Biography
Mike Karadich was one of the eight miners convicted by February 18, 1926 in the "Zeigler frame-up" — the prosecution of twenty progressive United Mine Workers members from the Klan-ridden coal town of Zeigler, Illinois, after a 1925 union-hall melee provoked by Klansmen. Convicted of assault with intent to murder and sentenced to one to fourteen years at the Chester penitentiary, he was bailed pending appeal after months inside. The case was a leading ILD defense campaign of 1926, and the spelling of the miners' names follows the ILD's Labor Defender.
1920s custody review: People v. Corbishly, 327 Ill. 312 (1927), identifies Karadich as the defendant indicted as Mike Krodach and reverses his judgment. This court date is not entered as a release date. Arrest, actual discharge and the inherited month-only prison admission remain unresolved.
The Daily Worker of February 18, 1926, already reported a guilty verdict in the Zeigler miners prosecution and named this defendant among the convicted miners. It described the defense motion for a new trial and announced arguments for March 29, 1926. Thus the conviction preceded March 1926. This corrects the chronology of the verdict, without establishing a different date of actual prison admission. The report gives a nominal one-to-ten-year sentence, differing from later defense reporting of one to fourteen years; that discrepancy is preserved rather than used to replace the existing term.
