Biography
Samuel Mencher was one of the New York fur workers convicted in the 1927 Mineola trial — the Long Island prosecution of furriers' union militants on assault charges growing out of the victorious 1926 strike. Sentenced to two and a half to five years and jailed through the trial, the defendants were bailed pending appeal in an ILD-supported defense. (also printed Moncher)
1920s remaining-entry review: The New York final city edition of May 20, 1927, page 1, individually names this prisoner among the workers released yesterday from Mineola on certificates of reasonable doubt pending appeal. May 19 is a physical release on appeal, not an acquittal or final dismissal. Initial arrest and admission dates remain unverified beyond inherited information; no admission date is inferred from the trial. The existing photograph is retained.
Daily Worker, May 20, 1927; Daily Worker, September 8, 1927.
1920s remaining-entry review: The April 25, 1927 New York original, page 3, History of the Mineola Case, explicitly names Samuel Mencher with Ben Gold and Isadore Shapiro as arrested in September 1926. This corrects the inherited 1927 arrest year to September 1926, with month precision. It does not establish continuous incarceration from that arrest until the May 1927 appeal release.
The Mineola appeal and a still-prospective retrial
The November 9, 1929 Daily Worker individually lists this fur worker among seven Mineola defendants whose earlier conviction and two-and-a-half-to-five-year sentence had been appealed and for whom a new trial had been ordered. Its announced retrial was still prospective, not proof of a new conviction, sentence, jail admission or discharge. The continuation distinguishes the nine convicted workers from Ben Gold and I. Shapiro, whom it says were declared innocent. The biography’s phrase saying this defendant was convicted with Ben Gold is therefore removed; it is not a claim that the two were co-convicted. Existing personal arrest and May 19, 1927 appeal-bail release evidence remain unchanged, and no uninterrupted custody until the expected retrial is inferred.
Daily Worker, November 9, 1929, original pages 1, 3. Contemporary allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
