8014-8618-1.
- ^ a b c d Larabee 2015, p. 44.
- ^ Lardner & Reppetto 2001, p. 174.
- ^ a b c d e Larabee 2015, p. 43.
- ^ Larabee 2015, pp. 42–43.
Bibliography
- Larabee, Ann (2015). "Sabotage". OCLC 927145132.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-691-02604-6.
- McCormick, Charles H. (2005). Hopeless Cases: The Hunt for the Red Scare Terrorist Bombers. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. OCLC 60358652.
- Whalen, Bernard; Messing, Philip; Mladinich, Robert (2016). "The Attempted Bombing of St. Patrick's Cathedral 1914". Undisclosed Files of the Police: Cases from the Archives of the NYPD from 1831 to the Present. Black Dog & Leventhal. OCLC 960851991.
- Wallace, Mike (2017). Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919. Oxford University Press. p. 1036. ISBN 978-0-19-511635-9.