When
Dad was the steward of the dining room for the officers and the
guards, the man in charge of his commissary department was Tom
Mooney. Mooney was convicted, along with W. K. Billings of setting
off a bomb on Market Street in San Francisco during the Preparedness
Day Parade. Ten people were killed by this blast. Mooney had been an
officer in a strong labor union that advocated radical action. He was
convicted of plotting this bombing and sentenced to San Quentin for
life. Many people, mostly union sympathizers, believed him innocent,
and in prison he became a symbol and a martyr.
At
the time, I was away at college, but on my trips home. I would go up
to Dad's office to see him. On these visits I would always meet
Mooney, and we became well acquainted. I knew him as a polite soft
spoken man. But he received a lot of publicity and there was a strong
movement among labor groups to free him. The claims were that he was
convicted on circumstantial evidence and was "Railroaded"
to prison.
When
Culbert Olson ran for governor of California and was elected, one of
his campaign pledges was that he would free Tom Mooney. As soon as he
was inaugurated Governor, he went to San Quentin and personally, in
dramatic style, pardoned Tom Mooney. After his release, Mooney's
notoriety faded. He was no longer a martyr and people soon forgot
him. He died a disillusioned and disappointed man.
Of
current interest, brought to mind by the death of Earl Kelsey
Hatcher on January 13, 1975, is the testimony at the trial of Tom
Mooney in San Francisco in 1916. Mooney was accused of placing a
battered suitcase on the curb at Market and Stuart street during the
Preparedness Day Parade, and the most damaging testimony was from
Frank Oxman, an Oregon rancher, who said he saw Mooney place the
suitcase near the curb.
However,
Mr. Hatcher, of Yolo county, appeared at the trial and volunteered
the information that Oxman could not have seen Mooney plant the bomb,
as on that day Oxman was buying cattle from him in Woodland on the
July 22nd, 1916 date, and that he spent the night in Woodland.
Mooney
was convicted of murder in spite of this testimony, and was
sentenced to be hanged at San Quentin. Upon urgent requests from
President Woodrow Wilson, Mooney's sentence was commuted to a life
sentence. Incidentally Mr. Hatcher was the father of Kelsey Hatcher,
son-in-law of William J. Duffy Jr.
Author:
Wiliam J. Duffy, Jr.