Biography
Dan Fallon was a member of the International Seamen’s Union imprisoned at Maine State Prison in Thomaston following the 1921 seamen’s strike in Portland, Maine. He was among five men identified as serving manslaughter sentences arising from a fatal confrontation aboard a schooner staffed by strikebreakers. Prison correspondence published in February 1925 described the men’s confinement and appealed for support for them.
The International Labor Defense holiday roster in the December 29, 1925 Daily Worker lists this prisoner, printed as Dan Fallon, at Thomaston Maine. This documents confinement at the roster’s reporting time, without establishing an admission, transfer, release, new conviction or complete duration. Existing independently sourced custody chronology remains separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n297-NYE-dec-29-1925-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
A joint letter signed Danny Fallon, Peter John Dirks and Thomas Harty in the May 1926 Labor Defender directly places them at Maine State Prison in Thomaston. Fallon says he was serving a seven-year sentence, with good-time allowance, and had pleaded guilty to prevent his comrades from receiving life sentences. This is his account of the plea and imposed term, not proof that he completed seven years. His expected December release and Dirks expected June release are forecasts, not physical discharge dates.
In a letter signed Danny Fallon and published in the January 1927 Labor Defender, Fallon reports losing two fingers during his imprisonment and attributes responsibility to the state. He describes difficulties obtaining clothes and employment after prison and identifies himself as a radical. His statement that his sentence would expire on December 16, 1926 was written prospectively; it does not establish that physical release actually occurred on that day. No custody endpoint or duration is inferred.
In a letter printed October 1926 from Union Fair Grounds, Maine, Danny Fallon explicitly states that he is still with the road gang. He describes a possible visit in the early part of the following year as a hope, not a completed release. He also reports learning that Peter J. Dirks had signed a deportation order; that is not proof of an actual removal or discharge.
His May 27 signed Thomaston letter describes a seven-year imposed term and injuries to his left-hand fingers during prison machine work, attributed to absent guarding. Dirks’s adjacent letter reports bargaining from longer proposals down to three-and-a-half to seven years. Both accounts concern the same 1921 seamen’s case; neither supplies an actual release. The individually captioned Danny Fallon portrait refers to this Dan Fallon.
