Biography
Louis Allen was a Los Angeles member of the Industrial Workers of the World, convicted with eight co-defendants under California's Criminal Syndicalism Act and sentenced to an indeterminate term of one to fourteen years. He was imprisoned at Folsom State Prison from December 1921 as prisoner number 12026.
A scholarly history records that guards at Folsom covered his head with a blanket, dragged him from solitary confinement and beat him unconscious, and that complaints were filed with the prison board.
His release date is in conflict by one day. A compilation gives September 11, 1925, while a contemporary newspaper report of September 11 says the release would happen "tomorrow", which would make it September 12. Release is recorded at September 1925 month precision while the conflicting day remains unresolved.
This was a state prosecution. An earlier version of this record classified it as a federal Espionage or Sedition Act case.
The June 1925 labor-press political-prisoner birthday notice lists him at Folsom Prison, Represa, under prisoner number 12026 — matching the number already recorded here — with a June 22 birthday (no birth year is given).
1920s custody review: The Daily Worker of September 12, 1925, page 4, states that Allen was first arrested in Los Angeles in April 1921. Only the month is entered. The same article contradicts itself about release: its opening predicts tomorrow under a September 11 dateline, while later wording gives September 11 expiration. Rather than choose between September 11 and 12, release is now month-only September 1925. The article also describes initial San Quentin confinement before transfer to Folsom; the existing December 1921 Folsom date is not established as first custody. No verified individual photograph located.
The January 28, 1924 issue of The Daily Worker individually listed Louis Allen among the political and class-war prisoners at Folsom State Prison in California, in an appeal to fund newspaper subscriptions for imprisoned people. This is a contemporary custody observation; the publication date does not establish admission, release, or a total period served.
