Biography
Reuel Stanfield was one of the maritime workers prosecuted in the Modesto dynamite case during the 1935 tanker strike. He was arrested near Patterson on April 20, 1935, and taken to the Modesto county jail. On August 6, a jury convicted him of reckless possession of dynamite while acquitting the defendants of the conspiracy and blackjack charges. He received a term of six months to five years and was imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison. The maritime unions challenged the prosecution, alleging that Standard Oil agents had framed the men. He was released on parole on October 6, 1938, and welcomed back by the maritime unions.
The October 31, 1935 Voice of the Federation individually gives Reuel Stanfield’s mailing address as San Quentin, prisoner 58034. Its accompanying instructions explicitly place seven Modesto defendants at San Quentin and Patsy Ciambrelli at Represa. This establishes individual prison allocation rather than assigning a prison from a group reference; no new release or exact transfer day is supplied. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19351031.pdf#page=3
The August 23, 1935 Voice of the Federation reports Judge Roy B. Maxey’s August 19 denial of the Modesto defendants’ new-trial motion and motion in arrest of judgment. Their request for a probation inquiry was withdrawn; probation was not granted. Sentencing announced for September 3 was still prospective in that issue, and is not used as an exact sentence or admission day. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19350823.pdf#page=1
Pages 1 and 6 identify the eight Modesto defendants in the sheriff-office trial photograph and describe denial of retrial and appeal bail, continued state imprisonment, repeated cell searches and twenty-minute visits compared with an hour for other prisoners. The Joint Marine Defense Committee alleges that Standard Oil agents Hal Marchant and Scrudder engineered the dynamite prosecution. The report dates the expedition April 21, conflicting with the individually documented April 20 arrest accounts; the existing date is retained. The five-year maximum and collective forty-year rhetoric are imposed punishment, not actual individual service. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19351219.pdf
Labor Defender, February 1936, PDF page 26: Printed Ruell Stanfield in the San Quentin visit account, he is identified with Henry Silva as a Marine Firemen, Oilers and Watertenders union member imprisoned in the Modesto case. This is a spelling variant and intermediate location, not a new prisoner. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn02-feb-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=26
Contemporary source and chronology limits
The June 14, 1935 Voice of the Federation, pages 1 and 3, names the nine Modesto defendants and records a chronology discrepancy: defense counsel Harold C. Faulkner’s June 12 statement dates the original arrest to April 20, while another article on the same front page says April 21. The existing April 20 case date is not overwritten on the strength of that conflicting report. The issue describes May 11 indictment, June 5 reindictment and a June 13 pending challenge, and a trial scheduled for July 3—not a trial proved to have occurred that day. Hal Marchant and James Scrudder’s near-immediate releases are not assigned to the nine jailed defendants. Later individually supported convictions, parole dates and custody fields remain unchanged.
A Sacramento dispatch dated June 2 reports that the Modesto Boys Defense Committee filed an appellate-rehearing petition the previous day, June 1, on behalf of eight individually named defendants following affirmance of their convictions. The roster prints Ruel Stanfield and John Sousa for the corresponding existing Reuel Stanfield and John Souza records. This is a documented petition, not proof that rehearing was granted, a new prosecution, or a release.
Voice of the Federation, December 19, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The February2 Sacramento report names this Modesto defendant among the three not yet paroled, after an unfavorable advisory pardon-board recommendation for all seven. It distinguishes ongoing imprisonment from the four co-defendants’ existing paroles. It supplies no new exact discharge or complete duration.
Page2’s prisoner address list places this person at San Quentin, prisoner number 58034. This is contemporary location and correspondence evidence, not a new sentence or exact transfer date. Prisoner address list, page2.
Pages4and7 report Stanfield actually out of SanQuentin and welcomed at a banquet of106. Mooney’s October5 letter anticipates release; Stanfield’s October8 reply confirms freedom by then. One Stanfield message says forty-two months in prison, while his October8 reply says thirty-seven months. Both rounded retrospective figures are retained without overwriting independently recorded endpoints or treating either as a complete precise total. His reception remarks explicitly mention parole restrictions.
The March 11, 1937 Voice of the Federation reproduces a San Francisco Labor Council resolution stating that a California Assembly committee completed its Modesto investigation hearing on February 27. The resolution attributes the convictions to perjured testimony from James Scrudder, a Standard Oil agent, and asks Governor Frank F. Merriam to pardon Robert J. Fitzgerald, Reuel Stanfield, Victor Johnson, John Souza, Patsy Ciambrelli, Henry Silva and John Burrows. It separately seeks leniency for John Rodger and Alphonse Buyle, alleging entrapment. These are the union resolution’s findings and demands following a legislative investigation, not a judicial reversal, granted pardon or new physical discharge. The newspaper’s description of seven men as cleared does not establish that their convictions were vacated.
The front-page announcement and Z. R. Brown’s page7 article forecast Stanfield’s San Quentin parole for October6,1938 and a welcome banquet. The article recalls initial custody at Patterson on April20,1935 and delivery to the Modesto county jail. The forecast is prospective in this September29 issue; it is not independent confirmation that the later release actually occurred. Existing separately supported physical custody dates remain unchanged.
Vic Johnson’s Coffee Time column in the October 6, 1938 Voice of the Federation describes Stanfield working at a buttonhole machine in San Quentin’s prison tailor shop. It anticipates his dressing out on Thursday, October 6, a car escort and a Modesto Defense Committee banquet. The column uses future tense for those release and reception events; it does not independently confirm that they had occurred. Its general description of San Quentin’s North Block, death row and gallows is not a claim that Stanfield was condemned to death or personally held on death row. Separately documented physical custody dates remain unchanged.
Voice of the Federation, October 6, 1938, PDF page 3, Coffee Time by Vic Johnson.
The centennial history’s named photograph identifies him among the eight Modesto defendants. Its April 20, 1935 arrest account describes private guards handing the men to the sheriff and county-jail detention, followed by acquittal on conspiracy and blackjack counts and conviction on dynamite possession. It gives the group’s imposed terms as six months to five years and discusses an appeal challenging a repealed statute. The named identification supports membership in the case, but supplies no new individual release or exact service total. Planted-evidence claims remain attributed to defendants and the union.
