The Milwaukee Police Station Bomb of 1917

On a chilly day in September, the patriotic, pro-Protestant preaching of an Italian immigrant pastor, August Giuliani, ignited a riot in Milwaukee’s small Italian enclave of Bay View that injured two policemen and killed two rioters. Two months later, someone placed a bomb in Giuliani’s Third Ward church in an apparent act of retaliation, and a parishioner carried the explosive to Central Police Station, where it detonated, killing nine policemen and a civilian. Within a week, the trial of the Bay View Italians began in a city inflamed with fear, distrust and vengeance. The national buzz attracted big names to the case, including attorney Clarence Darrow and radical heroine Emma Goldman. Join Robert Tanzilo as he carefully navigates the minefield of racial, political and religious tension that tore apart Milwaukee’s Italian community in 1917.