Biography
John J. Cornelison was a California labor prisoner serving a life sentence on a murder charge arising from a Southern Pacific Railroad strike. The December 21, 1936 Daily Worker described the prosecution as a frame-up and reported that he had returned to freedom on Saturday, December 19, after fourteen years and two months in San Quentin. He was placed on lifetime parole to Machinists Local 68 in San Francisco. His earlier Labor Defender letters identify him as San Quentin prisoner 37287.
In a letter reproduced in the January 1936 Labor Defender, page 19 (PDF page 20), Cornelison acknowledges October and November money orders from the Prisoners Relief Department, describes his health as good and his morale as improved, and signs as a life prisoner at San Quentin. This contemporary correspondence documents relief assistance and his reported condition during the existing imprisonment, without establishing an exact letter date or another custody episode.
Pages 1–2’s ILD statement individually includes him among San Quentin prisoners denied the organization’s weekly news letters, working-class literature and much personal mail. It appeals for protests against prison censorship. This supplies conditions and defense context, not another personal arrest, measured term or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n125-NAT-may-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints John J. Cornelison, a term of life, the year 1922 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location San Quentin, California. This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
Labor Defender, March 1934, PDF page 25: His signed prison letter calls for building the ILD and is captioned as a life-sentenced San Quentin prisoner with eleven years served as of the letter’s reporting period. Eleven years is an intermediate report, not a replacement for the separately documented later completed confinement. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n03-mar-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=25
The contemporary report describes a murder conviction and a life sentence, rather than the generic criminal-syndicalism charge previously assigned to this case. Its allegations of prosecution misconduct are attributed to the newspaper. It gives his age as 37 at the time of reporting; no birth date is calculated from that age.
Labor Defender, January 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The undated San Quentin letter thanks the ILD for relief checks sent to his mother and describes her hospitalization after a broken hip and an eye operation. It corroborates correspondence from prison; it supplies no new admission, release or actual duration.
Daily Worker, May 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under San Quentin State Prison, California, with life, 1922. This is an attributed historical directory entry: the year and nominal term do not establish an intake day, uninterrupted imprisonment, completed service or physical release.
The birthday notice identifies the railroad worker serving a life sentence at San Quentin and asks supporters to send June 8 greetings. Its printed prison number appears as 37837, whereas his reproduced letters identify 37287; the discrepancy is retained, not used to overwrite the existing identifier. The fifteenth-year description is rounded and supplies no new intake or release endpoint.
