Ernest Mullins

Ernest Mullins was a West Virginia miner imprisoned at Moundsville following the 1933 Coalburg strike. He was convicted of murder after a strikebreaker was killed during a picket-line confrontation and received a ninety-nine-year sentence. The International Labor Defense campaigned for his freedom. Mullins was also a musician and violin maker; fellow prisoner Michael Elli described prison officials forbidding him to play and punishing him with solitary confinement.

In a September 3, 1936 request for a gubernatorial investigation at Moundsville, Rose Baron of the International Labor Defense relayed former inmate Michael Elli’s allegations that Mullins repeatedly received cage confinement and was targeted for fabricated disciplinary pretexts because of his role in the Coalburg mine strike. The petition also alleged poor food, sanitation, restricted reading and inadequate medical care throughout the prison. These are attributed contemporary complaints, not independently verified medical or disciplinary findings, and do not establish a new sentence or exact solitary-confinement interval. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n213-NY-sep-04-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=6

Page 7 prints Louis Colman's interview with recently released fellow inmate Michael Elli, a glassworker who had served three years for burglary. Elli alleged that Warden C. F. McClintic targeted the two union miners at Moundsville. He described repeated three-day cage confinement, a five-by-five-foot room without blanket or furniture, bread and water, attempted planting of money as a disciplinary trap, denial of violin playing and selling, censored letters, bedbugs, poor food and restricted reading. These are attributed eyewitness allegations, not independently adjudicated findings. The ninety-nine-year imposed sentence and 1933 murder prosecution are not completed service. Illustrations are drawings, not identified prisoner photographs. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n211-NY-sep-02-1936-DW-Q.pdf

The family-relief account names his wife Edith and five children and reports almost four years in Moundsville under a ninety-nine-year sentence. It dates the originating strike to 1931, differing from the existing 1933 Coalburg account. Both the strike-year discrepancy and rounded intermediate duration are retained without silently changing the original case or assigning exact endpoints. Labor Defender, December 1935, original PDF page 16. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n12-dec-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=16

His wife Edith’s letter printed in the December 1933 Labor Defender says he was taken to Moundsville on April 20 of that year. She describes living about two miles up Dry Branch Hollow with five children, being unable to afford a prison visit and receiving $3 per week for food. The caption calls his sentence life, differing from other accounts’ ninety-nine years; both formulations are retained without converting either to actual duration. April 20 is the reported prison transfer, not automatically his initial arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n11-dec-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=23

His wife Edith’s October 1936 letter describes county relief of three dollars and fifty cents weekly, scarce clothing and occasional flour, beans, peas, milk, prunes and canned beef. The caption identifies her as mother of their five children and identifies Ern. Mullins as serving a ninety-nine-year sentence at Moundsville. The unique family, institution and sentence match the existing miner; ninety-nine years is imposed punishment, not service completed. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn10-oct-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=23