Biography
Elsie Monokian was a May’s department store striker in Brooklyn. The Daily Worker of January 31, 1936 reports that a messenger delivered a package said to contain information about union spies. Detectives stopped her, took her to a police station and found material for making stink bombs in the package. Monokian was arrested and released on high bail. The messenger’s account supported the defense claim that she had been framed; prosecutors acknowledged the suspicious circumstances. Her exact arrest and release dates and final disposition are unresolved.
Daily Worker, May 12, 1936, page 4: The May’s strike report lists Michelson, Aarons, Monokian and Edison as arrested in November 1935, originally accused of conspiracy to interfere with business. It says the grand jury declined that accusation and a coercion prosecution followed. Trial was scheduled for May 12 in Special Sessions, Part 1, before Solomon, Rayfiel and Hoffman. Three years was possible exposure, not an imposed sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n114-NY-May-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The May’s strike report lists her among four defendants whose conspiracy accusation had failed and whose coercion trial was due June 15 at Brooklyn Special Sessions. The report names David Krasny as union treasurer. This is a further scheduled hearing in the existing case, not proof of a new arrest, verdict or physical release. Daily Worker, June 12, 1936, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n141-NY-jun-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
Monokian, a leader of the May’s department-store strike, refused to plead guilty to disorderly conduct before Magistrate William O’Dwyer in Bay Ridge Court. The article says she rejected an offer implying a suspended sentence and insisted none of the pickets committed a crime. Her cases were set for July 22 and August 1. These are prospective court dates, not convictions, new physical arrests or proof of uninterrupted custody.
Under the printed spelling Elsie Manokian, the May’s strike leader asked Local 1125 for union membership, strike relief and support for continuing the strike. At the July 9 meeting manager Nat Levine opposed the strikers and attacked their Communist affiliations. Her statement about nine months of suffering in jails, courts and on picket lines describes the campaign as a whole and does not establish nine continuous months of imprisonment.
