Biography
J. E. McDonald was one of the Tampa Fourteen Tobacco Workers Industrial Union defendants. A May 24, 1933 dispatch reported that the Florida Supreme Court reversed the convictions, while McDonald, Bonilla, Morrero and Lopez remained imprisoned. The imposed term reported for J. E. McDonald was 10 years. The precise charge, individual custody endpoints and physical discharge are not established by this article. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n125-NY-may-25-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Luis Ortiz’s December 16, 1932 Tampa account gives a January 19 sentencing list and describes the tobacco-workers prosecution on assault-with-intent-to-murder, unlawful-assembly and rioting accusations. It prints Jim Nine, J. E. McDonald, E. Bonilla, F. Marrero, Carolina Vazques, Francis Romero, Mario Lopes, Ysmal Cruz and Jose Campos among fourteen printed names, while claiming fifteen sentenced. These are retained as source variants in the established cohort, without inventing the missing person. E. Bonilla’s initial versus Henry remains unresolved; Marrero’s ten-year figure differs from the later three-year Morrero report, and the magazine’s one-year Romero wording differs from the recorded year-and-day term. Neither conflicting nominal terms nor the article’s eight unnamed deportees are assigned as completed individual service or removal. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n300-NY-dec-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Page 4’s Tampa letter prints J. E. MacDonald and individually places him with Nilo Lima in Tampa county jail. This is an intermediate custody-location report in the existing tobacco-worker case; no new dated transfer, sentence or release is established. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n049-NY-feb-26-1933-DW-LOC.pdf
Labor Defender, August 1933, PDF page 22: The district-news report explicitly states that J. E. McDonald, Mario Lopez, Enrique Bonillia and Felix Morrerro were all physically free from jail. The established Tampa cohort supports these printed name variants. It says McDonald was held twenty-four hours longer than the others and received and protected by workers when he emerged; the report alleges jail officials had tried to arrange mob violence. This establishes accomplished release by this issue, unlike the earlier judicial reversal, but supplies no exact discharge day or complete duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n08-aug-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=22
Ades’s Tampa Fourteen prison-visit account calls McDonald a ten-year prisoner whose health had deteriorated until he was assigned to a semi-invalid steam-shovel squad. The distinctive Tampa prosecution and matching imposed term connect this account to J. E. McDonald, rather than the unrelated Nebraska farmer Harry McDonald. Ten years is the sentence, not actual completed service. Labor Defender, June 1932, original PDF page 15. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n06-jun-1932-LD.pdf#page=15
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed pages 147 and 158 (PDF pages 8 and 23): Hy Kravif's Our Prisoners Are Well Treated describes harsh conditions for the Tampa labor prisoners. The surname-only Tampa passage describes McDonald at Raiford, weight loss and fever, solitary confinement, labor behind a mule after appendicitis surgery, then semi-invalid and steam-shovel work. The existing Tampa cohort, rather than the unrelated conscientious objector James B. McDonald or Nebraska farmer Harry McDonald, supplies the match. These treatment allegations remain attributed to the defense magazine and are not measured complete imprisonment totals. The Arthur Maillefert sweatbox death is an example concerning another inmate, not this prisoner's death. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
Printed page 166 (PDF 7) captions an individual photograph MacDonald, after ten months in Tampa jail. The Tampa context identifies the existing tobacco-union defendant, separate from Harry McDonald in Nebraska. The ten months is a contemporary duration-so-far description, not his ultimate completed total or a newly established release. The source supplies a missing identified portrait; neither the adjacent European Scottsboro tour nor the Florida prison-camp picture on the following page depicts his individual transfer. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
Hy Kravif's page 6 article describes ten-year Tampa prisoner J. E. McDonald as a former train dispatcher with twenty years' railway experience and a Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen member who helped tobacco workers organize. It reports solitary confinement after an appendicitis operation, forced mule work for eight miles daily, reported twenty-pound weight loss, subsequent assignment among semi-invalids to steam-shovel work, and a police witness's admission that he was absent from the November 7 meeting. It says the permit committee was refused because the proposed march would pass through a Black neighborhood. These attributed allegations describe treatment in the existing Raiford case; no exact admission or release day is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n169-NY-jul-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf
The pamphlet's pages 4-7 describe the November 7, 1931 Labor Temple arrests and January prosecution on assault-with-intent-to-murder Officer Byrd and simple assault on Officer Wilson. It alleges guilt was presumed from presence and anti-Communist and anti-integration questioning replaced individual proof. The page 7 sentence groups are ten years for Jim Nine, Lezama, Bonilla and McDonald, three for Alvarez and Marrero, and one for the other defendants. These are imposed-term assertions; the fifteen-person/fifty-three-year account and prior fourteen-person/fifty-seven-year reports remain source discrepancies. Pages 4-5 report he headed the permit committee and was picked up at home after the raid. Pages 9-10 quote his Tampa County Jail letter about a mandamus requiring Judge Petteway to explain his refusal to sign the bill of exceptions. The authors' warnings of possible death are predictions, not an accomplished killing. Later release evidence remains intact. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/pamphlets/tampa-terror.pdf
Page 7's Tampa narrative refers to McDonald among defendants receiving longer terms than the two-year terms it gives Marera and Alvaro. The established cohort identifies this with J. E. McDonald; the vague comparison supplies no new numeric term or discharge endpoint and does not override later release evidence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n114-may-12-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The January 16, 1932 report individually names the sixteen workers actually arrested November 7, 1931 at the Tampa anniversary meeting after a police and American Legion attack. It reports criminal-syndicalism, inciting-to-riot and unlawful-assembly proceedings and a federal injunction. The January trial was ongoing; no exact physical discharge, individual final sentence or completed duration is established. Daily Worker, January 16, 1932, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n014-NY-jan-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Sources
Daily Worker, February 27, 1933; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 16, 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The visitor’s Tampa roster puts Macdonald and Bonilla in the county jail while other tobacco-worker defendants were at Raiford. This is historical location evidence without an exact transfer or discharge day; the spelling Macdonald is retained in the established Tampa cohort.
Daily Worker, May 12, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
