Biography
John Lamb was one of the eight IWW defendants tried at Montesano (Grays Harbor County), WA from January 26 to March 13, 1920 for the deaths of four American Legionnaires (Warren Grimm, Arthur McElfresh, Ben Casagranda, Dale Hubbard) during the Armistice Day, November 11, 1919 attack on the Centralia, WA IWW union hall. Convicted of 2nd-degree murder despite the IWW's defense that they were defending the union hall from an armed mob. Sentenced to 25-40 years at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla. The case became a long-running cause célèbre of the IWW and the labor left, with the Centralia Publicity Committee and later the Free Ray Becker Committee organizing for parole and pardon over two decades.
John Lamb was held at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla as prisoner 9412, a number sitting between James McInerney's 9410 and Eugene Barnett's 9414. The Industrial Worker of August 6, 1924 lists him at that number and gives his birthday as August 25; no birth year is recorded. His sentence is reported to have been commuted or pardoned in 1933, though the exact release date still wants a contemporary newspaper or a Washington prison record.
This record previously gave his death as June 6, 1922, of tuberculosis at Walla Walla, and used that date as his release, which cut his imprisonment to about two years and three months. Two independent things contradict it: the August 1924 prisoner list, which has him alive and inside at 9412, and the reported 1933 clemency. The detail also matches what is recorded of his co-defendant James McInerney, who did die at Walla Walla of tuberculosis and meningitis, in 1930. The death date is removed as unsupported. If a Washington prison record establishes it, it should go back — and the 1924 listing then needs explaining.
The December 31, 1932 Daily Worker book-committee and defense reporting supplies this contemporary context: John Lamb, identified as a Centralia prisoner, requested Sinclair’s novels and welcomed the book committee. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n313-NY-dec-31-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The July 26, 1928 issue discusses a Centralia juror affidavit attributed to E. E. Torpen, including his account of an early acquittal vote and a leniency understanding. It presents a defense challenge to the convictions, not a court reversal, pardon or new physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n176-NY-jul-26-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The International Labor Defense holiday roster in the December 29, 1925 Daily Worker lists this prisoner, printed as John Lamb, at Walla Walla. Its printed identifier is 9412; this is a prison number or mailing designation, not a year or a custody date. This documents confinement at the roster’s reporting time, without establishing an admission, transfer, release, new conviction or complete duration. Existing independently sourced custody chronology remains separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n297-NYE-dec-29-1925-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints John Lamb, a term of 25–40 years, the year 1919 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location Walla Walla, Washington, Box 520. 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
Page 3's Fred Beal appeal individually names the eight Centralia prisoners, placing them at Walla Walla and urging that they not be left to rot in prison. It recalls the November 11, 1919 confrontation and Wesley Everest's lynching. The ten-year anniversary is a rounded elapsed observation across the case history, not an independently measured uninterrupted individual custody total or new conviction. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n213-NY-nov-12-1929-DW-LOC.pdf
In his letter printed October 1926, Lamb describes making beaded watch fobs and necklaces in prison and arranging for ILD to sell them, with proceeds divided between his support and the organization. He names his wife Bessie and refers to their two youngest daughters. His stated August 25 birthday is already recorded. This adds a personal account of prison craft work and family support without inventing a birth year or custody endpoints.
Ella Reeve Bloor’s first-person visit names eight Centralia prisoners at Walla Walla: Britt Smith, Ray Becker, O. C. Bland, Bert/J. Bland, Eugene Barnett, James McInerney, John Lamb and Loren Roberts. She describes ILD monthly support and book requests. The seven-man photograph individually identifies standing Bert Bland, John Lamb, Britt Smith and Jas. McInnery, and kneeling O. C. Bland, Ray Becker and Eugene Barnett; Loren Roberts is not pictured. The article’s internal thirteenth-year phrase conflicts with its ten-year history and is not used as a measured duration.
Ben Hur Lampman’s Centralia: Tragedy and Trial, printed pages 69–70 (PDF pages 70–71), individually lists the seven men convicted of second-degree murder, then states that Judge Wilson imposed the twenty-five-to-forty-year sentences on April 5, 1920 at Montesano. March 13 was the jury verdict, as separately dated in Ralph Chaplin’s Centralia Conspiracy, printed page 77 (PDF page 79). The sentencing field is corrected to April 5; that date is not used to infer initial physical custody or a completed time served. These contemporary accounts strongly disagree about culpability and the shooting chronology; their advocacy is not adopted as an unqualified factual finding.
Ben Hur Lampman, Centralia: Tragedy and Trial (1920), printed pp. 69–70.
Hy Kravif reports Lamb paroled in April 1933 after roughly thirteen years under a nominal twenty-five-to-forty-year Centralia sentence. On page 17 daughter Ruby Lamb describes receiving an April 21 letter after his release, unemployment and anxiety over parole restrictions. Together these establish April parole at month precision, not an exact day, pardon, or verified thirteen-year service total.
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, Washington, with twenty-five to forty years, 1919. 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.
Daily Worker, November 12, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The birthday notice gives August25 and Box620-9412 at WallaWalla for JohnLamb. This is contemporary prison-location and correspondence evidence, not a measured sentence or new release date.
John Lamb’s letter of December 27, 1931, headed From Walla Walla and signed Centralia, thanks George Maurer and the ILD for Christmas relief. He expressly says he is still in prison and has not been informed how much longer he will remain. This corroborates ongoing confinement at that date; it supplies neither a new admission date nor a promised or actual release day.
The issue explicitly corrects the preceding June number’s page 87 caption: the pictured Centralia prisoner was Bert Bland, not John Lamb. This is a source-specific portrait identification correction; it supplies no new arrest, sentence or release and does not justify guessing the identity of other uncaptained group photographs.
The May 1920 issue individually identifies him in a photograph of eleven Centralia defendants outside the Montesano jail. The caption’s Roy Becker refers to Centralia defendant Ray Becker, not the separate Omaha prisoner Roy Becker. The accompanying March 15 Not Guilty verdict was issued by six labor observers acting as an independent labor jury; it was not the official court verdict and does not acquit all eleven defendants. The official seven convictions and individual dismissals/acquittals remain distinct.
The One Big Union Monthly, May 1920, vol. 2 no. 5, PDF page 11.
