Times Building Explosion aftermath

 United States > California > Los Angeles

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Oct. 3, 1910: Photo from Broadway side of the Los Angeles Times building shows damage from the bombing and fire. Shortly after 1 a.m. on Oct. 1, 1910, Friday, a time bomb constructed of 16 sticks of 80% dynamite connected to a cheap windup alarm clock exploded in an alley next to the Los Angeles Times. It detonated with such violence that for blocks around, people ran panic-stricken into the streets, believing that an intense earthquake had hit the city.The explosion destroyed the Times building, taking the lives of 20 employees, including the night city editor and the principal telegraph operator, and maiming dozens of others. Two other time bombs — intended to kill Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, the publisher of the newspaper, and Felix J. Zeehandelaar, the head of a Los Angeles business organization — were discovered later that morning hidden in the bushes next to their homes. Their mechanisms had jammed. Eventually, two brothers, J.B. McNamara, who planted the bombs, and J.J.