The Long, Lethal History of Mail Bombs

In April 1919, a mail clerk named Charles Kaplan saved the lives of untold U.S. officials and staffers. He had read a newspaper account about the bombing of the home of Senator Thomas R. Hardwick; a package mailed to the Georgia lawmaker had detonated in the hands of a housekeeper, severely injuring her. Kaplan recognized the description of the device: He had seen similar packages at his own New York City post office.

Kaplan rushed back to work and found the boxes, which he had set aside for lack of postage. Dozens of department-store boxes featured the same return address: “Gimbel Bros. 32nd St. and Broadway, New York City.” All the packages contained dynamite bombs. Alerted by Kaplan’s nick-of-time intervention, postmasters in North Carolina, Utah, and Nebraska discovered similar booby-trapped parcels. In all, the U.S. Postal Service intercepted 36 mail bombs meant for senators, mayors, and other officials—a May Day plot planned by followers of anarchist Luigi Galleani. The crisis sparked the First Red Scare.