Biography
E. F. Burman was a Communist convicted under Michigan's criminal-syndicalism ("red flag") law and sentenced to 4 to 8 years at the state prison at Marquette, in a case arising in the Upper Peninsula around Eben Junction.
The Daily Worker of November 7, 1934 reports that the International Labor Defense had argued the criminal-syndicalism appeal before the Michigan Supreme Court; the case arose after Young Pioneers raised a red flag at a summer camp near Eben Junction.
The November 12, 1934 Daily Worker reports that Burman and Unto Immonen actually spent eleven months in jail before obtaining bail of five thousand dollars each in their red-flag prosecution. Eleven months is reported service, distinct from the imposed four-to-eight-year terms. A Wisconsin headline conflicts with Michigan officials and the Eben Junction address in the article; the independently established Michigan case is retained. No exact release day is derived from the elapsed months. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n270-NY-nov-12-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=8
A prison letter published in the January 1934 Labor Defender identifies Burman as 52, held at Marquette under Michigan’s red-flag law. The issue reports a $5,000 appeal bond granted and names defense attorneys Morris Sugar and Henry Paull. Release was still prospective in that account; the later report of eleven actual months in custody is retained separately. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n01-jan-1934-lab-def.pdf#page=3
Labor Defender, June 1934: Mary Burman’s signed letter identifies her husband as Fahle Burman, cooperative-store manager before arrest with Unto Immonen at Eben Junction. She describes living with their son above the cooperative store, county relief of about two dollars a week only after repeated demands and ILD financial aid. A Michigan Supreme Court hearing was expected in the June term; this was prospective and establishes no completed court result or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n06-jun-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=18
Printed Burman and then Berman, the Munising defendant is reported sentenced to four to eight years under Michigan’s red-flag law. This is an imposed term, not actual service.
Louis Colman reports Burman serving an imposed four-to-eight-year Michigan red-flag-law term. It corroborates existing confinement and does not establish completion of the maximum sentence or a new prison admission.
The official report identifies the co-defendant as Eric Fahle Burman, the manager of a cooperative store near the Eben Junction children’s camp. Both men were arrested on August 6, 1933, and placed in an officer’s automobile. On May 17, 1935, the Michigan Supreme Court vacated both convictions and granted a new trial because prejudicial testimony about Communism and anarchy, together with an erroneous jury charge, denied a fair trial. The court upheld the red-flag statute’s constitutionality; the reversal did not invalidate the statute. This opinion supplies no new date of physical release. Source: People v. Immonen, 271 Michigan Reports 384–403 (1935), especially pp.386–391 and400–403.
