Biography
Elsie Monakian was dragged from her bed and jailed at 1 a.m. by police, and was a striker with Local 1250 of the Department Store Employees Union in the December 1935 strike against May's Department Store in Brooklyn. Amid roughly 102 picket-line arrests, District Attorney William Geoghan revived New York's 1836 anti-conspiracy statute and indicted five strike leaders for criminal conspiracy, each held on $1,000 bail and facing up to three years' imprisonment. On January 28, 1936, Monakian was arrested again after receiving a package from a man claiming to have evidence of an employer plot. Police took her to the 64th Precinct station, and she was charged with carrying stench bombs. Magistrate Sylvester Sabbatino held her for trial on $200 bail. She was also arrested on the picket line on February 22 and released on $5 bail on a disorderly-conduct charge.
The January 29, 1936 Daily Worker says Monakian, Jack Small and Jack Winkler were arrested after a January 28 package pickup at the Long Island Railroad depot. It describes a forged letter and a claim that the parcel contained a valerian stench bomb. They were taken to the 64th Precinct. These are contemporary allegations and defense claims, not established guilt or a new event beyond the January 28 case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n025-NY-jan-29-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=4
The July 7, 1936 Daily Worker, spelling her name Manokian, announces a Special Sessions appearance on a coercion charge connected with the May’s strike. A possible three-year punishment is legal exposure, not a sentence actually imposed or served. This continuation supplies no new physical admission or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n162-NY-jul-07-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
Page 4 names Clarina Michaelson, Irving Aarons, Elsie Monokian and Pearl Edelson as the May’s strike coercion defendants scheduled for May 12. These spelling variants are retained in source context and matched to the existing strike cohort. The ILD says the grand jury rejected Geoghan’s conspiracy approach and he then pursued other counts. This is a pretrial defense report, not an imposed term or proof of physical discharge. A pre-existing separate Elsie Monokian record is flagged in the audit; this publication uses the older, fuller Elsie Monakian identity and performs no consolidation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n111-NY-May-08-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The February 24, 1936 Daily Worker reports that Magistrate Mark Rudich arraigned the February 22 May's strike pickets on February 23 and released the disorderly-conduct defendants, including Monakian, on $5 bail. Trial was scheduled for March 2; this is not a reported verdict. The February 5 issue confirms the separate January 28 package charge and $200 bail. It inconsistently names Bernard Entin rather than the January 29 report's Jack Winkler as the third arrested person; no alias or additional arrest is inferred from the discrepancy. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n047-NY-feb-24-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=4 Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n031-NY-feb-05-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=4
The Catholic Worker’s February 1936 independent Big Sisters investigation identifies Pearl Edison and Elsie Minokin (the source spelling) as the two employees who began union organization at May’s Brooklyn store, each with two years of employment before the October 17 walkout. It records employees’ claims of uncompensated stock-taking and holiday work, reduced weeks and enforced unpaid vacations. The continuation reports over one hundred picket arrests, police violence and Helen McCormick’s offer of free legal help. Its separate tear-gas-envelope arrest describes an unnamed girl; this source alone cannot assign that arrest to Edison or Monakian, nor does it resolve the duplicated Monakian/Monokian database records. Source: https://merton.bellarmine.edu/files/original/749dc3d3c63b1289a49c6829487d3f36c95e77e8.pdf#page=3; https://merton.bellarmine.edu/files/original/749dc3d3c63b1289a49c6829487d3f36c95e77e8.pdf#page=8
Daily Worker, May 8, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 5 reproduces Israel Amter’s submission to Governor Lehman during the Geoghan ouster hearing, naming Pearl Edison, Marcia Silver and Monaklait (as printed) as May’s department-store strikers prosecuted under an old conspiracy statute. It alleges anti-union hostility and points to shared offices of store attorney Abraham Kartzman and slot-machine operator Leo P. Byk. These are attributed complaints in the ouster proceeding, not a new conviction, arrest or proven bribery finding; Monaklait is preserved as a contextual variant of Monakian.
