Biography
James Quinlan was a laborer from Sacramento, California. James Quinlan was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Sacramento and sentenced to ten years in prison. He served in Leavenworth Penitentiary from August 16, 1918, to December 22, 1923. Quinlan was continuously placed in "isolation" on a "restricted diet" for offenses such as "loafing, " telling a guard to "f—k himself and fighting. He was "cuffed to a grated wall" because he was "defiant" and had "no regard for the rules or the institution."
Birth-year evidence
ArthurShields firsthand article ForTheSilentDefenders, Liberator September1922 printedpage23, describes JamesQuinlan amongSacramentoLeavenworthprisoners as veteran of fifty. Completeoriginalpage visually inspected; literaltext50, not stored72. c1872 appropriate given literary/possiblyrounded age, neverexactyear. Sources: Source 1. Birth is recorded approximately, not as a verified exact birthday; possible years: 1871, 1872.
Shields relays released prisoners’ account of Quinlan, described as a veteran of approximately fifty, still defiant after two years in an isolation cell on an accusation of beating a guard. This is a reported disciplinary segment inside the Sacramento sentence, not a new two-year criminal sentence or his total confinement. No exact isolation start or end is supplied.
The March1922 official report lists James Quinlan in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy (espionage act). a sentence of January 17, 1919, 10 years at Leavenworth.. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF16]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 16.
