Biography
Louise Todd was a California Communist Party official sentenced in 1935 to one to fourteen years at the Tehachapi women's prison on a "technicality" over ballot-petition signatures — a prosecution aimed at the party's electoral work after the San Francisco general strike.
Daily Worker, May 12, 1936, page 5: The report says Todd had served six months of her one-to-fourteen-year perjury term at Tehachapi and had applied for release or a one-year minimum, with a hearing scheduled for May 15. The proposed hearing is not a granted release, and the six months is a contemporary partial-service statement rather than the completed duration of her case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n114-NY-May-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The May 20, 1936 Daily Worker reports in a San Francisco dispatch dated May 19 that the California Board of Prison Terms and Paroles fixed Louise Todd's term at three years, following the original indeterminate one-to-fourteen-year sentence. This administrative fixing of the term is distinct from the original sentencing date and from completed time served or a granted release. The May 21 editorial corroborates the terms but its relative 'yesterday' wording differs from the earlier dated dispatch, so no original sentencing field is replaced. Sources: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n121-NY-May-20-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=1 and https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n122-NY-May-21-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=8
The Tehachapi report identifies her among prisoners denied delivery of the Guild Reporter on the ground that it was a Communist publication. It prints prison numbers 57616 for Conklin, 57817 for Decker and 56266 for Todd. The newspaper’s characterization of the underlying cases does not replace the separately established Sacramento and ballot-petition prosecutions. Daily Worker, January 14, 1936, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n012-NY-jan-14-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=1
Page 1’s August 15 San Francisco dispatch reports Todd, the Communist election campaign manager, and Ida Rothstein acquitted of vagrancy after Leo Gallagher defended them. Page 5’s earlier August 13 interview locates the pending case before Judge Theresa Meikle. This completed 1934 prosecution is separate from Todd’s 1935 ballot-affidavit perjury conviction. Arrest, physical release and actual term remain undated. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n196-aug-16-1934-DW-LOC.pdf This source establishes a legal prosecution and acquittal; it does not independently establish physical imprisonment. No custody duration or release is inferred from the verdict.
Her signed Tehachapi letter describes eight months served so far and a three-year fixed term. It prints prisoner number 58292, differing from 56266 in a January 1936 newspaper account. The contemporary number conflict is retained without replacing either identification; eight months is a partial-service observation, not her complete time in custody. Labor Defender, September 1936, original PDF page 21. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn09-sep-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=21
The account describes denial of probation despite serious heart trouble in the ballot-affidavit prosecution and a one-to-fourteen-year sentence. Its account that she had not personally witnessed every signature is a contemporary explanation of the perjury charge, not a claim of fourteen years actually served. Labor Defender, December 1935, original PDF page 22. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n12-dec-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=22
Labor Defender, February 1936, PDF page 9: Rose Chernin identifies her as 24 among three political prisoners visited at Tehachapi. The one-to-fourteen-year sentence range is imposed punishment, not measured service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn02-feb-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=9
Contemporary custody source
The January 14, 1936 Daily Worker, Page1 identifies Louise Todd as Tehachapi prisoner 56266 in a report that prison authorities had barred the newspaper Guild Reporter. This confirms ongoing confinement, but gives no exact transfer/admission or release date.
November 1935 contemporary procedural report
The November 14, 1935 Daily Worker (p. 3), in a San Francisco report datelined November 13, reports the appellate affirmation of Louise Todd's conviction and one-to-fourteen-year sentence for perjury connected with Communist Party ballot petitions. It describes signing as sponsors/circulators without personally circulating every petition. The report does not identify the original sentencing day or confirm the physical jail-admission day, and its publication/dateline must not be inserted as either. The paper says the International Labor Defense planned a further appeal. The existing independently sourced December 1936 parole date is unchanged.
Source: Daily Worker, national edition, volume 12 number 275, November 14, 1935. Allegations and editorial judgments are attributed to the newspaper.
November 1935 custody-status evidence
A San Francisco report datelined November 22 in the November 23, 1935 Daily Worker (p. 6) explicitly says Louise Todd was then in the county jail and would be transferred to the Women's State Prison at Tehachapi within the next few days. Thus this source confirms county-jail confinement by November 22, while the state-prison transfer remained prospective. It does not supply the original physical admission date, exact sentencing day, or actual transfer day. Those dates remain unfilled; the existing independently established December 19, 1936 parole date is unchanged.
Source: Daily Worker, national edition, volume 12 number 283, November 23, 1935. Political allegations and editorial commentary are attributed to the newspaper.
The November 23, 1935 Daily Worker reported that Todd was already held in the San Francisco county jail after her ballot-petition perjury conviction. It said transfer to Tehachapi Women’s State Prison was expected within the next few days. That anticipated transfer does not establish an actual prison-admission day.
The June 2 report identifies Todd among women at Tehachapi affected by allegedly unfit food and inadequate cell toilet facilities. It quotes her appeal for mass pressure for decent, healthful conditions and asks protests to the prison board and matron. It connects her perjury conviction to Communist ballot work. No new transfer, release or individualized medical diagnosis is established.
The November 20 dispatch postpones the ballot-petition perjury trial from November 19 until January 8. This is not dismissal, acquittal or physical release.
The Lodi October 6 dispatch reports her arrest for failure to disperse during the grape strike and $500 bail set. The worker who tried to protect her was also arrested under $1,000 bail. Bail being set is not proof of actual discharge; this is earlier than her separately recorded 1934 vagrancy case.
