Tom Mooney was a famous, radical labor leader in
San Francisco. On July 22, l9l6, while thousands lined Market Street
for a "Preparedness Day" parade (prior to WWI), a bomb exploded on a
crowded street corner, killing ten and injuring 40 others. Two labor
leaders were arrested: Tom Mooney and Warren Billings. They were
tried and convicted. Mooney was sentenced to death, Billings got
life imprisonment.
Many years later it was shown that crucial
evidence was suppressed by the district attorney. In the meantime
only the intervention of President Woodrow Wilson prevented Mooney's
execution. Mooney fought his conviction tirelessly for 22 years on
both a legal and a political front. Eventually Governor Culbert
Olson pardoned Mooney and he returned to San Francisco to join a
parade in his honor up Market Street. |