Biography
John Crempa was a Scotch Plains, New Jersey resident whose resistance to a public utility’s power line across his property led to legal proceedings and a violent confrontation with deputy sheriffs in September 1935. Deputies killed his wife Sophie and wounded him. His daughter Camelia said she and her father were taken to the Union County courthouse jail; the contemporary report said he remained held. The same account describes an earlier six-month imprisonment related to short-circuiting the utility’s transmission line. Exact custody endpoints remain unresolved.
The utility-dispute report corroborates the September 1935 family detentions after deputies killed Sophie Crempa and wounded John. The issue’s hospital/jail wording does not resolve the conflicting physical-location and relative-day reports already preserved in this profile; no exact endpoint is substituted. Daily Worker, October 1, 1935, original PDF page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n235-NAT-oct-01-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=2
Sources and evidence limits
The September 30 report quotes Camelia describing both herself and her father being taken to Union County courthouse jail after the shooting. It says John remained in jail, while Camelia had been released to attorney Leonard Pontus; John Jr. had been arrested at work the day before the shooting and remained held. The report calls the shooting Thursday, yielding September 26, 1935 and September 25 for the son by calendar. A contemporaneous Associated Press report in the September 27 Eugene Register-Guard has differing relative-day wording and describes the father being taken to hospital and the daughter temporarily detained. Physical detention is corroborated, but exact calendar days are not stored as settled: September month precision is used. The hospital and jail locations are attributed to their respective reports; no conviction or complete custody duration is established. The earlier six-month imprisonment is an actual past episode in the report, not the duration of this September detention; its exact dates are absent.
- Daily Worker, September 30, 1935, original pages 1–2, Power Trust Is Murderer in Raid
- Associated Press report in Eugene Register-Guard, September 27, 1935, page 5; digitized by University of Oregon
Birth and death dates are unverified. No race or organizational affiliation is inferred. Historical detention does not imply present custody.
Judge Edward A. McGrath deferred decision on Prosecutor Abe J. David’s request to dismiss seven indictments until after a coming contempt appearance before Vice-Chancellor Henry T. Kays. The requested nolle prosequi was not yet a completed dismissal or physical release. The article connects the case with his resistance to a power line and the fatal shooting of Sophie Crempa by deputies.
