Biography
Dan Benning was a defendant imprisoned in connection with the 1933 Ambridge steel strike. The November 12, 1934 Daily Worker names him with Emma Brletic and the Egan and Frankfeld defendants in a campaign for their release following rioting convictions. The article supplies no individual exact commitment, sentence length or release date; the interval since the strike is not treated as continuous measured imprisonment. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n270-NY-nov-12-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The July 20, 1934 Daily Worker also names Benning among the Ambridge picket-line defendants prosecuted for inciting to riot and assault and battery, and reports appellate affirmation and a further appeal campaign. The group chronology does not establish continuous imprisonment since the strike. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n173-jul-20-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The Ambridge section places him at Allegheny Workhouse, Blawnox, under a two-year sentence and lists a wife and three children. This provides the imposed term and historical place of confinement missing from the earlier account; it is not two years actually 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
Daily Worker, July 16, 1934, page 1: The July 15 Pittsburgh report says the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the sentences of Egan, Frankfeld, Emma Brletich, Dan Benning and Paul Verkovich. It names Benning among the three Ambridge defendants whose sentences were affirmed. The ILD intended a further Pennsylvania Supreme Court appeal and, if necessary, US Supreme Court review. Affirmation and an intended further appeal do not establish a fresh arrest or complete actual service. The separate Rankin defendants' new trials are not applied to the Ambridge defendants. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n169-sect-one-jul-16-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
PDF page 13 prints a letter signed Mrs. Dan Benning and Babies from Millvale, Pennsylvania, describing dependence on ILD support and a child's questions about his imprisoned father. The wife's residence is not a prison transfer or a new arrest; the letter provides family-impact evidence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n01-jan-1935-orig-LD.pdf
