Biography
Carl Sklar was from Los Angeles. Carl Sklar received a three- to thirty-three-year prison sentence for violating the California Criminal Syndicalism Act and served in Folsom State Prison from June 1930 to October 3, 1932. (See also the entry for Lawrence Emery.) (Recorded as Carl Sklar a Communist Party organizer and a leader of the Imperial Valley farm workers strike)
The Daily Worker of September 10, 1930 reports that Judge Wood dismissed Sklar and Frank Spector from a separate April 26 unemployed-demonstration retrial. That newspaper described the existing terms as 42 years; other records give Sklar’s sentence as three to thirty-three years, so that discrepancy is retained rather than treated as a new sentencing fact.
His first-person account in the February 22, 1933 issue dates the Imperial Valley trial’s opening at El Centro to May 26, 1930 and describes evenings in county jail during trial. The editorial introduction says he had served more than two years before release several months earlier. The collective maximum terms mentioned in the article do not replace his individual sentence, and the account does not establish an exact day total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n045-NY-feb-22-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Western Worker, July 15, 1932, page 2: The Imperial Valley defense report announced parole for July 18, 1932, and discussed deportation conditions for Sklar and Horiuchi. It demanded Sklar’s release on his own recognizance and permission for Horiuchi to choose voluntary departure. This is a prospective announcement; it does not override separately documented later physical release or departure dates. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/westernworker/1932/v1n14-jul-15-1932.pdf
The Los Angeles account names Sklar and Waldron as defendants who represented themselves in the trial running April 3–14 following the March 6 arrests. Defendants returned to jail pending $1,000 appeal bail. The article gives a group distribution of sentences, without identifying each defendant’s term; no individual term is assigned from that distribution. Daily Worker, May 12, 1930, page 4. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n368-NY-may-12-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The December 31, 1931 Daily Worker lists Sklar, the prisoner printed Tatsuji Horiuchi and Eduardo Herara for deportation in the Imperial Valley defense account. Horiuchi’s July 1932 removal was prospective, and obstacles arising from lack of U.S.-Soviet relations were discussed for Sklar. The article’s collective sentence and parole figures are not individual completed terms or proof that these three had physically left the United States. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n314-NY-dec-31-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The April 11, 1932 Imperial Valley defense account distinguishes parole terms from physical freedom. It explicitly says Sklar remained in Folsom while immigration arrangements blocked release; projected eighteen-month consequences were not completed service. Horiuchi’s proposed removal to Japan, Herrera’s to Colombia and Emery’s announced February 18, 1933 freedom were future plans, not accomplished events. The source prints Tsuji/T. Horiuchi and Terrera/Herrera; the existing cohort identities are retained. Its proposed reduction of parole terms from fourteen to five years is not five years actually imprisoned. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n086-NY-apr-11-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints Carl Sklar, a term of 3–42 years, the year 1930 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location Folsom Prison, Represa, California. This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
The March 11 Fresno dispatch published March 12, 1931 reports a fifty-person labor delegation attending the Fourth State District Court of Appeals the previous day to demand release of the Imperial Valley prisoners. It describes the eight organizers as in California state prisons and says an appellate decision was expected in twenty days. The account supplies advocacy and pending appeal, not an accomplished release or new sentence. Its collective three-to-forty-two and two-to-twenty-eight-year terms are reported nominal ranges, not time actually served; spelling and chronology discrepancies do not override independently recorded individual facts. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n062-NY-mar-12-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed page 149 (PDF page 10): Martin Bank's Palm-Treed Paradise names Sklar, Oscar Erikson, Lawrence Emory, Tetsuji Horiuchi and Danny Roxas in the Imperial Valley criminal-syndicalism defense and gives a collective three-to-forty-two-year term. It places these five at Folsom and Eduardo Herra and Braulio Orosco at San Quentin under two-to-twenty-eight-year terms. These printed location and spelling variants are preserved as a contemporary collective account; conflicting individual prison evidence is not silently overwritten. Nominal ranges do not state actual service, and no precise admission, parole or discharge day is given. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
Printed pages 172-173 (PDF 12-13), Frank Spector's California's Parole Racket, distinguishes the announced July 18, 1932 release from continued custody because of employment-approval and immigration barriers. It describes revised terms of two years in prison plus eighteen months parole for Erickson, Roxas, Sklar and Horiuchi, and thirty months prison plus one year parole for Emery. The editor's later update expressly reports Erickson and Roxas actually released, Horiuchi sailing for the USSR on August 17 after permission for voluntary departure, and Sklar's physical release still awaited despite a regular-parole agreement; Emery's release was still sought. These are separate individual outcomes, not a collective July 18 discharge. The article's June 1931 and aggregate forty-two-year wording conflicts with earlier case chronologies and is not used to overwrite independently documented initial sentencing. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
Pages 1 and 5 report the Los Angeles unemployment-demonstration retrial before Judge Wood. Sklar's county-jail letter describes challenges to class/race exclusion in the jury, the judge dispensing with a stenographer and threatening note-takers, and actual dismissal of Sklar and Spector from this separate prosecution. Horiuchi was expressly retained despite the same reported forty-two-year Imperial Valley term; that aggregate characterization does not replace differing documented sentence ranges or become time served. Horiuchi and Kreitzberg obtained self-representation; Kiosz faced a threatened contempt penalty for smiling, not an imposed new term. The remaining seven included Horiuchi, A. Yamaguchi, Hoxie, Rose Becker, Kiosz, Joe Holub and Kreitzberg. July disagreement and Martin's acquittal precede this retrial; exact personal custody endpoints remain unknown. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n221-NAT-sep-13-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
Continued Folsom confinement despite a promised parole review
The October 1, 1932 Western Worker reports that the parole board had not acted on Sklar’s parole on September 9 as promised and continued to hold the Imperial Valley prisoner at Folsom. The article says the board called wording in a Department of Labor recognizance-release order unclear, pending possible deportation to Russia. An order, anticipated parole date or deportation plan is not a confirmed physical departure. This report supports continued confinement when written, not a September 9 release, a new admission date or an actual deportation. The separate discussion of Lawrence Emery’s February 1933 parole is also prospective. The existing October 3 Sklar release, older charge wording, stored twelve months and all other case fields remain unchanged and are not independently validated by this article.
Western Worker, volume 1 number 19, October 1, 1932, original pages 3. Contemporary political allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
Earlier Chicago Gastonia-defense protest arrest
The November 1, 1929 Daily Worker expressly lists Carl Sklar among the June 15 Chicago Grant Park Gastonia-defense protest arrestees. It reports that these workers met with several thousand others in Washington Park; the continuation distinguishes an earlier breach-of-peace allegation, its dismissal and a sedition accusation. It does not establish a bail release. The newspaper’s plan for another arrest was still prospective. This is an earlier Chicago episode, not an Imperial Valley or Folsom admission; no precise physical admission, physical release date or duration is established.
Daily Worker, November 1, 1929, pages 1, 3. Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
Earlier Chicago custody and completed bail release
The June 22, 1929 Daily Worker’s Chicago dispatch dated June 21 reports a completed bail release that day of 27 Gastonia-defense demonstrators, for the third time. Its complete released-prisoner roster explicitly names Carl Sklar. The report describes habeas corpus and bail of $50 cash or $400 real estate each. This earlier Chicago protest phase is distinct from the later Imperial Valley/Folsom case. The original June 15 arrest does not date the final readmission; intervening releases are not erased, and no continuous custody span or exact total is inferred. Existing Folsom dates and stored months remain unchanged and are not validated by this report.
Daily Worker, June 22, 1929, original PDF pages 1–3 (printed pages 1, 2, 5). Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
A renewed Chicago arrest after an earlier bail release
A Chicago dispatch dated October 24 in the October 25, 1929 Daily Worker individually names Carl Sklar among the organizers rearrested that day. It distinguishes earlier release on $3,000 bonds from the renewed arrest and increased $15,000 bonds. The main list contains eight names, while a neighboring International Labor Defense report describes six rearrested workers held under $90,000 bail. That count variation is preserved; the source is not used to allocate a numerical custody total. This documents a later arrest in the same Chicago prosecution, not uninterrupted imprisonment since an earlier arrest or a physical admission day. The later bail release and final disposition remain unknown. It is distinct from the June 1929 Chicago protest bail proceedings and the later Imperial Valley/Folsom custody already recorded.
Daily Worker, October 25, 1929, original pages 1. Contemporary legal allegations and personal reports remain attributed to the newspaper.
The August 18 Los Angeles dispatch identifies Sklar, the prisoner printed as Tsuji Horiuchi, and Spector as Imperial Valley defendants brought back to Los Angeles jail for a retrial arising from the April 26 unemployment demonstration and a trial concerning Paris Commune meetings. It reports Sklar was ill and frequently in the prison hospital and quotes the three prisoners’ request for the Daily Worker and their collective defense greetings. The printed three-to-forty-two-year wording is not substituted for differing individual sentence records. This documents a Los Angeles custody phase and pending proceedings; neither an exact transfer day nor an actual release is given.
The November 1932 Labor Defender article One More to Free, pages 213–214, identifies Carl Sklar as a prisoner in the Imperial Valley criminal-syndicalism prosecution and reports his actual parole from Folsom on October 3. The already recorded release day is preserved. The inherited federal Espionage Act/Sedition Act charge label did not describe this California state prosecution and is corrected. No imposed term, admission date or actual duration is changed.
Labor Defender, November 1932, PDF pages 13-14 (printed 213-214).
The continuation names Thompson as presiding at the Imperial Valley trial discussed in this article. Its explicit link between Sklar and the jointly convicted Imperial Valley group, together with the matching October 3 parole and existing case description, identifies the state prosecution rather than Sklar’s separate Chicago detention. Only the printed surname is recorded.
Labor Defender, November 1932, PDF pages13–14 / printed213–214.
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under Folsom State Prison, California, with three to forty-two years, 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.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, September 13, 1930; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Named as a signer of the Imperial Valley prisoners’ greeting, datelined San Francisco November 6, from confinement following agricultural organizing. The accompanying text places the group in San Quentin and Folsom without assigning every individual prison. Its group-wide forty-two-year wording is not substituted for individual sentences or actual served totals.
