Biography
Frank Conner was an oiler and Marine Firemen’s Union delegate aboard the steamship Point Lobos. Authorities arrested him in Seattle during the 1936 investigation into the killing of the ship’s chief engineer, George W. Alberts. Conner, Earl King and Ernest Ramsay were convicted of second-degree murder in a prosecution led by Alameda County District Attorney Earl Warren. Conner repudiated his confession and testified that it had been obtained through coercion. Maritime unions organized a defense campaign, arguing that the prosecution was intended to undermine union organizing. He was sentenced to five years to life, imprisoned at San Quentin and released on parole on November 28, 1941.
The Daily Worker of November12,1936,page3, reports that defense attorneys for King,Ramsay and Conner sought to disqualify Superior Judge Frank M.Ogden, a former member of the district attorney’s office. The defense accused that office of trying to stack the jury by postponing other Alameda County jury cases until the maritime defendants had been tried. The report states that the unionists’ trial could not begin until a jury was selected.
The Point Lobos defense account names this seaman in the Alameda murder prosecution and alleges isolation from chosen counsel during the investigation. It discusses chief engineer Alberts’s March 22, 1936 death and disputes the prosecution. These are attributed pretrial claims; later verdicts and prison-release dates remain unchanged. Labor Defender, December 1936, original PDF page 18. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn11-dec-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=18
Socialist Call, January 16, 1937, page 3: A Federated Press Oakland report names King, Ramsay and Conner as convicted of second-degree murder in the March 22, 1936 killing of Point Lobos chief engineer George W. Alberts. It reports a verdict after four hours of jury deliberation, alleges exclusion of union members from a conservative jury, and presents the prosecution as a frame-up timed to discredit the maritime strike. These characterizations remain attributed. The item describes possible imprisonment up to life without supplying an individualized final sentence or actual service total; it does not replace separately established verdict, sentence or release dates. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%202-96.pdf
Voice of the Federation, December 21, 1940, regular pages 8 and Christmas supplement pages 1, 3–4 (PDF pages 8–9, 11–12): The defense edition explicitly reports King, Ramsay and Conner still in San Quentin during their fourth prison Christmas. It says the California parole board fixed their terms at twenty years on March 26, 1940, after delay, and that Governor Culbert Olson had visited them several weeks before publication; the pardon request remained pending and a hearing was to precede action. The twenty years is the board-fixed term, not time actually served, and the reported four years is approximate elapsed confinement through this issue. It says Conner was taken from Seattle to an Oakland hotel, handcuffed to a chair and deprived of sleep for over sixty hours, then hospitalized with fever and tremor. It reports that he repudiated the confession immediately at the hospital and remained there a week recovering. These coercion and hospitalization claims are attributed, not a calculated aggregate prison-service total. The illustrated group on PDF page 9 is explicitly labeled left to right Ernest Ramsay, Frank Conner, Earl King. Existing identified portraits were preserved. Allegations about the prosecution, paid witnesses, jury selection and bribe attempts are attributed to this union defense publication. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19401221.pdf
National Guardian, October 19, 1953, national page 13: A critical retrospective on Earl Warren names King, Ramsay and Conner in the Point Lobos prosecution and reports parole after about five years. It alleges a paid witness, perjured testimony and suppressed evidence; those characterizations remain attributed to the paper. It also recalls King and Ramsay rejecting an immigration-service offer of freedom in exchange for affidavits against Harry Bridges. The article reports Conner then in a mental home and attributes his ill health to prison; it supplies no admission date or evidence of compulsory psychiatric confinement. No exact release date or new custody interval is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/national-guardian/1953-10-19-5-52-nat-guardian.pdf
Voice of the Federation, July 6, 1940, pages 3, 6–8, documents the King–Ramsay–Conner defense campaign during continuing San Quentin imprisonment. Page 6 prints Ramsay's signed June 26 letter from San Quentin, Box 59815, to Miriam Dinkin, protesting demoralizing communications about supposed lack of union support. The committee cites a coastwide one-hour stoppage, petitions and contributions and says Governor Olson's pardon decision remained forthcoming. Page 7 prints Seattle attorney Lady Willie Forbus's appeal and identifies the reported fixed twenty-year terms; this is imposed sentence, not service. She describes King's democratic union work and his Canadian family connections and attributes innocence arguments to her assessment. Page 8 reports the SS Red Jacket crew's pardon telegram from Callao and the President Cleveland crew's telegram receiving only an assurance of consideration from Lieutenant Governor Patterson. These are pending pardon demands, not completed pardons or release. Page 3 says the committee supplied each man's limited permitted monthly prison spending and discouraged unnecessary family-directed contributions; the collectively mentioned recent marriage is not assigned to a particular prisoner. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19400706.pdf
The October 1936 editorial places Conner in the King-Ramsey-Conner United Defense Committee campaign, backed by California unions and the Seattle Central Labor Council. Its allegations of manufactured informant evidence and interference with contract negotiations are attributed to the defense editorial, not adopted as judicial findings or a new custody episode. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn10-oct-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=4
A signed prison letter in the April 1937 Labor Defender identifies Frank Conner at SanQuentin, California with prisoner number49814. He describes adapting to prison life and requests a Boston daily newspaper. This directly supplies the missing prison number; publication is not an admission/release date.
Labor Defender, April 1937, original PDF page 24 (printed19).
The Seattle report describes ten-cent Christmas cards distributed with Adrian Coogan’s King–Ramsay–Conner Defense Committee to fund the release campaign. Vic Johnson’s holiday column on PDF page 5 places the three in San Quentin, and page 8 discusses a Honolulu defense-fund controversy. These are contemporaneous continued-custody and defense reports, without a new sentence or physical release date.
Miriam Allen deFord’s September 16 Oakland report describes the pending Alberts murder prosecution and a joint defense committee formed by fifteen San Francisco unions. It quotes the maritime federation and Harry Bridges alleging a frame-up, and defense lawyer George R. Andersen alleging coerced confessions and political ambition by District Attorney Earl Warren. These are attributed defense allegations, not adjudicated findings. The Labor Council demanded an impartial trial and the federation sought a congressional investigation; no new arrest, conviction or release is reported.
Socialist Call, January 16, 1937; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Voice of the Federation, July 6, 1940; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page2’s prisoner address list places this person at San Quentin, prisoner number 59814. This is contemporary location and correspondence evidence, not a new sentence or exact transfer date.
The imprisoned writer Donald N. Brown refers to a reported or scheduled September 7, 1938 oral argument in King, Ramsay and Conner’s appeal and hopes the appeal will be granted. His letter shifts from future to past tense about the argument and does not independently verify that the hearing occurred or establish its outcome. The page 3 letter concerning defense finances likewise describes the men’s ongoing case. These are contemporary defense and procedural reports, not a granted appeal, new conviction, pardon or physical release.
The union history describes the Point Lobos prosecution, naming Earl Warren as prosecutor and the three men in a courtroom photograph (PDF 37). It dates the second-degree-murder verdict January 5, 1937; any conflict with established court chronology is retained rather than silently overwriting dates. The account reports San Quentin confinement, alleges coerced confession and irregular evidence, and discusses later pardons. It does not supply a new exact physical release day. For Ramsay it distinguishes later deportation proceedings and a further Warren pardon; for Conner it describes psychiatric institutionalization after prison without usable dates.
