Tom Mooney, Warren Billings and the Preparedness Day Bombing

In July of 1916 the industrialists of the San Francisco organized a parade in support of military and civil preparedness for the entrance into the First world War. This parade was meant to serve as a propaganda tool to urge the government into a war that these industrialists would profit the most from.

Anti-war sentiment was popular, especially among those who were ethnically German or on the political left. Tensions were still high from the violent general strike which took place only a month earlier. The San Francisco Central Labor Council urged a boycott of the parade and many viewed the war as one where working-class individuals from different nations slaughtered one another while the capitalists profited. In response, anti-war and anti-parade activists were called unpatriotic cowards.

The massive parade ended up having over 50,000 marchers - including a number of unions. About half an hour after the parade began, a suitcase bomb went off on Steuart Street, just south of Market Street, near the Ferry Building. Ten were killed and forty others wounded.

Within days, the politically ambitious district attorney, Charles Fickert, had a list of known radicals he wanted to charge, at the top of it was famed anarchist Alexander Berkman. Being unable to extradited Berkman back to San Francisco from New York, Fickert set his sights on one of Berkman's friends; labor organizer Tom Mooney. Mooney and a close associate, Warren Billings were arrested along with Mooney's wife and two other comrades. Within days they were charged with the bombing, though the only evidence provided was questionable witness testimony. During the trial Frickert and members of the grand jury urged witnesses to give perjured testimony and falsified evidence. What ended up being a show-trial in court gained international attention as a blatant and unjust attack on the political left.

A few years earlier, Fickert became District Attorney largely due to the massive financial support of the owner of United Railroads who operated the street cars in San Francisco. Agents of United Railroads had already once tried to frame Mooney for a bombing of one of their high-voltage towers. During that incident they unsuccessfully attempted to bribe Billings into testifying against Mooney. Mooney with the help of Billings and others spent much of 1915 attempting to organize the workers of United Railroads.

Born into a working-class socialist family, Mooney had a long history of radical activism. A member of both the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party of America he was known as a militant speaker and writer. He published a successful radical paper and worked on the campaign to free labor organizer and musician Joe Hill. He was involved in a number of labor struggles and was considered to be a dangerous rival by conservative union leadership. They were more than happy to have him removed from labor organizing. So, though there was no real evidence, there was plenty of political reasons for Fickert to go after Mooney.

Mooney and Billings were found guilty of the Preparedness Day bombing and sentenced to hanging and life imprisonment, respectively. The other defendants were acquitted. Due to public outrage - including pressure from US president Woodrow Wilson - over the trial the governor of California commuted Mooney's sentenced to life in prison. From that point on, for the following 21 years, successive governors of California refused to yield to evidence and public pressure to pardon Mooney and Billings. Over time this included the pleas of nine out of ten jury members from the trial, the trial judge, and the much of the prosecution team other than Fickert. After the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, Mooney became the international symbol of state repression against the Left. Billings received less publicity in part because he had a more severe criminal record.

Even the warden and staff at San Quentin Prison treated Mooney as a special case. Many of the guards and fellow inmates believed he was innocent and gave him special privileges inside the prison. This allowed him to stay politically active through his correspondence and writings.

On the outside he had massive support. This included protesters who ran around the racing track of the 1932 Los Angeles olympic games with "free Mooney" signs. They were later sentenced to 9 months for disturbing the peace.

At one point the government offered Mooney parole as long as he admitted that he was guilty. He refused to do so. Finally, in 1939, when running for governor, Culbert Olson promised to pardon Mooney. This was with the hope that Mooney would become a non-issue during the campaign, allowing the liberal Olson to appeal to more conservative elements who did not sympathise with Mooney. This worked and after being elected Olson kept his campaign promise. Mooney was finally given a full pardon.

In the following days a parade and rally attracting 25,000 people was held in the Civic Center of San Francisco. The parade was led by Mooney and the International Molders Union which he remained a part of while in prison. In his speech Mooney urged for the pardon of Warren Billings. Mooney planned to spend much of his time on a speaking tour, but in debt and sick he instead spent much of the rest of his life on hospital beds in pain. He continued with the political activism that his health allowed for, including a campaign to free Communist Party USA leader Earl Browder. Mooney died in 1942.

Billings was released in the end of 1939 due to a commuted sentence, but was not fully pardoned until 1961. He used the watchmaking skills he learned in prison to open a small shop in San Francisco. He became vice president of the Watchmakers Union.