Biography
Hy Gordon was an unemployed-workers' organizer arrested in Tampa, Florida, with Fred Crawford on September 12, 1932, while attending a relief-organizing meeting. The two were held incommunicado while the International Labor Defense sought access to them through habeas corpus proceedings. On September 15 they were taken from jail and seized by a gang while still in federal custody. Their attackers flogged, tarred and feathered them; Crawford was also forced to drink castor oil. Both were hospitalized after the attack.
The December 16, 1932 account recalls police arresting Gordon and Crawford and handing them to attackers who beat, tarred and feathered them and administered castor oil. It separately says Crawford was the only defendant acquitted at the January Tampa trial. That acquittal is distinguished from the later police-and-mob attack; this retrospective account does not replace the independently recorded September dates or add a guessed custody interval. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n300-NY-dec-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Freeman’s Tampa account recalls Gordon’s face and arm being smashed in an attack after police release and says hospitalization lasted months. This is attributed retrospective detail of the already documented police-and-mob attack. Hospital recovery is not automatically counted as jail time. Daily Worker, May 11, 1934, page 5. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n113-may-11-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
The September16,1932 Daily Worker reports the pair taken from Tampa jail at approximately1a.m.September15 and kidnapped while still in federal custody, then flogged with broad tree branches. It describes the Monday relief-meeting arrests and failed state habeas efforts before seeking federal access. The printed p.m. alongside this morning is internally inconsistent; no precise hour is adopted. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n222-NY-sep-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The September16 hospital report published September17,1932 records Gordon and Fred Crawford describing police handing them to twelve men who took them outside Tampa and tortured them. It adds tarring and feathering, and reports Crawford forced to take a quart of castor oil. No attackers had been arrested. Hospitalization is recovery from the attack, not additional jail service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n223-NY-sep-17-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Page 8 reproduces an ILD telegram reporting Gordon and Crawford discharged by federal order, seized as they left jail around 1:20, taken fourteen miles in a police car, beaten and abandoned naked. Gordon's right arm was reportedly broken and both were in the municipal hospital in serious condition. The telegram is undated here and adds attributed attack details to the existing September 1932 episode, not another detention or hospital time counted as imprisonment. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/pamphlets/tampa-terror.pdf
