Preparedness Day Bombing
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The Preparedness Day Bombing was a bombing in San Francisco, California on July 22, 1916 when the city held a parade in honor of Preparedness Day, in anticipation of entering World War I. During the parade a suitcase bomb was detonated, killing ten and wounding forty in the worst such act in San Francisco history. Two labor leaders, Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings, were convicted in a show trial that included several witnesses whose perjury was coached by deputy prosecuting District Attorney Eddie Cunha and D.A. Charles Fickert, including one who claimed her "astral body" was not at the scene. Mooney and Billings were convicted in separate trials and sentenced to be hanged. Rena Mooney and Israel Weinberg were acquitted.
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[edit] Prelude
By mid-1916, after viewing the carnage in Europe, the United States saw itself poised with great reluctance on the edge of participation in World War I. Isolationism and anti-preparedness feeling remained strong in San Francisco, not only among radicals such as the Industrial Workers of the World ("the wobblies"), but also among mainstream labor leaders. At the same time, with the rise of Bolshevism and labor unrest, San Francisco's business community was nervous. The Chamber of Commerce organized a Law and Order Committee, despite the diminishing influence and political clout of local labor organizations. Radical labor was a small but vociferous minority which few took seriously.
[edit] The Parade
The huge Preparedness Day parade of Saturday, July 22, 1916, was a target of radicals. A radical pamphlet of mid-July read in part, "We are going to use a little direct action on the 22nd to show that militarism can't be forced on us and our children without a violent protest." Mooney had been tipped off to threats that preceded the parade and pushed resolutions through his union, the Molders, and the San Francisco Central Labor Council and the Building Trades Council warning that provocateurs might attempt to blacken the labor movement by causing a disturbance at the parade. Ten deaths and forty injuries resulted from the explosion in the midst of the Preparedness Day parade.
At 2:06pm, about half an hour into the parade, a bomb exploded on the west side of Steuart Street, just south of Market Street, near the Ferry Building. The bomb was concealed in a suitcase; ten bystanders were killed and forty wounded, making it the worst terrorist act in San Francisco history. Officials investigating the bombing smashed the brick wall with a sledge hammer to make the damage seem greater.
The San Francisco Preparedness Day parade of 1916 was the largest parade ever held in the city. The 3.5 hour procession had 51,329 marchers, including 2,134 organizations and 52 bands. Ironically, the starting signals were "the crash of a bomb and the shriek of a siren." Military, civic, judicial, state, and municipal divisions were followed by newspaper, telephone, telegraph and streetcar trade unions. Many of the following divisions came from other cities of the San Francisco Bay Area.
[edit] Trials and Convictions
Two known radical labor leaders -- Thomas Mooney (ca. 1882-1942) and his assistant, Warren K. Billings (1893-1972) -- were arrested. In a hasty and bungled trial carried out in a lynch mob atmosphere that included several false witnesses, the two were convicted. Mooney was sentenced to be executed, but a Mediation Commission set up by President Woodrow Wilson found no clear evidence of his guilt. In 1918 Mooney's sentence was changed to life imprisonment, the same as Billings's. By 1939, evidence of perjury and false testimony at the trial had become overwhelming. Governor Culbert Olson pardoned both men. The identity of the bomber(s) has never been determined.
[edit] The Film
A film about the events was made shortly after the bombings. The film, with its animated propagandistic prologue, was clearly aimed at local audiences. Perhaps it was thought that the film might help to "flush out" the bomber. The Hearst-Pathe film of the bombing scene was filmed after most of the bodies had been removed.
