Biography
Bill Worral was one of the Portland workers charged with criminal syndicalism. In the winter of 1930–31, Portland, Oregon revived its criminal-syndicalism law in a wave of raids on the Communist Party and Young Communist League, prosecuting members for their political affiliation. Ben Boloff was the first tried and drew a ten-year term; a mass defense campaign won acquittals for several of the others.
The Daily Worker of March 4, 1931, page 3, prints Bill Oral in the same six-person Portland release group with Howell, Bjorkman, Stoeff, Sandstrom and Abe Ozaranski. It reports actual release from Multnomah County Jail late March2 without bail, already recorded in this case. Oral is retained as a variant rather than a duplicate profile; the release is not an acquittal.
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.
