Episode 6: Transcript

Troubled Waters in the City of Angels: The Aqueduct, Bombings, & The “Crime of the Century”

Last time on: The Story Los Angeles

The discovery of oil created another cycle of economic boom and bust, while Huntington built his real estate and electric rail empire.

Opening

In the late 1800s, California was still a relatively new settlement struggling with how to manage its water resources. The northern part of the state received ample rainfall, but much of Southern California was dry and arid. Pioneers like the Spanish Franciscans at the San Gabriel Mission and early Mormon settlers in San Bernardino experimented with small-scale irrigation projects to bring water to their communities. But the real transformation of California would require much larger engineering feats and coordinated planning. Long stretches of sunny weather, part of Southern California's appeal, paired torrential downpours and flooding in the winter created a highly unstable water supply. The Los Angeles river and its tributaries regularly flooded in the winter months, even causing the original LA Plaza to be rebuilt on higher ground, near today’s Union Station.

In the late 19th century, city leaders believed the Los Angeles River and Arroyo Seco Creek would provide enough water for the growing region but as the population surged at the turn of the 20th century, it became clear this was not sustainable. The city's rapid population growth and periodic droughts outstripped the local water supplies while devastating floods continued.

Along with the tumultuous condition of the water supply bumpy waters were ahead in the struggle for labor rights in the Southland. Anti-Union business owners faced off against employees and organized labor fighting to earn a decent wage and protection from the newer and more dangerous industrial jobs transforming the country. This battle led to a string of deadly encounters between the two sides.

This is The Story: Los Angeles

Episode 6: Troubled Waters in the City of Angels: The Aqueduct, Bombings, & The “Crime of the Century”

Part 1: Dry or Drenched

As early as 1859, early settlers in the Southland were exploring ideas on how to bring water to the region. In the winter, snow packed onto the tops of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and by spring torrential downpours along with melting snow provided ample, sometimes too much water leaving the rest of the year dry and arid.

Early pioneers envisioned bringing water from the Colorado River to regions like the Imperial Valley in the Southeastern part of the state using gravity and man-made aqueducts . These early engineers like George Chaffey, who established Ontario, California organized mutual water companies with innovative irrigation systems for his settlement ensuring reliable water supplies year round allowing citrus and other crops to thrive.

In Sacramento, William Hammond Hall, the state’s first civic engineer, utilized his role to imagine a comprehensive water plan for California. He inventoried the state's water resources, and proposed reforms to water law, publishing extensive and meticulous reports that irrigation could turn the state into an agricultural powerhouse, supporting millions of small farmers.

But despite these early visions and accomplishments Los Angeles county had yet to stabilize their supply to sustain its booming population and a tug-of-war between individuals and companies claiming private rights to water vs. public-shared-use was on the horizon across the entire state. The stage was set for future conflicts between a vision for public water resources and private profit.

Born into a prominent family that founded what is now the city of Pasadena, a young Frederick Eaton had become a self-taught engineer and the city’s water superintendent by the young age of 19. In 1875 and just 3 years into the job had hired William Muhulland as the Los Angeles City Water Companies Deputy Zanjero, or water distributor. Essentially, a head ditch digging tasked with irrigating and distributing water throughout the city and county.

Mulhulland and Eaton made significant improvements to the water system including the laying of the first iron water pipes. But their visions extended far beyond the Southland. Eaton recalled on a camping trip to the Sierra’s eyeing the Owen’s Lake and its lush valley, over 200 miles north of Los Angeles. He thought of all the uses of this bountiful source of water that sat in his mind wasted. Foreseeing an early need and use for the water, Eaton began purchasing land and water rights in the Owen’s River Valley.

By 1898, Angelinos elected Frederick Eaton as the cities mayor. Mulhulland became superintendent of the city's water company. And in 1905 Eaton convinced Mulholland that Owen’s Valley had enough water for a city ten times LA's size. If they could only divert the river's flow to Los Angeles, the city could establish a seemingly endless water supply to feed its growing population. The challenges would be piping it such a long distance and getting public support for the massive costs involved.

Sold on the idea Mulholland began meticulously planning the aqueduct route and estimating construction expenses. At the same time, Mulhulland, Eaton, and their powerful and wealthy friends secretly began buying up arid land across the region while Mayor Eaton kicked off an ambitious campaign to sell Angelinos on the staggering 25 million dollar idea.

Part 2: The Rise of Labor

While the city was struggling to find a foothold in providing water to the thirsty county, other rough rapids were ahead in the labor market.

Across the country, the end of the 1800s in the United States was filled with conflict between the working-class and large business and factory owners. Industrialization was transforming the country bringing products and innovation to the masses while building taller and larger cities. But for employees, poor wages, deteriorating working conditions, and lack of regulations ignited a firestorm to Unionize. Business owners on the other hand, saw Unions as a threat to their own profits.

The country was destined for conflict:

• 1892: the Homestead Strike, Homestead Pennsylvabia - a bloody confrontation between Carnegie Steel and the Steelworkers Union over an expiring Union contract Carnegie refused to renew. Gunfire broke out between the company's private forces and the steelworkers resulting in deaths on both sides that only ended when the Governor deployed the state militia.

• 1894: the Pullman Strike, Pullman Illinois - financial panic in 1893 led the Pullman Palace Car Company to slash wages but refused to lower rent for company-owned housing its employees lived in. The workers and the Railway Union led a nation wide strike and boycott of the railroads in May 1894 that ended in violent clashes between strikers and federal troops deployed on behalf of the Railroads.

• 1886: the Haymarket Massacre - Chicago, Illinois. A unified labor fight for an eight hour workday spread across the country with the motto: “"Eight Hours for work. Eight hours for rest. Eight hours for what we will." Set to May 1st, unions organized mass strikes while Police fired on large crowds of laborers. Outraged, a mass protest was staged at Haymarket Square in Chicago where an unknown individual threw a bomb towards police who in turn responded with gunfire. Many died as a result.

Today, we remember these struggles and more with May Day on May 1st and Labor Day in early September and many of us still benefit from the 8 hour a day 40 hour work week, minimum wage, and workplace protections these early unions fought for, though those rights remain under attack.

Despite those rights we enjoy today, during this period, the unions and the laborers felt an extreme lack of power and resources. The police and military forces were by and large called on by business owners to support the interests of the wealthy leaving poor and endangered workers helpless, struggling for fair working conditions and wages to make ends meet. Business owners also utilized anti-union tactics: spies, violence, and legal maneuvering were rampant to keep America’s workers unorganized..

One of the most impacted Unions was the International Association of Bridge and Structural Ironworkers. Members of the Ironworkers Union played a central role in the development and industrialization of the entire nation. Building Iron bridges for railroads to cross the countries rivers and ravines, erecting towering new skyscrapers with little to no protection from accidental falls at incredible heights, building infrastructure for new power plants electrifying cities across the nation. This was dangerous work with common hazards including falls, burns, falling objects and more. Deemed “the Cowboys of the Sky” ironworkers built a reputation as a fearless and daring workforce.

But that grit and determination, that fearlessness, didn’t come without pride in their work and a sense of self-advocacy. These laborers were building America’s future as an industrial powerhouse and they knew it. They also knew their fight for fair working conditions was regularly being undermined by big business, police, and newspapers friendly only to the cause of the wealthy. Feeling like all odds were against them, the leadership at the top levels of the Ironworkers Union, established a scheme, one intended to force the hand of the wealthy to honor the union’s demands.

Samuel Hockin, the Treasurer of the Ironworkers Union recruited a handful of low-wage workers to execute the union's scheme. Between the years of 1907 and 1911, Ortie McManigal and brothers J.J. and J.B. McNamara were enticed by Samuel Hockin with extremely lucrative cash payments: in exchange, the trio was tasked with secret missions to plant TNT bombs at non-union work sites across the country. By destroying the work of non-organized laborers, they hoped to scare employees into joining the Ironworkers Union and force businesses into union-only contracts.

In the dead of night, the three would sneak on to in-progress railway bridges, skyscrapers, and other industrial projects with TNT set to a ticking clock and timed to go off destroying the work on the projects but aiming to never harm or kill anyone. Any deaths or harm done to employees would hurt the union cause and would have disastrous effects for union sympathy.

But it wasn’t just union projects the Ironworkers had problems with. Business-friendly newspapers at the time were relentlessly pushing anti-union content and driving “Open Shop” city sentiments across the nation. An Open Shop city was one that could not, by law, compel union membership or charge dues, thus destroying union negotiating power. To further complicate matters, pro-union sentiments on the East coast were strong and growing, while the rapidly developing west-coast leaned heavily toward big business sympathies.

And so, the Ironworkers, led by treasurer Hockin, turned their sights on the pro-business LA Times owned by Harrison Gray Otis and run by Harry Chandler. Another plot was in the works.

Part 3: The Aqueduct & Lies in the Owen’s Valley.

Before the Ironworkers Union began plotting their big union win for Los Angeles, city water engineer and superintendent Mulhulland and mayor Eaton were busy scheming their own plan to convince the city to invest an enormous sum: 25 million dollars to create a 200 mile aqueduct: an engineering feat of mass proportions.

Teaming up with the city’s leading newspapers (the Herald Examiner and the Los Angeles Times) Eaton garnered the backing of business and civic leaders and in 1905 voters approved two bond measures to fund the project. Curiously, before the construction even started, Eaton and Mulhullands friends (largely wealthy business owners like Otis, Chandler, Doheny, and Huntington) began buying up land in the region outside of the city limits at a feverish pace. But why? Most of the land was semi-arid, with sparse rain only a few times a year. Farmers could only dry-farm and the dominant use of the land was broad-scale ranching, much like the Los Angeles basin had been a few decades prior.

In addition, residents of Owen’s River Valley were getting mixed signals from a number of groups. Los Angeles agents, including former mayor Fred Eaton, allegedly posed as agents of the federal Bureau of Reclamation, giving the impression that the project was a public irrigation endeavor to protect farming in the Owen’s Valley rather than a water grab for Los Angeles' benefit. Los Angeles used its economic and political power to pressure and outmaneuver Owen’s Valley residents, buying up land and water rights at low prices while farmers struggled to comprehend the larger scheme at play.

You see, Mulhulland envisioned more than just water for the city limits of Los Angeles. By damming up the future flow from Owen’s River, Muholland and his partners could create a steady and reliable water source as well as energy through new power generators spun by the force of the aqueducts flow. Not only could they turn the entire Southland into a lush and fertile oasis, Muholland and his elite friends could also own 90% of the energy production and vast expanses of land outside of the current city limits needed for regional growth.

And so, with the backing of LA voters, the swindling of Owen’s residents, and an impressive secret power play by the city’s elite, construction began in 1908 under Mulholland's leadership. It was an epic engineering feat, requiring 57 camps along the 225 mile route. Major obstacles included the arid desert landscape and technical challenges like 18 miles of tunnels blown out by TNT explosives in Jawbone Canyon. At its peak, over 200,000 men were employed in the work crews.

The sheer scale was staggering. Quarries were built, cement plants constructed, railroads laid – a massive industrial undertaking. Thousands of laborers toiled under the harsh desert sun, shaping concrete channels and blasting tunnels.

LA’s future water source was in the making.

Part 4: The Bombs

While TNT was blowing holes in mountains to create the city's new aqueduct, this highly volatile substance was in use for more sinister purposes throughout the country. Treasurer Hockins of the Ironworkers Union, and his three minions: McManahil, and brothers JJ & JB McNamara were busy blowing up over 100 non-union work sites across the country.

As their focus shifted to rapidly growing Los Angeles, then a strongly anti-union city led by figures like Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Otis, the stage was set for a fateful confrontation. No longer was the union targeting work only sites, they now were setting their aims on newspapers and the homes of wealthy business owners. Hockins plan was to blow up the anti-union L.A. Times building in downtown Los Angeles as well as the homes of Harrison Otis and the secretary of the anti-union Merchants and Manufacturers' Association.

In the lead-up to the bombings, J.J. McNamara sent his younger brother, J.B., to Los Angeles to plant the bomb at the LA Times Building. J.B. placed a suitcase filled with dynamite and a timer in an ink alley behind the building the night before the explosion. The bomb was set to go off at 1:00 am aptly planned to avoid any loss of life. Tension in Los Angeles was about to explode, literally.

At 1:07 AM, the bomb exploded and TNT ripped through the building, but instead of just destroying the alley facing side of the Times, gas pipes used to run the printing presses ruptured and ignited turning the explosion into a massive fiery inferno. To make matters worse, Hockins and McNamara had made a grave miscalculation. The paper regularly employed graveshift employees who worked through the night to produce the papers that would be distributed the next morning. At the time, hundreds of employees were rushing to print the next day's news. And as a result 21 died in the fiery blast while 100 more were injured or permanently disfigured. The Times dubbed it the "crime of the century."

Thankfully, both bombs planted at the homes of Otis and the Merchants Union Secretary malfunctioned, delaying the intended detonations. Still, these failed attacks further underscored the escalation of violence and the devastation of the LA Times bombing ignited a nationwide furor. Was this the grim future of the labor movement?

While clues were uncovered from the unexploded bombs, union leaders including the head of the American Federation of Labor swiftly condemned the Los Angeles Times attack. They denied that any union or its members could be responsible.

Under intense pressure to find the perpetrators, Los Angeles hired renowned private detective William J. Burns who had tracked similar bombings across the country and who already had a spy inside the Ironworkers union. This insider gave him crucial information and indicated that likely a collaboration between J.J. McNamara, Ortie MacManigal and others were responsible for the bombings. Later that year additional failed bombing attempts in LA by Ortie further solidified the evidence that he and others in the Union were responsible for the devastation.

Although on the run, Detective Burns eventually found all three bringing them back to Los Angeles to sit in jail while awaiting their day in court.

The American labor movement erupted in a show of solidarity. Labor leaders were incensed. They saw this as a direct attack, not just on two men, but on the very heart of their struggle and denounced the McNamaras' treatment as illegal. To them, this echoed past attempts to crush unions, like the infamous Haywood Massacre and Homestead strikes.

The highly publicized and attended courtroom drama that ensued included accusations of LA Times Owner and other business leaders blowing up the building themselves to frame the union and push anti-organizing efforts in the city. They painted Otis as the true villain, a man willing to sacrifice his own property for an anti-union crusade.

But in a stunning twist, the McNamara brothers eventually confessed. And after months of defiant pleas of innocence and the fierce backing of the labor movement, the truth came out – they were guilty. JB admitted to the Times bombing, JJ to a separate attack, and Ortie to several others. The pro-labor movement was left reeling, their cause tarnished.

Part 5: An Aqueduct for the Masses

By 1911, the McNamara brothers and Ortie McManagil were now in Jail for their parts in LA Times bombing and the new Aqueduct siphoning the water and the future out of Owen’s Valley, now only half complete, was facing issues of its own.

Owen’s Valley Residents were becoming privy to the actual plans of their southern neighbors in Los Angeles. Owens Valley was not empty. Farmers relied on the river and saw Los Angeles' plan as a death sentence. Many sold their land and moved on, but others fought a bitter and ultimately futile resistance to stop the aqueducts completion including future bombings of the pipes and infrastructure that ultimately would siphon their source of livelihood.

Still, the city and Mulhulland forged ahead. After nearly 5 years of monumental effort, the aqueduct was finally completed in 1913. On November 5th, a crowd of 30,000 gathered to witness the turning on of the water from Owens Valley. Los Angeles now had a reliable water supply that would fuel unprecedented growth in the decades to come. Suburbs bloomed, industry thrived. But there was a price. The Owens Valley withered. Its lake shrank, once fertile land turned into a toxic dust bowl: pure ecological devastation that wasn’t fully addressed until the year 2001. In the decades that followed, environmental battles erupted. Courts intervened, mandates were issued, and the struggle for balance continued..

In Los Angeles, for the moguls who’d bought up the land in the county's outer regions, this wasn't just about water; it was about power. The city's charter limited water sales outside its borders meaning nearby communities had to be annexed into the growing metropolis in order to claim water rights. While the suburbs grew, the wealthy elites who had bought up the land profited handsomely in something akin to insider trading today.

Conclusion:

The Owens Valley conflict is often viewed as the defining chapter in the "California Water Wars" referring to the ongoing struggle between urban and rural interests over water resources in the state. While the bombing of the Los Angeles Times represents a similar turbulent struggle between laborers and the big business bosses of the day.

Both, characterized by legal battles, political maneuvering, and violence shaped California for decades to come.

While the Owens River Aqueduct remains a vital element of Los Angeles' water infrastructure, it's also a symbol of the complex and controversial relationship between water needs and environmental impact. And The Los Angeles Times bombing? A brutal reminder of the deep tensions between powerful business interests and the struggles of organized labor during the early 20th century.

Both represent victories and losses, but victories and losses for whom?

Can one group ever truly achieve security without harming others? Can one group's gain ever justify another’s loss? Where do we draw the line? These are questions we still must ask ourselves today.