Biography
Robert J. Fitzgerald was a Marine Firemen union member and one of the maritime workers prosecuted in the Modesto dynamite case during the 1935 tanker strike. He was arrested near Patterson on April 20, 1935, and taken to the Modesto county jail. On August 6, a jury convicted him of reckless possession of dynamite while acquitting the defendants of the conspiracy and blackjack charges. He received a term of six months to five years and was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison. The maritime unions challenged the prosecution, alleging that Standard Oil agents had framed the men. He and Henry Silva were released on parole on March 8, 1937.
The October 31, 1935 Voice of the Federation individually gives Robert J. Fitzgerald’s mailing address as San Quentin, prisoner 58031. Its accompanying instructions explicitly place seven Modesto defendants at San Quentin and Patsy Ciambrelli at Represa. This establishes individual prison allocation rather than assigning a prison from a group reference; no new release or exact transfer day is supplied. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19351031.pdf#page=3
The August 23, 1935 Voice of the Federation reports Judge Roy B. Maxey’s August 19 denial of the Modesto defendants’ new-trial motion and motion in arrest of judgment. Their request for a probation inquiry was withdrawn; probation was not granted. Sentencing announced for September 3 was still prospective in that issue, and is not used as an exact sentence or admission day. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19350823.pdf#page=1
Pages 1 and 6 identify the eight Modesto defendants in the sheriff-office trial photograph and describe denial of retrial and appeal bail, continued state imprisonment, repeated cell searches and twenty-minute visits compared with an hour for other prisoners. The Joint Marine Defense Committee alleges that Standard Oil agents Hal Marchant and Scrudder engineered the dynamite prosecution. The report dates the expedition April 21, conflicting with the individually documented April 20 arrest accounts; the existing date is retained. The five-year maximum and collective forty-year rhetoric are imposed punishment, not actual individual service. His signed December 10 letter to Brother King gives San Quentin 58031 and thanks union members for assistance to his children. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19351219.pdf
Contemporary source and chronology limits
The June 14, 1935 Voice of the Federation, pages 1 and 3, names the nine Modesto defendants and records a chronology discrepancy: defense counsel Harold C. Faulkner’s June 12 statement dates the original arrest to April 20, while another article on the same front page says April 21. The existing April 20 case date is not overwritten on the strength of that conflicting report. The issue describes May 11 indictment, June 5 reindictment and a June 13 pending challenge, and a trial scheduled for July 3—not a trial proved to have occurred that day. Hal Marchant and James Scrudder’s near-immediate releases are not assigned to the nine jailed defendants. Later individually supported convictions, parole dates and custody fields remain unchanged.
A Sacramento dispatch dated June 2 reports that the Modesto Boys Defense Committee filed an appellate-rehearing petition the previous day, June 1, on behalf of eight individually named defendants following affirmance of their convictions. The roster prints Ruel Stanfield and John Sousa for the corresponding existing Reuel Stanfield and John Souza records. This is a documented petition, not proof that rehearing was granted, a new prosecution, or a release.
Voice of the Federation, December 19, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Joseph Vernick’s letter endorses Brother Fitzgerald, who had served time for the union, and the election table identifies the secretary candidate as R. J. Fitzgerald. This is post-release union activity, not evidence of renewed custody.
The February2 Sacramento report says the advisory pardon board recommended against pardons for all seven Modesto dynamite defendants. This person is individually named among the four already paroled, distinct from Johnson,Stanfield and Ciambrelli still confined. Adverse pardon advice is not a parole revocation or a new prison term.
Page4’s Stanfield welcome lists this Modesto-associated defendant among men already released. It calls the total five but lists six names and omits Silva, whose earlier parole is independently established. The inconsistent count is retained; this provides release-status corroboration, not a new exact physical discharge date.
The March 11, 1937 Voice of the Federation reproduces a San Francisco Labor Council resolution stating that a California Assembly committee completed its Modesto investigation hearing on February 27. The resolution attributes the convictions to perjured testimony from James Scrudder, a Standard Oil agent, and asks Governor Frank F. Merriam to pardon Robert J. Fitzgerald, Reuel Stanfield, Victor Johnson, John Souza, Patsy Ciambrelli, Henry Silva and John Burrows. It separately seeks leniency for John Rodger and Alphonse Buyle, alleging entrapment. These are the union resolution’s findings and demands following a legislative investigation, not a judicial reversal, granted pardon or new physical discharge. The newspaper’s description of seven men as cleared does not establish that their convictions were vacated.
The front-page report and photograph caption corroborate his actual parole release with the other named man on Monday, March 8, already recorded in the existing case. Maritime unionists welcomed them at the San Quentin gates. The article recalls their arrival at San Quentin in August 1935 but gives no exact transfer day; that retrospective month is not installed as a new physical admission date or substituted for the separately documented initial jail custody.
Z. R. Brown reports that Fitzgerald had to obtain an injunction against the parole board to serve as secretary of his union after members elected him to that office. This is post-release restriction and union activity, not another imprisonment or a newly dated release. The columnist’s allegations about Standard Oil, police and coerced or perjured evidence remain attributed labor-defense claims.
The centennial history’s named photograph identifies him among the eight Modesto defendants. Its April 20, 1935 arrest account describes private guards handing the men to the sheriff and county-jail detention, followed by acquittal on conspiracy and blackjack counts and conviction on dynamite possession. It gives the group’s imposed terms as six months to five years and discusses an appeal challenging a repealed statute. The named identification supports membership in the case, but supplies no new individual release or exact service total. Planted-evidence claims remain attributed to defendants and the union.
