Biography
Ben Gardner was an anti-fascist prosecuted for picketing the German consulate in Philadelphia during the campaign to free Ernst Thaelmann. Judge Otto Heiligman sentenced Gardner and James Wilson to a year each in 1934. Gardner was free on bail while appealing the sentence by November, when he spoke at an Angelo Herndon defense meeting. He was later held at Holmesburg County Prison, where supporters were directed to send congratulations in August 1935 ahead of a celebration of the prisoners' release.
The August 29, 1934 Daily Worker reports a six-month sentence imposed by Judge Heiligman on Gardner and five other Philadelphia antifascists for picketing the German consulate in the Free Thaelmann campaign. His wife led a delegation to the judge. Other sources on the existing case report a one-year term; this discrepancy is preserved without treating the six months as completed service or creating another case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n207-aug-29-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Page 2 dates the one-year Holmesburg County Workhouse sentence to Monday, August 13, 1934 before Judge Otto Heiligman. It prints Gardner’s courtroom defense of peaceful anti-Nazi picketing and describes prosecutor Carrol’s inflammatory summation. An appeal was being organized; one year is the imposed term, not measured service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n196-aug-16-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The Philadelphia meeting notice identifies Gardner and Wilson as recently released from prison for demonstrating against fascism, with a welcome planned for October 29. This is a retrospective release report rather than merely an advance celebration, but it supplies no exact physical discharge date or completed duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n250-NAT-oct-18-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
The article reports Gardner and James Wilson sentenced by Judge Otto Heiligman to one year each for anti-Nazi German-consulate picketing in Philadelphia, with six months for four unnamed women. Their courtroom self-defense and the ILD appeal are reported. No exact personal prison admission or release day is supplied.
