Memorial. On October 1, 1910 at 1:07 AM, a bomb exploded in an alley adjacent to the Los Angeles Times Building located Downtown at 1st and Broadway. The explosion and subsequent fire destroyed the building and killed 20 employees working the night shift printing that day's edition. Led by the Times' powerful publisher General Harrison Gray Otis, the paper's staff declared it "The Crime of the Century". Otis was strongly anti-union, and this turned out to be one of the motivations for the bombing. Charged in the crime were two brothers, James B. and John J. McNamara, members of the Iron Workers Union. They were defended by the noted attorney Clarence Darrow. He initially believed they were innocent, but upon learning of their guilt he arranged a plea bargain to spare them the death penalty. James was sentenced to life in prison for placing the bomb and John to 15 years for bombing a local non-union iron works. The monument at Hollywood Memorial Park (now Hollywood Forever) was erected by Harrison Gray Otis as a memorial to the victims and a final resting place for 18 of them. Otis and his wife Eliza rest in a nearby tomb as do his daughter, Marian, and son-in-law, Harry Chandler, who succeeded him as publisher of the Times.
Memorial. On October 1, 1910 at 1:07 AM, a bomb exploded in an alley adjacent to the Los Angeles Times Building located Downtown at 1st and Broadway. The explosion and subsequent fire destroyed the building and killed 20 employees working the night shift printing that day's edition. Led by the Times' powerful publisher General Harrison Gray Otis, the paper's staff declared it "The Crime of the Century". Otis was strongly anti-union, and this turned out to be one of the motivations for the bombing. Charged in the crime were two brothers, James B. and John J. McNamara, members of the Iron Workers Union. They were defended by the noted attorney Clarence Darrow. He initially believed they were innocent, but upon learning of their guilt he arranged a plea bargain to spare them the death penalty. James was sentenced to life in prison for placing the bomb and John to 15 years for bombing a local non-union iron works. The monument at Hollywood Memorial Park (now Hollywood Forever) was erected by Harrison Gray Otis as a memorial to the victims and a final resting place for 18 of them. Otis and his wife Eliza rest in a nearby tomb as do his daughter, Marian, and son-in-law, Harry Chandler, who succeeded him as publisher of the Times.
Bio by: Bruce Boehner
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