Biography
Otto Lenhart was one of the New York fur workers convicted in the 1927 Mineola trial — the Long Island prosecution of furriers' union militants on assault charges growing out of the victorious 1926 strike. Sentenced to two and a half to five years and jailed through the trial, the defendants were bailed pending appeal in an ILD-supported defense.
The November 9 report names the seven fur-strike defendants in the Mineola prosecution whose 1927 convictions and terms of two and a half to five years were under appeal. It describes efforts to secure a new trial; neither a promised retrial nor a printed term is proof of release or completed service. Daily Worker, November 9, 1929, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n211-NY-nov-09-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
1920s remaining-entry review: The New York final city edition of May 20, 1927, page 1, individually names this prisoner among the workers released yesterday from Mineola on certificates of reasonable doubt pending appeal. May 19 is a physical release on appeal, not an acquittal or final dismissal. Initial arrest and admission dates remain unverified beyond inherited information; no admission date is inferred from the trial. The existing photograph is retained.
Daily Worker, May 20, 1927; Daily Worker, September 8, 1927.
1920s remaining-entry review: The April 25, 1927 New York original, page 3, History of the Mineola Case, names Philip Lenhardt among those arrested in March 1927. The May 20 release report identifies Philip Otto Lenhart, linking the name variant. Arrest is recorded to month only. This does not establish a continuous prison-admission date.
The Mineola appeal and a still-prospective retrial
The November 9, 1929 Daily Worker individually lists this fur worker among seven Mineola defendants whose earlier conviction and two-and-a-half-to-five-year sentence had been appealed and for whom a new trial had been ordered. Its announced retrial was still prospective, not proof of a new conviction, sentence, jail admission or discharge. The continuation distinguishes the nine convicted workers from Ben Gold and I. Shapiro, whom it says were declared innocent. The biography’s phrase saying this defendant was convicted with Ben Gold is therefore removed; it is not a claim that the two were co-convicted. Existing personal arrest and May 19, 1927 appeal-bail release evidence remain unchanged, and no uninterrupted custody until the expected retrial is inferred.
Daily Worker, November 9, 1929, original pages 1, 3. Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
