Biography
Charles H. MacKinnon was an organizer for the Metal Mine Workers Industrial Union, Local 800, from Boston, Massachusetts. Charles H. MacKinnon was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago, sentenced to five years in prison and fined $30,000. He served in the Cook County Jail and Leavenworth Penitentiary from September 1917 to August 1919 and from April 1921 to December 22, 1923. The brother-in-law of IWW General Secretary William Haywood, MacKinnon became an organizer with the IWW in 1906. In internal memoranda the Department of Justice conceded that no evidence of any kind was adduced at trial that demonstrated that MacKinnon had ever spoken or written anything critical about " the war, conscription, registration or military service."
The March1922 official report lists C. H. MacKinnon in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy and violating the espionage act, etc. a sentence of August 30, 1918, 5 years, Leavenworth Penitentiary; fine, $25,000.. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF13]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 13.
