Tom Mooney
1916

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.