Biography
Hugh Lester was an Evarts miner arrested on May 20, 1931 on a murder indictment arising from the Battle of Evarts. He and his brother John were also under indictment in an earlier murder case. The Lester brothers became prosecution witnesses in the coal-strike trials. After they testified for the Commonwealth, the murder indictments against them were dismissed, and they obtained employment with the Black Mountain Coal Corporation.
The May 21 Harlan dispatch names Bill Turpin, Charles Bradley, Hugh Lester, Andrew Hench and Henry Oliver among miners arrested the preceding night on murder indictments following defense against company gunmen. It says six were arrested but prints five names. Hench is retained as the same-case spelling variant of Hinch. May 20 is the reported arrest day; no verdict or physical release is supplied by this issue.
