Biography
Pete Muselin was a member of the Communist Party from Woodlawn. Muselin, along with codefendants Tom Zima and Milan Resetar, was convicted under Pennsylvania's anti-sedition law and sentenced to five years of hard labor in the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawnox, Pennsylvania. The conviction stemmed from a 1926 raid of Tom Zima's house and Muselin's barber shop, where a large amount of party literature was confiscated. The three defendants were accused of being "active members" and "leaders" of the local branch of the Communist Party. They were convicted of having "frequently taught by word of mouth" the doctrine of communism. Convicted in 1928, their sentences were unanimously upheld by the Pennsylvania Superior Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In 1929, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review their convictions, and they began serving their terms. The Woodlawn defendants did not fare very well in Blawnox. Milan Resetar died in jail (see chapter 14). Pete Muselin's family was rendered destitute and impoverished. His wife, Anne Muselin, described their condition in a letter: I need clothing for both myself and the children. As for myself, I don't care but my children must be clothed. It's better to have them clothed than to pay doctor bills.... You know we must eat. I can't get no work, and even if I did there's no one to care for my children. What must I do? After almost two years in jail Muselin and Zima became disillusioned. In a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union requesting assistance, they criticized the "miserable failure" and "despicable methods" of the pro-communist International Labor Defense, which apparently would not pay an attorney to obtain their release. They were forced to pay $150 for an attorney to file papers for a pardon. They asked the ACLU to file for their pardon on the basis of their recanting membership in the Communist Party and pledging to "desist from all further participation and activities in the Communist movement." In December 1931, Muselin and Zima obtained pardons.
Muselin entered the Allegheny County Workhouse at Blawnox on November 26, 1929 and was released on February 3, 1932 — 799 days, about two years and two months of the five-year sentence.
On the release. This record has said that Muselin and Zima obtained pardons in December 1931, while the date recorded for the end of their custody is a parole on February 3, 1932. The two are not necessarily in conflict, a pardon granted in December being capable of taking weeks to take effect, but they are different mechanisms and which one actually opened the gate is not settled here. February 3, 1932 is what is stored, because it is the day the custody ended and that is what the column measures.
The Daily Worker of March 13, 1931, page 3, reported that Judge McConnell refused parole to Pete Muselin, Milan Resetar and Tom Zima because they remained Communists and would not repudiate the class struggle. It described an International Labor Defense pardon campaign and a planned Pittsburgh amnesty conference. The article gives December 13, 1929 as their imprisonment date, which conflicts with the separately recorded November 26 admission; this discrepancy is retained without replacing that date. The report does not supply an exact parole-decision day or a new custody episode. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n063-NY-mar-13-1931-DW-LOC.pdf
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints Pete Muselin, a term of 5 years, the year 1929 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location Allegheny County Workhouse, Blawnox, Pennsylvania. This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
The August 31 Woodlawn dispatch identifies him as a war veteran, barber and local union secretary and reports that the Superior Court had affirmed the prosecution on April 16, 1928, with a state Supreme Court argument planned for September 24. Its accusations of company-police influence and a prejudiced jury are the newspaper’s defense account. The planned appeal is not a new arrest or physical release; the independently established later prison intake, actual service and final release or death remain unchanged. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n208-NY-sep-01-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The December 2 report gives November 11, 1926 as the arrest at Zima’s birthday party and June 20, 1927 as the trial, with five-year terms and $500 fines in the Woodlawn prosecution. November 29 reports actual commitment to Blawnox on November 26 after Supreme Court review was denied October 28, 1929. The imposed terms are not completed service. Daily Worker, December 2, 1929, original PDF page 4. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n230-NY-dec-02-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
In Milan Resetar's letter from Blawnox printed in the August 1930 Labor Defender, Muselin was reported to have spent several days in the prison hospital with severe tonsillitis. This is a contemporary fellow prisoner's report, not an independent medical diagnosis or a new custody episode. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1930/v05n08-aug-1930-LD.pdf#page=19
Contemporary Woodlawn trial chronology and court personnel
Sender Garlin's December 2, 1929 Daily Worker article, “Andrew Mellon, Steel and Sedition,” individually names Milan Resetar, Tom Zima and Pete Muselin as the three Woodlawn defendants arrested on November 11, 1926. It states that their trial opened in Beaver County Court on June 20, 1927 before Judge W. A. McConnel. Its quotation from the court record identifies Mr. Craig as prosecutor conducting the examination of Jones & Laughlin police captain S. G. Mauk. Those court roles are distinguished from the defense and the police witness.
The trial-opening day is not a sentencing or physical-admission date. The article's statement that imprisonment will soon begin is prospective, even though this newspaper issue is dated after the separately stored November 26 admission. It does not independently verify or replace that admission, any release/death endpoint, the stored custody totals, or the inherited year-only sentencing entry. Its June 1927 trial chronology is preserved alongside differing 1928 wording in legacy biographies rather than silently substituting a new sentencing date. The author's allegations about company and jury influence remain attributed to the contemporary report.
A. Jakira’s October 1928 Labor Defender account supplies a precise earlier Woodlawn chronology: verdict June 25,1927; sentencing December 12,1927, before Judge Wm.A.McConnel. Muselin, Resetar and Zima received five years and $500 fines plus costs; Bratich received two-and-a-half years and $200. The report dates Bratich’s appellate discharge April 16,1928. This resolves the prior year-only sentencing placeholder; the sentencing day is not copied into a physical-admission field, and the appellate discharge is not treated as a proven prison-release day. The later separate actual custody of the three whose convictions survived remains unchanged.
Labor Defender, October1928, original PDF page18 (printed214).
A reported Supreme Court refusal, not a new physical-entry record
The Washington dispatch dated November 28 says the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the Woodlawn prosecution yesterday, confirming an earlier October 28 refusal. This dates the newspaper’s reported later judicial action to November 27, 1929; it is not a personal jail-entry record. The original print says the prison term had been set to begin November 25, whereas the existing record separately places physical entry on November 26. The original scheduled date is preserved as such, not substituted for actual admission; the native text’s apparent November 26 reading is not followed over the original image. The five-year terms are imposed sentences, not five actual years served. The continuation describes an earlier attempt to stop the defendants speaking at a November 3 protest meeting through contempt proceedings, but does not independently establish another physical custody span. Existing arrest, sentence, admission, release/death and numerical storage remain unchanged.
Daily Worker, November 29, 1929, original pages 1, 3. Accounts and allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
An attributed public-appearance chronology conflict
An Ambridge dispatch dated December 11 reports a protest meeting on the preceding Sunday, December 8, and individually identifies Pete Muselin as chairman, while describing his five-year sentence as imposed punishment. This is a reported appearance at a public meeting, not a five-year measure of actual service or a new confinement. Its chronology conflicts with the existing record’s separately sourced November 26, 1929 physical admission at Blawnox. The discrepancy is preserved rather than treating the public-appearance report as proof of a release, an interrupted custody span or a replacement admission. The November 26 entry, later actual release, 799-day storage and earlier court chronology remain unchanged. The report names Max Salzman and Carlo di Santis as other speakers; it does not establish a new arrest or imprisonment for them.
Daily Worker, December 13, 1929, original pages 2. Contemporary claims and allegations remain attributed to the newspaper and named writer.
The Behind the Bars directory on printed page 4 lists this prisoner under Blawnox, Pennsylvania, with five years, 1929. This is an attributed historical directory entry: the year and nominal term do not establish an intake day, uninterrupted imprisonment, completed service or physical release.
