1910 Los Angeles Times Bombing: McNamara Plot, Darrow’s Defense, and a City Remade

In the early hours of October 1, 1910, downtown Los Angeles was rocked by an explosion that tore through the Los Angeles Times building. The blast, fueled by dynamite hidden in a suitcase and ignited by barrels of ink and ruptured gas lines, turned the newsroom into an inferno. Twenty-one people were killed and more than a hundred injured. The city awoke not only to smoke and rubble, but to the opening act of what newspapers quickly called the crime of the century.

At the heart of it all was the long and bitter war between organized labor and the open shop crusade led by Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis. The McNamara brothers, backed by the Iron Workers Union, carried out the attack, and their capture set the stage for a sensational trial featuring Clarence Darrow. The fallout reshaped Los Angeles, crushed union hopes, and left scars on the American labor movement for decades.