Underground papers functioned as communications hubs for actual bombers

Evidence

A few days before Newfield’s article ran, Sam Melville had held up a Bronx purveyor of dynamite and made off with four boxes. The issue of the Voice was still on newsstands when someone blew up a New Jersey munition plant. Attention focused on the upcoming mayor election, the Voice made no mention of the Marine Midland bombing but, having read the Marine Midland communique published in Rat, a police detective visited the paper’s office in late August. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1481

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the turf-wars/gentrification study: illegality wasn’t abstract, it was literal bombings, and the paper was the node.