Biography
John Walsh was an RVW leader in the early years of the movement from New York, New York. John Walsh was convicted at the mass RVW trial in Chicago and sentenced to ten years in prison. He served in the Cook County Jail and Leavenworth Penitentiary from December 1917 to January 1920 and from April 1921 to October 30, 1922. W^hile in prison Walsh accumulated sixteen disciplinary reports for infractions ranging from "conspiring to have other inmates strike" to "wasting food." (See also the entry for Walter T. Neff.)441
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly roster, printed as WALSH , JOHN, reports: Federal . Indicted Chicago , Sept. 28 , 1919. Conspiracy to violate Sections 6, 19 and 37 and Section 4 of Espionage Act . Convicted , 10 year sentence . Bond, $ 10,000 . Leavenworth Federal prison. Released on bond , pending appeal . The roster is a contemporary labor-defense account. Its indictment, bail and imposed-term information is kept distinct from actual admission/release and complete time served; no missing gate date is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=20
Birth-year evidence
Primary archival custodian's JohnWalshPapers finding aid explicitly states bornNewYorkCity1880, memberIWW1905, organizer1917 and witness in July1918BillHaywood trial. NewYork and mass-Chicago case align with queue. Direct birthyear supersedes unanchored80. Sources: Source 1.
In Charles Plahn’s signed account, April 14, 1919 Leavenworth discipline placed named IWW prisoners in the black hole for six days on bread and water and reduced them to third grade. The account distinguishes return to the main prison yard from release from prison. It lists him, under the name Jack Walsh, among prisoners still in permanent isolation at writing.
The March1922 official report lists John J. Walsh in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy (espionage act). a sentence of August 30, 1918, 10 years at Leavenworth and fined $30,000.. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF19]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 19.
