July 22, 1916
In San Francisco, on this date, some 50,000 people marched in a Preparedness Day parade (the largest parade ever held in the city), supporting the US intervention in World War I. The event was sponsored by business leaders and opposed by labor. A bomb went off on Market St. during the parade and 10 people were killed and 40 injured. The bomb was presumed to be set by a professed anarchist.
Labor leader Tom Mooney and his assistant, Warren K. Billings were arrested, convicted of the bombing, and sentenced to death. In 1918 Mooney’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, the same as Billings’ when a commission established by President Wilson found no clear evidence connecting the two to the crime. By 1939, evidence of perjury and false testimony at the trial had become overwhelming. California Governor Culbert Olson pardoned both men. The identity of the bomber will probably never be known.
The Haus of Dcaligari 