Biography
Roy House was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, arrested in the July 1923 roundup of the union at Portola, California. Prosecuted in Plumas County under California's Criminal Syndicalism Act for his membership and organizing, he was convicted and sentenced to four years. He entered San Quentin on October 29, 1923 as prisoner 38535. The Industrial Worker of August 6, 1924 lists him as still imprisoned and gives his birthday as August 21; no birth year is recorded. His parole or release date is unresolved.
The International Labor Defense holiday roster in the December 29, 1925 Daily Worker lists this prisoner, printed as Roy House, at San Quentin California. Its printed identifier is 38535; this is a prison number or mailing designation, not a year or a custody date. This documents confinement at the roster’s reporting time, without establishing an admission, transfer, release, new conviction or complete duration. Existing independently sourced custody chronology remains separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/1925-ny/v02b-n297-NYE-dec-29-1925-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
House's San Quentin letter acknowledges August 24 relief, identifies prisoner number 38535, and says that his own term will expire October 29. He was still physically imprisoned when writing. The future term-expiration statement does not establish a physical release day. The inherited twelve-month actual-service override contradicts the existing admission in 1923 and documented continued custody in 1926 as a purported total; no precise completed total replaces it.
The memoir prints the name Ray House for a fellow San Quentin IWW prisoner who studied the union’s constitutional split with Thompson and later worked with him on reunification. The near spelling and contemporary San Quentin context are consistent with Roy House, but the memoir supplies no prison number to conclusively bridge Ray and Roy. This qualified lead does not change the established name, case, release or custody duration and does not create a second House profile.
Fellow Worker: The Life of Fred Thompson, compiled by Dave Roediger, 1993, PDF page 62.
