Overman Committee - Aftermath

Aftermath

The Overman Committee did not achieve any lasting reforms. However, the panel's sensationalism played a decisive role in increasing America's fears during the Red Scare of 1919-20. Its investigations served as a blueprint for the Department of Justice's anti-radical Palmer raids late in the year. These were led by Attorney General Palmer, whose testimony about German brewers had been the catalyst for the Committee's creation.

On May 1, 1919, a month after the Committee's hearings ended, a bomb was mailed to Overman's home, one of a series of letter bombs sent to prominent Americans in the 1919 United States anarchist bombings. It was intercepted before it reached its target.