Biography
Fred W. Thompson was an IWW member arrested in Marysville, California, in April 1923. Fred W. Thompson received a four-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quentin from November 7, 1923, to March 7, 1927. In a 1981 letter to the author, Thompson described the experience of the California IWW criminal syndicalism inmates: In San Quentin we wobs went on strike several times (not asking non-wobs to join us) in protest against what we considered unjust discipline to some of our members. Punishment was solitary confinement, not actually solitary—sometimes in the "hole, " underground completely dark but because of our number, putting us two to a cell. Sure that situation was uncomfortable—we had nothing to sit on but the floor, for they took our blanket away at daybreak, and the diet [of] bread and water, and we combatted the sense of isolation—imperfect there because of our numbers—by singing or inventing games. (I recall our efforts for example to list the rivers of North America, starting with the McKenzie and going clockwise, or seeing how far we could go in the dark with the series, 2X3 is 6, 4X6 is 24, 5X24 is 120, 6 times 120 is 720, etc.) Sometimes we were confined on bread and water in a row in the new prison, with daylight, but nothing to read for a month. We had some forbidden pencils and tried making crossword puzzles for each other, sneaking them down the line. Most of us had got in because we stuck our heads out in life outside, and we were an innovative lot of people, better able than most to cope with daily problems. We got along well with the prisoners in on ordinary offenses. I judge that prison conditions have much deteriorated since my days in San Quentin. The food I hear is not as terrible as it was then—weevils in the oatmeal, beans almost every meal, often half cooked—but crowding is worse; radios have worsened life instead of improving it, for one can't get quiet; I heard of no homosexual rape when I was in San Quentin, and I don't believe the prisoners would have permitted it. In general prisoners of all sorts acted with consideration for each other. Thompson remained active in the IWW for his entire adult life and, in 1955, published The I.W.W., Its First Fifty Years.
The International Labor Defense holiday roster in the December 29, 1925 Daily Worker lists this prisoner, printed as F. W. Thompson, at San Quentin California. Its printed identifier is 38579; this is a prison number or mailing designation, not a year or a custody date. This documents confinement at the roster’s reporting time, without establishing an admission, transfer, release, new conviction or complete duration. Existing independently sourced custody chronology remains separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n297-NYE-dec-29-1925-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
Printed page 14 reports IWW defense secretary Herbert Mahler was arrested upon arrival in Cleveland and held incommunicado for fifty-six hours while visiting striking charwomen at Terminal Tower. It also names Peter Suto of Detroit, held eighty-four hours, and Chicago organizer Fred W. Thompson as arrested on the same suspicious-person accusation. The General Defense Committee called for protests. These April 1935 strike-related arrests are separate from their earlier federal or California imprisonments. No sentence or exact custody endpoints are supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/v1n06-apr-27-1935.pdf
1920s custody review: In Fellow Worker: The Life of Fred Thompson, edited by David Roediger, Thompson states on printed page 56 that he was arrested in Marysville in April 1923, remained in the local jail through a hung jury and retrial, entered San Quentin on November 7, 1923, and was released March 7, 1927. His December 1940 pardon was a later event, not his release. Printed page 52 identifies his San Quentin number as 38579. The arrest day remains unknown; April 1 is only a month-precision storage placeholder. The existing admission and release dates are independently corroborated, not newly added. The prison interval does not include his earlier local-jail detention.
Source: Fellow Worker: The Life of Fred Thompson, pages 52-56. Original pages visually inspected.
Archie Sinclair’s "Hypocritical California," Industrial Pioneer, December 1923, printed pages 7–8 (PDF pages 9–10), identifies Fred W. Thompson and Ed Dawe as agricultural workers convicted in Marysville under California’s criminal-syndicalism law, with Judge McDaniels presiding. It distinguishes their guilty verdicts from sailor Malcolm Fullerton’s acquittal. Sinclair reports that McDaniels criticized the law and the prosecution witnesses while nevertheless imposing imprisonment; those comments are the contemporary author’s account, not an appellate ruling. No sentencing day, individual term, admission day, release day, or actual custody total is derived from this article.
Industrial Pioneer, December 1923, printed pages 7–8 (PDF pages 9–10).
The Daily Worker political-prisoner Christmas roster of December 17, 1924, lists F. W. Thompson at San Quentin State Prison with historical prisoner number 38579. This establishes a contemporary custody observation, not an admission or release date and not a total duration.
The author biography describes Thompson joining the One Big Union in Canada in 1920, moving to the United States in 1922, working in a Hoquiam sawmill, and joining the IWW in San Francisco in September 1922. After his California imprisonment he held union administrative and editorial roles, including the Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union 440 secretaryship in Cleveland from 1943 to 1946. The biography’s death year conflicts with the existing separately sourced date and is not adopted; the existing precise San Quentin admission and discharge remain unchanged.
Fred W. Thompson and Jon Bekken, The IWW: Its First 100 Years, physical PDF pages 10. Source179 SHA256 aa128f62023cae68c84b07606880c2cb665c80266f78854951758922bab40afa.
Thompson’s first-person account distinguishes his April 1923 Marysville arrest and local-jail detention through a hung jury and retrial from actual San Quentin receipt on November 7, 1923. He individually dates his release March 7, 1927 and later pardon December 1940. The four-year nominal sentence and good-time losses are not a new four-year actual-service total; the existing prison interval excludes earlier local detention. He recalls prison strikes, organizing and education, and personally names Mooney, McNamara, Baldy Stewart, Herb Edwards and Ray House as fellow inmates. His 1932 Flint arrest for handing a policeman a leaflet led to immigration detention without a filed criminal charge. The residence chronology places this toward the end of August 1932, followed by work in Detroit, but gives no actual discharge day. A separate 1935 Cleveland police-station protest also led to immigration investigation. The much later naturalization proceedings and 1940 pardon are not additional custody admissions. His individually captioned portraits at PDF pages 2 and 25 are retained as source evidence; the existing identified profile portrait is preserved.
Fellow Worker: The Life of Fred Thompson, compiled by Dave Roediger, 1993, PDF page 58.
