Biography
David Levinson was a labor-defense lawyer retained by the International Labor Defense and Gallup Defense Committee to defend the Gallup miners. The pamphlet describes masked gunmen abducting him and Robert Minor from Gallup’s plaza at about 10 p.m. on May 2, 1935, beating them and abandoning them in the desert. They freed each other from the sacks covering their heads, walked until nearly noon, received help from a Navajo resident and reached the Indian Hospital at Tohatchi. They returned to defense work under a police escort. This is documented extrajudicial abduction, not a prison sentence; the twelve-hour walk is not counted as time held by the abductors. Pages 3–6. Source: Louis Colman, Night Riders in Gallup, International Labor Defense, third printing June 1935, https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/pamphlets/night-riders.pdf
Pages 1–2 report the May 10 ACLU demand for federal prosecution of their abductors, citing abandonment on the Navajo reservation as a basis for federal jurisdiction. The Marcantonio inquiry resolution remained in the House Judiciary Committee without consideration that day. Page 4 dates the abduction to May 2, notes Minor’s return from the desert after being beaten and hooded, and describes continued defense work. Investigation demands and scheduled Denver appearances are not an executed prosecution or a new measured prison term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n113-NAT-may-11-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 1 reports Governor Clyde Tingley’s promise to ask Judge M. A. Otero Jr. to summon a grand jury into the Gallup kidnapping, after an ACLU delegation’s conference. Attorney General Frank Patton also promised cooperation. A. L. Wirin sought exposure of the abductors and officials obstructing investigation. Promised inquiry is not an indictment or conviction. Page 6 continues the defense campaign. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n117-NAT-may-16-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Pages 1–2 report Judge M. A. Otero Jr. setting June 10 for a Gallup grand-jury inquiry into their May 2 abduction, with Attorney General Frank H. Patton in charge. The article questions impartiality because Patton also prosecuted the miners. Page 4 prints Allan Taub’s account of a May 20 lawyers’ delegation to Attorney General Homer Cummings seeking federal intervention; no completed prosecution of abductors is reported. Pages 1–2 announce their May 27 New York rally and reception after return from defense work. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n125-NAT-may-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 6 prints a reader’s challenge to Attorney General Cummings concerning federal jurisdiction over their Gallup kidnapping, beating and obstruction of the miners’ defense. The demand for prosecution is advocacy and does not establish that kidnappers were indicted or convicted. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n153-NAT-jun-27-DW-Q.pdf
Page 2 says he was retained July 29 to defend Edward Drolette and Arthur Blair after the Bremen demonstration and visited both in Bellevue Hospital prison ward. It recalls his own kidnapping with Robert Minor by a hooded Gallup mob. That recollection is the established Gallup episode; the New York hospital visit is defense work and not another personal arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n181-NAT-jul-30-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Crossen’s civil-liberties review recalls his Gallup defense-work abduction and beating and says release followed the governor sending state police to search. This is an additional retrospective account of the existing May 1935 abduction, not a new kidnapping or a verified precise end of restraint. New Masses, August 11, 1936, original PDF page 21. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1936/v20n07-aug-11-1936-NM.pdf#page=21
The Wilkes-Barre June 9 conference report describes Levinson addressing both the immigrant-defense conference and an evening Workers Center meeting. He recounted going to Gallup with Robert Minor to defend the workers and being attacked, beaten unconscious, carried into the countryside and left for dead. This is an attributed retrospective account of the existing Gallup abduction, not another confinement or an exact custody endpoint. After speaking he left for a Plymouth miners’ meeting. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1935/1935-06-14-LAISVE.pdf#page=7
Page 7's announcement says he and Robert Minor had been abducted and flogged by New Mexico vigilantes while defending the framed Gallup miners. This corroborates the existing defense-work attack and supplies no new exact custody endpoints or separate prosecution. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n306-NY-dec-20-DW-Q.pdf
Daily Worker, May 11, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 16, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 30, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 20, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
