Biography
Joe Hawkins was a Milwaukee unemployed-workers' activist prosecuted after a demonstration at the Fond du Lac Avenue Outdoor Relief Station. Judge George Shaughnessy sentenced him to one to three years on each of two counts. The International Labor Defense organized a pardon campaign for Hawkins after winning relief for fellow defendant Fred Burback in December 1932.
The unemployed-leaders section places him at Camp Fresling, Gordon, Wisconsin, and prints a six-year sentence, with a wife and three children. That figure differs from the earlier two counts of one to three years; the roster does not resolve whether it aggregates maximums or describe six years actually served. Labor Defender, September 1934, original PDF page 18. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n08-sep-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=18
Page2’s Milwaukee comparison with ex-detective Ralph Hostetler prints the militant worker’s name as Joe Hawkins and gives six years. For Hawkins the figure may aggregate the two one-to-three-year maximums recorded elsewhere; the paper does not establish actual time served. This is attributed contemporary sentencing evidence, not a new arrest.
