Thursday, June 3, 2021

We Want to Destroy a Woolen Mill....But How Much Dynamite Do We Need?

 Franklin, Mass. (1919)

03/01/1919: Labor activists decided to blow up a woolens mill.  On the way to planting the bomb, there was an unexpected problem. All four were killed.  “Ten dwellings were partly wrecked, and broke nearly every pane of glass in Franklin, and caused damage in all towns within a radius of five miles”; several persons were injured.

Category: public

Suicide: no

Cause: labor

Weapon: dynamite[1]

4 comments:

  1. Some other online reading leads to current local historians pointing out that the extensive damage listed in the early reports -- such as 10 houses destroyed -- didn't actually take place. While the blast was noted in adjacent towns, the damage was mosly broken windows in the immediate vicinity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. https://franklin.wickedlocal.com/news/20190228/forgotten-frankin-terror-plot-turns-100

    "Original news accounts said the bomb destroyed 10 nearby homes, but that was not true, Earls said. The explosion did blow out windows in the mill and at nearby homes. The bombs were reportedly heard from 20 miles away, rumbling the foundations of homes."

    ReplyDelete
  3. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38400280/anarchist-trio-held-in-franklin-page-4/
    https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38400389/anarchist-trio-held-for-franklin/

    ReplyDelete