Biography
Alex Chessman was a West Virginia coal miner imprisoned at the Moundsville penitentiary (inmate no. 16282), listed on the ILD's roster of American class-war prisoners in Labor Defender in 1928 as one of the men jailed "out of the labor struggles." Little else about his case entered the historical record.
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints Alex Chessman, a term of 10 years, the year 1920 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location 8181 Jefferson Avenue, Moundsville, West Virginia, as printed. This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
A worker-correspondent’s account of visiting Chessman with Ohio ILD secretary Carl Hacker links his Moundsville imprisonment to activity in the 1925 coal strike and a bombing accusation. It describes the ten-year sentence as imposed, not ten years already served, and says a mine explosion had cost him an eye and part of his left arm. The article records ILD correspondence and relief. It gives no exact personal admission or discharge. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n193-NY-aug-15-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under Moundsville prison, West Virginia, with ten years, 1928. This is an attributed historical directory entry: the year and nominal term do not establish an intake day, uninterrupted imprisonment, completed service or physical release.
His Moundsville letter reports parole refused after the pardon attorney objected; no precise decision day. LD1929.
