American Lightning

American Lightning by Howard Blum (Crown Publishers, 2008) recounts the story of a huge explosion in Los Angeles in 1910 that destroyed the headquarters of the LA Times and killed 21 people. (The photo, above, is from the book.)

Of course, there's an Indy connection: "Employing his army of detectives, [Billy] Burns traced the conspiracy, as well as other terrorist acts, to the Indianapolis headquarters of the Structural Iron Workers union and its secretary-treasurer, John J. McNamara, whose accomplices included his brother Jim."

You can read more of David Oshinksy's review of the book in The New York Times. It was in the book review section yesterday (23 November 2008).