New Britain herald., 1930-03-13

were ignored. A reward of $17,500 for the capture of the perpetrators was posted. Before nightfall Swan son was placed in charge of the ''in- vestigation." By the end of four days the Swanson -Fickert dragna at had booked on murder charges Mooney and his wife, Rena, a music teacher: Billings; Ed Nolan, pre5i- dent-elect of Machinists' Lodge 6S: Israel Weinberg. jtney-bus driver and friend of the Mooneys.
 It was the prosecution's theory" that the quintet had driven down Marget street from 721 Market in Weinberg's jitney, that Mooney and Billings had gotten out, planted in the crowd the suitcase in which Was time bomb, and disappeared.
 Mooney was tried and sentenced to hang. Even in 1918 the suspi- cion of the innocence was so great that mediation commission named by President Wilson and headed by Secretary of Labor William B. Will son prevailed upon Governor Ste phens to retry him or at least con- mute his sentence to life. Stephens took the latter course.
 Billings was sentenced to life at Folsom. His prosecutor was FicN- ert's chief deputy, James Brennan, who refused to so on with the ca5e if he were forced to ask for a hang ing verdict and who since has ad- mitted that had he sat as a juror he never would have rendered a guilty verdict.
 Mrs. Mooney was tried and ac- quilted although the testimony against her substantially was the same as that against Billings.
 Nolan, after being held in jail for nine months, was released with out trial.
 | Weinberg was tried and acquitte ] after the jury dcliberated three min- utcs.
 Conflicting Witnesses
 Billings, being an ex-convict and hence easier of conviction, came 10 trial first. The chief prosecution witness was Estelle Smith, "southern belle," who later turned out to hare been a lady with a record of numer- ous arrests in Los Angeles. She sal she had seen this gentleman Mir. Billings with a suitcase leaving the roof of an office building in which she worked at 72l Market street al me minutes to two. Another prose- cution witness was John McDonal], who testified he saw Billings at the scene of the crime, a mile away, at exactly at this time.
 His testimony at Moneys trial flatl.' contradicted that at Billings trial and later he confessed he had never seen either until they were il the Jail cells.
 Other Billings witnesses were the Edeau women, Nellie and her daughter Sadie, seamstresses in Oakland. Having boasted they had seen two men plant the bomb. thev were brought to the San Francisco jail to identify Mooney and Billinga Seeing them, Mrs. Edeau denied they were the men she saw. "Not1- ing like the fellows I saw" she de- clared. In spite of this failure to identify. on record on the Oakland police blotter, they were brought back to San Francisco and there coached by the prosecution. Their testimony was so conflicting and self-incriminating that it was ? l vas dropped as a witness and hel , daughter made to take her place When she had placed herself in tive spots at once she replied that it Wal her astral body" that had been a one place. She confessed her frai. dulent Identification to Chief Pete-. sen of Oakland. When accus .i of wanton fraud by a follower erl- ploye, she replied: What difference does it make if you get paid for t: They are only working people ant there are too many working people now.'
 Alibi Nearly Perfect
 Astounding as was the Billings trial, the Mooney trial was ever more so. The Mooneys had an al. most perfect alibi. More than *l persons have since said they saa them during the parade on the root of the Eiler's building, a mile anL a quarter from the scene of the ex. ploson. Photogra phs taken of the parade showed Tom and Rena | MOonev leapipp over tho odpo of + building. A great street clock across the street showed in these photos that the time was 2:01 D. m.-just five minutes before the explosion, ;,s other witnesses claimed. How the, could have been here, at 72l Mar. scene of the crime far down at the : foot of Market street, all within fivl minutes, never has been explained. Here also enters a new star in the Fickert case. He is Frank c. OK. man, hailed as "an honest cattle man" from Oregon and welcome as the one unimpeachable witness against the labcrites Judge Franklin Griffin, before whom Mooney was tried; Inspectors Matheson and Golf, and jurymen, all say today that without Oxman and McDonalj Mooney never would have been con- victed. Oxman said he saw the de- fendant plant the suitcase acros: the street from where he stood Since then it has been proved he was in Woodland, 90 miles to tho north, waiting for the 2:15 train when the bomb exploded. He ar rived in San Francisco at 5:o5.
 It was several years after Mooney had been sent on his way to the gal lows that F. F. Rigall, poolroon, operator in Grayville, Illinois, re. vealed a letter from Oxman urging him to come to San Francisco to bs