Biography
George Ryan was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) imprisoned at San Quentin, California. He received a five-year sentence under California criminal-syndicalism law and was confined from November 1921 to January 1926. Contemporary labor newspapers identify him as San Quentin prisoner 35567. A June 1925 political-prisoner birthday notice gives June 25 as his birthday but does not establish a birth year.
Previous biography (this earlier version combined different people):
George Ryan was an IWW member. George Ryan received a five-year prison sentence, which he served in San Quentin from November 1921 to January 1926. 107 R. J. Sanchez served a prison sentence in San Quentin, where he contracted tuberculosis. He was released in June 1924 on the condition that he would be deported.
George W. Ryan, of Leesburg, Virginia, was a Leesburg citizen held as a hostage for civilians captured by Mosby. He was held as a civilian political prisoner at Fort Delaware during the U.S. Civil War, detained without trial under the wartime suspension of habeas corpus, and is named among the fellow prisoners in the Rev. Isaac W. K. Handy's 1863–1864 prison diary, 'United States Bonds; or, Duress by Federal Authority.'
The June 1925 labor-press political-prisoner birthday notice lists him at San Quentin under prisoner number 35567, with a June 25 birthday (no birth year is given).
The International Labor Defense holiday roster in the December 29, 1925 Daily Worker lists this prisoner, printed as George Ryan, at San Quentin California. Its printed identifier is 35567; 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
Sources: Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners (1994), p. 166; The New Leader, July 18, 1925; and contemporary San Quentin prisoner rosters. The former Civil War material concerns a different person, George W. Ryan of Leesburg, Virginia.
The January 28, 1924 issue of The Daily Worker individually listed George Ryan among the political and class-war prisoners at San Quentin State Prison in California, in an appeal to fund newspaper subscriptions for imprisoned people. This is a contemporary custody observation; the publication date does not establish admission, release, or a total period served.
