Biography
Allen Flory was president of Cleaning and Dye House Workers Union Local 20, an American Federation of Labor affiliate in St. Louis. Police arrested him with secretary-treasurer Matthew A. McLoughlin and business agent Ted Graham on August 27, 1937, while investigating broken windows at cleaning establishments on the union's unfair list. Flory and Graham were not beaten. McLoughlin was severely beaten while police tried to obtain a confession, prompting demands for an investigation from the union and the St. Louis Civil Liberties Committee.