Gabriella Segata Antolini

Italian-American agricultural worker and Galleanist anarchist, who earned the nickname the Dynamite Girl when she was arrested on a train from Steubenville to Chicago in January 1918 carrying a black leather case containing thirty-six sticks of dynamite and a .32 caliber Colt automatic, born into a large family in Ferrara, Italy. In 1907 the Antolinis boarded the ship Algeria bound for New York. From there they ended up in Louisiana, where they found life as hard if not more so than in Italy – which is why, after five years the family returns to Italy, only to emigrate back to the United States a few years later. Working in agriculture picking cotton and cutting sugar cane, often alongside black ex-slaves, the family – and in particular Gabriella's brothers Alberto and Luigi – militated towards anarchism. Gabriella too moved towards anarchism as her political conscience developed through her reading and experiences. During a visit to her brothers in Connecticut, one of them introduced her to the anarchist August Segata, who she would marry on May 1, 1916. With August and her brothers, she frequented the I Liberi Group in New Britain, where she came into contact with many Galleanist anarchists, such as Carlo Valdinoci and Raffaele Schiavina, editor and director in charge of the Galleanist newspaper 'Cronaca Sovversiva' respectively. In January 1918, she and August were invited to Youngstown by Valdinoci where they met a number of anarchists including one Mario Rusca – real name Mario Buda, an insurrectionist anarchist, friend of Sacco and Vanzetti and future informer for the OVRA fascist secret police. It was Buda that entrusted Ella with the black leather case containing thirty-six sticks of dynamite and a .32 calibre Colt automatic that were to be used to carry out revenge attacks for the arrests and persecution of the Milwaukee anarchists and the death in custody of Augusto Marinell on September 15, 1917, and with which she would later be arrested.

Leaving Segata behind, she and Valdinoci travelled to Steubenville, where it is supposed that they were due to hand over the suitcase to a third party. The hand-over never took place and Ella instead took on the task of transporting the package to Chicago by train. However, a diligent train conductor became suspicious of the lone young woman and alerted the police who, after the search of the suitcase, arrested Ella. During her interrogations, Antolini gave the false name of "Linda José", a character in an anarchist propaganda play, and steadfastly refused to cooperate with the police, other than to invent a series of names and circumstances to try and further confuse the issue. She was charged with illegal possession of dynamite and placed in jail on $20,000 bail.

The newspapers swiftly nicknamed her 'the Dynamite Girl'. After two weeks in jail, Antolini finally revealed her real name and admitted to being a sympathiser of the IWW and follower of Luigi Galleani. On June 1, 1918, she was released from the Lake County jail when a $15,000 bond was made by wealthy Italian immigrant, Vincenzio DeAngelo of Chicago - who coincidentally was murdered on June 27th while out walking with his wife near their family home. It is not known if the two circumstances were connected, and Gabriella herslef would later tell the 'Chicago Tribune' that she thought that there was no link. At her trial Ella openly professed her anarchism, boldly declaring before the court: "I don’t believe in god, government or laws. I do not care what they do to me". On October 21, 1918, and having pleaded guilty, Gabriella Antolini was sentenced to 18 months to be served at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City and a $2000 fine. In prison she befriended Emma Goldman and socialist Kate O'Hare, the three becoming known as 'The Trinity'. Goldman said of her: "She was a proletarian child, familiar with poverty and hardship, strong and socially conscious. Gentle and sympathetic, she was like a beam of sunshine, bringing cheer to her fellow prisoners and great joy to me." After her release from Jefferson City jail, she was immediately detained in St. Louis to await a decision on her possible extradition to Italy. Fortunately for Ella, her friend Kate O'Hare's husband paid for a lawyer for her, who managed to successfully argue against her expulsion to the Italian peninsula.

Once free, Gabriella went to live in Detroit, Michigan, where she married a professional tailor, Jerome Pomilia, and found employment in the field of tailoring, later giving birth to two children. After their divorce in 1940, Gabriella later moved to Needham, Massachusetts, where there was a large Gallenist community, before settling in Florida, where she remained until her death.

Gabriella 'Ella' Antolini died of cancer in Miami on January 1, 1984.