Biography
James B. McNamara was an Iron Workers' union militant and the brother of John J. McNamara. He placed the dynamite that destroyed the Los Angeles Times building on October 1, 1910, an explosion that killed some twenty workers in the bitter open-shop war against organized labor. Defended by Clarence Darrow, the brothers pleaded guilty in 1911; James was sentenced to life imprisonment and died at San Quentin in 1941, having become a symbol of the era's class-war labor conflict.
Sasha Small's article in the January 1936 Labor Defender, printed page 18 (PDF page 19), states that J. B. McNamara had been transferred and was then in Folsom, which it describes as California's disciplinary prison. This establishes a documented Folsom placement during the existing life sentence. It supplies neither an exact transfer date nor a release from the sentence, and does not contradict his later death at San Quentin.
The July 20, 1934 Daily Worker prints Warden James B. Holohan’s refusal to deliver the newspaper’s telegrams to Mooney and McNamara seeking their reaction to the general strike. The warden characterized the communications as revolutionary and seditious. The page-six continuation documents censorship during existing imprisonment, not another arrest, transfer or custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n173-jul-20-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Daily Worker, December 24, 1935: William Z. Foster’s page 1 Christmas prisoner-relief appeal individually names him among the labor prisoners then confined and urges aid for prisoners and their dependent families through the ILD Prisoners’ Relief Department. This is contemporaneous continuing-custody and defense-campaign evidence; collective sentence ranges are not applied as a new individual term or measured service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n309-NY-dec-24-DW-Q.pdf
The September 9, 1936 Daily Worker reports a pardon petition supported by forty-eight people for McNamara and Schmidt. Its twenty-five-year reference concerns McNamara and does not establish the same service for Schmidt. A pardon petition is not a pardon or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n217-NY-sep-09-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=8
The June 3, 1936 Daily Worker describes a birthday telegram addressed to McNamara at Folsom’s Repress address from William Z. Foster, Earl Browder and Clarence Hathaway. Its reference to a twenty-sixth prison birthday is contemporary campaign wording and supplies no new exact intake date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n133-NY-jun-03-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=1
Pages 1–2’s ILD statement individually includes him among San Quentin prisoners denied the organization’s weekly news letters, working-class literature and much personal mail. It appeals for protests against prison censorship. This supplies conditions and defense context, not another personal arrest, measured term or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n125-NAT-may-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 5’s Alfred H. Hirsch article on the ILD anniversary cites Grace Lumpkin’s account of officials taking his library and treasured clippings. It reports his request that monthly prisoner-relief money for him instead go to the Scottsboro defense until that campaign ended. This supplies conditions and solidarity evidence, without a new arrest or inferred custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n153-NAT-jun-27-DW-Q.pdf
Rita Lefkowitz’s page 8 San Quentin letter names Jim McNamara with Tom Mooney and reports their faith in the working-class defense campaign. Her description of inadequate food and literature restrictions supplies contemporary prison-condition context. The San Quentin identification matches James B. McNamara, not his brother John; no additional incarceration or custody endpoint is invented. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n189-NAT-aug-08-1935-DW-Q.pdf
An August 27, 1935 letter from David Harrington to Warden Holohan, printed in the Voice of the Federation, asks why J. B. McNamara’s visitors were questioned and kept near a guard, and why his autobiographical manuscript had been confiscated. These contemporary complaints concern his existing San Quentin confinement and supply no separate prosecution or custody endpoint. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19350830.pdf#page=6
The December 31, 1932 Daily Worker book-committee and defense reporting supplies this contemporary context: The committee prints the life prisoner Jim McNamara’s letter. The life-sentence and institution context identify James B. McNamara, rather than his brother John J.; the letter is not another prosecution. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n313-NY-dec-31-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The International Labor Defense holiday roster in the December 29, 1925 Daily Worker lists this prisoner, printed as J. B. McNamara, at San Quentin California. Its printed identifier is 30704; this is a prison number or mailing designation, not a year or a custody date. This documents confinement at the roster’s reporting time, without establishing an admission, transfer, release, new conviction or complete duration. Existing independently sourced custody chronology remains separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n297-NYE-dec-29-1925-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints J. B. McNamara, a term of life, the year 1911 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location San Quentin, California. This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
Labor Defender, February 1936, PDF page 26: An editorial note dates his transfer from San Quentin to Folsom to December 9, 1935, distinguishing the visit narrative written before the transfer. Lincoln Steffens on PDF 13 attributes the move to breaking close associations. His letters describe declining personal relief in favor of the Scottsboro defendants. No complete service duration is inferred from anniversary rhetoric. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn02-feb-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=26
Chester A. Arthur Jr.’s retrospective describes Lincoln Steffens mediating with Times owner Harrison Gray Otis over a guilty plea and a claimed promise of eventual parole. It says Asa Keyes removed twenty-one outstanding indictments after Steffens approached him in 1927. Ella Winter recalled Steffens introducing their son Pete to McNamara and Matthew Schmidt at San Quentin and urging continued work for their release. The article alleges prison authorities later restricted McNamara’s books and newspapers; these are attributed recollections. The September 4, 1936 pardon petition printed on PDF page 10 claimed an unfulfilled seven-year parole promise for J. B. and requested unconditional release. That petition is a request, not a granted pardon or completed sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn10-oct-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=8
Contemporary prison-condition report (December 9, 1935): The Waterfront Worker reported that J. B. McNamara had been beaten by San Quentin prison authorities and placed in the “hole,” according to reports brought to the International Labor Defense. It also reported that he had been denied visitors since the preceding April and that Warden Holohan accused him of agitation among prisoners. These are attributed contemporary allegations, not independently established findings. The article supplies no new admission or release date.
Source: The Waterfront Worker, December 9, 1935, page 7.
The December 19, 1935 Daily Worker reported McNamara’s transfer from San Quentin to Folsom on December 9. The International Labor Defense protested the transfer and alleged that he had been confined in a small cage and abused during his final two months at San Quentin. These allegations are attributed to the ILD; the transfer is not treated as a new custody endpoint.
The January 28, 1924 issue of The Daily Worker individually listed J. B. McNamara among the political and class-war prisoners at San Quentin State Prison in California, in an appeal to fund newspaper subscriptions for imprisoned people. This is a contemporary custody observation; the publication date does not establish admission, release, or a total period served.
The February 26, 1924 Daily Worker political-prisoner roster individually prints J. B. McNamara with historical prisoner number 25314. The entry appears under San Quentin State Prison, California. This is a contemporary institutional identifier, not a federal BOP register number. No admission or release date, individual sentence length, actual duration, organizational membership or present status is inferred.
Labor Defender, January 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 24, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The editor of Ernst Toller’s account says that during his western visit Toller spoke with McNamara and Schmidt, imprisoned at San Quentin. A fuller account is promised for February; that announcement is not an account of an additional event, release or transfer.
Daily Worker, May 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Lincoln Steffens memorial report reproduces a telegram signed J. B. McNamara from Folsom penitentiary expressing sympathy and mourning a champion of labor prisoners. It confirms correspondence from his existing imprisonment, without a new arrest or endpoint. The newspaper’s promotional description of him as the world’s oldest labor prisoner is not adopted as a demonstrated ranking.
Daily Worker, August 8, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The issue prints his May 2 letter as prisoner 25314 thanking supporters for one dollar and asking that future assistance go to the Scottsboro families. Page 18 also includes him with Matthew Schmidt in the defense resolution. Collective prison references are not used to overwrite his established Folsom institution.
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under San Quentin State Prison, California, with life, 1911. This is an attributed historical directory entry: the year and nominal term do not establish an intake day, uninterrupted imprisonment, completed service or physical release.
The ILD endorsed a petition from forty-eight labor leaders and liberals, submitted through Elinore M. Herrick to Governor Merriam, requesting a pardon. The article describes twenty-five years for McNamara and twenty-one for Schmidt as time imprisoned to that reporting point. These rounded campaign descriptions are not complete lifetime totals. A petition and calls for supporting resolutions are not pardons granted or actual releases.
Sasha Small’s article reports transfer from San Quentin to Folsom in the preceding December, describing loss of reading and visitation privileges and attributing the transfer to prison officials’ concern about his influence. Page 2’s anniversary notice inconsistently calls June 2 both entry into his twenty-sixth year and the twenty-fifth year of the life sentence. These are retrospective descriptions, not precise new admission days or a complete computed total. The existing portrait is retained.
Printed page 5’s Visiting (?) a Union Man in San Quentin item says a delegation was referred from the captain to the warden, labeled suspected radicals or criminal syndicalists, and told union printer J. B. McNamara was a troublemaker not allowed visitors. This is an attributed restriction on visits during existing imprisonment, not an additional prosecution or custody interval. Broader complaints about inmate accounts and commissary tax are not substituted for individual custody dates.
Page 4 calls McNamara’s confinement twenty-four years, while his San Quentin letter dated February 22, 1935 on page 7 says his twenty-third year. Both are approximate contemporary descriptions, not corrected exact day counts. The letter is signed prisoner No. 25314 and supports the March 17 Paris Commune commemoration.
Page2’s prisoner address list places this person at Folsom, prisoner number 20034. This is contemporary location and correspondence evidence, not a new sentence or exact transfer date.
The San Quentin overcrowding item says a proposed removal of life-term and repeat prisoners to Folsom would include Tom Mooney, Matt Schmidt and J. B. McNamara. It describes a proposed transfer, not proof that this prisoner had already been moved.
Thompson’s memoir individually recalls the Los Angeles Times defendant James McNamara in San Quentin, where he supervised the condemned-prisoner area, during Thompson’s own imprisonment. This identifies James B., not his brother John J. The memoir’s conversation about the guilty plea and its characterization of the building fire are retrospective claims, not new forensic findings or a new conviction. No custody endpoint is derived from the anecdote.
Fellow Worker: The Life of Fred Thompson, compiled by Dave Roediger, 1993, PDF page 59.
