Biography
Ben Boloff was from Portland. Ben Boloff was described as an "illiterate Russian alien and ditch digger." He was sentenced to a term of ten years in prison under the Oregon criminal syndicalism law "merely because he was a member of the Communist Party." In prison he contracted terminal tuberculosis and was denied any medical attention. On January 20, 1932, after fifteen months behind bars, he was released on bond by order of a local circuit judge. An eyewitness at the release hearing described Boloff as "hollow cheeked, haggard, and coughing." He died in October 1932, after release; the exact day differs between the existing record and Goodman’s later account.
The Daily Worker of March 4, 1931, page 2, datelined Portland March3, reports Boloff sentenced that day to the ten-year statutory maximum. It names Judge Bonham, while the existing court-based record identifies William A. Ekwall; this judge discrepancy remains explicit and no judge field is overwritten. It describes Communist Manifesto, State and Revolution and Daily Worker copies as prosecution evidence, and two police informers plus an immigration inspector as witnesses. The nominal sentence is not actual served duration.
The May 6, 1931 Portland telegram reports Moore as the second acquitted defendant, after Fred Walker; Ben Boloff had received a ten-year sentence. The page-three continuation describes Boloff’s pending state-supreme-court appeal. These are procedural outcomes in the existing Oregon criminal-syndicalism cases, without treating an imposed ten-year term as completed service or assigning a new physical-release date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n110-NY-may-07-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Paul Munter reports that Boloff’s first Portland trial attracted hundreds of workers despite official attempts to minimize attendance. He describes immigration-service statements and informer allegations as part of the criminal-syndicalism prosecution campaign. The account supplies trial and defense context, not a new nominal sentence or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n052-NY-sect-one-feb-28-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Irvin Goodman’s June1934 Labor Defender article states that Boloff left his jail cell for treatment in a sanatorium and died on October13,1932, a few months after his release. This establishes death after physical release rather than a death in prison; it does not independently establish whether any remaining legal restrictions or parole applied at the sanatorium. The article’s October13 date conflicts by one day with the existing structured October12 death date. That one-day discrepancy remains unresolved, and the structured day is retained pending reconciliation. Both dates place death in October, correcting the former summer wording. The allegations of denied medical care and tuberculosis contracted in jail remain attributed to Goodman. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n06-jun-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=17
Labor Defender, June 1934: Irvin Goodman reports that Boloff made an affidavit after fourteen months in jail and prison, describing difficulty eating, breathing, walking and sleeping, repeated requests for medical help and forty days of outright refusal by the county doctor. Goodman describes forced outdoor labor with inadequate clothing, exclusion of chosen literature and release to a tuberculosis sanatorium after doctors opposed release. He gives Boloff’s death as October 13, 1932, conflicting with the existing biography’s summer-1932 wording. The fourteen months is an intermediate affidavit observation; neither that observation nor the conflicting death report silently replaces the separately documented January 20 bail release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n06-jun-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=17
Oregon criminal-syndicalism prosecution
The Western Worker of February 15, 1932, page 4 (Portland January 20 dispatch), explicitly identifies the prosecution as Oregon criminal syndicalism and reports actual release on recognizance on January 20, 1932 pending further proceedings. That release day is already stored. The Espionage Act/Sedition Act wording previously in the charges field did not describe this Oregon prosecution. No initial custody, death date or counter is changed.
Irvin Goodman’s March 16, 1937 radio address, reprinted in April 1937, specifically dates Ben Boloff’s sentencing to March 2, 1931. This refines the existing month-only March placeholder to a supported day. It does not change admission, release or total custody.
The source’s March 2 sentencing date differs from the separately recorded March 3, 1931 date. The exact sentencing date remains a source discrepancy; the structured date has been preserved pending reconciliation.
The November 16 dismissal report expressly excludes Boloff: he remained under the ten-year conviction after state appellate affirmance, with an ILD appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court reported pending. The dismissal of other defendants’ cases did not free him. No new release, admission or actual service total is inferred.
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under Multnomah County Jail, Portland, Oregon, with criminal syndicalism, 1930. 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. The substantive article on PDF page 10 separately names the Portland criminal-syndicalism and deportation defendants and attributes the raids to informer M. R. Bacon. The threatened ten years is potential exposure, not a sentence already imposed.
The Portland report states that Boloff was the first tried and received ten years, contrasting that conviction with Walker’s acquittal and eleven pending prosecutions. The ten years is imposed punishment, not actual service; this adds no physical release date.
The Portland November 7 dispatch says Boloff, a lumber worker just returned to the city, was arrested yesterday after an informer identified him as a Red. This supports a November 6 arrest observation in the existing Oregon case, without establishing a prison-admission day or full service total.
The November 15, 1930 Daily Worker, reporting from Portland on November 13, says immigration officials dropped proceedings against Boloff after questioning him, while he remained held under $2,500 bail on criminal-syndicalism charges. This distinguishes the discontinued immigration proceeding from his continuing state prosecution; it does not establish a release from custody. Daily Worker, November 15, 1930, page 2.
