Biography
Bill Turpin was a union miner prosecuted for first-degree murder after the May5,1931 Battle of Evarts in Harlan County, Kentucky. The New Leader of January14,1933 names him with AlBenson and CarlWilliams among defendants facing trial over Deputy JimDaniels’s death and identifies DanielR.Smith as a defense attorney. The article does not establish Turpin’s exact arrest day, final verdict, sentence or release.
The September 12, 1931 Daily Worker includes this name in its Harlan murder-indictment list and describes the International Labor Defense’s preparations, including Franklin Reynolds and Leo Gallagher and challenges to alleged planted testimony. The list establishes the reported prosecution, but supplies no additional individual admission, discharge, conviction or completed custody total. Its claim to be a complete list does not justify inventing missing defendants. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n220-NY-sep-12-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The May 21 Harlan dispatch names Bill Turpin, Charles Bradley, Hugh Lester, Andrew Hench and Henry Oliver among miners arrested the preceding night on murder indictments following defense against company gunmen. It says six were arrested but prints five names. Hench is retained as the same-case spelling variant of Hinch. May 20 is the reported arrest day; no verdict or physical release is supplied by this issue.
