Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 3, 1922 Fellow Workers Fletcher, Walsh and Nef Freed from Leavenworth Penitentiary
From TheWashingtonTimes of November 1, 1922:
THREE I. W. W. PRISONERS PAROLED BY PRESIDENT
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
The sentences of Walter T. Nef, Ben Fletcher and John Walsh, political prisoners, have been conditionally commuted by President Harding, it was announced at headquarters of the amnesty committee here today.
The men are from Philadelphia, but were sentenced with other I. W. W. members from Chicago.
The commutation is conditional upon their future good behavior. They must be law abiding in future and “not encourage or be connected with lawlessness” of any sort, otherwise they can be recommitted to prison by the President without hearing. The fact that the men were given such conditional pardons was criticised by the amnesty committee in making the announcement.
Fletcher and Walsh were serving ten years and Nef twenty.
American Political Prisoners Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts -Stephen Martin Kohn Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994 (search: with last names of Class War Prisoners mentioned above) https://books.google.com/books?id=-_xHbn9dtaAC
—————Fellow Worker John Walsh
Fellow Worker Walter T. Nef
