Biography
J. H. Beyer was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Chicago and served in Leavenworth Penitentiary. Beyer jumped bail pending the appeal of his conviction and became a fugitive from the law. He is said to have taken refuge in Soviet Russia.
Before the Chicago prosecution he was one of the 74 IWW members held in the Snohomish County jail and charged with murder after the Everett Massacre of November 5, 1916, when Sheriff Donald McRae and a posse of armed vigilantes opened fire on the steamer Verona at the Everett dock, killing at least five Wobblies. The charges against all 74 were dropped after Thomas H. Tracy’s acquittal on May 5, 1917. At the time of the massacre he was 56, a painter, born in Michigan.
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly prisoner roster, under the printed name BEYER, JOHN HENRY, reports: Federal . Indicted Chicago , Sept. 28 , 1917. Conspiracy to violate Sections 6 , 19 and 37 and Section 4 of Espionage Act. Convicted , 10 year sentence , bail $10,000 . Leavenworth Federal prison . Out on bond . pending appeal . This is the contemporary labor organization’s account. Indictment, bail and imposed sentence are distinguished from physical admission, actual release and complete time served; no missing custody endpoint is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=7
Printed J.H.Byer; Chicago ten-year term imposed August30,1918, released on bond and still out when reported. No new exact physical-release day is supplied. [PDF5]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 5.
