Fremont Older and the 1916 San Francisco Bombing: A Tireless Crusade for Justice
John C. RalstonOn Saturday, July 22, 1916, as “Preparedness Day” parade units assembled
south of San Francisco’s Market Street, a terrorist bomb exploded, killing ten
people and wounding forty. San Francisco was outraged. Instead of searching for
the perpetrators, however, the district attorney used the bombing as an excuse
to arrest, try and convict two obscure labor figures without evidence. Author
John C. Ralston chronicles the dramatic events following the initial tragedy as
newspaper editor Fremont Older discovers the case is based on blatant perjury
and exposes the secondary crime to the public. What became known as the “American
Dreyfus Case” led to an international outcry, finally resulting in one
defendant’s pardon and the other’s parole—but only after both men had been
imprisoned for twenty-three years.