  thomas joseph "tom" mooney (december 8, 1882â march 6, 1942) was an american political activist and labor leader, who was convicted with warren k. billings of the san francisco preparedness day bombing of 1916. believed by many to have been wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit, mooney served 22 years in prison before finally being pardoned in 1939. ==biography== ===early life=== the son of irish immigrants, mooney was born in chicago, illinois on december 8, 1882. his father, bernard, had been a coal miner and a militant organizer for the knights of labor in struggles so intense that after one fight he was left for dead. bernard mooney died of "miner's con" (now known as silicosis) at the age of 36, when tom, the eldest of three surviving children, was ten years old. tom's sister anna told neighbors that the family had originated in holyoke, massachusetts, not chicago. thomas held many jobs as an industrial worker before developing a career as a labor leader and socialist activist. as a young man, mooney toured europe, where he learned about socialism. after arriving in california, he met his wife rena, and found a place in the socialist party of america and the presidential campaign of eugene v. debs. in 1910, mooney won a trip to the second international conference in copenhagen by selling a huge number of subscriptions to the socialist wilshire magazine. on his way home, he visited the british trades union congress in sheffield, england.  ===suspected dynamiter=== mooney subsequently settled in san francisco where he briefly became a member of the industrial workers of the world (iww) before resigning from that organization. over the next few years mooney became friendly with some of iww's leading figures such as william "bill" haywood, mary "mother" jones and elizabeth gurley flynn. he married rena hermann in 1911, and became the publisher of the revolt, a socialist newspaper in san francisco. the paper was a modest success, with a circulation of 1,500 readers. mooney later ran for sheriff as the socialist party of america candidate. mooney was later arrested and tried three times but never convicted of a charge of transporting explosives for the purpose of blowing up power transmission lines during a pacific gas & electric strike in 1913. he was well known as a militant, a socialist, and a suspected dynamiter. he was tried and convicted for the preparedness day bombing, july 22, 1916 in san francisco. the bomb exploded at steuart and
1882_births 1942_deaths American_anarchists American_labor_unionists American_people_of_Irish_descent American_socialists Industrial_Workers_of_the_World_members Members_of_the_Socialist_Party_of_America People_from_Chicago,_Illinois Recipients_of_American_gubernatorial_pardons Wrongful_convictions