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N0KFQ > TODAY 22.07.14 15:58l 42 Lines 1796 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 26971_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 22
Path: IZ3LSV<IR1UAW<IQ5KG<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 140722/1500Z 26971@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Jul 22, 1916:
The Preparedness Day bombing
In San Francisco, a bomb at a Preparedness Day parade on Market
Street kills 10 people and wounds 40. The bomb was hidden in a
suitcase. The parade was organized by the city's Chamber of
Commerce in support of America's possible entrance into World War
I. San Francisco was suffering through severe labor strife at the
time, and many suspected that anti-war labor radicals were
responsible for the terrorist attack.
Labor leader Tom Mooney, his wife Rena, his assistant Warren K.
Billings, and two others were soon charged by District Attorney
Charles Fickert with the bombing. The case attracted
international interest because all evidence, with the exception
of a handful of questionable witness accounts, seemed to point
unquestionably to their innocence. Even after confessions of
perjured testimony were made in the courtroom, the trial
continued, and in 1917 Mooney and Billings were convicted of
first-degree murder, with Billings sentenced to life imprisonment
and Mooney sentenced to hang. The other three defendants were
acquitted. Responding to international outrage at the conviction,
President Woodrow Wilson set up a "mediation commission" to
investigate the case, and no clear evidence of their guilt was
found. In 1918, Mooney's sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment.
During the next two decades, many groups and individuals
petitioned California to grant the two men a new trial. By 1939,
when evidence of perjury and false testimony at the trial had
become overwhelming, newly elected Governor Culbert Olson
pardoned Mooney and commuted Billing's sentence to time served.
Billings was not officially pardoned until 1961.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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