MOONEY SET FREE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1939, Page 5

MOONEY SET FREE

LONG DELAYED ACTION IN CALIFORNIA CONVICTION ON PERJURED EVIDENCE. TRIUMPHANT PROCESSION FROM PRISON. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. SAN FRANCISCO, January 7. •Grey-haired Tom Mooney, ’the “American Dreyfus,” last night bade farewell to convicts and guards at San Quentin gaol with whom he had lived for 22 years, and drove to the State capital for a pardon hearing. The newly-elected Governor of California, Mr Culbert Levy Olson, declared that one of his first official acts would be to grant a pardon to Mooney, and today’s hearing was a mere formality as no objection had been entered against Mooney’s release. Addressing a crowd of 130,000 persons a few hours after pardoning Mooney, Governor Olson, collapsed and was taken to hospital. His condition is due to emotional strain. Mooney’s journey from the prison was a triumphant procession in which he rode with relatives and labour leaders, including the Australian, Harry Bridges. Broadcasting over 250 stations, Mooney said he would dedicate the rest of his life to working for the common good of democracy. The dark sinister forces of Fascist reaction were threatening the world. PROSECUTION DENOUNCED. Amid cheers Mooney commented: “This is a far cry from the night when the jury filed in and the foreman, who, I later learned, was a ‘plant,’ drew his finger across his throat indicating to the prosecutor that I was to be hanged. “The prosecution did everything it could to promote and provoke violence in the courtroom. I remember how officials leered at my loved ones and the screams of my old mother, my wife and sister as they were literally dragged from the room.” Mooney said last night that he would do his utmost to win freedom for Warren Billings, who was also convicted in 1916 for throwing a bomb in San Francisco. Billings is ineligible for pardon because of a prior conviction for felony. Mooney said he was very sorry that his mother had died while he was in gaol. He said her piercing scream at the verdict convicting him to the gallows had rung in his ears all the time he was in prison. When she died a few years ago they drove her hearse to the prison gates, but denied him a chance of seeing her. Mooney estimated that 1,000,000 dollars had been spent on securing his freedom, and he is heavily in debt. Governor Olson announced that he was asking the Californian Supreme Court to reconsider Billing’s case.

Known as “the American Dreyfus,” Tom Mooney, a labour organiser, was arrested and charged with the murder of one of the victims of a bomb explosion in San Francisco on July 22, 1916, which killed 10 and wounded 40.

, Three other men and Mrs Mooney were also arrested. One man was set free, one sentenced to life imprisonment, and ■ the third and Mrs Mooney were acquitted. After Mooney had been sentenced to death President Woodrow Wilson interceded for him, and on November 28, 1918, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Repeated attempts on the part of Mooney and his thousands of adherents were made to secure his freedom, but succeeding Californian Governors refused the applications for an unconditional pardon. Meanwhile it had been proved that the chief witnesses had perjured themselves and the case against Mooney had rotted away. A new trial was ordered by the California Supreme Court in 1933, and after a month’s hearing in which no new evidence-was offered, Mooney was acquitted. He continued, however, to serve the life sentence imposed on him on the original charge. Finally, during the State elections in California in November last year, the present Governor, Mr Olson, promised to pardon Mooney, if elected.