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Hellraisers Journal –Thursday October 19, 1922
Six Fellow Workers, Chicago-Group Class-War Prisoners, Offered Liberty
From the Baltimore Sun of October 17 1922:
PRISONERS OFFERED LIBERTY
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Six Convicted Of Espionage May Go
Free If They Accept Condition.Washington, Oct. 16.-Six men serving sentences imposed after conviction of the espionage act have been offered conditional executive pardons, the Department of Justice announced today, the condition in the case of three, who are aliens, being deportation, and in the others that “they will be law-abiding in the future.”
The men to whom the offer of clemency has been made are Walter T. Nef, former secretary-treasurer of the Marine Transport Workers [I. W. W.], Philadelphia; John J. Walsh and Benjamin H. Fletcher, members of the same union, and Ragner Johannsen, Siegfried Sternberg [Sigfried Stenberg] and Carl Ahlteen, formerly of Minneapolis, but natives of Sweden. The last three are alleged to have been members of the I. W. W.
No, hint as to whether any or all of the prisoners will accept the conditions has been received by the Government agencies in charge of their cases, it was said tonight. Both Nef and Fletcher made individual applications for pardons, but Walsh was one of 52 prisoners in Leavenworth who refused to sign such petitions.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Matilda Robbins re Ben Fletcher, p132 PC
https://books.google.com/books?id=40xuAAAACAAJ
The Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
-Oct 17, 1922
https://www.newspapers.com/image/373177692
IMAGE
IWW, Ben Fletcher ed, 13126 Leavenworth, Sept 7 or 8, 1918
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/112062369
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: “The Men I Left at Leavenworth” by Pierce C. Wetter (Formerly Class War Prisoner, Inmate 13179)
Part I
Part II
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
Tag: Chicago IWW Class War Prisoners
https://weneverforget.org/tag/chicago-iww-class-war-prisoners/
Tag: Ben Fletcher
https://weneverforget.org/tag/ben-fletcher/
Name Index to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary
-Inmate Case Files, 1895-1931
Note:
Chicago Class War Prisoners’ inmate numbers begin: 131
https://www.archives.gov/kansas-city/finding-aids/leavenworth-penitentiary
Walter T. Nef #13110
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/117703269
John Walsh #13147
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/117703363
Ben Fletcher #13126
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/112062369
Ragner Johannsen #13130
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/117703323
Sigfried Stenberg #13143
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/117703357
Carl Ahlteen
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/117703252
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One Big Industrial Union – Asheville May Day Chorus