True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Stories Part VI

Preparedness Day Bombing

The Preparedness Day Bombing was a bombing in San Francisco, California, United States, on July 22, 1916, of a parade organized by local supporters of the Preparedness Movement which advocated American entry into World War I. During the parade a suitcase bomb was detonated, killing 10 and wounding 40 in the worst terrorist attack in San Francisco's history.

Two labor leaders, Thomas Mooney and Warren K. Billings were convicted in separate trials and sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison. Later investigations found the convictions to have been based on false testimony, and the men were released in 1939 and eventually pardoned. The identity of the bombers has never been determined.

Prelude

By mid-1916, after viewing the carnage in Europe, the United States saw itself poised on the edge of participation in World War I. Isolationism 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 trade unions. The Preparedness Day Parade was organized by the Chamber of Commerce and the anti-union conservative business establishment.

Meanwhile, mechanization changed the face of the labor movement. Large industrial enterprises such as the utility Pacific Gas and Electric could deliver power despite a strike, and specialized trade unions gave way to non-specialized industrial unions for unskilled workers. Labor activists such as Thomas Mooney increasingly turned to sabotage of PG&E equipment as a new labor tactic that resisted traditional strikebreaking techniques.

The parade

The massive Preparedness Day Parade of Saturday, July 22, 1916, was a target of radicals. An unsigned anti-war pamphlet issued throughout the city in 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." Labor leader Thomas Mooney had been tipped off to threats that preceded the parade and pushed resolutions through his union, the Molders; 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.

The parade was the largest ever held in the city. The 3.5-hour procession had 51,329 marchers, including 2,134 organizations and 52 bands. Ironically, perhaps, 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 unions. Many of the following divisions came from other cities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

At 2:06pm, about half an hour into the parade, a time bomb in the form of a cast steel pipe filled with explosives detonated on the west side of Steuart Street, just south of Market Street, about 450 feet from the Ferry Building. Before capping the steel pipe containing the explosive (believed by police to have been either TNT or dynamite), the bomb-maker had filled the pipe with metal slugs designed to act as shrapnel, greatly increasing the bomb's lethality. Ten bystanders were killed and forty wounded, including a young girl who had her legs blown off. The bombing was the worst terrorist act in San Francisco history.

Witnesses differed on where the bomb was located. Some witnesses stated that they saw a man leaving a suitcase against the corner of a building at Market and Steuart streets that contained the bomb, while others, such as Dr. Mora Moss, testified he saw the bomb being hurled or dropped from the roof of a nearby building, rather than being left at the scene.