The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-11-19
RANK PERJURY
SENT MOONEY TO
PENITENTIARY

I'LL VI n E-k1 H M v
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15.-(By
mail to Union Record) Draper
Hand, police Officer, most active Of
all the subordinates in the han
ding of witnesses in the. Mooney
bomb cases, last Saturday told
Mayor James Rolph, JI., that the
prosecution was gigantic frame
up from first to last. Citing names,
dates and circumstances in full, he
told the mayor all that he knew of
the manipulation of witnesses, and
he declared that, to his own knowl-
edge, the testimony of every witness
bearing directly on the guilt of the
accused was a fabrication pure and
simple.
His story-the inside story of the
frameup by one of the prosecution $
right hand men-corroborates in its
entirety the claims of the defense
that Tom Mooney and Warren X.
Billings were convicted without a
shred of truth to connect them with
the 1916 preparedness parade bomb
explosion.
Hand cut the heart out of the
theory Of the prosecution-the the
ory, backed by perjury and machi
nations, on which Mooney and Bill
lings were sents to prison for life ON
the charge of having planted the
bomb that caused 10 deaths.
Almost at the same time it be-
came known that another blow had
been dealt the prosecutions theory
by one of the prosecutions star
witnesses, Estelle Smith. She no
longer is sure that the man she
saw on the roof of 721 Market
street the day of the preparedness
parade-the man with the black
bag-was Billings. She has told
District Attorney Matthew Brady
that were she to testify again, she
would make her doubts clear to
Judge and jury.
That Frank G.. OXman, the Oregon
cattle man, never saw the automo-
bile of Israel Weinberg till Hand
showed it to him months after the
bomb explosion.
That Hand took OXman to the
North End police station under Or
ders from Martin Swanson, private
detective for corporations, and there
show ed him the Weinberg car.
That this move was a part of the
grooming of Oxman for his testi-
mony, in which he declared that on
the day of the explosion he saw the
Mooney party alight from Vein
berg's car at the scene of the eX-
plosion.
That he (Hand) rehearsed in the
car, at the police station, to prove
Oxman's story physically possible,
and that he so rehearsed at Ok
mans request because the Orego.
nian was afraid his account as ar
ranged for him could be proven an
impossibility.
That Oxman did not then see,
and probably at no time saw, the
license plate of the car, which had
been removed, but memorized the
number from a memorandum given
to him. OXman testified that he
noted the car number on the back
Of telegram the day of the eXplo-
sion.
That it was from this memoran-
uull OIly GldC IlS ledli ilSu IilS liSSlloC
number, though he testified (after
many months) to remembering it
from a fleeting glimpse the day of
the explosion.
That Edward A. Cunha, assistant
district attorney at that time, in
structed Hand to give the memoran-
dunn of the number to him, after it
had been removed, lest by some
chance the defense force Oxman into
admitting that he had seen the
license number on the car when it
was at the police station-and ad-
mission which would have discounted
his testimony before the jury.
That OXman virtually admitted to
Hand that he was lying, and init
mated that he was afraid of the
outcome of the frame-up. OXman
wobbled-but he went through with
it, and Mooney was sentenced to the
gallows.
That Hand, sitting in the police
bomb bureau one night in the first
stage of the investigation, saw Dis
trict Attorney Charles M. Fickert
enter with Martin Swanson, corpora
ton private detective, and heard
Fickert say to Captain Duncan
Matheson, "You'd better arrest those
two fellows"
That next morning Hand was
ordered to find and arrest Mooney
and Billings, and he thought then
and still thinks that the two to
whom Fickert referred were Mooney
and Billings.