Biography
Charles Bock was a West Virginia coal miner imprisoned at the Moundsville penitentiary under a ninety-nine-year sentence arising from a miners' strike. He belonged to the West Virginia Mine Workers Union when arrested; its members later joined the United Mine Workers of America. In 1936 a recently released fellow inmate reported that Bock had been hospitalized with tuberculosis since his trial and was receiving inadequate medical attention. The International Labor Defense publicized his treatment and that of fellow imprisoned miner Ernest Mullins.
The January 1936 Labor Defender, page 19 (PDF page 20), publishes a photograph of Bock's two children. Its caption identifies their father as imprisoned West Virginia miner Charles Bock under a ninety-nine-year sentence and says the children were babies when he was arrested four years earlier. The children are unnamed. The relative four-year statement is retained without inventing an exact arrest or birth date, and their photograph is not represented as a portrait of Bock.
Page 5 quotes Lulu Bock of Dry Branch, West Virginia, wife of a militant miner serving a reported life sentence at Moundsville for strike activity, without expanding her husband’s name in this article. The shared surname, state, prison, union-strike prosecution and long sentence associate this family account with the existing Charles Bock record; the source’s generic life wording is retained alongside the independently reported ninety-nine-year term. It says three militants were selected after a battle in which a gun thug was allegedly killed by his own side. Lulu, thirty-five, supported three small children and a paralyzed father through ILD relief. Her photograph with two children is not represented as a portrait of the imprisoned miner. No exact individual custody day or completed total is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n156-NAT-jul-01-1935-DW-Q.pdf
On September 3, 1936 the International Labor Defense, through Rose Baron, requested Governor Herman L. Krump investigate conditions at Moundsville based on recently released prisoner Michael Elli’s account. The report links Bock’s murder conviction to a 1933 Coalburg clash between mine-strike pickets and strikebreakers. Baron alleged discriminatory treatment by warden C. F. McClintic and guards and inadequate treatment of Bock’s tuberculosis while he was in the prison hospital. The reported medical condition and mistreatment are attributed to the contemporary petition. The paper describes the terms collectively as life sentences, while other evidence describes ninety-nine years; no precise sentence is replaced on that basis. General reports about an unnamed prisoner killed by guards are not assigned to Bock. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n213-NY-sep-04-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=6
The February 1937 Labor Defender, printed page 17, publishes a thank-you letter from Lulu Bock, identified as the wife of imprisoned West Virginia miner Charles Bock. She describes Christmas gifts for their children and support during his ninety-nine-year sentence. This identifies his wife and records family assistance; it supplies no new arrest or release endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1937/v13-%5B11%5Dn01-feb-1937-orig-LD.pdf#page=20
Page 7's Louis Colman interview with former inmate Michael Elli alleges that Bock was broken by third-degree abuse after arrest, had remained in the Moundsville hospital with tuberculosis since trial, was near death and received inadequate medical and dental care despite rotten teeth. Elli urged the ILD and unions to secure treatment. These are attributed contemporary allegations, not a confirmed death or new medical diagnosis; no death date, release or complete duration is inferred. His ninety-nine-year imposed term remains distinct from service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n211-NY-sep-02-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The West Virginia miners section lists a life sentence and a wife and two children. The term differs from the ninety-nine years reported elsewhere; the discrepancy is preserved, not treated as a new case or actual life imprisonment served. Labor Defender, September 1934, original PDF page 18. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n08-sep-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=18
