Biography
John Brophy was the reform miners' leader who had challenged John L. Lewis for the presidency of the United Mine Workers and headed the "Save the Union" movement. John Brophy was arrested at a miners' meeting in Renton, Pennsylvania in March 1928 during the great soft-coal strike — one of many arrests of insurgent organizers the ILD's Labor Defender reported that year. He went on to become a founding director of the CIO.
The March 8 account describes state-police violence at the Renton meeting and detention first in a private house for an hour, then questioning in Pittsburgh, before $1,000 bail each. This is the March 6 arrest already recorded; hours described at individual stages are not a new complete detention counter. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n057-NY-mar-08-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The December 18 Pittsburgh dispatch reports the prosecution moving to nolle prose the Renton riot case despite defense counsel demanding trial. The hearing involved Judges Reed and Cohen and District Attorney Gardner; Clarence Darrow and Arthur Garfield Hays were among defense counsel. Darrow’s account identifies the private house as belonging to a Renton mine owner, Mr. Bard. These are attributed defense statements. The new warrant announced for Toohey had explicitly not been served at the report’s close; it is not a new arrest. Dismissal is not a physical discharge from uninterrupted March–December custody. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n300-NY-dec-19-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
1920s custody review: The Manchester Evening Herald of March 7, 1928, page 1, carries a Pittsburgh March 7 dispatch stating that John Brophy and Patrick Toohey were arrested at Renton late yesterday, establishing March 6, 1928. The Daily Worker of March 8, pages 1-2, independently describes their detention on that date, first in a private house and then in Pittsburgh, followed by release on $1,000 bail each. They were already at liberty by March 7. Arrest and the start of this short physical detention are corrected from month-only placeholders to March 6. The precise bail-release day is not explicit: March 6 or March 7 remains possible, so it is documented here rather than assigned an unsupported exact day. This was not continuous custody through the later proceedings. Existing photograph, if any, retained.
Sources: Manchester Evening Herald, March 7, 1928, page 1; Daily Worker, March 8, 1928, pages 1-2. Original newspaper pages visually inspected.
The ILD miners-defense appeal includes the Brophy prosecution among active defense cases; no new individual verdict, physical release or measured duration is supplied.
