Biography
Gordon Hutchins was an unemployed-workers' organizer from Hillsboro, Illinois. Police arrested him in Nokomis on June 3, 1934, during raids against opponents of local restrictions on meetings, strikes and picketing. He was among fourteen defendants prosecuted under Illinois's sedition law. Supporters raised bail before trial. On January 7, 1935, the defendants stipulated to guilt on the reduced charge of conspiracy to commit an illegal act and received nine months' parole.
The December 1, 1934 Daily Worker, page 3 individually identifies this Hillsboro defendant in the caption accompanying the unemployed-worker prosecution report. The December 4 issue, page 1 reports all fifteen defendants pleaded not guilty on December 3 and trial was postponed to December 7 before Judge McWilliams. This is an interim procedural plea, not a replacement for any later settlement or plea. Sources: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n287-Nat-dec-01-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3 ; https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n289-Nat-dec-04-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The June 4 dispatch names him among ten Montgomery County leaders said to have been arrested the previous day after protests against local restrictions on speech, assembly and picketing. It prints Wittenberg, Pancsik and Prisckett for the corresponding established defendants. The June 3 group chronology differs from the existing May chronology for some defendants; it is preserved as a contemporary discrepancy rather than creating a second Hillsboro arrest or replacing an established date. Daily Worker, June 5, 1934, page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n134-jun-05-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The Journal-News retrospective of July 1, 2019, printed page 7A, names this person among fourteen arrested Hillsboro defendants and describes the January 7, 1935 negotiated disposition: all fourteen stipulated to guilt on the lesser charge of conspiracy to do an illegal act and were placed on nine months of parole. The original Illinois 1919 syndicalism indictment alleged advocacy of violence by speech and writing, without charging specific violent acts. George Hall prosecuted; Judge Paul McWilliams heard the December 1934 proceedings after transfer from T. M. Jett. Pretrial bail must be distinguished from the January parole disposition, which does not itself prove uninterrupted jail custody through January 7. The retrospective summarizes the arrests as June 1934; existing individual May/August chronologies are not overwritten. Source: https://cdn1.creativecirclemedia.com/journalnews/files/20190630-202614-HJN%207-1-19.pdf#page=7
PercyShostac’s Hillsboro report prints GordonHuchins among eleven council leaders arrested June3,1934, held without indictment on bail first8000dollars then5000cash each. A six-day hunger strike won better food, visitors and censored mail after incommunicado detention. The body describes the local Communist organizer as IrishAmerican, redhaired and freckled, a Party member for a little more than a year. Its forecast of detention to the November grandjury is not a known release date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1934/v12n03-jul-17-1934-NM.pdf#page=29
The June 25, 1934 Daily Worker individually names Gordon Hutchins, John Holland and Robin Staples among the Hillsboro prisoners on hunger strike. It reports that doctors warned them on June 21 that they could not withstand more than two additional days of starvation, and says nine prisoners were still refusing food on Saturday. The two days is a prospective medical warning, not a measured hunger-strike period, custody duration or report that anyone died. The article gives no exact individual admission or release day, and its Sunday strike-start reference is not used to construct a date or counter.
Daily Worker, June 25, 1934, original PDF pages 1–2 and page 6 editorial.
