Biography
George Issoski was a worker associated with the struggle against Jones & Laughlin company repression in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. The Daily Worker, November 9, 1934, page 2, in Tom Keenan’s Pittsburgh November 8 report “Steel Workers Show Will To Fight For Conditions in Mills,” explicitly refers to his recent release from an insane asylum. It characterizes the case as a frame-up within the company’s anti-union terror and criticizes union officials for leaving action to Governor Pinchot. These are the newspaper’s political interpretation of his confinement, not a medical diagnosis independently adopted here. The report establishes confinement and actual release but does not name the asylum, supply exact dates or a duration, or specify the legal commitment process. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n268-NY-nov-09-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The October 25 Pittsburgh dispatch printed October 26, 1934, page 2, reports Issoski's release the previous day, October 24, by Governor Pinchot's order from the state hospital at Torrance. It dates his Aliquippa arrest September 11 and describes detention in Beaver County Jail followed by a sheriff-appointed lunacy commission and hospital commitment. The report says Dr. Bond of the University of Pennsylvania examined him at the state labor department's request and that the hospital agreed with his finding that commitment was unwarranted. Medical findings and the alleged anti-union frame-up remain attributed to the Federated Press/Harvey O'Connor account; no independent medical diagnosis is asserted. The transfer/admission day and any full continuous custody total are not established.
Tom Keenan’s page 7 interview specifies Issoski’s September 11, 1934 seizure after collecting fifty Amalgamated Association application cards. Justice C. R. Hayward imposed a $16 fine and costs for alleged drunkenness and disorder the next day. Unable to pay, Issoski went to Beaver County jail, then Torrance under a commitment that he said was made without a commission examination. He said Torrance doctors found him sane but held him until October 24, when Governor Pinchot demanded release. These are attributed interview claims; no psychiatric diagnosis is adopted and the exact institutional transfer day and complete actual duration remain unknown.
