32 TIMES • SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com old timer This Wednesday, Sept. 16, the students of The Immaculate Conception Catholic Academy Aquinas Honor Society of Jamaica Estates will visit the Maple Grove Cemetery grave of one of the 38 victims of the NYC Terrorist Bombing of Sept. 16, 1920. They will mark the 95th anniversary of the bombing that has been long forgotten. Ludolf Portong of Richmond Hill, a Wall Street clerk, bravely fought in World War I and survived. He returned home, married his sweetheart and was expecting the birth of his fi rst child, when he went to lunch on that fateful day and became a victim of the fi rst act of terrorism aimed at the heart of America’s fi nancial institution occurred. He was buried in the family plot at Maple Grove Cemetery. The perpetrators of the attack targeted a prominent building that also served as a symbol of American capitalism. Owing to the technology of the times, they used a horse-drawn wagon. It was loaded with a bomb containing dynamite and 500 pounds of small PRESENTED BY THE FRIENDS OF MAPLE GROVE CEMETERY iron weights parked in front of 23 Wall St.. The corner building was then the headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co., the nation’s most powerful bank. At 12:01 p.m., the timer on the bomb reached zero and a terrifi c explosion rocked the street. Thirty people died instantly from the blast. Another eight died later from the injuries they sustained. Hundreds were injured, some by shrapnel on the street, others by the glass that rained down from the broken windows of the J.P. Morgan building. Today, the limestone facade of 23 Wall St. still bears the scars from the shrapnel that blasted into it 95 years ago. No one claimed responsibility in the aftermath of the attack. Despite a threeyear investigation, those responsible for the attack have never been offi - cially identifi ed. In 1944, however, the FBI revisited the case and concluded that anarchists were likely behind the plot—the group had conducted a series of bombings across the United States in 1919, which fueled the nation’s fi rst Red Scare. The Jamaica Estates students did extensive research on this event and made a presentation at the annual Aquinas School Expo last May. They created a display fi lled with photographs and documents they will set it up at Maple Grove Cemetery. The students have not failed to make a profound connection with the Wall Street Bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which the perpetrators targeted the World Trade Center, two iconic symbols of American capitalism. Maple Grove memorial honors victims of Wall Street bombing If you have any memories and photos that you’d like to share about “Our Neighborhood: e Way it Was,” write to e Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times, 62-70 Fresh Pond Rd., Ridgewood, NY 11385, or send an email to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.com. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned upon request. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. A picture of the carnage following the Sept. 16, 1920 bombing near the headquarters of JP Morgan & Co. on Wall Street, which killed 38 people. Photo courtesy of Carl Ballenas The monument dedicated to victims of the 1920 bombing on Wall Street. Photo courtesy of Carl Ballenas A stained glass window tribute to the victims of terrorism at Maple Grove Cemetery.
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