The Unsolved Mystery of the (Perhaps) British Bomb at the New York World's Fair

I wanted to include a bit of local perspective when I spoke to The Winston Churchill Society of Georgia in mid-March. Fortunately, the blaring headlines from the front page of the June 5, 1940 edition of The Atlanta Constitution provided a perfect opening for a presentation about the British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir.

Although it seemed off-topic, I did not want to ignore the sub-headline – about a “Flame-Throwing Bomb” that killed two people at the New York World’s Fair the previous day. As it turns out, that story has more to do with the Second World War than the headline suggests.

A World’s Fair was a truly significant event in 1940. Albert Einstein was one of the featured speakers on the Fair’s opening day one year earlier, on April 30, 1939. Britain’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum version) paid a half-day visit six weeks later. The exhibits at the British pavilion included one of the 17 known copies of the Magna Carta and replicas of the Crown Jewels. (I’ve read that the real jewels never leave Britain).

The Fair was a two-year extravaganza, but by the second year, with much of Europe at war, the look and the personality of the Fair had changed. Germany was one of the few countries that never participated. The USSR pavilion was shut down and razed at the end of 1939. Although America’s entry into the War was still more than a year away, tensions were heightened and security was increased.

On Tuesday July 2, 1940 Mrs. Marjorie Rossner, a telephone operator at the British Pavilion spoke to an anonymous caller who warned her to “get out of the building” because it would soon blow up. A quick search turned up no sign of a bomb.

Still, security was tightened, and during a more thorough search two days later, an electrician found a small canvas bag – it looked like an overnight case – sitting in a ventilation control room. Right out of a scene from a bad movie, the electrician heard a ticking noise inside the bag and carried it outside, where it was examined by two detectives from the New York Police Department’s Bomb Squad. One of the detectives, 35-year-old Ferdinand Socha used a pocket knife to cut a two-inch slit in the bag. His partner, 33-year-old Joseph Lynch, took a look inside the hole and told a nearby group of detectives: “it’s the business.” They were his last words. Within seconds, the bomb exploded. It was later estimated that the bag contained 12 sticks of dynamite connected to a timing device.

The blast, which left a three-by-five-foot hole roughly three-feet deep, killed Socha and Lynch instantly. Both of Socha’s feet were blown off by the blast. Two other officers who were standing nearby were critically wounded.

All available men in the NYPD were immediately placed on 24-hour duty. More than 100 “agitators and other suspects” including known Nazi sympathizers, were rounded up in the immediate hours after the blast. Security was increased at the British, French and Italian exhibits. An unprecedented $26,000 reward was offered for the capture of the bomber or bombers.

Despite the dragnet and the cash reward, the crime remains unsolved to this day.

In the 80-plus years since the tragic explosion, multiple theories have been suggested to fill the void. Some of the most popular speculation was that the bomb was the work of William Stephenson, a Canadian-born British undercover agent. Stephenson traveled to New York at the behest of Winston Churchill two weeks before the explosion. Officially, Stephenson was the head of the British Security Coordination, an agency with an office in Rockefeller Center. One of his primary responsibilities was to organize American public opinion in favor of aid to Great Britain at a time when the U.S. was still neutral. The promoters of a British role in the bombing suggest that an attack on a British exhibit on American soil would have inspired sympathy for Britain, and, assuming that Germany would appear the most likely culprit, would have created a new surge in hostility towards Hitler’s nation.

Stephenson, of course, denied any role in the bombing, and, although rumors still linger, no credible evidence of his involvement has ever been offered. You might recognize Stephenson from his code name: Intrepid. There was a best-selling book titled A Man Called Intrepid, and a mini-series of the same name that starred David Niven as Stephenson, neither of which mentioned the bombing. Stephenson is an interesting, multi-dimensional character. The author (and former spy) Ian Fleming suggested on multiple occasions that Stephenson served as the model for James Bond. Stephenson is credited with helping found the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He successfully and credibly promoted the British cause throughout the War. When Winston Churchill recommended Stephenson for a knighthood after the War, he added “This one is dearest to my heart.” (No, I absolutely do not suggest that Churchill had anything to do with the bombing)!

I don’t know enough about Stevenson to judge his possible role. I joked in Atlanta that if anyone was interested in writing a book of their own, this might be a worthy subject. One of the many lessons I’ve learned from my project is that the best way to learn the deep details of a topic is to write about it. If you are looking for a book idea of your own, you could do worse than to dive more deeply into this story.

Thanks for reading,
Bill