Biography
Thomas Mooney was a San Francisco labor organizer and IWW militant — son of an Irish coal-miner Knights of Labor organizer — who along with Warren K. Billings was framed for the July 22, 1916 Preparedness Day Parade bombing on Market Street that killed ten and injured forty. Convicted of first-degree murder in 1917 on perjured testimony; sentenced to death. President Wilson, alarmed that Mooney's execution might trigger Russian-style worker revolt, personally interceded with California Governor William Stephens, who in 1918 commuted the sentence to life. The case became a 22-year international cause célèbre. Pardoned by Governor Culbert L. Olson on January 7, 1939. Thomas Mooney was San Francisco labor leader and socialist activist. On July 22, 1916, a parade was organized in San Francisco by local supporters of the Preparedness Movement which advocated American entry into World War I. A suitcase bomb was detonated by an unknown assailant, killing 10. Mooney and labor leader Warren Billings were both framed for the bombing by the San Francisco Police Department using falsified evidence and perjured testimony from a paid off witness, Frank Oxman. On November 1920, Draper Hand of the SFPD went to Mayor James Rolph and admitted that he had helped Charles Fickert and Martin Swanson frame Mooney. Later, two witnesses, Edgar Rigall and Earl K. Hatcher, came forward and provided evidence that Frank Oxman was 200 miles away during the bombing and could not have seen what he told the court at the trial of Mooney. In February 1921, John McDonald confessed that the police had forced him to lie about the planting of the bomb. Despite this new evidence the Californian authorities refused a retrial. Mooney served 22 years in prison before finally being pardoned in 1939 by Governor Culbert Olson. By then, Mooney had been suffering from jaundice and ulcers from his time and prison and died shortly after in 1942 at age 59.
The Daily Worker of February 12, 1935, page 1, carried a United Press dispatch dated February 11 reporting that the United States Supreme Court refused to reconsider its recent decision returning Mooney's challenge to the California courts. The report anticipated a state habeas corpus petition. It documents a procedural refusal, not a denial of a state petition not yet filed, nor any release or new sentence.
The January 1936 Labor Defender biographical account accompanying Langston Hughes' poem on page 10 describes Mooney entering paper-mill work at twelve for two dollars a week, joining the union at sixteen, traveling for work including New Orleans and Vera Cruz, and supporting Eugene Debs' Red Special campaign before organizing in California. These are attributed contemporary biographical details. The article's Indiana-birthplace claim is not adopted, and its approximate nineteen-year imprisonment statement is not converted into an exact served duration.
The Daily Worker of March 27, 1935, page 1, quotes attorney George T. Davis announcing plans to seek a California state habeas corpus writ in April after the United States Supreme Court directed that state remedies be exhausted. It reports the International Labor Defense's pledge toward the defense fund and Anna Mooney's acknowledgment of that support. This is a planned state filing and support campaign, not proof that a writ had already been filed or granted, nor another custody event.
The Daily Worker of August 1, 1936, page 2, describes a six-thousand-person Hippodrome rally organized by the Central Trades and Labor Council for Mooney and Warren Billings on the twentieth anniversary of their imprisonment. Julius Hochman and Heywood Broun called for a stronger national defense campaign, and the meeting applauded an International Labor Defense message. This documents a labor-solidarity event and does not establish a new legal ruling or custody endpoint.
Daily Worker, August 23, 1934, page 2: The paper reports that Governor Frank Merriam refused a pardon on August 21, 1934, after representations by attorney Leo Gallagher. This was an unsuccessful pardon effort during his existing imprisonment, not a new conviction or custody endpoint.
A May 24, 1933 dispatch reports that Judge Louis E. Ward directed a jury of twelve to acquit Mooney on an old additional bombing indictment because the prosecution offered no evidence. This acquittal concerned the additional indictment; it did not release Mooney from San Quentin or overturn his original conviction. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n125-NY-may-25-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Daily Worker, April 11, 1934: Page 2 reports his molders’ union again selected him as a delegate to its August convention in Chicago. Attorneys John Finerty and George Davis were still preparing a federal habeas corpus application; the stated plan to appeal an anticipated denial to the United States Supreme Court is prospective, not an already completed filing, ruling or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n087-apr-11-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The March 10, 1931 issue prints part of his open letter responding to Warren Billings’s request to remove Billings’s name from a defense pamphlet and end their public association. Mooney agreed to limit references to those necessary to explain their shared case while pledging continued support for Billings and other labor prisoners. This is defense-campaign correspondence, not evidence of a new arrest or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n060-NY-mar-10-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Daily Worker, September 8, 1934: Page 1 announces the September 8 public funeral for his mother Mary Mooney and reports that the Molders Defense Committee was trying to secure permission for him to leave San Quentin to attend. A request is not evidence of permission or physical release. Page 7 carries Helen Merrick’s memorial poem; the poem creates no additional custody fact. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n216-sep-08-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The July 20, 1934 Daily Worker prints Warden James B. Holohan’s refusal to deliver the newspaper’s telegrams to Mooney and McNamara seeking their reaction to the general strike. The warden characterized the communications as revolutionary and seditious. The page-six continuation documents censorship during existing imprisonment, not another arrest, transfer or custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n173-jul-20-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Daily Worker, December 24, 1935: William Z. Foster’s page 1 Christmas prisoner-relief appeal individually names him among the labor prisoners then confined and urges aid for prisoners and their dependent families through the ILD Prisoners’ Relief Department. This is contemporaneous continuing-custody and defense-campaign evidence; collective sentence ranges are not applied as a new individual term or measured service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n309-NY-dec-24-DW-Q.pdf
Daily Worker, August 26, 1936, page 2: The identified photograph shows Mooney and Billings parting after the San Francisco habeas corpus hearings. The caption says both had spent the past year at the county jail for the hearings and that Billings had returned to Folsom. The associated report says the American Bar Association was asked to investigate their convictions. A request for an investigation is not a favorable ruling; the caption supplies no exact transfer or discharge day. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n205-NY-aug-26-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The December 21, 1935 Daily Worker describes Mooney and Billings eating Thanksgiving dinner together in San Francisco County Jail, permitted spoons but not knives or forks. It does not give a transfer date, and its Christmas count is not a precise measure of actual service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n307-NY-dec-21-DW-Q.pdf#page=6
The May 26, 1936 Daily Worker recounts habeas testimony by prosecutor James P. Brennan concerning pressure on Billings to become a state witness, alongside defense challenges to prosecution testimony. Those contemporary claims are attributed, without changing established custody endpoints. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n126-NY-May-26-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=6
Daily Worker, June 15, 1926, page 2: J. Louis Engdahl’s editorial includes Mooney and Billings, Ford and Suhr among California labor-prisoner examples while criticizing the political establishment. This broad retrospective list is preserved as advocacy context, without replacing the individual’s better documented case outcome or inferring a fresh arrest or continued custody from the editorial alone. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1926/1926-ny/v03-n131-NY-jun-15-1926-DW-LOC.pdf
In his sixteenth Christmas in prison, as reported December 25, 1931, Mooney said he did not expect Mayor Walker’s efforts to free him and Warren Billings. He argued that organized public pressure must change the authorities’ incentives, and predicted that Governor Rolph would refuse a pardon. The statement distinguishes his hopes and predictions from an accomplished clemency decision. Sixteenth Christmas is an ordinal holiday, not a new sixteen-year actual-service total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n309-NY-dec-25-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Max Bedacht’s Labor Defender article of July 1932 reviews the defense case: Tom and Rena Mooney’s Eiler-building rooftop alibi, disputes over photographic timing, Oxman’s alleged solicitation of an Iowa witness, recantation claims concerning MacDonald and Estelle Smith, and later investigations. These are attributed defense arguments in the established conviction, without a new judicial finding, new arrest or actual clemency outcome. Richard B. Moore and Mary Mooney are pictured as campaign advocates rather than newly proven prisoners. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n07-jul-1932-LD.pdf#page=10
The January 7, 1932 Daily Worker reports Attorney General William Mitchell refusing to make public the Wickersham Commission material concerning the Mooney-Billings case. This adds evidence of the campaign over withheld investigative material, without establishing a new conviction, pardon or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n006-NY-jan-07-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The March 14, 1932 Daily Worker interviews his mother Mary Mooney and reproduces a telegram from him in San Quentin thanking her for work on his defense. She recalls immigrating from County Mayo, marrying coal miner Brian Mooney, raising Tom, John and Anna, and supporting the family after Brian’s death through laundry and factory labor. It recalls Tom working in brick molding from age fourteen and later union organizing. Ages and rounded years of imprisonment are not converted to exact birth or custody dates. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n062-NY-mar-14-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
The April 20, 1932 Daily Worker reports Governor James Rolph again postponing his decision on demands for Mooney’s release, after a promised announcement expected the following day. This is a report of delay in the clemency campaign, without a completed pardon, refusal or physical discharge. The rounded more-than-fifteen-years wording is not an exact numerical service total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n094-NY-apr-20-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
Page 3 reports a Lancaster, Pennsylvania solidarity meeting urging West Coast strikers to raise the demand for Mooney’s release. Page 4 describes his mother Mary Mooney marching in the funeral procession for the two slain San Francisco strikers. Sender Garlin’s page 7 Mooney Meditates column is a literary imagined monologue, not Mooney’s signed testimony; its alleged thoughts and dialogue are not entered as new factual custody evidence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n172-jul-19-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
A February 28 San Quentin report printed March 1, 1934 marks the seventeenth anniversary of Mooney’s original death sentence, later commuted to life. His sister Anna announced a planned federal habeas corpus application for early March. The article confirms continued imprisonment; the anniversary concerns sentencing and the application was still prospective. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n052-mar-01-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Page 5 reproduces Mooney’s signed September 20, 1934 letter from California State Prison, San Quentin, prisoner 31921, to Daily Worker editor Clarence A. Hathaway. He thanks the staff for condolences on his mother Mary’s death and says officials refused permission both to attend her grave with his family and to view her remains despite his Defense Committee’s efforts. He reports ten thousand mourners at her San Francisco Civic Auditorium funeral. His farewell poem is separately dated Labor Day, September 3, 1934 at San Quentin. These first-person documents establish continued confinement and the attributed denial of funeral leave, without a new case or exact total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n243-NAT-oct-10-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 1 reports the West Coast Marine Federation convention unanimously adopting a resolution for release of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings. Page 2’s May Day campaign also invokes their freedom. These are contemporaneous defense demands concerning the existing Preparedness Day prosecutions; a demand does not establish actual release or another custody episode. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n102-NAT-apr-29-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 1 announces that his brother John Mooney would appear at the May 27 Madison Square Garden defense rally, which would demand Tom Mooney’s freedom alongside other prisoners. The rounded statement about years in San Quentin does not replace individual custody dates or establish release; John is the campaigning brother, not a new prisoner. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n117-NAT-may-16-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Pages 1–2’s ILD statement individually includes him among San Quentin prisoners denied the organization’s weekly news letters, working-class literature and much personal mail. It appeals for protests against prison censorship. This supplies conditions and defense context, not another personal arrest, measured term or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n125-NAT-may-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Pages 1–2 report a San Francisco Civic Auditorium defense rally of over 10,000, labor speakers and Japanese labor leader Kajiu Kato’s visit to Mooney at San Quentin. The article reproduces a Communist Party solidarity message from Robert Minor and places the campaign within labor organizing. Its rounded nineteen-year history is not substituted for exact custody dates. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n181-NAT-jul-30-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 8 prints Rita Lefkowitz’s San Quentin visit account. She reports Mooney’s belief that imprisonment had nearly destroyed him physically but would not defeat him mentally, and his faith in the defense campaign alongside Jim McNamara. She describes inadequate food and literature restrictions. Page 6 reports San Diego Carpenters Local 1571 voting five dollars for his defense. These are attributed prison-condition and defense details, not a new case or exact completed duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n189-NAT-aug-08-1935-DW-Q.pdf
The Dayton report on page 3 says more than 300 at the Herndon meeting adopted resolutions demanding freedom for Herndon, the Scottsboro defendants and Tom Mooney. This is an additional contemporary defense action and supplies no new individual custody date or disposition. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n190-NAT-aug-09-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 4 reports a Staunton, Illinois united-front conference of twenty-six delegates, including UMWA locals representing approximately 5,000 miners, adopting a demand to abolish the criminal-syndicalist law and seek Mooney’s unconditional release. Telegrams went to Governor Rolph and Franklin County’s prosecuting attorney, also seeking release of seven recently arrested miners. This is defense mobilization; neither the unnamed miners’ identities nor a new Mooney custody endpoint is supplied. Source: https://www.themilitant.com/1931/0434/MIL0434.pdf
Page 3 reports that the Wickersham Commission section addressing the Mooney–Billings prosecutions, titled The Lawlessness of the Law, had been printed but was to be withheld from public release according to George Wickersham and Roscoe Pound, with a minority favoring publication. The newspaper argues it would expose a frame-up; that is editorial interpretation, not a new judicial exoneration or custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n155-NY-jun-29-1931-DW-LOC.pdf
The International Labor Defense holiday roster in the December 29, 1925 Daily Worker lists this prisoner, printed as Tom Mooney, at San Quentin California. Its printed identifier is 1921; this is a prison number or mailing designation, not a year or a custody date. The printed 1921 differs from the established 31921 number and is retained as a source discrepancy, not a correction. This documents confinement at the roster’s reporting time, without establishing an admission, transfer, release, new conviction or complete duration. Existing independently sourced custody chronology remains separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n297-NYE-dec-29-1925-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
Page 1 reports sixteen working-class organizations represented at the October 16 Youngstown defense conference and twenty-five delegates from fifty organizations at the Warren conference. Resolutions urged release of Mooney, Billings, the Scottsboro defendants and imprisoned miners. Page 2 says the united-front defense campaign’s pledged funds had largely not arrived. These are defense mobilization and funding reports, not physical releases. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n254-NY-oct-22-1931-DW-LOC.pdf
The September 3 San Francisco dispatch on page 1 reports that his mother died of a heart attack at Mission Emergency Hospital the previous night, September 2, 1934. Mooney was locked in his San Quentin cell and had not yet been notified; officials indicated that funeral leave would not be permitted. This is the contemporary reporting stage of the later documented funeral-leave refusal, not a new custody episode. Pages 1 and 3 also reproduce his September 21, 1932 letter thanking his mother for her defense work; the letter date is not the newspaper publication date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n212-sep-04-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 5 reprints Angelo Herndon’s January Labor Defender account of visiting him at San Quentin. Herndon identifies prisoner 31921, continued confinement, Mooney’s rejection of appeals to Governor Merriam in favor of working-class protest, refusal of permission to attend his mother’s funeral, and determination to continue organizing after release. Mooney says he had spent eighteen years there; this is his rounded retrospective statement, not a new exact custody total. The intended future Soviet trip and prediction of freedom are not completed release. The printed identified portrait was reviewed; the existing portrait is retained. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n014-not-15-Nat-jan-16-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 1 briefly reports that the United States Supreme Court refused review of his 1916 Preparedness Day bombing conviction. This is the newspaper’s report of an adverse procedural action, not a new conviction, sentence, arrest or physical discharge. It is distinct from the nearby ordinary-criminal Hauptmann appeal report. Source: https://newspapers.swco.ttu.edu/bitstreams/34268242-ac0d-472e-8d03-7eb5b704a2c0/download
Page 5 reports the National Tom Mooney Council of Action’s allegations that western theaters were boycotting The Strange Case of Tom Mooney and its call for union pressure to show the film. This is the defense campaign’s contemporary report, not a release, another prosecution or a new confinement interval. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v10-n268-nov-08-1933-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 3 reports his May 7, 1934 federal habeas corpus application in the Northern District of California had been denied, despite his May 24, 1933 acquittal on the additional indictment. His appeal asks support for further state-court and eventual Supreme Court proceedings. These are procedural developments during existing San Quentin confinement, not a fresh conviction or physical release. The article’s 1917 parade wording conflicts with the established 1916 event and is not adopted. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n123-may-23-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints Tom Mooney, a term of life, the year 1916 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location San Quentin, California. This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
Pages 1 and 5 connect the Modesto defense campaign with Mooney's 1916 dynamite frame-up and announce Free Tom Mooney buttons sold at the ILA office to support the freedom campaign. This is contemporaneous defense activity, without a new custody admission or release. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19351219.pdf
His signed November 9, 1935 letter is headed County Jail No. 1, San Francisco, prisoner 31921. He acknowledges the ILD’s $100 contribution. The address and number establish a historical confinement location, not a new admission, endpoint or completed term. Labor Defender, December 1935, original PDF page 7. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n12-dec-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=7
In the August13 California Supreme Court review dispatch, defense attorney Edwin McKenzie announced an Army captain witness to contradict mechanic John Crowley’s purported sighting of Billings shortly before the Preparedness Day explosion. The captain would place Crowley repairing his car during the relevant time. This was an announced defense proffer attacking prosecution testimony, not already sworn exoneration, a new verdict or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n195-NY-aug-14-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed pages 148 and 152 (PDF pages 9 and 12): Si Gerson identifies Mooney as honorary chairman of the Labor Sports Union counter-Olympic campaign and calls for his freedom, while Joseph North's election article describes him still at San Quentin after about sixteen years, peeling potatoes for guards. These are ongoing-confinement and defense-activity reports; the rounded sixteen years is not an exact completed term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
Printed page 173 marks sixteen years of continuing confinement and quotes Mooney rejecting Governor Rolph's refusal of relief. It alleges freedom had been conditioned on repudiating Communists and militant unions, attacking the USSR and promising not to resume union activity. It reproduces his solidarity reply to Siberian workers and describes the joint Mooney-Scottsboro campaign. These are attributed prison-writing and campaign details, not an accepted conditional release or a new sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
Paul M. Callicotte’s signed account describes an approximately hour-long San Quentin visit with Anna Mooney and attorney Irvin Goodman. He says Mooney was neither man involved in the suitcase handoff he recalled and recounts Mooney insisting on a public hearing rather than secret grand-jury testimony and demanding unconditional pardon rather than parole. Callicotte’s disputed bombing account is attributed, not established guilt. The continuation says he publicly repeated it November 6; no year or new custody endpoint is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n02-feb-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=7
In a January 9, 1932 New Leader exchange about defense fundraising, the editor cites a purported January 20, 1929 San Quentin letter by Mooney, said to have appeared in the February 2 Monitor, complaining that Communist collections had not reached the Mooney Molders Defense Committee. The correspondent had explicitly requested documentary support for the newspaper’s accusation. This records an attributed contemporary dispute over defense funds; this issue does not independently audit those funds or establish a new custody event. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-leader/1932/v13n02-jan-09-1932-NL.pdf#page=11
The New Leader, April 2, 1932, page 8, reports that Governor Rolph, after consulting Judge Matt I. Sullivan, promised a Mooney-case decision by April 21 before leaving for the governors' conference. This announced deadline is not a pardon, adverse ruling or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-leader/1932/v13n14-apr-02-1932-NL.pdf
Mooney’s signed May Day greeting from California State Prison at San Quentin in the May 1932 New Masses calls this his sixteenth May Day behind prison walls and urges solidarity with the Scottsboro defendants and Kentucky miners. The printed signature appears as TOM MOONEY—31931, differing from the existing inmate number 31921. That contemporary printed discrepancy is preserved without replacing the established number or converting the ordinal May Day count into an exact continuous custody total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1932/v07n11-may-1932-New-Masses.pdf#page=2
The Socialist Call, June 26, 1937, page 9, says Mooney remained in jail while criticizing the Supreme Court's record on labor and political prosecutions. It confirms the contemporary continuing-imprisonment context, without a new legal ruling, sentence or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%203-119.pdf
Revolt, October 1932, page 5, reviews Governor Rolph's denial of James J. Walker's clemency plea for Mooney and Billings and argues that perjured testimony, Mooney's photographic alibi and official investigations undermined the Preparedness Day convictions. These are the magazine's attributed defense arguments and clemency-campaign context, not a new adjudication or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/student-outlook/v01n01-oct-1932-revolt.pdf
PDF pages 2, 4–5 and 9 discuss the pending Supreme Court habeas petition. Herndon's first-person San Quentin interview identifies Mooney as prisoner 31921 and records continuing work routine and his account of being denied even a visit to the prison gate when his mother's body was brought there. His refusal to expect freedom without public pressure is opinion, not a court outcome. Eighteen years is the interview's rounded historical description, not a newly calculated total; the interview photograph's caption identifies him being taken to San Quentin eighteen years earlier, not a new admission. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n01-jan-1935-orig-LD.pdf
In a message printed April 19, 1932, Tom Mooney sent greetings to Soviet workers and peasants from prison, described himself as spending his sixteenth year behind bars, and credited Russian demonstrations in April 1917 with internationalizing his defense and helping obtain commutation of his death sentence to life. The rounded year reference is not an exact custody duration. Daily Worker, April 19, 1932, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n093-NY-apr-19-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The July 1933 Labor Defender account of his May 23 acquittal reports that Mooney was returned to San Quentin less than an hour after the verdict. It names Judge Louis H. Ward and describes defense lawyers Leo Gallagher and Frank P. Walsh seeking the production of witnesses, including the previously acquitted Israel Weinberg. The article announces plans for a new pardon petition and federal habeas corpus application; those were proposed remedies, and the acquittal did not end his continuing imprisonment. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n07-jul-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=12
The January 31 Washington dispatch reports attorney John P. Finerty announcing a petition for reconsideration of the U.S. Supreme Court refusal of habeas corpus, to be filed the next day. It argued against requiring renewed resort to California courts. This is an announced legal step, not an accomplished reversal or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n028-Nat-feb-01-1935-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
His mother interview describes emigrating from Ireland at seventeen, marrying Bryan Mooney in America and being widowed after his death from miners asthma. She supported their three children, Tom, Ana and John, by washing floors and laundry; John later worked as a streetcar conductor and Ana served as secretary of the Mooney Defense Committee. The report describes her New York defense tour and links the Mooney campaign with Scottsboro and Kentucky prisoners. Her stated age of eighty-four is not converted to a precise birth date, and the defense activities are not new custody episodes. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n048-NY-feb-25-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Contemporary 1916 arrest chronology discrepancy
The August 29, 1931 Revolutionary Age summarizes a suppressed section concerning the Mooney–Billings prosecution in a Wickersham Commission report. It collectively says the five California defendants were arrested July 27, 1916, held incommunicado until August 7 and refused counsel. This is a retrospective group statement, not a separate personal booking record. The current Mooney case deliberately retains July 1916 month precision because other accounts differ between July 26 and July 27. This source does not resolve that conflict or justify upgrading the arrest or physical admission to a single day. No original custody endpoint or counter is changed.
The Revolutionary Age, August 29, 1931, original page 1. Contemporary political/legal allegations are attributed to the paper.
His mother’s December 1931 pardon appeal
The January 2, 1932 Militant prints excerpts from a letter dated December 13, 1931, which Mary Mooney wrote from St. Joseph’s Hospital in San Francisco to Governor James Rolph Jr. seeking a pardon for her son Tom. She describes the coming holiday as his sixteenth Christmas in jail and criticizes the governor’s further review of his case. These are her contemporary statements in a public appeal, not a new court ruling or a release notice.
The letter adds a dated family intervention in the pardon campaign. Its references to almost sixteen years and a sixteenth Christmas are approximate rhetoric, not a newly verified custody total. The governor’s possible review over three or four months is prospective, not a release date. No existing arrest day, admission, sentence, discharge or numerical counter is changed; Mary’s hospital stay is not imprisonment.
The January 28, 1924 issue of The Daily Worker individually listed Tom Mooney among the political and class-war prisoners at San Quentin State Prison in California, in an appeal to fund newspaper subscriptions for imprisoned people. This is a contemporary custody observation; the publication date does not establish admission, release, or a total period served.
The January 1929 Labor Defender reports that Tom Mooney was suffering a serious stomach ailment while working in the officers’ and guards’ mess at San Quentin. Its editorial note describes a restricted diet, preparing vegetables for more than a hundred guards and washing cooking equipment, and says labor publications were barred from him. These are attributed contemporary reports of his conditions, not a clinical diagnosis independently established here; general abuses described by the anonymous inmate author are not automatically assigned to Mooney.
A reported failed pardon assurance in July 1930
A San Francisco dispatch dated July 9 in the July 10, 1930 Daily Worker reports Thomas Mooney’s reaction to an unsuccessful pardon effort, quoting his complaint that he had been assured eight months earlier that his request would be met favorably. It attributes to him criticism of Governor Young and the advisory board. This records a contemporary stage of the pardon campaign, not an actual release or an independently established pardon-decision day. The eight-month recollection is not used to date a promise, and the article’s fourteen-year retrospective wording is not installed as a measured custody total. Allegations of witness manipulation remain attributed to the article and speaker. Existing independently supported custody endpoints and later pardon/release history remain unchanged.
Daily Worker, July 10, 1930, original pages 3. Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
The Daily Worker political-prisoner Christmas roster of December 17, 1924, lists Tom Mooney at San Quentin State Prison. This establishes a contemporary custody observation, not an admission or release date and not a total duration.
Reported restrictions after the pardon dispute
A San Francisco dispatch dated July 10 reports that San Quentin warden Holahan denied Thomas Mooney press conferences, visits and other privileges in retaliation for his criticism of Governor Young’s handling of the pardon application. The allegations describe prison conditions, not a new admission, conviction, release, measured term or exact pardon-decision day. The report separately places Warren K. Billings in Folsom demanding a full pardon rather than parole; their institutions and individual custody records are not conflated.
Daily Worker, July 11, 1930, original pages 2. Accounts and allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
Daily Worker, February 12, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, January 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, March 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, August 1, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, April 11, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, September 8, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 24, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Contemporary labor and defense account, August 1925
Thurber Lewis’s report of the June 28, 1925 founding conference of International Labor Defense names Mooney and Billings among the imprisoned workers for whose unconditional release the organization called. This is contemporary evidence of the existing imprisonment and defense campaign, not a new case or a precise admission, release, or actual-served duration.
A June 4 dispatch reports that the prosecution closed its habeas-corpus hearing case on May 21. Defense counsel obtained time to prepare rebuttal, announced for June 8 in the body although the headline says June 6. The account discusses James Brennan, Louis Ferrari and Earl Moore as state witnesses and reiterates challenges to their evidence. This is a procedural stage of the existing case, not a release or proof that the announced rebuttal had already begun.
Ernst Toller’s first-person visit describes the San Quentin visiting-room barrier and raised guard station, Mooney’s prison work peeling potatoes and his refusal to seek mercy that would concede guilt. The editor also names McNamara and Schmidt as prisoners Toller visited. The continuation is on printed page 18 (PDF 23). Its July 20 bombing date conflicts with the established July 22, 1916 date and is not substituted. The approximate thirteen-year description does not establish exact custody endpoints or duration.
The ILD protested Warden Holohan’s threat to hold Mooney incommunicado following defense moves for a new trial on a remaining indictment and preparations for an April 30–May 2 congress. A hearing was announced for February 11 before Judge Ward. The threat and prospective hearing are not new custody, actual isolation, a completed trial or a release.
Daily Worker, June 15, 1926; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 19, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The issue prints Mooney’s farewell to his mother Mary, signed with prisoner number 31912, and photographs of her defense work. This corroborates continued confinement and the impact of his mother’s death, without an exact new custody event or a release date. The February 1934 issue reviewed in the same batch also records the February 11, 1933 grant of a new trial on the remaining indictment and withdrawal of an incommunicado restriction after protests; those legal and correspondence changes did not establish physical release. February source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n02-feb-1934-lab-def.pdf
Daily Worker, October 10, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Daily Worker of October 23, 1934, page 1, reports that on October 22 Mooney's lawyers filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking permission to petition for an original writ of habeas corpus, alleging the use of perjured trial testimony. It also reports the rejection of a similar federal district court motion in California and a dispute over the state-court route. This is a reported filing and procedural history, not a granted writ, new trial, new arrest or physical release.
Daily Worker, April 29, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 16, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The April 6 San Francisco notice reports the Central Labor Council committee urging all unions to support a May 15 Mooney mass meeting at Civic Auditorium, raise funds for the habeas-corpus action and arrange parallel meetings nationally. The Sacramento report describes debate over implementing the state labor federation’s support. These are defense-campaign plans, not a new habeas ruling or release.
Arthur Scott conveyed Mooney’s greetings to the Northern California EPIC conference reported June 1, saying Mooney favored united political action and a Farmer-Labor Party and welcomed the May 10 conference. This is an attributed political message from the existing prisoner, not a release or personal attendance at the meeting.
The July 1933 defense film campaign
The July 25 issue reports that The Strange Case of Tom Mooney premiered at New York’s Cameo Theatre the previous Friday, contextually July 21, 1933, and describes Theodore Dreiser’s filmed introduction and the National Council of Action’s appeal for union-supported screenings. The account attributes resistance to distribution to unnamed influences. This adds a contemporary defense-campaign event, not Mooney’s physical attendance, a court decision, another custody episode or a release. All existing case dates and counters remain unchanged.
Daily Worker, July 25, 1933, original page 3. Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
The July 20 issue announces a July 26 San Francisco Civic Auditorium mass meeting marking the twentieth anniversary of the Mooney-Billings case; the labor notes also announce New York union participation in anniversary events. These are prospective defense-campaign events concerning the existing conviction, not a new court ruling, personal attendance or release. The anniversary is not adopted as a precise actual-custody total.
Page 2 reproduces Mooney’s August 10, 1936 letter from County Jail No. 1, San Francisco, prisoner 31921, thanking Communists for the July 26 Civic Auditorium defense meeting. He says he had been preparing rebuttal testimony and appearing almost daily before the referee for the California Supreme Court. His hope that he and Billings would be free within a year is expressly a hope, not a release finding. An adjacent account describes Browder visiting him in jail and thanking the party for its $1,000 defense contribution. Pages 7–8 add a solidarity cartoon and New York labor-rally photograph; none creates a new custody episode.
Daily Worker, July 30, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, August 8, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, August 9, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Militant, December 5, 1931; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 29, 1931; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The November 4 Washington report says defense chairman John W. Jenkins sought presidential intervention and was told by Marvin McIntyre that Roosevelt regarded the matter as California’s jurisdiction. It announces upcoming United States Supreme Court argument and a November 18 defense film benefit. These are advocacy and prospective proceedings, without an already decided appeal or actual release.
Daily Worker, October 22, 1931; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Chicago congress held April 30-May 2 brought about 1,500 delegates and adopted united-front defense work, a National Council of Action and petition activity. Mooney sent a San Quentin telegram urging support for the Scottsboro defendants and all political prisoners rather than his case alone. The campaign resolutions are not a release or completed retrial.
Daily Worker, January 16, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, November 8, 1933; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The paper follows the Supreme Court habeas effort and nationwide ILD campaign. PDF page 21 reports a Manchester witness, George Johnson, claiming the 1916 suitcase carrier was not Mooney. This is an attributed newspaper witness claim, not a judicial finding. Merriam’s delay and Raymond Moley’s pardon advocacy are not physical release.
Voice of the Federation, December 19, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under San Quentin State Prison, California, with life, 1916. This is an attributed historical directory entry: the year and nominal term do not establish an intake day, uninterrupted imprisonment, completed service or physical release.
The installment attributed to Mooney recounts Rebecca Rainey’s November 22, 1918 conversation with San Francisco labor official John O’Connell and criticizes union leaders’ opposition to the defense. It distinguishes commutation from pardon or a new trial. The quoted conversation and polemical conclusions are attributed to this account, not independent judicial findings or a new physical custody event.
John Taveira and Joe Mello, writing from St. Luke’s Hospital, describe Mooney leaving the hospital about nine in the morning on April 11, 1939. A supervisor declined their request to telephone him or permit a visit, but Mooney briefly greeted the patients before departing. This is a post-pardon hospital departure, not a new arrest or a prison release, and the letter supplies no diagnosis.
Mooney’s telegram praises the refusal to load scrap iron for Japan. The holiday column on PDF page 5 places him in San Quentin; the page 8 homecoming notice announces a January 3 planning meeting and an anticipated pardon by Governor-elect Olson. January 3 is the meeting date, not an actual pardon or release. His letter to Patsy Ciambrelli also recalls their association at San Quentin before Mooney’s San Francisco habeas-corpus proceedings and Ciambrelli’s transfer to Folsom.
The March 19 Madison AP report says Wisconsin’s state senate reversed its earlier position and voted 29–13 to petition California Governor Rolph for release of Mooney and Billings. The assembly had passed the petition two weeks earlier. This is a legislative appeal, not an actual pardon or physical release.
The Pacific Coast longshore convention endorsed moral and financial support for Mooney and Billings and designation of Labor Day for demonstrations. This is defense-campaign support, without a new judicial outcome or physical release.
The longshore local reports preparations, led by Hugo Ernst’s committee, for a May 15 Civic Auditorium defense meeting and a request for July 22 to be observed nationally for the prisoners. It urges purchase of defense buttons and contributions. The collective nineteen-year confinement description is a rounded campaign statement, not a newly computed complete total, and the planned events establish no release.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 7 reports Federal Judge St. Sure denying his application for a new hearing on the ground that federal courts were powerless and he must apply to state courts. This reports an adverse procedural step while the defense continued, not a new sentence or release.
Page 3 reproduces his signed July 14, 1935 San Quentin letter, prisoner 31921, inviting Marcus Graham to organize the July 28 nineteenth-anniversary defense meeting. Mooney describes approaching nineteen years in custody and directing his Molders’ Defense Committee. Graham reports the meeting actually held and criticizes exclusion of Billings from its resolution. The anniversary is retrospective advocacy, not a newly measured full custody total or release.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 2 announces a February 24 defense demonstration marking fifteen years since the death sentence, and describes his latest appeal for collective labor action. The anniversary concerns sentencing, not a new physical intake or a complete custody total; announced meeting remains prospective.
Page 1 announces the Marine Workers Industrial Union’s May 24 demonstration at Coenties Slip and evening meeting demanding freedom for Mooney and Billings. This documents a proposed defense campaign, not release or a new prosecution. The literary review of Adamic’s Dynamite on page 4 is not used to derive new individual custody dates.
Page 8 announces the July 27 Boston Common rally demanding his release, supported by trade-union and civic leaders including Joseph Salerno, J. Arthur Moriarty, Phil Frankfeld and Alfred Baker Lewis. This is an announced defense meeting, not a physical release or new case.
John Ball’s Our Labor Movement column urges mass demonstrations on July 27 for Mooney and Billings, describing the ILGWU’s instructions to locals and a New York Central Trades and Labor Council protest meeting. It argues for mass pressure alongside legal defense. Norman Thomas’s page 12 speech also explicitly notes their continuing imprisonment. These are attributed defense and contemporary-custody reports, not release or a new case. The column’s collective San Quentin phrasing does not relocate Billings from his separately documented institution.
Printed page 8 reports that the California State Federation of Labor convention adopted a resolution for Mooney’s freedom and the eight Modesto defendants and an increased campaign against Standard Oil. This documents a labor-defense resolution, not actual release or a new legal result.
Installment 19 of the Mooney defense account details Robert Minor’s early direction of the defense, Civil Liberties Union publicity, Irish World fundraising and named donations. It attributes obstruction to labor officials and describes a May 1929 San Quentin visit to Mooney by J. P. Farrell and W. E. Jones. These are attributed defense-history claims, not proof of a new conviction or physical release; the Mooney visit is not assigned as Billings’s location.
Installment 14 reproduces Fremont Older’s January 23, 1928 letter to Mooney about Governor Young and labor officials preferring parole to pardon, and Older’s published criticism of local leaders’ response to the two cases. It describes alleged obstruction during Billings’s pardon review and Mooney’s repeated election as a Molders delegate while imprisoned. These are attributed defense-history claims; neither a proposed parole nor a desired pardon is recorded as actual release.
The New Leader, April 2, 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Socialist Call, June 26, 1937; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Revolt, October 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, January 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Foster’s defense appeal describes Mooney still imprisoned and calls the term eighteen years. This rounded contemporary description is not converted into a measured total.
The paper announces his mother’s February 24 New York defense meeting on the fifteenth anniversary of his death sentence, and recalls the commutation to life. It calls his ongoing imprisonment fifteen years in rounded terms; neither the meeting nor anniversary is a physical discharge.
The June22 Minneapolis report describes his mother’s resumed defense tour and continued San Quentin confinement. The paper’s sixteen-year phrase is rounded contemporary language, not a measured actual total or a release.
Page2’s prisoner address list places this person at San Quentin, prisoner number 31921. This is contemporary location and correspondence evidence, not a new sentence or exact transfer date. Page7 describes the congressional memorial seeking an unconditional pardon, not an already granted pardon.
Page7 reports Mooney freely speaking in Washington during a national tour to help obtain WarrenBillings’s release. This confirms post-pardon public activity and does not create a new detention interval. His comments against AssociatedFarmers and other groups are attributed.
Pages1and6 report the SupremeCourt’s refusal to review his case, naming Black and Reed as dissenters. Mooney’s messages demand a public pardon hearing from GovernorMerriam before the November8 election. Page7 prints his October5 letter enclosing support for Stanfield’s expected release, and Stanfield’s October8 reply thanking him for $25. These are court-review and solidarity events, not Mooney’s release; he remained at SanQuentin.
The March 11, 1937 Voice of the Federation reports California Attorney General U. S. Webb’s office taking the position that the legislature lacked authority to pardon Tom Mooney. Assemblyman Sam Yorty predicted passage of a legislative release resolution but described a possible future refusal by San Quentin’s warden, Court Smith, and a resulting court challenge. The paper says Mooney’s state habeas corpus petition was still pending. These are a reported legal opinion, a prediction and a pending proceeding, not an enacted pardon, completed refusal at the prison gates or physical release. The paper’s criticism of the legal position remains attributed to the newspaper.
Voice of the Federation, March 11, 1937, page 1, Mooney Again May Be Balked from Freedom.
The proposed Governor Young pardon hearing, initially set July 27, was postponed to mid-August because counsel could not arrive before his vacation. The report describes defense efforts, not a granted pardon or physical release.
The April 11, 1936 Socialist Call reports Tom Mooney writing from his continuing imprisonment to Clarence Senior, national secretary of the Socialist Party, to thank him for The Heritage of Debs: The Fight Against War. Mooney urged wide circulation of the pamphlet among workers. The article describes a hearing through which he hoped to obtain freedom after nearly twenty years; neither that rounded phrase nor his hope establishes a completed release, a new custody interval or a newly calculated total.
In the October 6, 1938 Voice of the Federation, Vic Johnson recalls a conversation with Tom Mooney before leaving prison. Mooney expressed confidence that he might be freed through the United States Supreme Court in October, November or December 1938, or through Culbert L. Olson as governor in January 1939. These were Mooney’s reported hopes and forecasts, not a court decision, accomplished pardon or physical release. Johnson also describes support from labor organizations and the planned Stanfield reception; this adds prison conversation and solidarity context without another Mooney custody interval or a revised duration.
Voice of the Federation, October 6, 1938, PDF page 3, Coffee Time by Vic Johnson.
Contemporary report, February 1936
The Socialist Call of February 22, 1936 reported that Thomas Mooney’s San Francisco habeas corpus hearing had reopened during the preceding week following a two-month recess. It appealed for funds to prepare a 15,000-page hearing transcript for the United States Supreme Court. This was a report about proceedings and transcript preparation, not an order granting release; it supplies no new physical custody endpoint.
The paper prints Mooney’s solidarity appeal for the Kentucky miners and announces an anniversary defense meeting recalling his February 24, 1917 death sentence and later commutation. The appeal documents his continuing prison campaign; the proposed meeting is not a release or new custody episode.
Miriam Allen deFord’s San Francisco dispatch dated April 14, printed in the April 15, 1936 Daily Worker, reports an exchange in Tom Mooney’s habeas corpus hearing. His attorney George T. Davis accused former district attorney Charles M. Fickert of having advance knowledge of the Preparedness Day bombing and waiting in his office for news of it. Fickert emphatically denied the accusation. The report describes contested efforts to introduce evidence of an alleged frame-up motive before Referee A. E. Shaw. These are the newspaper’s account of adversarial allegations, denial and hearing proceedings, not a judicial finding establishing the accusation, an exoneration or a new custody endpoint.
The November 7 San Francisco dispatch published in the November 8, 1932 Daily Worker reports that Callicotte was publicly questioned by Theodore Dreiser at the Civic Auditorium the previous day, November 6. The newspaper attributes to Callicotte the claim that neither Tom Mooney nor Warren Billings was either of the two men who hired him to carry the suitcase he associated with the Preparedness Day bombing. This dates the public repetition mentioned in the later defense account. It is a contemporary defense claim, not a judicial finding, exoneration or physical release.
The November 24 San Quentin dispatch published in the November 25, 1929 Daily Worker describes Mooney writing from prison about what he called a 1922 deathbed confession by Louis J. Smith of Cleveland. The paper attributes to Mooney the claim that Smith had admitted throwing the Preparedness Day bomb. It also quotes Mooney alleging that Martin Swanson had offered three of his friends $5,000 to help frame him, and that they refused and warned him. These are contemporary defense allegations, not judicial findings or evidence of a new custody interval.
Robert Minor’s retrospective identifies Mooney, his wife Rena, Billings, Weinberg and Nolan as the five jailed in the Preparedness Day prosecution. It attributes frame-up allegations to police-directed witnesses, altered photograph reproductions and trial procedures. It distinguishes Billings’s life sentence and Mooney’s commuted death sentence from the other defendants’ involvement. Ten years is a retrospective campaign description, not a final term or evidence that all five remained imprisoned in 1926.
Herndon recalls visiting Tom Mooney at San Quentin during his national speaking tour after obtaining appeal bail. He describes Mooney as tired but mentally engaged and determined, discusses the defense campaign with him, and says a guard terminated their conversation. The book also prints a photograph individually captioned Tom Mooney and Angelo Herndon. This is a first-person account of Mooney’s existing imprisonment and their solidarity, without an exact visit day, a new custody episode or a replacement for Mooney’s eventual release history.
RobertMinor’s contemporary TheyAreBuildingtheGallows identifies the five SanFrancisco defendants in a captioned jail group photograph. The article argues that prosecution witnesses and jury selection were corrupted; those claims are attributed to Minor. RenaMooney’s trial was ongoing, TomMooney’s execution threatened and labor organizations demanding release, so neither prospective execution nor a demand for freedom is recorded as an accomplished event.
International Socialist Review, July1917, vol.XVIII no.1, PDF page 30.
Thompson recalls personally meeting Tom Mooney during his own 1923–1927 San Quentin imprisonment, after previously speaking at a Mooney defense meeting in Canada. This is firsthand evidence of contemporary prison contact, rather than a new prosecution or a precise admission or release. Thompson’s judgment that the conviction was unjust is attributed to him.
Fellow Worker: The Life of Fred Thompson, compiled by Dave Roediger, 1993, PDF page 59.
