Biography
Phil McLaughlin was an IWW officer from Sacramento, California. Phil McLaughlin was convicted at the mass IWW trial in Sacramento and sentenced to ten years in prison. He served in Leavenworth Penitentiary. TheDepartment of Justice described McLaughlin as one of the main " leaders " of the IWW on the Pacific Coast.
The January 4 Sacramento dispatch printed January 5, 1935 identifies Philip McLaughlin as a member of the Sacramento wartime conscientious-objector group who had been imprisoned in Leavenworth, and reports that he died in Sacramento on December 26 at age fifty-two. The December day preceding that January 1935 dispatch is December 26, 1934. The National Archives inmate index identifies Phil McLaughlin as Leavenworth prisoner 13575, matching this profile.
The estimated birth year, circa 1882, is inferred from the reported age at death, not a directly documented birthday or birth year. If that age is accurate, his birth falls between December 27, 1881 and December 26, 1882. January 1 is a storage placeholder and does not assert a known birthday. The obituary describes a five-year sentence; that wording conflicts with the existing ten-year imposed-sentence record and remains unresolved. Neither statement changes the stored custody totals or establishes five years actually served. The death is reported in Sacramento after the imprisonment, not as a death in custody.
Daily Worker, January 5, 1935, original PDF page 3, War Prisoner Dies; National Archives Leavenworth inmate index, Phil McLaughlin, 13575.
The March1922 official report lists Phil McLaughlin in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy and violating the espionage act, ete. a sentence of January 17, 1919, 10 years, Leavenworth Penitentiary.. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF13]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 13.
