September 22nd, 1936

It was a late night on the campaign trail for Max Schactman, one of the premier thinkers of the Socialist Party of America. He had spent the day speaking to the various labor unions of Dayton, rallying support for the SPA's presidential candidate, Bill Haywood, as well as discussing finer points of party strategy over the phone in his room. He returned from a late-night engagement at around midnight and went to bed in his room at the Dayton Premiere around 12:45.

Two hours later the entire building was shaken by an explosion. A 30-pound time bomb had been placed in the empty room directly below where Schactman was staying. The blast destroyed part of the floor of Schatchman's room, but by pure luck he avoided serious injury as he had gotten up to use the restroom at that time. However, five other members of his entourage and one of his bodyguards were not so lucky. They were killed by falling debris when the ceiling above the hotel lobby partially collapsed.

The SPA in Ohio immediately expressed outrage at the bombing, as well as internal outrage at the failure of the Dayton Red Guard to protect Schactman; requests for his protection were denied by the guard, citing lack of resources. The bombing shocked the wider nation as a whole, and showed tht the brewing tension in America has taken a terrifying new turn.

The FBI has commented publically that they had no knowledge of the attack nor any concrete leads as to who perpetrated it, but whispers among the trade unions and the SPA indicate that they might have known more than they are letting on.