Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-07-25
DEMAND HIGHEST
PUNISHMENT FOR
ALLEGED BOMBER

woman; widespread interest of labor
unions, public controversy involving
credibility of states witnesses and
charges by the defense that important
evidence had been fabricated, were fea
lures which marked the trial of Mrs.
Rena Mooney for murder, resulting
, from bomb explosion here last July
Mrs. Mooney, music teacher, wife of
Thomas J. Mooney, was arrested few
days after the explosion, which occur
ring at 2:05 p. M, in the course of a
preparedness parade July %, killed ten
persons and wounded more than forty
men, women and children. At about the
same time the MONEYS were arrested,
Warren K. Billings, Israel Weinberg
and Edward d. Nolan were taken into
custody by detectives.
The state commended that the explos-
ion was the elimination -of conspir-
acy plot of wide ramifcations, with
five bomb murder defendants as the
ring leaders.
Billings was tried, convicted of muir
der and sentenced to life imprisonment
Mooney was sentenced to death on
verdict of murder in the first degree
without recommendation for mercy
Both sentences have been held up,
Ipending appeals to the state supreme
court. The others are now awaiting
trial Nolan is at liberty on bail.
Dissatisfied with the verdict in the
case of Thomas J. Mooney, union labor
organizations, which contributed large
" to tn edefense fund through the In
ternational Workers Defense league,
caused the appointment of Silent
jury" composed of labor men, to hear
violence adduced at Mrs. MONEYS trial
and render an independent verdict to
organized labor
Mrs. Mooney was brought to trial
May 81. before Superior Judge Emmett
/ Seawell, of Santa Rosa, and jury.
The specific charge against her was
the murder of Mrs. Myrtle Irene Van
Leo. one Of the ten victims of the ex-
plosion. In addition the defendant was
charged with having been a member of
"a 'murderous conspiracy" to overthrow
the government and bring about state
OF anarchy. Much testimony and many
exhibits intended to support this theory
were ruled out by Judge Seawell. Var
ious letters written to and by Mooney,
extracts from an anarchist publica-
ton called the Blast" edited here
about the time of the explosion by
Alexander Berkman, an associate Of
Emma Goldman, and other documents,
which the state commended showed de-
signs of the alleged group Of conspira
tors, were admitted
Alibi was the defense which the de-
PENDANTS attorneys sought to establish
by a score of witnesses, who declared
Mrs. Mooney and her husband had been
on the roof of the building in which
they made their home more than a mile
from the scene of the explosion
throughout the afternoon. Mrs Moon
ey and the four other defendants told
of their movements in detail on the
afternoon of the bomb murders. The
defense sought to prove that others
rather than the defendants were the
persons who had been seen in the vi
entity of the explosion by the state
witnesses.
The states contention was that
| Mooney and the others sought to pre-
vent the parade because it was a mill
tary preparedness measure which
might interfere with their alleged plot
to overthrow the government and that
Billings, accompanied by three of the
iother defendants placed a suitcase
which, the state contended, enclosed the
bomb, at the spot where the blast oc-
Cured One witness said. he saw Bill
lings, accompanied by Mooney, place
the suitcase on the sidewalk.
The defense contented that the bomb
was hurled from the roof of building
and witnesses testified they had seen
black object coming through the air be-
fore the detonation.
Bits of what purported to have been
pieces of an alarm clock, by which
the state contended the bomb was eX-
ploded; pieces of what purported to
have been parts of a suitcase and other
exhibits such as bullets and Jagged
pieces of iron picked up on the scene
after the explosion, were admitted as
evidence.
Eleven days before the explosion
/ Mrs. Mooney obtained about twelve
pounds of nitre, a component Of dyna-