Deadly Times: The 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times and America’s Forgotten Decade of Terror

Former Los Angeles TV anchorman and journalist Irwin takes readers to an oft-forgotten era of home-grown terrorism: from 1907 to 1911 violent tensions between businesses and unions prompted more than 200 bombings. General Harrison Clay Otis’s Los Angeles Times was outspokenly anti-union, and in the middle of the night on October 1, 1910, an explosion ripped through the paper’s headquarters, killing 21 people. The tragedy sparked an immediate manhunt, but it would be months before the culprits turned up. Irwin writes in the preface that the inspiration for the book came from an interview he conducted half a century ago with Irving Stone, author of the popular biographical novel Clarence Darrow for the Defense, and he does his best to mimic Stone’s template by offering accurate yet enthralling portraits of the major players in the case, including Otis, private detective William J. Burns, corrupt union boss Herb Hockin, the accused McNamara brothers, and their defense lawyer—Clarence Darrow. Masterfully alternating between the exploits of the main characters, Irwin recreates the devastating blast, the public hysteria, and the sensational trial following the arrest of the bombing brothers. History buffs and scholars of the modern Age of Terror will devour this detailed account. 16-page b&w insert. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management. (May)