On this day, Oct. 1, 1910, a suitcase bomb exploded and sparked a fire that destroyed the Los Angeles Times building and killed 21 people. Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, was vehemently anti-union and had resisted unionization for nearly half a century.
Two members of the iron workers union, brothers John J. and James B. McNamara, were arrested in April 1911 and charged with the bombing.
Many people believed the brothers had been framed, but their attorney Clarence Darrow discovered that the police had a considerable amount of evidence against the men. Darrow was convinced that the men would be executed.
James McNamara admitted to setting the explosive, was convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. John McNamara was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bombing a local iron manufacturing plant.
— Scott McCabe
