Galleanists were primary suspects in a campaign of bombings between 1914 and 1920 . Instances included mail bombs to business and government officials and the 1920 Wall Street bombing , which killed 38 people . In effect , however , none of the Galleanists ' bombs hit their targets : capitalists , police , or judges . Their casualties were themselves and bystanders . Their bombing methods borrowed from the Italian Black Hand extortion rackets , in which the attacker would write a threat of future violence and place bombs in doorways . These extortionists adapted fireworks , a popular Italian industry , with shrapnel or stole dynamite from construction jobs . Anarchists , however , lacked the community experience with high explosives and thus overestimated their ability to create working bombs and underestimated their risk
Wall Street bombing
Wall Street bombing
Galleanists