Biography
Harold Hendricks was one of the Los Angeles unemployed workers imprisoned after the June 1934 campaign for better relief food. Sentenced to two years, he was confined at Lincoln Heights Jail with Earle T. Tennery, Joseph Toth, James G. McShann and John Sanders. In July 1935 an International Labor Defense delegation found the men in dark isolation cells. Jail authorities refused relief checks, packages and letters sent through the organization.
Agnes Hendricks' letter in the January 1936 Labor Defender, page 19 (PDF page 20), names Harold Hendricks with John Sanders and James McShann at Lincoln Heights Jail. It reports destruction of a letter to the defense organization, threatened solitary confinement, one family letter per week mailed only on Monday, and threats to transfer and separate the prisoners if protests continued. No actual new transfer or release date is established.
The Daily Worker of November 27, 1935, page 4, names Harold Hendricks among three political prisoners then serving sentences at Lincoln Heights Jail and describes repeated International Labor Defense delegations to the Los Angeles City Council protesting their treatment. The article reports eight other prisoners' deaths following beatings since July 1 and demands the removal of Captain Shand and Police Chief James E. Davis. The collective fatalities are context for the conditions campaign; they are not attributed as injuries or deaths of the three named living prisoners, and no exact custody endpoints are supplied.
Page 2’s August 12 Los Angeles report connects the June 1 unemployed demonstration prosecution to Judge Arthur Crum and reports two years. McShann’s counts included inciting to riot, meeting without permit and battery; Hendricks was reported ill with tuberculosis. Gallagher and Grover Johnson filed notice of appeal. These are imposed or prospective sentences, not completed time served, and do not erase the separately documented bail interruption. The article gives no exact physical release or final total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n193-sect-one-aug-13-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 3’s September 27 report on the June 1 Los Angeles relief demonstration identifies this defendant as actually out on $5,000 bail. All five convictions were under ILD appeal. Bail set is distinguished from bail actually posted; the report gives no exact physical release date or completed total. Tinnery is retained as a printed variant of the existing Tennry record through the identical incident, judge and co-defendants. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n233-sep-28-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 6's ILD family-relief appeal describes him at Lincoln Heights prison following an unemployed demonstration, with four assault-and-battery counts. It reports declining health, inadequate food and medical attention, and mental mistreatment, and names his wife Jean and young son Lynn. The article says Jean was arrested while resisting eviction and was subsequently freed through neighbors' protests. Its relative 'last June' phrasing is not substituted for the June 1934 incident identified by other contemporary sources. No exact custody duration is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n306-NY-dec-20-DW-Q.pdf
Contemporary November 1935 custody report
A Los Angeles report datelined November 26 in the November 27, 1935 Daily Worker (p. 4) explicitly lists Harold Hendricks, James McShann and John Sanders as political prisoners then serving sentences at Lincoln Heights Jail, and describes defense protests over their treatment. This corroborates confinement by late November 1935 but supplies neither an exact admission day nor release day. It does not prove that earlier separate arrests or periods on bail formed one continuous imprisonment.
Source: Daily Worker, national edition, volume 12 number 286, November 27, 1935. Political allegations and commentary are attributed to the paper.
Contemporary August 1935 prison letter
The August 23, 1935 Daily Worker, page 2, reports that Harold Hendricks, James McShann, Joseph Toth and John Sanders signed a letter to the International Labor Defense smuggled from Lincoln Heights Jail that week. It says they remained deprived of mail while serving sentences for organizing unemployed workers in Los Angeles. The article specifically describes Captain John L. Shand refusing Hendricks’s letter to his wife and returning defense literature and newsletters.
The four are described collectively as serving eighteen to twenty-four months; this source does not allocate an individual term. It corroborates actual confinement during August 1935, not a new admission day, uninterrupted custody since any earlier arrest, or a release date. Its political characterizations and treatment allegations are attributed to the paper and prisoners.
Daily Worker, August 23, 1935, page 2, Los Angeles Political Prisoner Denied Right to Mail Letters.
Labor Defender, January 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, November 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, August 13, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, September 28, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 20, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
