Biography
Stanley Anderson was an Anacortes, Washington, painter and Communist legislative candidate. He had headed the Equality Club and joined the Unemployed Council before the September 1932 food-relief protests. Police arrested him and four other workers on September 7 following a September 3 raid on a grocery store. He was convicted of grand larceny and riot and sentenced to six to eight months and a $100 fine. The defendants were released on their own recognizance pending appeal after a mass demonstration following the verdict. On August 30, 1933, the Washington Supreme Court reversed Anderson's conviction and directed dismissal of the charges, finding no evidence that he had participated in the store raid.
Initial September 1932 recognizance release, before the later prosecution phases
The Western Worker’s Anacortes report individually names Stanley Anderson among Iver Moe, A. L. Marshall, Ray Trafton, Stanley Anderson and William Wollertz, arrested on September 7 after the September 3 food-relief action. The continuation, datelined Mount Vernon, September 8, says all five defendants were actually released on their own recognizance at the hearing and walked out with supporters. It distinguishes the authorities’ unexecuted proposal for $1,000 cash bail and the future September 15 trial before Judge Joiner from that actual departure. The report describes grand-larceny, incitement-to-riot and conspiracy accusations; these are not a fresh finding of conviction. This is the initial pretrial release, not proof of a final discharge after the later verdict, appeal or prison service. No explicit physical admission day or completed numeric duration is supplied. September 7 is the reported arrest day, not automatically an intake day, and the food action’s September 3 date is not an arrest date. Existing later custody rows and counters are preserved while the initial phase is separately reconciled. The current row already contains a September 1932 month-precision release, so that row’s intended phase must be checked before an extra episode or exact-day refinement is published; no duplicate is assumed.
Western Worker, volume 1 number 19, October 1, 1932, original pages 1, 3. Contemporary political allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
The issue contains an internal trial-date inconsistency: the first report on page 1 is datelined September 18 and says the trial is to occur the following day, while the page 3 continuation is datelined September 8, reports the actual recognizance release that day and forecasts a September 15 trial. These trial forecasts are not silently reconciled or treated as another actual release or admission date.
Clarification of the early recognizance release
The preceding source note’s reference to a pending month-only entry describes the earlier review stage. The existing September 1932 entry has now been traced to this initial pretrial recognizance release and refined, on the same case, to the contemporary report’s explicit September 8, 1932 departure at Mount Vernon. No second Stanley Anderson detention was added. This is not a final release after the later verdict or appeal; the physical admission day and completed jail-time total remain unverified. The newspaper’s inconsistent trial forecasts remain qualified above.
Source: Western Worker, October 1, 1932, original pages 1 and 3.
