The weekly Alaska citizen., 1918-03-18
BOMB MURDERS
 CAUSING MUCH
 LEGAL JARRlNC

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 13.--Israel Weinburg, jitney bus driver, was brought today from the county jail where he has spent the last nine teen months without bail and was put on trial for the second time, over the objections of the prosecu- tion, on a murder charge growing out of bomb explosion here In 1916.
 Weinberg was acquitted November 27. last, by a jury which deliberated twenty minutes. of one of nine mur- der charges originally brought against him. Applications for his release on bail were granted by two judges before whom six of the remaining charges were pending, but were re- fused by Superior Judge Frank H. Dunne, in whose court two indict- ments were brought. A writ of habeas corpus for release on bail was refused also by the state Dis trict Court of Appeals
 District Attorney Charles M. Pick ert, whose office conducted four pre- vious murder trials which grew out of the explosion. contended that Weinberg should not be tried the second time until the State Supreme Court had decided upon the pending appeals of Thomas J. Mooney, anoth- CT defendant in the bomb murder cases. from a death sentence i'm posed upon him. Superior Judge George H. Cabaniss, before whom Weinberg's trial began today. decid- ed last week that the defendant twas entitled to a speedy trial; that he was not concerned with the outcome of the Mooney appeal"
 Weinberg is in the county jail, once acquitted" Judge Cabaniss said. "He is unable to support his family, and has been denied bail. Mrs. Rena Mooney. also acquitted of one charge, has offered to waive her right to a re-trial in favor of Weinberg because he has a family and she has no one needing her support"
 Mrs. Mooney is the wife of Thomas J. Mooney. She was acquitted of one of the murder charges against her in connection with the blast. She also has been held for the last nineteen months in jail without bail. Efforts of counsel to persuade Judge Dunne to grant her release on bond were unavailing.
 Shortly after 2 o'clock on the after noon of July g, 1916, occurred the bomb explosion out of which grew the Mooney. Billings and Weinberg murder cases that attracted world wide attention to San Francisco. A parade advocating national prepared ness was in progress when the bomb exploded. Several men and women were killed instantly. Other persons died subsequently,, and the final total of dead was ten. Forty other per. sons were injured.
 Mooney, Mrs. Mooney and Warren K. Billings, who had taken prominent parts in labor agitation in California, were arrested several days later. Weinberg's arrest followed, as did that of Edward D. Nolan, an official of the San Francisco Machinists' union. Nolan is the only one of the five who has not yet been tried. He also was the only defendant grant ed release on bali.
 Billings was the first defendant tried. He was convicted and is serv- ing life Imprisonment at Folsom prison. His appeal was carried to the Supreme Court and denied. Mooney. tried next. was sentenced to death. Execution of this sen tence was stayed by the appeal now before Supreme Court. Mrs. Mooney and Weinberg were acquitted.
 Many ramifications resulted in the directing of worldwide attention to- ward the trials. Labor unions throughout the country and Europe were appealed to on the ground that money was needed to obtain able counsel. In the Petrograd revo- lution, which caused the fall of Czar Nicholas, revolutionists carried ban ners which cited the case of Mooney as an alleged example of oppression.
 This and interest displayed by la bor unions, resulted in an investi- gation by a mediation commission appointed by President Wilson in connection with other disturbances. This commission was headed by Sec retary of Labor William B. Wilson, and included Dr. Felix Franfurter, former professor of jurisprudence at Columbia University, later connect ed with the faculty of Harvard uni versity. In its report to the Presi- dent, the commission recommended that Mooney be granted a new trail, and suggested that his re.trial could be held on one of the remaining murder charges aginst him. The President. after receiving the report,