Biography
Patsy Augustine was a Cafeteria Workers’ Union member and chairman of the Nathan’s Famous strike committee arrested at his Brooklyn home at 9:30 a.m. on June 5, 1934 during a strike against Nathan’s Famous cafeteria. Police interrogated and beat him for eight hours over an unsupported claim that his car had been used in an assault. After hospital treatment, he was returned to a cell and released on bail the following day. The International Labor Defense publicized his case as an example of police brutality against food-service strikers.
Daily Worker, July 10, 1934: Pages 1–2 reproduce the July 9 statement of a delegation representing fifteen organizations protesting New York police violence. It identifies detectives Waterson and O’Connell as responsible for the alleged beating of Augustine and Jack Schneider and demands their arrest. This is an attributed complaint relating to the existing detention, not an adjudicated misconduct ruling or another arrest of Augustine. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n164-jul-10-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 6's La Guardia Terror editorial calls him a food worker and alleges torture at Coney Island police station by detectives Francis Watterson and William Donnell, as printed here. The attribution and these printed names are preserved without silently resolving differences from other reports. No additional arrest, judgment or release date is established. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n161-jul-06-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
William F. Dunne’s July 3, 1934 New Masses article alleges ten hours of police torture of Augustine during the cafeteria strike, describing hair pulling, beating with a hose, and burns from matches and cigarette ends. It links the repression to Judge Faber’s injunction against the strike. This ten-hour allegation differs from the eight-hour account already recorded; both contemporary claims are retained without changing custody dates, adding a second arrest or treating either interrogation interval as his full imprisonment. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1934/v12n01-jul-03-1934-NM.pdf#page=20
