Biography
Ellis O. Jones was a Los Angeles writer and co-leader, with Robert Noble, of the Friends of Progress. He testified before California’s Tenney Committee in 1941. His political speeches and organizational activities led to separate California and federal wartime prosecutions. He represented himself in the Washington sedition proceedings. He was named in the January 3, 1944 Washington indictment alleging conspiracy to undermine military loyalty under the Smith Act. The mass trial ended in a mistrial on December 7, 1944. The indictment was dismissed in December 1946; no conviction resulted in this case.
