Biography
Warren Billings Born in Middletown, New York on Independence Day 1893; young shoe-workers' organizer convicted before Mooney to provide a "predicate" conspirator. Sentenced to life for second-degree murder in the 1916 San Francisco Preparedness Day bombing. Held at Folsom State Prison, where he learned watchmaking. After 23 years, 2 months and 20 days of imprisonment — the longest of any Wilson-era political prisoner in the United States — California Governor Culbert L. Olson commuted his sentence to time served in 1939. Full pardon from Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown in 1961. Warren BIllings was an anarchist and labor leader who was convicted for possession of dynamite. Warren claims he had no idea what was inside the suitcase and was ordered to bring it somewhere when he was arrested. Much of the prosecution's case depending on Warren's alleged ties to Thomas Mooney, a socialist and militant accused of a San Fransisco bombing killing ten people. It is alleged that at the trial witnessed were coached by the detective and the prosecutor. Both Warren and Thomas were found guilty and sentenced to death, but President Wilson stepped in and urged the governor to decrease their sentences to life in prison after immense public outcry. He was released in 1939 and finally pardoned in 1961.
Warren K. Billings was a young shoe-worker and union militant who, like Tom Mooney, was framed for the July 22, 1916 Preparedness Day Parade bombing in San Francisco. Convicted in September 1916 on the perjured testimony of witness Frank Oxman, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at Folsom State Prison, where he served 23 years. He was paroled in 1939 and finally received a full pardon from California Governor Earl Warren in 1961.
