Who was Tom Mooney?

[John Simkin]

A survey in 1935 discovered that Tom Mooney was one of the four best known Americans in Europe (the other three were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles A. Lindbergh and Henry Ford). Does anyone know who Tom Mooney was?

[Guest Gary Loughran]

Is your interest in all these cases (Dickman etc.) about the injustice's served upon innocents or the groupings who fought the injustices?

Or is it just a morbid love of murder, much like my ma, and her vast collections of True Crime style books and magazines!

[John Simkin]

Is your interest in all these cases (Dickman etc.) about the injustice's served upon innocents or the groupings who fought the injustices?

Or is it just a morbid love of murder, much like my ma, and her vast collections of True Crime style books and magazines!

I am interested in true crime cases, but only because it tells us so much about political and social history. I am also interested in injustice and Tom Mooney was indeed a "patsy" very much like Lee Harvey Oswald. I still find it amazing that nearly 20 years after being wrongly convicted of murder, he was one of the four best known Americans in Europe (the other three were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles A. Lindbergh and Henry Ford).

[Guest Gary Loughran]

Is your interest in all these cases (Dickman etc.) about the injustice's served upon innocents or the groupings who fought the injustices?

Or is it just a morbid love of murder, much like my ma, and her vast collections of True Crime style books and magazines!

I am interested in true crime cases, but only because it tells us so much about political and social history. I am also interested in injustice and Tom Mooney was indeed a "patsy" very much like Lee Harvey Oswald. I still find it amazing that nearly 20 years after being wrongly convicted of murder, he was one of the four best known Americans in Europe (the other three were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles A. Lindbergh and Henry Ford).

Whilst I detest injustice in any form, the groups who come together to fight [the injustice] have always interested me and for many different reasons.

But in 1935 wasn't Mooney high profile because of release and/or jail movements of some kind accompanied by heightened publicity by campaigners!!!

Funnily enough, I have another internet page open on an idol of mine, Oscar Wilde, now there is an injustice and by Ned Carson as well. Here we have a case of a man who should never have went to jail (gaol) and the person who tried him should have been shot on sight, which would've solved a few more important Irish problems.

EDIT++ - A funny thing just happened (well I thought so) - I was searching the BBC website for Oscar reading Reading gaol and the BBC recommended Spartacus Oscar Wilde biography from the web. Does anyone have any information on the omnipresent spector of Spartacus website that lurks everywhere ?

Edited September 26, 2007 by Gary Loughran
added EDIT++

[John Simkin]

A funny thing just happened (well I thought so) - I was searching the BBC website for Oscar reading Reading gaol and the BBC recommended Spartacus Oscar Wilde biography from the web. Does anyone have any information on the omnipresent spector of Spartacus website that lurks everywhere ?

The search-engine ratings are based largely on the number of links that you have. A process started by Google but the other search-engines soon followed their example. I started my website in 1997. It was the only free encyclopedia available at the time. (Wikipedia started much later). So, universities, colleges and schools linked to my website. So did other websites committed to free education like the BBC and PSB. Therefore, pages that I create are usually at or near the top of search-engine searches.

For example, type in "Tom Mooney" and see what you get.

[Guest Gary Loughran]

A funny thing just happened (well I thought so) - I was searching the BBC website for Oscar reading Reading gaol and the BBC recommended Spartacus Oscar Wilde biography from the web. Does anyone have any information on the omnipresent spector of Spartacus website that lurks everywhere ?

The search-engine ratings are based largely on the number of links that you have. A process started by Google but the other search-engines soon followed their example. I started my website in 1997. It was the only free encyclopedia available at the time. (Wikipedia started much later). So, universities, colleges and schools linked to my website. So did other websites committed to free education like the BBC and PSB. Therefore, pages that I create are usually at or near the top of search-engine searches.

For example, type in "Tom Mooney" and see what you get.

I understand how you've managed Google etc.

It was the link within the BBC that impressed me most!!!!!

[Guest Stephen Turner]

A survey in 1935 discovered that Tom Mooney was one of the four best known Americans in Europe (the other three were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles A. Lindbergh and Henry Ford). Does anyone know who Tom Mooney was?

Tom Mooney was an Irish American Socialist, and Union organiser, who was falsely convicted of murder in connection with a 1916 San Fransisco bomb explosion, he was originally sentenced to death, this judgement sparked over a decade of protest which lead to the commutation of the sentence to one of life imprisonment. he was pardoned, and released by the State Govenor in 1939. but an official pardon was not forthcoming until 1961.

Now, who were Nicola Sacco, and Bartolomo Vanzetti?

[John Geraghty]

Steve,

Were they two anarchists wrongly accused of something?

Did they make a speech to the court room-something along the lines of 'nobody will remember the judge or the prosecution, but the names Sacco and Vanzetti will echo throughout history' ? Or is this another case?

John

[John Simkin]

Now, who were Nicola Sacco, and Bartolomo Vanzetti?

I discuss the case here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsacco.htm

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomo Vanzetti were not the only left-wingers who were framed for crimes they did not commit. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg and George Engel were executed for the Haymarket Bombing:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhaymarket.htm

They also tried to set-up William Hayward for the Frank Steunenberg murder:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsteunenberg.htm

Then there was the bombing of the Los Angeles Times in 1910.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACbombing.htm

Then there was the bombing in San Francisco in 1916. Tom Mooney and Warren Billings served 22 years for a crime they did not commit.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmooney.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbillingsW.htm

Then there was the case of Joe Hill in 1916.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhillJ.htm

The next two years were especially bad when the leaders of the left-wing in the US was imprisoned for opposing involvement in the First World War.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTmasses.htm

This included the imprisonment of Eugene Debs.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAdebs.htm

Of course this is a time when the socialist and labour movement in the US was nearly as strong as it was in Europe. These cases persuaded many to give up left-wing politics. Those who were not got by the authorities were dealt with by the Ku Klux Klan. It was not only blacks who were lynched during the first 25 years of the 20th century. See for example the lynching of trade union organizer, Frank Little:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlittleF.htm

For more information on this tactic follow the links on my Industrial Workers of the World page.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAiww.htm

[Guest Gary Loughran]

Then there was the Haymarket riots, 5 minutes anarchy - 7 executions. Masses against the classes indeed.

***Edit Mr Simkin has posted the above whilst I was writing mine. Fools seldom differ D

Once again, as in this and all the above cases (**unsure about this having not fully viewed JS's post above), GB Shaw petitioned for leniency and/or freedom for the 'guilty' men

Edited September 26, 2007 by Gary Loughran
Noting Mr Simkins post