Nearly immediately , Stephens faced controversy regarding the Preparedness Day Bombing , a terrorist attack on the San Francisco Preparedness Day parade on July 22 , 1916 . The attack was blamed on left wing radicals , in particular union leader and former Industrial Workers of the World member Thomas Mooney , and his alleged accomplice , Warren Billings . Both Mooney and Billings were convicted , though critics said later that the trial was conducted in a lynch mob atmosphere . Governor Stephens supported both convictions . However , international sympathy for Mooney quickly spread , making him one of the United States 's most famous political prisoners . There was national and international pressure on Stephens to intervene for Mooney . President Woodrow Wilson personally telegraphed Stephens to ask him to review the case against Mooney . Stephens yielded , but only slightly , commuting Mooney 's death sentence to life imprisonment
Preparedness Day Bombing
Preparedness Day Bombing
William Stephens