Biography
James West was an Illinois Communist Party organizer convicted with six others on January 29, 1958 of conspiring to file false non-Communist affidavits under the Taft-Hartley Act. He received an eighteen-month prison sentence and a $2,500 fine. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the convictions and the Supreme Court declined review on February 20, 1961. West then entered federal prison, but the reviewed record does not give exact entry and release dates.
The University of Washington's Communism in Washington State History Project identifies James West's birthname as Isador Wexler. Its editorial summary of his March 8, 2002 oral-history interview reports that, while still a teenager, he was arrested on a New Jersey picket line and actually served 21 days in jail. This is a separate earlier confinement from his 1961–1962 Taft-Hartley imprisonment. The original arrest, admission and release dates of this earlier confinement remain unverified.
Historical prison mailing number (1961)
The National Guardian’s December 11, 1961 roster of imprisoned Taft-Hartley defendants prints James West (18800), with his mailing address at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. This historical five-digit number belongs to his 1961 federal imprisonment in the Taft-Hartley affidavit case. His earlier Young Communist League picket-line detention remains a separate case.
